A rare appearance of a truly remarkable trio featuring three of the Bay Area's most respected and influential avant garde musicians: Fred Frith (rarely seen playing bass these days), Larry Ochs (longtime Rova saxophone quartet member) and Don Robinson (SF's first call avant drummer).

This performance is a prelude to a very exciting project, in which Fred will play bass in a 12 person ensemble performing a Rova arrangement of John Coltrane's Ascension in Canada this fall.

This performance will take place in a beautiful private location close to the Uptown district in Oakland. The exact address will be emailed to you after you purchase or reserve your tickets.

RSVP through Eventbrite only.

Fred Frith, electric bass 

Though the point of reference for many remains the iconic band Henry Cow, which he co-founded in 1968 and which broke up more than 30 years ago, Fred Frith has never really stood still for an instant. In bands such as Art Bears, Massacre, Skeleton Crew, Keep the Dog, Tense Serenity, the Fred Frith Guitar Quartet, Eye to Ear, and most recently Cosa Brava, he has always held true to his roots in rock and folk music, while exploring influences that range from the literary works of Eduardo Galeano to the art installations of Cornelia Parker. The release of the seminal Guitar Solos in 1974 enabled him to simultaneously carve out a place for himself in the international improvised music scene, not only as an acclaimed solo performer but in the company of artists as diverse as Han Bennink, Evelyn Glennie, Ikue Mori, Wu Fei, John Zorn, and scores of others. Fred currently teaches in the Music Department at Mills College in Oakland, California (renowned for over fifty years as the epicenter of the American experimental tradition), and in the Musik Akademie in Basel, Switzerland. 

Larry Ochs, saxophones 

In his thirty-plus years in Rova, Larry Ochs has created roughly two dozen compositions for saxophone quartet as well as other pieces for Rova in extended ensembles, many of which are recorded, and some of which were commissioned by Chamber Music America/Doris Duke Foundation and Meet the Composer. He has been acting executive director of Rova:Arts since 1987. In addition Ochs currently composes for and leads Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core (with Scott Amendola, Don Robinson, Satoko Fujii, and Natsuki Tamura [= Stone Shift, CD]) and Kihnoua (with vocalist Dohee Lee, Scott Amendola and special guests [the Sybil’s Whisper,  2012 CD]). He is performing in collective bands: East-West Ensemble (with Didier Petit, Sylvain Kassap, Miya Masaoka, Xu Fengxia),  Jones Jones (with Mark Dresser and Vladimir Tarasov), Maybe Monday (with Masaoka and Fred Frith), What We Live (with Lisle Ellis and Robinson). Details on tours and recordings, and several interviews at  www.ochs.cc. 

Don Robinson, drums 

Described as a 'percussive dervish' (Coda) Donald Robinson is a technical master of the drums. He is a stalwart of the of San Francisco Bay Area avant-garde jazz scene, playing and recording with many of the area's improvisational players, from saxophonists John Tchicai, Marco Eneidi and Larry Ochs to koto player Miya Masaoka and pianist Matthew Goodheart, and with prominent visitors like Cecil Taylor, Wadada Leo Smith, George Lewis,, Raphe Malik and Paul Plimley. Much of this work has featured the combination of Robinson and bassist Lisle Ellis as rhythm section: 'the best bass-drums tag team on the scene' (Jazz Times). His longest musical association, dating from the 1970's, was with the late tenor saxophonist Glenn Spearman.  Robinson is currently playing in many configurations with a broad range of musicians throughout Europe and the US.  He recently completed a duo recording with Ochs to be released in 2013