Friday, November 1, 8 p.m.
Rozz-Tox, 2108 Third Avenue, Rock Island IL
Widely lauded for his live performances, improvisation and studio composition using various combinations of drums, percussion, objects, junk, amplification, and electronics, Australian percussionist Will Guthrie performs in a special November 1 concert at Rock Island's Rozz-Tox, his singular music having been released on labels such as Black Truffle, Editions Mego, Erstwhile, Clean Feed, Gaffer Records, Hasana Editions, 23five, iDEAL, and his own Antboy Music.
Currently living in France and the head of the contemporary hybrid percussion/gamelan group ENSEMBLE NIST-NAH, Guthrie first made a name for himself within the Australian jazz scene, establishing himself at a young age as a major presence by winning the Wangaratta National Jazz Awards for drums in 1997 and going on to perform with many of Australia’s most celebrated jazz musicians such as Mark Simmonds, Julien Wilson and Ren Walters. In the new millennium, his work took a long detour away from the drum kit through junk electronics, extreme amplification and electro-acoustic techniques, documented on a series of solo and collaborative recordings from these years.
Alongside continuing his electro-acoustic work, in the last decade, Guthrie has returned to the drums with a vengeance, developing a series of solo works marked by a radical single-mindedness, from relentless rhythmic workouts to earth-quaking explorations of the bass frequencies of gongs and other metal percussion instruments. In the crowded world of free jazz/improv percussion, Guthrie’s work is distinguished from the delicately pointillist approach of much European improvisation by its rhythmic sophistication, unashamed virtuosity and undeniable physicality, touching on aspects of world music from Javanese gamelan to South Indian Carnatic music.
As a dedicated grassroots and DIY concert organizer, while still a student in Melbourne Guthrie (alongside Ren Walters) established the weekly concert series ‘Improvised Tuesdays’, now known as the Make It Up Club, Australia’s longest running performance series for improvised and experimental music. On moving to Nantes, Guthrie joined the collective CABLE#, curating and organizing regular concerts and an annual festival.
Guthrie has released more than 50 albums, as both soloist and in collaboration, on labels such as his own Antboy Music, and also Black Truffle, Editions Mego, Gaffer Records, Ideal, Ipacac and Clean Feed. He has performed at countless venues and festivals all over the world including Lieu Unique (Nantes), Cafe Oto (London), Berghain (Berlin), Super Deluxe (Tokyo), SPRING Performing Arts Festival (Utrecht), Meta House (Phnom Penh), MONA FONA (Hobart), Suoni Per Il Popolo (Montreal), Lampo (Chicago), Oct Loft Jazz Happening (Shenzhen) and the Geometry Of Now (Moscow).
Guthrie's regular collaborators past and present have included: Oren Ambarchi, Container, Sarah Hennies, Mark Fell, Roscoe Mitchell, Ahmed Ag Kaedy, James Rushford, Ghassen Chiba, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Erell Latimier, Chulki Hong, Mark Simmonds, Jérôme Noetinger, Keith Rowe, David Maranha, Ava Mendoza, the filmmaker Hangjun Lee, and choreographer/dancer Mette Ingvartsen.
Will Guthrie plays his headlining engagement in Rock island on November 1 with an additional set by Granular Breath, admission to the 8 p.m. all-ages show is $10-15, and more information and tickets are available by calling (309)200-0978 and visiting RozzTox.com.