Racer Session #539 | Tightrope | Sunday March 20th, 2022
Greetings, friends of the session! We’re heading into another Sunday night of listening and collaborating, and we’re excited to be bringing in our friend Christian Pincock who will present his ongoing duo collaboration TIGHTROPE, this Sunday at 7pm, followed by open improvisations afterward!
Tightrope fearlessly walks between order and chaos, combining improvisation with composition in unusual ways. Christian Pincock (valve trombone and custom electronics) and a variety of collaborators perform this daring feat with loose groove-driven movements, ambient interludes and routines of curiously-shifting harmonies using original material, jazz standards and more as supports for their highwire act. For this rendition of Tightrope, Christian will be joined by drummer Rocky Martin.
Christian Pincock is a composer, trombonist and educator who creates a wide range of adventurous and eclectic music. Expanding from a firm background in jazz, his work draws upon a multitude of experiences to create unique and innovative music that seeks to explore new concepts and processes. Christian is the Artistic Director and Conductor of Scrambler, a group of artists who use physical signs based on Walter Thompson’s Soundpainting sign language to convey ideas in real-time in performance. As a sideman/collaborator, Christian has performed with a diversity of artists such as Bob Brookmeyer, Wayne Horvitz, Ikue Mori, Bobby Shew, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society and many others. Christian has released five recordings under his own name and has performed on other artists’ recordings. Focused deeply on education as well, Christian has taught and directed bands at Cornish College for the Arts, the University of New Mexico, the New Mexico Jazz Workshop and public school systems in Boston, New York, Albuquerque and Seattle. He has led workshops on composition, electronic music, ensemble playing and improvisation at schools, arts organizations and festivals including University of Colorado Colorado Springs; University of California San Diego; the Santa Fe Complex; The Improvising Composer; and the International Society for improvising Musicians.
Rocky Martin is a Seattle-based jazz drummer. An alumnus of Indiana University's prestigious Jazz Studies program in Bloomington, Rocky is a Vic-Firth educational contributing artist, NAFME collegiate author, and shedthemusic.com online educator. Rocky is an active educator, having taught lessons privately in respective Chicago, Bloomington, NYC and Seattle teaching studios. He is well versed in a multitude of playing styles and performances as a touring artist, which are showcased in several projects such as FORAGER, Borderlands, and Heartland Trio. Rocky is also contributing original and collaborative material for The Micheal Eaton Quartet, Bloomington’s ‘Beneath the Paving Stones’ ensemble, The Rocky Martin Quintet, visual score ensembles, and grammy-nominated Liberation Music Collective. Martin helped compose for and debut Or Matias’ “The Wave” musical off Broadway in New York in 2019.
