The community came together last year, led by the Monktail Creative Music Concern, to produce Sounds Outside 2007, a creative music and community festival, free and open to the public in Capitol Hill's Cal Anderson Park. Hundreds of people attended each day of the festival. Families brought blankets and picnic baskets to enjoy the performances. Artists painted portraits of the musicians on stage and local and national acts such as Wayne Horvitz, Skerik, Paul Rucker, Reptet and the Degenerate Art Ensemble performed high quality jazz and creative music. It was a resounding success!

The Monktail Creative Music Concern is proud to lead a growing coalition of community sponsors and volunteers to bring you Sounds Outside 2008. The City of Seattle recently renovated Cal Anderson Park and we want to ensure the park is a place of positive use, where we continue to build Seattle's community. This year's festival will take place on July 19 and August 23. Seattle leads the nation in creative and jazz music development. Concert series such as Sounds Outside keep our vibrant music scene on the cutting edge, while celebrating our creative community at large.

In short, there's sun, music, art and fun to be had in the park this summer... join us!

Download the Sponsorship Form and support local music & community!

Download the Artist Participation Form and get involved!

SUPPORT FOR SOUNDS OUTSIDE 2008 PROVIDED BY

4 Culture
Allied Arts
American Music
Cal Anderson Park Alliance
City of Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs
Divine Delectables & Sinful Selections
Earshot Jazz
Fandrich & Sons Pianos
The Frank Agency
Grauwald Creative
Half Price Books
KBCS
Miller's Equipment & Rent-All
Peace of Body Massage
Rom Mai Thai
Sound Transit
The Stranger
Trace North
Zipcar

INDIVIDUAL DONORS

Scott Adams
Genesee Cooper Adkins
John Ewing
Stephen Fandrich
Beth Fleenor
Jeff Huston
Justin Knott
Hideo Makihara
Jody McKane
Bill Monto
Kathrine M. Newton
Mark Ostrowski
Sean Owen
Stephen Parris
John Seman

SOUNDS OUTSIDE IS A PRODUCTON OF THE MONKTAIL CREATIVE MUSIC CONCERN.

Sounds Outside 2008
performer biographies

The Juju Detective Agency plays a unique mix of free motown, post-hardbop, snakeskin Miles Davis, cubic country, and versified funk while infamous spoken music poet Paul Harding mobilizes his MiddleVoice of songhistory and storytelling. We call it free hop.

Paul Harding has performed with Joe McPhee, Michael Bisio, and Charles Gayle among many others. An active supporter of the Seattle jazz music community, Harding published his latest book of music poems, Hot Mustard & Lay Me Down, in 2003.

The Owcharuk Sextet

Formed in the winter of 2007, The Owcharuk Sextet is the next step in the evolution of composer and pianist Michael Owcharuk's musical endeavors. The music consists of original compositions steeped in Jazz, Chamber Music, Rock and Roll, the Avant-Garde, Afro-Cuban music, and stuff you might come across at 3AM on some random radio station. In addition, the ensemble performs unique arrangements and interpretations of Ukrainian folk music. The band is made up of a semi-rotating cast of some of Seattle's finest veteran and emerging artists.

For Sounds Outside, the line-up will be Beth Fleenor-clarinets, Samantha Boshnack-trumpet, Brandon Gibbons-guitar, Nate Omdal-bass, Mike Hams-drums, and Michael Owcharuk-keyboard and accordion.

Bill Horist

While, in the last several years, the guitar is considered "more in terms of its limitations than its capabilities, BILL HORIST [explores] the guitar's continued presence as a vital and still challenging form of musical expression." (Willamette Week-May, 1998).

Since moving to Seattle in 1995, BILL HORIST has established himself as a noted improviser/composer/performer along the West Coast and beyond. In the past decade, he has appeared on over 40 recordings and has performed almost 700 concerts in Canada, Mexico, Europe, Japan and throughout the US. Bill has performed and/or recorded with John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Wayne Horvitz, KK Null, Matt Chamberlain, Trey Gunn(King Crimson), Chris Cutler, Kawabata Makoto(Acid Mothers Temple), William Hooker, Secret Chiefs 3, Eugene Chadbourne, Tatsuya Yoshida(Ruins), Shazaad Ismaily, Climax Golden Twins, Haco, Illusion of Safety, Saadet Tuerkoez, Vidushi Sumitra Guha, Planktonman(Nortec Collective), Jack Wright, Amy Denio, Uchihashi Kazuhisa, Steve Fisk, Reggie Watts(Maktub), Anla Courtis (Reynols), Luigi Archetti, Michael White, Christoph Gallio, Eyvind Kang, Paul Rucker, Lesli Dalaba, Paul Hoskin, Thomas Dimuzio, Wally Shoup, Jessica Lurie, Mason Jones, Jeff Grienke, and Tucker Martine as well as members of Pearl Jam, Earth, The Boredoms and Larsen among others.

