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Jonathan Matis is a composer and performer whose work actively combines the practices of composition and improvisation. Matis has composed music for dance, incidental music for theater, and a variety of concert works. Performing with electric guitar, a small collection of low-tech preparations, and live signal processing, Matis coaxes textures from the instrument - in addition to the occasional tried-and-true plucked string approach. Currently, he serves as the Director of the Washington DC Chapter of the American Composers Forum. His last name is also Morris. It's kind of a funny story. Check out Jonathans blog, morrismatis.blogspot.com.
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Mike has been playing reed instruments for decades. His passion to play grew when he first heard the spirituality of John Coltrane's music. Mike plays improvised experimental, jazz, rock, gospel, and any other type of music that encourages creativity. His experience includes playing in a gospel orchestra, as well as with various local improvisers. Mike played improvised music for dance with Jon Matis and Mark Merella at the DC Improv Festival. Highlights of his career have ranged from live performances with Greg Osby and Peter Kowald to Joe Lally. In 2007 Mike appeared with the group Shape Memory Alloy with local all star improvisers. Visit Mike's wesbite and listen to various musical projects from over the years, mikesebastian.alkem.org.
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As a child Ben saw Kenny Clark play with Dizzy Gillespie and ever since he has been seduced by all
things drums. Jazz trained but seasoned in rock clubs across the North America and Europe, he has been the progenitor of numerous groups including the Emo-punk innovators Junction, the infamous Delta 72, and Dischord's Capitol City Dusters of whom the UK's Q Magazine said, "...Dischord has struck another vein of precious musical ore".
Ben also performs with his wife Sarah Azzara and has produced her three full-length releases. Most recently he has been performing and recording with Pup Tent a stream-of-consciousness punk group, also with folk-rockers, Sean McArdle, Stella Schindler and avant garde performers, The Caution Curves. You can listen to MP3s from all of Ben's various musical excursions at his website benazzara.com.
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A native of New Haven, CT, Daniel has been involved in creative improvised music in the Baltimore-Washington
area for several years as a performer, composer, and sometime bandleader. He has worked in a variety of contexts, including modal and post-bop jazz, free improvisation, and world fusion drawing on the Indian
classical and Middle Eastern musical traditions. His solo music has been used as a background for contemporary dance exercises.
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Mark Merella is a versatile percussionist adept at both drum set and hand percussion. He has worked with a variety of artists in the jazz and Latin fields including saxophonists Fred Foss and Rene McLean, trumpeter Tommy Williams, vocalist Eva Cassidy and percussionist Steve Berrios co-founder of the Fort Apache Band. Mark has also worked with the groups Rumba Club, Mambo Combo, Ala Carte Brass & Percussion and as part of Havana Select he played for Celia Cruz's induction into the Smithsonian and 1997's Black Music Conference in Chicago. On the R&B circuit Mark has worked with The Flamingos, Bo Diddley and Mary Wilson of The Supremes. A graduate of Musicians Institute of Los Angeles, Mark also attended workshops at Cal Arts. Mark was recently commissioned by the American Composers Forum to compose a piece for Jane Franklin Dance, which premiered March 1st, 2003. Currently Mark co-leads the group Mosaic, is a member of the D.C. Improvisers Collective, performs in percussion ensembles directed by Luis Garay of the National Symphony, teaches and freelances throughout the Washington/Baltimore area.
Keyboardist Jon Ozment has been working out of the DC area for twenty years as a performer, producer and arranger. He has produced and arranged for recordings by local artists Imani and First Prayer, Maryann Redmond and Al Williams. Jon has performed extensively in the jazz and contemporary jazz fields, appearing on recordings with Buck Hill, David Yarborough, Origem and Vinnie Valentino. He has performed in concerts with Jon Faddis, Bobby Hutcherson, Al Jarreau, Ethel Ennis and Larry Ridley and has toured nationally with Miki Howard, Kim Waters and the Blackbyrds. Throughout '97-'99 Jon was touring the States and Europe with Maceo Parker. Jon resides in Washington, DC with his wife and three children.
To book a DCIC performance please contact j_matis@yahoo.com
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DCIC is part of Improv Arts Inc. a non-profit dedicated to the creation, performance, research, and evaluation of improvisational dance, music, and multi-disciplinary performance. Help support this group and others with a donation:
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