Comfort Station presents three duo sets featuring guitarists Christopher Riggs and Peter Maunu, violist Hanna Brock and drummer Adam Shead, and finally cellist Daniel Levin and bassist Jakob Heinemann.
Peter Maunu
A transplant from the Los Angeles music scene, guitarist/violinist Peter Maunu has toured, performed and recorded with a long list of diverse musicians including Charles Lloyd, Jean-Luc Ponty, Bobby McFerrin, Tony Williams, Billy Cobham, Charlie Haden, Archie Shepp, and Grace Slick. As the guitarist on the Arsenio Hall Show, he performed nightly with legends like Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Ringo Starr, Madonna, Ray Charles, NWA, Public Enemy, and many more. Additionally, Peter contributed to the soundtracks of film scores including Crash, Bobby, Food Inc., and tv shows Chicago Hope, Arrested Development and CSI New York. Since relocating to Chicago, he has performed and recorded with improvisers Fred Lonberg-Holm, Dave Rempis, Michael Zerang, Mars Williams, Jim Baker, Tomeka Reid, Katherine Young, Jason Roebke, Avreeyal Ra, dancer Ayako Kato and many others. In addition, he founded, curates and performs at the Splice Series, a bimonthly improvisation series at the Beat Kitchen in Chicago.
Christopher Riggs
Christopher Riggs is a teacher who also plays free improvisation on the electric guitar. Without the use of processing or FX, Christopher squeezes sounds from his instrument the Chicago Reader has called "unapologetically ugly". Riggs received his Bachelor of Music in 2007 from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and his Master of Arts in Music Composition from Wesleyan University in 2012. He studied guitar and composition under Marc Michaud, Ross Feller, Randolph Coleman, and Ronald Kuivila. Christopher Riggs live in Chicago, IL with his wife and two daughters and teaches 2nd grade for Chicago Public Schools.
Adam Shead
Adam Shead (b. 1993) is an American percussionist, composer, and educator specializing in interdisciplinary and improvised performance. Shead holds a bachelors degree in Percussion Performance from Columbia College Chicago as well as a Graduate Certificate in World Performance Studies and a Masters in Contemporary Improvisation from The University of Michigan. Adam has performed at renowned music festivals such as The Ann Arbor Edge Fest, The Chicago Jazz Festival, Homebody Festival in South Bend, IN, and The Present is Present Festival in Amsterdam, NL. Adam has performed alongside such musicians as Mary Oliver, John Dikeman, Jasper Stadhouders, Jason Stein, Steve Swell, Tim Daisy, Anna Webber, and Matt Piet. Adam is the founder of such groups as Adiaphora Orchestra, Piet/Piazza/Shead, Dikeman/Stadhouders/Piazza/Shead, and the Stein/Shead duo.
Johanna Brock
Johanna Brock is a violist and improvisor based in Chicago. With a sound that evokes orchestral landscapes, free jazz, and sonic collage, her work explores the relationship between meaning and sound. "Blending elements of pop, electronic, jazz and classical music with rhythms and melodies that seem other worldly, Brock has established herself as a truly dynamic force capable of realizing nearly any sonic vision."-Midwest Action
Daniel Levin
Daniel Levin is “one of the instrument's most brilliant contemporary practitioners" (The Wire), "ridiculously fluent, virtually overflowing with ideas” (New York City Jazz Record) and “very much the man to watch.” (Penguin Guide to Jazz). No matter what setting he plays in, cellist Daniel Levin occupies a musical space bordered by many kinds of music, but fully defined by none of them.
“Demonstrating an impressive breadth of texture and contrast, the cellist Daniel Levin comes well prepared for a career in jazz’s contemporary avant-garde.” (Nate Chinen, The New York Times).
Elements of European classical music, American jazz, microtonal and new music, and European free improvisation all figure prominently in his unique sound. As critic John Sharpe observes in The New York City Jazz Record, “he invokes all manner of musics with prodigious skill: jazz, classical, improv, noise, vocal chorus. His technique is unquestioned and he revels in the physicality of the instrument. Those with an adventurous streak or interest in the outer reaches of the cello universe will find much to savor.”
Born in Burlington, Vermont, he began playing the cello at the age of six. In 2001, he graduated with a degree in Jazz Studies from the New England Conservatory of Music, and arrived on New York City jazz scene shortly therafter. Since then, Daniel has developed his own unique voice as a cellist, improviser, and composer. Ed Hazell noted upon release of Levin’s first record as a leader, “Cellist Daniel Levin is a major new voice on his instrument and in improvised music.” He has performed and/or recorded with Billy Bang, Borah Bergman, Tim Berne, Anthony Braxton, Gerald Cleaver, Andrew Cyrille, Mark Dresser, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, Tony Malaby, Mat Maneri, Joe Morris, William Parker, Ivo Perelman, Warren Smith, Ken Vandermark, and many others. Daniel is the recipient of a 2010 Jerome Foundation award.
He has released more than 20 albums as a leader or co-leader, which can be found on Clean Feed, HatOLOGY, Not Two, Trost, Riti, and various other record labels. Daniel is a REMIC Microphones Artist Endorser.
Jakob Heinemann
Jakob Heinemann is a bass player, composer, improvisor and educator from Madison, Wisconsin. In 2017, he graduated from Lawrence University with a degree in double bass performance, where he studied with many great artists including Bill Carrothers, Matt Turner, Patty Darling and Mark Urness.
In 2017 he moved to Chicago, IL. Current work includes a solo bass project, several ongoing free improvisation groups, and a trio, Mobile Vanguard, playing composed music.
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Doors at 7:00 / Music at 7:30
Free and open to the public
**Alcohol is not permitted at Comfort Station**