Horist has toured and recorded with a number of his own bands including Nobodaddy, Phineas Gage, Axolotl, UnFolkUs, Zahir, Tablet and Nervewheel. He currently performs with Master Musicians of Bukkake, Ghidra and the Paul Rucker Ensemble in addition to several periodic collaborations.

As a solo artist, Bill's improvised, prepared guitar work is informed by Hans Reichel, Fred Frith, and Henry Kaiser, but shows a unique style and personality. He has received critical praise internationally from periodicals including The Wire and Alternative Press, and several of his recordings have made critics' year-end lists. His work has appeared on a vast array of labels including Mimicry, Public Eyesore, Songlines, Beta-Lactam Ring, Accretions and Unit Circle among others. Bill was featured in the March 2007 issues of Guitar Player Magazine and Earshot Jazz Magazine. In 2005 and 2006, he was nominated for "Jazz Artist of the Year" and "Guitarist of the Year" respectively by the Seattle Weekly. He has appeared at numerous festivals including Taktlos(Zuerich), Spring Reverb(San Diego/Tijuana), Big Sur Experimental Music Fest(Big Sur),Yamaguchi University Festival(Yamaguchi) Mission Creek Music Fest(San Francisco), Seattle Improvised Music Fest, AntiMatter Fest(Vancouver) and Olympia Experimental Music Fest. He was the recipient of the 2006 GAP grant, 2005 Artist Trust Fellowship, the 1997 Jack Straw Artist Assistance Program Grant and has done several presentations and workshops at schools from first grade to college-level, including the University of Calgary, Seattle Art Institute, Martin Luther King Elementary (Seattle), the Experience Music Project and Big Picture School for at-risk youth.

Bill improvises and composes for film, dance and theater as well. In the Fall 2002, he was composer in residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts where he developed a solo guitar score for University of Calgary choreographer, Davida Monk's "Lyric". Bill continues to work with Calgary's M-Body Dance company.

Additionally, Horist works as sideman for recording and performing. He has worked with Kinski (with whom he recently completed a US tour opening for Tool), Jessica Lurie, Two Loons for Tea, Elizabeth Carpenter, Mische Eddins, Paul Rucker, Rollerball, Sulpher, John Schuller, Karl Stevens and Nancy Martin among others.


Cuong Vu featuring SPEAK

Cuong Vu - trumpet
Andrew Swanson - reeds
Aaron Otheim - piano
Chris Icasiano - drums
Luke Bergman - bass

Cuong Vu is widely recognized by jazz critics as a leader of a generation of innovative musicians. A truly unique musical voice, Cuong has lent his trumpet playing talents to a wide range of artists including Pat Metheny, Laurie Anderson, David Bowie, Dave Douglas, Myra Melford, Cibo Matto, Mitchell Froom, and Chris Speed.

Since moving to New York in 1994, Cuong has been actively leading various groups, most notably his trio with Stomu Takeishi (bass) and Ted Poor (drums) and has toured extensively throughout the world while giving clinics and masterclasses throughout the US and Europe. As a leader, Cuong has released four recordings, "Bound" (OmniTone), "Pure" (Knitting Factory Records), "Come Play With Me" (Knitting Factory Records) and "It's Mostly Residual" (ArtistShare) to critical acclaim, with each one having been considered among the best recordings of their respective years. Each record displays how he has carved out a distinctive sonic territory on the trumpet while blurring all stylistic borders.

Cuong was born on September 19, 1969 in Saigon, Vietnam. He immigrated to Seattle at the age of 6 and began playing the trumpet at the age of 11. His intense dedication and love for music led him to a full scholarship at the New England Conservatory of Music where he received his Bachelor of Music in Jazz studies with a distinction in performance.

A recipient of numerous awards and honors, Cuong was awarded the Colbert Award for Excellence: The Downtown Arts Project Emerging Artist Award. In 2002 and 2006, Cuong was a recipient of the Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album as a member of the Pat Metheny Group. He's been recognized as one of the top 50 young Jazz Artists in an article called "The New Masters" from the British magazine, "Classic CD" and in 2006 was named the Best International Jazz Artist by the Italian Jazz Critics' Society.

