Jon Mueller at Rozz-Tox -- March 12.
Friday, March 12, 8 p.m.
Rozz-Tox, 2108 Third Avenue, Rock Island IL
Lauded by Pitchfork magazine as "an audacious ringleader for new music," percussionist and composer Jon Mueller headlines a solo March 12 concert at Rock Island venue Rozz-Tox, the artist's esteemed list of collaborators having included James Plotkin, Rhys Chatham, Asmus Tietchens, Z'EV, Jason Kahn, and Marcus Schmickler.
Over the course of a career that began in the 1990s, Mueller’s aim has been to move drums, percussion, and rhythm from its anticipated backbeat to a central musical focus – something more intuitive and natural than usually imagined. Audiences throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, and the United Kingdom have experienced this idiosyncratic point of view as, paradoxically, both cathartic and meditative, and Mueller's solo performances have taken place at such venues and festivals as the Guggenheim Museum, New Museum, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Alverno Presents, SXSW, Big Ears Festival, Hopscotch Fest and Witching Hour Festival. From 2013 to 2015, Mueller created and directed the multi-disciplinary project Death Blues that issued four critically acclaimed recordings, with Rolling Stone citing non-fiction as one of the "20 Best Avant Albums of 2014." Mueller's Ensemble, meanwhile, was created with multi-instrumentalist William Ryan Fritch and was featured on NPR’s First Listen.
Mueller's Afterlife Cartoons are solo acoustic percussion performances that use repetitive tom patterns and subtle shifts in beating to instigate overtones, phasing, and choir-like acoustic phenomena that transform the work from mere drum solo to the sonic illusion of a small orchestra. Outside of his solo work, Mueller has performed and recorded with Mind Over Mirrors, and was a founding member of the bands Volcano Choir, Collections of Colonies of Bees, and Pele. His solo work has been released by American Dreams, Table of the Elements, Type Recordings, Important Records, Taiga Records, SIGE Records, and his own imprint Rhythmplex, and Mueller has written a novella (1999's Pianobread), a collection of short stories (2004's Endings), and has contributed non-fiction writing and reviews for ChangeThis.com, Pear Noir!, and The Shepherd Express.
Jon Mueller plays his Rock Island engagement on March 12 at 8 p.m., admission to the all-ages show is $10, and more information on the night is available by calling (309)200-0978 and visiting RozzTox.com.
