The Kyle Brenders Quartet, a key ensemble in Toronto's field of creative improvised music, comes to Victoria this month.
A student of luminaries Anthony Braxton and Alvin Lucier, Brenders (saxophone and clarinet) is one of Canada's outstanding composer-bandleaders whose music deftly synthesizes composition and improvisation, and comprises rigorous formal complexity and visceral solo and group improvising. The group's latest studio recording, Offset (18th Note Records), is evidence, some of the most exciting Canadian creative improvised music to be released in recent years.
Brenders' music is, above all, a balance of forces, the harnessing of the energy and spirit of disparate influences, including the thoughtfulness of chamber music, the expressiveness of free jazz, and the energy of rock. Much like Braxton, his mentor, Brenders combines such forces in a wholly original way. He has done so in contexts ranging from solo woodwinds (Flows & Intensities, 2007), duos (with Braxton and with drummer Brandon Valdivia), his Sextet (Ways, 2009), and the 18-piece AIMToronto Orchestra (Year of the Boar, 2011), which he directs. His Quartet is the most thoroughly refined and accomplished example of his musical vision, though, a significant accomplishment in his unfolding musical career.
The group features outstanding instrumentalists Mark Segger (drums), Heather Segger (trombone), and Wes Neal (double bass), each an accomplished composer, performer, and collaborator in numerous projects that help to underpin Toronto's burgeoning scene of creative music. Together, they form a dynamic musical bond full of rhythmic nuance and timbral variety, animating Brenders' compositions with a rare combination of precision and abandon.
The Kyle Brenders Quartet's Western Canada tour is an excellent opportunity for fans of creative, unconventional, and uncompromising music to experience a group of this nation's finest exponents, and led by one of its most notable composers.
While in Victoria, on Jan. 27 at 7pm the Kyle Brenders Quartet will host a improvisation workshop at Open Space, 510 Fort St. Bring along your instruments (or voice) for an engaging evening of jamming and improvisational strategies. This workshop is by donation.
Workshop Date: Tuesday, January 27, 2015, at 7:00 p.m. (by donation)Concert Date: Wednesday, January 28, 2015, at 7:00 p.m.Concert Admission:
- Advance: $16 general, $11 students/seniors/members
- Door: $20 general, $15 students/seniors/members