Cuong has recently joined the faculty of the University of Washington's School of Music as an assistant professor of jazz studies and is a "Yamaha Performing Artist". Cuong plays the Yamaha Custom YTR8310Z trumpet. Selected Press

"It's hard to avoid references to Miles Davis when talking about the trumpet, but Cuong is the nearest thing I've heard to someone encapsulating and surpassing Davis' range of textures. Imagine, if you will, Bitches Brew or On The Corner, but with more cinematic clarity and less drug-addled wank. That's where Cuong Vu and his musical juggernaut are sitting, just waiting to crush you. And you'll love it." - Splendidezine.com

"Many top jazz journalists have placed Come Play With Me as one of the best albums of the year. I must say that I do concur." - YouBored.com,

"It's pure art. There's dark-darkness, joyful lament, quick-stepping spy funk...and everything about anguish and despair in flat, naked beauty...it will shake you." - LA Weekly

"Cuong Vu is an important, intelligent, esoteric voice that will not be silenced by so-called purists or defenders of the status quo....It's been a long time since an album with that sort of creativity and uniqueness has hit the jazz scene." - Urban Ambiance Journal / Metro Connection

"[Vu's ] imperturbable style, fractious now and then but in a controlled and calculated way, never histrionic or needlessly showy...an acoustic hall of mirrors." - The Wire

"Trumpeter/composer Cuong Vu has rapidly become one of the rising stars or perhaps bright voices within the burgeoning and thoroughly adventurous New York City "Downtown Scene" modern jazz circuit." - Allaboutjazz.com

"[Vu's] playing encompasses both achingly beautiful melodies that sing like those of the Prince of Darkness..." - Jazztimes


Blue Cranes

"Jazz has long been home to virtuoso soloists, and usually, the younger they were, the more notes they played. But the Blue Cranes' Reed Wallsmith has moved in the opposite direction. His compositions build simple melodies on two-and-three-note motifs that attain intensity from repetition and a broad, expressive tone.

On the Cranes' second album, "Homing Patterns," Wallsmith (saxophone) and original Cranes Keith Brush (bass), Rebecca Sanborn (keyboards) and Ji Tanzer (drums) continue to draw from folk and indie rock to create shifting, cinematic soundscapes that further blur the line between jazz and popular music.

This time, though, they've added a new voice in Joe Cunningham, tenor sax player for the Decemberists. New York guitarist Ila Cantor also guests on the CD, but Wallsmith has found a kindred spirit in Cunningham. Their collaboration is at the heart of the new Cranes sound, whether they're playing in unison or weaving decorative lines around each other.

With Tanzer kicking out steady beats, you're always well-grounded, even on Cunningham's "Dirty Burbon," where the waltz feel is never lost, even as it goes wildly off-kilter and Cantor deconstructs the melody. Only the infrequent free-blowing sections cause the focus to wander.

Despite the simple melodies and rock beats, the Cranes' music never feels monotonous or static. Like the long-form compositions of other progressive jazz artists, it's constantly changing. In "Awesome Hawk," for instance, the spacious melody gives way to an untidy improvisational passage before the sweeping theme returns, the volume and intensity build to a dramatic peak and the Cranes take flight. The view is different up there, and actually quite serene." - LYNN DARROCH, The Oregonian


Floss featuring Zachary Watkins

Floss

Wildman saxophonist Izaak Mills leads the formidable bopcore trio Floss featuring MCMC founders John Seman and Mark Ostrowski on bass and drums. Floss draws its sound from the hardcore records of the eighties, but its soul belongs to the free improvisation scene of late sixties Chicago. Captured live in the studio by Zachary Watkins, their 2004 Monktail Records release Unwaxed is a carnival of "frenetic bop lines atop scurrying grooves. Plodding bong-rock beats and spacey flute interludes appear too, but saxophonist Izaak Mills, bassist John Seman, and drummer Mark Ostrowski mostly keep things fast and fun." - Christopher DeLaurenti, The Stranger

Floss recently recorded a new album, soon to be released on Monktail Records, at Oakland's infamous Polymorph Studios as a quartet with long-time collaborator Zachary Watkins contributing live electronic and programming improvisations. Bay area saxophonist Aram Shelton (Dragons 1976) and engineer Stickman (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum) worked the console.

