Mike McGinnis brings his NYC-based trio to join local guitarist Ryan Blotnick (of Soulbenders, Katherine Perkins, Caroline Cotter etc.) and Ellsworth-born sax phenom Jeremy Viner for a night of original cutting-edge jazz and standards. Blotnick and McGinnis met through the Maine music circuit and shared a common harmony and counterpoint guru in New York (Paul Caputo). Ryan Blotnick linked up with Jeremy Viner to play in Berlin this spring after meeting in New York through Bar Harbor-raised bassist Kim Cass. While many Maine jazz musicians like Viner and McGinnis continue to shape the musical landscape in cities like New York and Berlin, others like Blotnick have returned to Maine to live year-round and support the local scene.
Bio:
Over nearly three decades on the New York music scene, saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer Mike McGinnis has amassed a body of genre-defying work that includes seven critically acclaimed albums as a leader, beginning with Tangents (RKM Music) in 2000. Named a Rising Star Clarinetist in every DownBeat Critics Poll since 2014, he has explored a wide range of instrumentation throughout his career: from Mike McGinnis +9 (Road*Trip, Road*Trip II: Outing) to the multimedia landscape tone poem Angsudden Song Cycle (482 Music); from eclectic chamber jazz as co-leader of The Four Bags and OK|OK to lyrical trio exposition with jazz legends Art Lande and Steve Swallow (Singular Awakening, Recurring Dream, both on Sunnyside).
A sought-after arranger, McGinnis most recently transcribed and arranged orchestral music by Alice Coltrane that was performed at Carnegie Hall by Ravi Coltrane. McGinnis has written charts for Joe McGinty of The Loser's Lounge, including songs from the 2016 film One More Time ("You Temptress You" and "When I Live My Life Over Again," the latter featuring Christopher Walken). McGinnis has also enjoyed long-running associations with Yo La Tengo, Stew and the Negro Problem, Brian Carpenter's Ghosttrain Orchestra, the Bernie Worrell Orchestra, the Erik Deutsch Band, the Lonnie Plaxico Group, the Hank Roberts Sextet, Gino Sitson's Echo Chamber, the Wildebeest Wind Quintet, Dana Lyn's Mother Octopus, and more. Additional performance credits include Anthony Braxton, Alice and Ravi Coltrane, Ben Goldberg, Peter Apfelbaum, Gerald Cleaver, Steve Coleman, and other major jazz artists of our time.
As musical director of the Davalois Fearon Dance Company, McGinnis has performed his compositions at the Joyce Theater, New Victory Theater, City Center, Metropolitan Museum, Harlem Stage, Rubin Museum, and Bronx Museum. He has also performed on Broadway in the Tony-winning musical Fela!, and on film in Ang Lee's Oscar-winning film Taking Woodstock. He backed Iggy Pop, Jane Birkin and The Roots on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
Jeremy Viner (b. 1986, Ellsworth, ME) is a Berlin-based multi-instrumentalist, improviser, composer, and educator involved in a wide array of musical idioms. In 2023, after nearly 20 years in New York City, Viner moved to Berlin and continues to play an active role in both the New York and European experimental music scenes. His latest project is the collaborative trio SIFTERS, with Kate Gentile and Marc Ducret. As a saxophonist and clarinetist, Viner has performed internationally with ensembles led by John Hollenbeck, Steve Lehman, Tyshawn Sorey, Anna Webber, Kate Gentile, Rafiq Bhatia, and many others. Viner is a member of the genre-bending tenor saxophone quartet Battle Trance and the chamber minimalist ensemble Bing & Ruth, two of his longest-running musical collaborations. Jeremy Viner is a Vandoren Artist.
Guitarist Ryan Blotnick has been called "a vital contemporary voice" by Time Out New York, "engagingly pensive" by the New York Times, "an authentic, compelling player" by Cadence Magazine. His music is soulful, melodic, and a bit quirky. His studies in New York with 1960s-era masters like Gene Bertoncini, Harold Mabern, Yusef Lateef, Billy Taylor, and Andrew Cyrille instilled in him a deep respect for the depth and breadth of jazz, sparking a desire to contribute to its evolution. In Copenhagen, he attended the Rhythmic Music Conservatory, where young players like Jakob Anderskov, Jakob Bro, and Kresten Osgood were trying to disrupt the city's cozy museum-jazz nightclubs with vibrant and original sounds. His interest in contemporary jazz has led him to collaborate with musical thought leaders like Michael Blake, Mat Maneri, Thomas Morgan, and 2024 Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey. He now lives on Mount Desert Island in Maine, where he writes music for film, teaches at College of the Atlantic, and plays in a soul band. He hikes in Acadia National Park every day and occasionally leaves the island for groceries.
Gui Duvignau is a French-Brazilian bass player and composer whose multi-cultural background has led to a life of traveling and musical exploration. A jazz musician in essence, he also draws inspiration from a variety of musical traditions and cultures, as well as his experiences performing Brazilian music and Rock/Pop. He is interested in creative and original music in all its forms.
A graduate of Berklee College of Music and New York University, he has released five albums as a leader, featuring his original compositions: Porto (2010), in collaboration with singer Sofia Ribeiro; and Fissura (2016), on the Parisian label Onze Heures Onze. 3,5,8, (2021) released on Sunnyside Records; Baden (2022) featuring special guests Ron Carter on bass and Bill Frisell on guitar; and his latest album Live in Red Hook (2024) featuring Jacob Sacks and Nathan Ellman-Bell. Duvignau's music and recordings have been featured on radios worldwide, in playlists on Apple Music and Spotify, and in publications such as The New York Times, DownBeat magazine, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Jazz Magazine, Jazz News, and All About Jazz, among others. www.guiduvignau.com
Hamir Atwal is a drummer and composer who began playing at age 10 and turned professional by 18. He studied at Berklee College of Music on scholarship, working closely with improvisation legends Joe Lovano and Hal Crook. An experience that transformed his approach to rhythm and form. After graduating, he returned to the Bay Area, where he developed a long-standing creative partnership with clarinetist/composer Ben Goldberg and became known for his adventurous, genre-blurring sound.
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