JJJJJerome Ellis at Rozz-Tox -- Mar 20
Friday, March 20, 8 p.m.
Rozz-Tox, 2108 Third Avenue, Rock Island IL
A trio of unique singers and instrumentalists collectively gifted on saxophone, organ, electronics, dulcimer, cello, clarinet, and more will perform a special concert event at Rozz-Tox on March 20, the Rock Island venue proud to host the disparate talents of JJJJJerome Ellis, Lia Kohl, and Zachary Good.
At his Bandcamp page, we learn that "The work of JJJJJerome Ellis lives comfortably in the gaps between silence and possibility. The Black disabled Grenadian-Jamaican-American artist creates atmospheric soundscapes with saxophone, organ, hammered dulcimer, electronics, and their voice. Improvisation is at the core of their artistry – often chipping away at large slabs of recordings to reveal the piece like a marble sculptor. It’s an expansive and interdisciplinary practice that allows JJJJJerome to adapt to any medium or form, including recorded music, live theatrical and performance art, scoring, spoken word and storytelling, and multimedia/visual works that incorporate sound.
"Living as a person who stutters, using their mouth to express themselves proved difficult growing up. The practice of spelling their performance moniker 'JJJJJerome' stems from the realization that the word they stutter most frequently is their own name. Despite a brief placement in speech therapy as a child, everything clicked when they picked up the saxophone in seventh grade. 'I still stutter on the saxophone, but it’s different.' As an artist, their creative ethos now revolves around the exploration of stuttering through music, expounding upon the ability of each to shape time. They honor the stutter through art."
The New York City native Lia Kohl, we learn at the artist's Bandcamp page, "is a composer and sound artist based in Chicago. Trained as a cellist, she also incorporates synthesizers, field recordings, toy instruments and radios into her work, searching for a balance between virtuosity and curiosity. She gravitates towards sound practices which reveal and speak to their time and place: field recording, improvisation, radio broadcast and transmission. She often focuses on mundane or pedestrian sounds – sounds which often go unnoticed or under-documented, searching for the profound, unknown, and beautiful in everyday life.
"She performs as a soloist, a collaborator and composes works for ensembles. She has presented work and performed at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Renaissance Society, Union Station Chicago, Eckhart Park Pool, and Big Ears Festival. She has created sound installations for Experimental Sound Studios' Audible Gallery and Roman Susan Art Foundation. She has been a resident artist at ACRE, Vashon Artist Residency, High Concept Labs, dfbrl8r Performance Art Gallery, Mana Contemporary, Stanford University, and Mills College and a Transmission Art Fellow at Wave Farm.
"An active recording artist, she has arranged strings and recorded with Makaya McCraven, Circuit des Yeux, claire rousay, and Steve Hauschildt, among others. Her work has been featured in Pitchfork, The Quietus, The Chicago Tribune , The Wire Magazine, and Downbeat Magazine, and on NPR, NTS Radio, Kunstradio, BBC Radio 6 Music, Dublab, and WFMU. She has releases on Drag City, International Anthem, Moon Glyph, Longform Editions, and American Dreams Records. She tours nationally and internationally."
Fellow Windy City artist Zachary Good, as stated at his own Bandcamp page, "is a Chicago-based clarinetist, chamber musician, composer, and music educator. He is the clarinetist of the sextet Eighth Blackbird, a member of Ensemble Dal Niente, and Honestly Same. Zachary is the Visiting Assistant Professor of Clarinet at Northern Illinois University. Zachary Good’s music meticulously explores the contrapuntal and harmonic possibilities of quiet two-note multiphonics on the clarinet, creating the illusion of multiple clarinetists playing simultaneously. His music is quietly virtuosic, inspired by the intricacies of the clarinet and a love for Baroque nuance and form. Lake Heritage was released on Good's own record label, Add Dye Editions."
JJJJJerome Ellis, Lia Kohl, and Zachary Good perform their Rock Island engagement on March 20, admission to the 8 p.m. all-ages concert is $20 in advance and $25 at the door, and more information and tickets are available by calling (309)200-0978 and visiting RozzTox.com.