"One is quick to think of Ken Vandermark, Kidd Jordan, or name another energy-based reed player, when hearing this band work it out. Izaak Mills is a treasure. There is a quirkiness to him, in his posture, his movements, and even his embouchure that translates cleanly through each note from his horn. He is a joy to watch and hear. Suffused with funk, R&B, and the rawest methods of American free improv, Floss plays powerful music, the kind by which we should soon identify with the term, 'working band.'" - Alan Jones, Bagatellen.com

"While anarchy is a part of what Floss does, a strange sense of beauty sometimes pervades. The dichotomy of the group only makes them more interesting, and it provides a necessary contrast to make their entire program flow. Floss is an intriguing and, for the most part, successful combination of abandon and restraint, chaos and organization, that will appeal to listeners prepared to be at once shocked and appeased." - John Kelman, All About Jazz

Zachary Watkins

Zachary Watkins has studied composition with Janice Giteck, Jarrad Powell, Robin Holcomb and Jovino Santos Neto at Cornish College. In 2006, Zachary received an MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College where he studied with Chris Brown, Fred Frith and Alvin Curran.

Zachary has received commissions from clarinetist Beth Fleenor, pianist and composer Tiffany Lin, Cornish College of The Arts, The Microscores Project, The Beam Foundation, Somnubutone Radio Series, the sfSoundGroup and most recently by the Seattle Chamber Players. His piece Suite for String Quartet was awarded the Paul Merritt Henry Prize for Composition. Zachary was the recipient of grants awarded by The American Music Center and The Foundation for Contemporary Arts for the 2008 premiere of Country Western a multi-media Chamber piece as part of the Meridian Gallery's Composers in Performance Series.

Zachary has performed at the 2006 International Computer Music Conference and the 2007 Bent Festival in Los Angeles with his band The Pink Canoes and presented new work at the 10th Annual Music For People and Thingamajigs Festival. Zachary was sound designer/composer for the plays "I have loved Strangers" produced by Just Theatre, which was listed as one of the "top ten of 2007" in the East Bay Express and the 8th Annual ReOrient Theatre Festival. His sound art work entitled Designed Obsolescence, "spoke as a metaphor for the breakdown of the dream of technology and the myth of our society's permanence," review by Susan Noyes Platt in the Summer 05 issue of ARTLIES. During October of 2006, Zachary was an artist in residence at the Espy Foundation.


Reptet

Reptet is a genre bending band of musicians based out of Seattle, WA. Often categorized as a "jazz" group based on instrumentation (they are a sextet consisting of drums, bass and four horns) these six multi-instrumentalists have a far more expansive approach, performing original compositions that incorporate reggae, rock, ska, punk, modern classical, avant garde, eastern European folk influences and more.

Their internationally acclaimed 2006 release, "Do This!" (Monktail Records) was an Independent Music Awards finalist for Best Jazz Record of the Year and was chosen Top Jazz CD of the year by Jazziz magazine's Alex Gelfand. They also won two Earshot Golden Ear Awards (celebrating the best of northwest jazz), including Best 'Outside' Jazz Group and Best Performance of the year (as part of the Monktail Raymond Scott Project).

In 2007, Reptet criss-crossed the United States exhaustively touring in support of "Do This!". In May of 2008, Reptet will be releasing their third CD on Monktail Records entitled, "Chicken or Beef?" and plan on touring Europe, Asia and (once again) the US. Their live performances have been described as, "arresting, compelling and just plain cranked-up!" with stage shows evolving into transformative performance art pieces using costumes, story telling, dance routines and absurdist humor. Reptet have proven themselves to be a unique and utterly enthralling multi-leveled experience leaving audiences wanting more.


Aram Shelton + Special O.P.S.

Aram Shelton

Aram Shelton is a multi-instrumentalist on saxophones and clarinets, a composer & improviser, and creates electroacoustic music with computer-based electronics. While the music he makes is spread across a variety of aesthetic lines, it is connected by the importance of improvisation to develop material and express the individuality of musicians. He currently lives in Oakland, California.

Beginning on tenor saxophone while growing up on a small ranch in southeast Florida, Shelton switched to alto saxophone in college, as a way to focus on the classical techniques of the instrument. After college, Shelton lived in Washington DC for a summer where he met other young musicians interested in making music unrestricted by style. He moved to Chicago in the spring of 1999, inspired by the amount of musical activity and quickly became involved in the city's creative music scene. While there, Shelton developed his playing style on alto saxophone while also studying clarinet and trumpet. He played creative jazz and improvised music in many settings, including the groups Dragons 1976, Arrive, and Rapid Croche. Over time he also became interested in the use of computer-based electronics for the live sampling and manipulation of acoustic instruments, and formed the group Grey Ghost with Johnathan Crawford. After several productive years in Chicago, Shelton moved out west to California to focus on his electroacoustic music at Mills College.

