Racer Session #409 | Jack Wright & Evan Lipson | February 11, 2018

Greetings, fans of the Avant!

This Sunday, the Racer Sessions are partnering with the Seattle Improvised Music Festival (SIMF) to present 2018 featured artists Jack Wright and Evan Lipson, taking place at Hollow Earth Radio in the Central District. You may be aware of these two musicians, and if you are, you know that this is a performance not to miss.

Jack Wright is a veteran saxophone extremist, dedicated to to free playing since 1979 and based mainly in Philadelphia. He has played mostly on tour through the US and Europe since the early 80s in search of interesting partners and playing situations. Now at 75 he is still the "Johnny Appleseed of Free Improvisation," as guitarist Davey Williams (who is also performing in SIMF this week) called him in the 80s, on the road as much as ever. He continues to inspire players outside music-school careerdom, playing sessions with visiting and resident players old and new.

Evan Lipson has operated as a musician since adolescence—intuitively seeking the liminal realms in which intellect and instinct, history and myth, and creative and destructive force intersect. Drawn towards aberrant perspectives at an early age, his formative experiences were primarily rooted in extreme and often discordant forms of rock, metal, free improvisation, modernist composition, jazz, oddball pop, soundtracks, noise, and electronic music. Massimo Ricci, of Touching Extremes writes, "Lipson easily stands among the best bassists I've heard lately, his terrifically strapping tone epitomizing the decision to really learn how an instrument works." Jack and Evan have been musically connected ever since the mid-2000's when Evan lived in Jack's Spring Garden Music House in Philadelphia.

Needless to say, we are incredibly excited about this session, and we really hope to see you there. Same as always for the month of February: Sunday, 8pm, Hollow Earth Radio, with an open jam to follow. Keep on reading below for some wonderful words from the artists, as well as some background on the Seattle Improvised Music Festival.

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From Jack:

"Beginning in the mid-80s I was criss-crossing N. America but couldn't get anything in Montana that would allow me to make the trip up to the Northwest. Then in '98 or '99 Wally Shoup became the one organizing the festival and he invited me. I think I just flew in and flew out after the festival, but there was one wild session/party at a house that I distinctly remember, meeting a host of people I later met elsewhere. Now free improv has spread to almost every nook and cranny, and it's possible to make a tour from Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, etc. with gigs all the way down through N. California to the Bay Area. I mention the Seattle Improvisation Festival in my book, The Free Musics, but it's not a comprehensive history of this music, so I don't go into detail. It is the oldest in the country, has changed over the years, and I'm glad Evan and I are welcome."

From Evan:

"Free playing has the potential to bypass and/or resist the tedious and formulaic agents of self-marketing, virtue signaling, and commodification invading nearly every aspect of modern life. SIMF is a rare and important beacon helps actualize that potential into reality. I am grateful for it's ongoing and historic existence, and deeply honored to be taking part."

About SIMF:

"Now in its 33rd year, the Seattle Improvised Music Festival is the longest-running festival in the US devoted entirely to free improvisation. No scores, no plans, no safety net.

Presented by Nonsequitur, the 2018 festival is funded in part by 4Culture. For more information about the festival and this year's schedule, click here."