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(not so) New Press

Writer Gordon Marshall wrote this nice article/interview on me at allaboutjazz.com.

• February 4th (Saturday) 8:00 PM. I’ll be performing in random groupings of musicians and dancers at the Flopera House, 381 Congress St., South Boston, MA. Musicians include Peter Price (Philly), Joo Won Park (Philly), Lou Cohen, Walter Wright, Akrm Foam, Michael Rosenstein, Max Lord, Matt Murphy, Josh Jefferson and flandrew fleisenberg. Dancers: Megan Price (Philly), Loren Groenendaal (Philly), Callie Chapman-Korn, Betty Wang, Aisha Cruse, Liz Roncka, Joe Burgio, Paul Kafka-Gibbons & Lynn Frederikson and Naoko Brown.
   
• February 10th (Friday) 8 PM, I will be playing with NYC violinist Jeff Young’s Beasts of Improv at 119 Gallery, Lowell MA. Beasts include featured composer/performer Forbes Graham, Walter Wright, Stephanie Lak, Marc Bisson, Dei Xhrist, Mike Dailey, Kit Demos, Karen Langlie, Dave Seidel, Junko Simons.
   
• February 11th (Saturday) 8 PM, I’ll be performing with Duck Soup, which is filmmaker Douglas Urbank’s short films with live soundtrack by Duck That at Opensound at Third Life Studios, Union Square, Somerville MA.
   
• February 23th (Friday) 8:30 PM. I’ll be performing at Flexfest with folks en route to XFest, including Emilie Mouchous, Elwood Epps, Id M Theft Able, Bonnie Kane, Walter Wright and Dave Grollman at the Flopera House, 381 Congress St., South Boston, MA.
   
• February 24th (Friday) 8 PM, I will be performing in Matt Samolis' trilogy Painting White Shadows, a suite of works involving music, text and movement presented at the Church of the Advent Library, 30 Brimmer St., Beacon Hill, Boston. More details available here.
   
• February 25th (Saturday), I’m playing at XFest 2012 at 3:30 PM with LMNo and then at 8:30 PM with Dave Miller (drums, NYC), Audrey Chen (cello, voice, Philadelphia) and Dave Seidel (electronics, NH) at 119 Gallery, Lowell MA. On Saturday, XFest starts at noon with a brunch and then the music runs from 2 PM through 1 AM.
  The full XFest 2012 schedule is here; visiting artist list is here and the local artist list is here
   
• February 26th (Sunday), I’m playing at XFest 2012 at 4 PM with members of Grau Garten at 119 Gallery, Lowell MA. On Sunday, XFest starts at noon with a brunch and then the music runs from 2 through 5:30 PM.
  The full XFest 2012 schedule is here; visiting artist list is here and the local artist list is here
   
• March 10th (Saturday) 8 PM, with any Bee (Lou Cohen & Walter Wright, electronics, Matt Samolis, flute and me on reeds) at Opensound at Third Life Studios, Union Square, Somerville MA. I will also be performing with an ad hoc group playing Fredrick Rzewski’s “Les Moutons de Panurge”.
   
• March 17th (Saturday) 8:30 PM, I’ll be playing with with Joe Burgio’s Bodydrama at Studio Soto, 10 Channel Center St., Boston MA (in the Fort Point area of South Boston). Also appearing: Metal and Glass Ensemble and Matt Samolis/Andrew Eisenburg duo.
   
• March 24th (Saturday) 8:30 PM. I’ll be performing with the LMNo Double Duo with guitarist Lucio Menagon, violinist Morgan Evans-Weiler and guitarist Marc Bisson at the Flopera House, 381 Congress St., South Boston, MA. Also appearing: TBD.
   
• March 26th (Monday) 8 PM, It’s Return of the Honeytones (Stephanie Lak, electronics, voice; Walter Wright, electronics; and me, electronics, toy piano, saxophone) at Weirdo Records, 844 Mass Ave., Cambridge MA.
   
• April 2nd (Monday) 8 PM, It’s Kobold reunion and “record release party” at Weirdo! Laurence Cook, percussion, Tom Plsek, trombone and I on reeds will be celebrating, along with you, the release (finally!) of our 1995 recording Piece of Mind (in absentia Craig Schildhauer, contrabass) on a Means of Production CD-r and also on Bandcamp. It all happens at Weirdo Records, 844 Mass Ave., Cambridge MA.
   