Shelton continues to focus on live improvisational-based music that uses both acoustic and electronic instruments. In California the groups Flockterkit, Ton Trio, Son of Gunnar Ton of Shel, the Shelton/Healy duo, the Pink Canoes, and Settled represent his music. He maintains his connections to Chicago through the groups Dragons 1976 (Multikulti), Arrive, Rolldown (482 Music), and Keefe Jackson's Fast Citizens (Delmark).

Along the way Shelton has had the chance to perform throughout the United States, Canada and Europe with many talented musicians, including Tim Daisy, Ken Vandermark, Jason Ajemian, Josh Berman, Audrey Chen, Fred Lonberg-holm, Dave Rempis, Damon Smith, Steve Bernstein, Weasel Walter, Jason Roebke, Liz Albee, Rob Mazurek, Matt Bauder, Jessica Pavone, Fred Frith, Josh Abrams, Harris Eisenstadt, Jeb Bishop, Tim Perkis, Kevin Drumm, Jon Raskin, Frank Rosaly, Guillermo Gregorio, and Chris Brown. His playing and music has been documented on more than ten albums through various imprints including 482 Music, Locust Music, MultiKulti, Edgetone, Delmark, and his own Singlespeed Music.

SPECIAL O.P.S.

SPECIAL O.P.S. (percussionist Mark Ostrowski, guitarist Stephen Parris, and bassist John Seman) is a free improvisation commando unit replete with dark regalia, sonic hand grenades and a warped sense of humor. Their performances draw influence from contemporary chamber composition, small group jazz improvisation, electronic experimentalism, dark metal, droll wit and sonic shenanigans from the subtle to the scabrous. It's black noise and white noise. It's cross-genre pollination boiled in ammonia, cured in bleach, dipped in battery acid and ignited with the American flag. It's a damn good time. Special O.P.S. latest CD, Arm Me, was released on Monktail Records in 2007.


Ahamefule J. Oluo and the New Seattle Brass Ensemble featuring Okanomodé

The collaborative effort of a glamazon troubadour and a man that just wants to make pretty sounds, This concert will debut a series of new popular music works for brass ensemble and vocalist with help from Evan Flory-Barnes, Josh Rawlings, Jeremy Jones and many other esteemed representatives of the New Seattle music community.


The Wally Shoup Free Three

This performance is the world premiere of the Wally Shoup Free Three, although their sound has existed since the Mahavishnu Orchestra met Albert Ayler in the ruins of CBGB's. It's blistering free jazz with rock/thrash over-tones, played at warp speed over power-house drumming. Speedy and intense, the group is a nuclear sonic fireball. Wally Shoup on alto saxophone, Brian Heaney on guitar, and Dave Abramson on drums.

Wally Shoup

Wally Shoup plays unfettered, emotion-laden alto saxophone and has been involved in freely improvised music since the mid-70's.

He has worked with a wide array of musicians, including Thurston Moore, Nels Cline, Davey Williams, La Donna Smith, Jack Wright, Paul Hession, Dylan Van der Schyff, Paul Flaherty, Chris Corsano, Reuben Radding, Toshi Makihara and many others.

His work is documented on several labels, most notably Leo Records, who has released four of his CD's, Strange-Attractors, who released Immolation/Immersion (w/Nels Cline and Chris Corsano) in 2005, and Clean Feed, who released The Levitation Shuffle in 2007.

His current projects include the free-jazz Wally Shoup Trio (w/Gust Burns and Bob Rees), who recently received a grant from the City of Seattle Arts and Cultural Dept. and the skronk-jazz trio Ghidra (w/Bill Horist and Mike Peterson), who recently released The Sound of Speed on the Seattle-based Soldisk label.

Brian Heaney

Reared by Nugent and McLaughlin, then schooled by the likes of Sonny Sharrock and Raoul Bjorkenheim, Brian Heaney plays in Sunship, Black Math Quartet, and BHR Trio. His myspace is your space: search for "sunship" and "black math quartet."

Dave Abramson

Dave Abramson was born in Freehold, NJ, where he was inspired by the sense of urgency in hardcore punk and metal bands and took up drums

He currently lives in Seattle, WA where he has developed into a unique and versatile percussionist/drummer/composer. His main project - The Diminished Men - combines elements surf rock, spaghetti western music and textural noise. Additionally, Abramson has collaborated with such diverse artists as violinist/composer Eyvind Kang, free jazz saxophonist Wally Shoup, and avant-rock, experimental group Climax Golden Twins.

Skilled in sound design and reproduction, Dave has developed string scores for the Maureen Whiting Dance Company who have received numerous grants, including ones from Allied Arts of Seattle, Artist Trust and the Paul Allen Foundation.

Dave is an in-demand drummer, sound man and collaborator, known for his powerful style and creativity.