• April 9th (Monday) 8 PM, I’ll be playing with Ricochet, my duo with Noell Dorsey at Weirdo Records, 844 Mass Ave., Cambridge MA.
   
• April 16th (Monday) 8 PM, I’ll be playing with ADT, wherein I’ve convinced Weirdo Records proprietrix Angela Sawyer to come out from behind the cash register and make a rare appearance performing at her own store, to wit one Weirdo Records, 844 Mass Ave., Cambridge MA.
   
• April 21st (Saturday) 8 PM, it’s Grizzler plus Grizzler subsets at Opensound at Third Life Studios, Union Square, Somerville MA.
   
• April 23rd (Monday) 8 PM, I’ll be performing in some as-yet-to-be-determined capacity at Weirdo Records, 844 Mass Ave., Cambridge MA.
   
• April 30th (Monday) 8 PM, I’ll be playing with CBCA, my duo with Mike Bullock, in which he plays his contrabass (“CB“) and I play my contra alto clarinet (“CA”), at Weirdo Records, 844 Mass Ave., Cambridge MA.
   
• May 19th (Saturday) 8 PM, I will be presenting Covers: three bands performing improvisations and familiar tunes at Opensound at Third Life Studios, Union Square, Somerville MA.
   
• May 25th (Friday) 8 PM, I’ll be playing with CBCA, my duo with Mike Bullock, in which he plays his contrabass (“CB“) and I play my contra alto clarinet (“CA”), at Mobius, 55 Norfolk St., Cambridge MA.
   

Show archive

Biography / Discography

Current projects

Means of Production This is my on-line and CD-R label, with eCommerce provided by the inestimable Weirdo Records.

Solo For a full description, see this page.

Metal & Glass Ensemble Drone-based soundscapes and just-intonation tunings are the primary concern of this ensemble of 5 to 9 or more musicians lead by Matt Samolis. The foundational sounds are generated by the steel cello (the bowed metal) and tuned glasses. I play bass clarinet (lotsa long tones & circular breathing) and some bowed metal. For more info, see the Metal & Glass Ensemble’s page on Matt’s Web site.

Duck That This trio was formed to focus on game calls (!) as a sound source. I play saxophones, bass clarinet and game calls with Angela Sawyer (electronics, voice, game calls) and Josh Jefferson (alto sax, bass clarinet, game calls). For more info, see the Duck That MySpace page.

Grizzler is an improvising large ensemble lead by Dave Gross. Numbering anywhere between 9 and 13 (and sometimes more!) players, Grizzler concentrates its energies on the layering of individual voices and the intersection of the ensemble and the space. I primarily play baritone saxophone and bass clarinet. The group has no Web site yet, but Dave Curry (our violist) wrote a nice blog entry about the band here.

Symptomatic, with Vic Rawlings on analog electronics and me on reeds. Obstinate strata; solid blocks of texture. [ more ]

Kilter, with Curt Newton on percussion and me on reeds. Straight-up free improv, building on our 20+ years of playing together. [ more ]

Steve Lacy’s Tips: we’ve assembled a trio of Noell Dorsey (voice), Matt Samolis (flute) and me on bass clarinet to perform Steve Lacy’ epigrammatic opus Tips. [ more ]

Spam, an improvising trio of Matt Samolis on flute, Curt Newton on percussion and me on reeds, tapes and stuff. The goal of the performances is (amongst other things) to expose the absurdities and unexpected beauties of viral email marketing. As the bio says, “Worn chant transplant imitable Delivery Status Notification (Failure) take asymmetric tizzy dream in a waking state Live your life, prescription-free Achieve all the gains in length knead knee kneecap kneel knell endpoint staccato. Matt Samolis–flute, tangerine roland; Steve Norton–reeds, things we need; and Curt Newton–percussion, choosy bloodstone.”

Endguys (Steve Norton & Matt Samolis)

Glacier Harvest (An MP3 album by Steve Norton & Matt Samolis)

debris (my band for 12 years, 1986 – 1998)