projects

these are ensembles i lead, or have a hand in leading, or have led in the past...

bernie arai's new quartet

sax/bass/drums trio PLUS another drum set for good measure. with Tommy Babin, Chad Makela, Skye Brooks and myself, we have featured performances on original music by me, as well as music by Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett's "The Survivor's Suite" in its entirety.

watch us play here and here

wabi

our new album is out!

drumset/piano duet project with chris gestrin. playing originals and the occasional obscure jazz tune with heavy emphasis on interplay and improvisation. watch us play here

rubber arms

a.k.a. baribaridrumdrum, radar bum, i'd rub arm, or whatever else. like our name, it's two baritone saxophones and two drum sets. chad makela, chris kelly, skye brooks and me. improvisations, sometimes based on short bits of composed material, although we have also used john coltrane's "interstellar space" as a starting point. watch us play here and here (youtube). and most recently here

densabi

extended electronic/acoustic ambient improvisations created by shakuhachi master alcvin ryuzen ramos and chris gestrin playing analog synths, along with me using digital FM synthesis, generative processes on an atari ST computer and various other outdated gear.

new diversions

continuing (re-igniting?) a project begun in 1997 (originally named "accidental death") chris gestrin (keyboards and electronics), jon bentley (saxophones and woodwinds) and me (percussion and electronics) play improvised music with our musical instruments. watch us play here (youtube). and here

the big much

open-format trio with Dave Sikula on guitar and Chad Makela on baritone saxophone. featuring original music from all three of us, as well as tunes from ornette coleman, carla bley, paul motian, claude ranger and thelonious monk. watch us play here and here

oddity

a collective quartet with bassist tommy babin, andre lachance on guitar and jon bentley on saxophone. we first got together to explore the use of odd time signatures in jazz improvisation. now we've ammassed a repretoire of challenging originals, twisted arrangements and obscure transcriptions. watch us play here (youtube) and here or listen to us here

lighthouse project

larger-than-life sextet exploring classic works and original music in twisted ways. with double baritone saxophone frontline (chad makela and bill runge) electric guitar (dave sikula), acoustic/electric basses (andre lachance) and a double drum set backline (joe poole and me), the lighthouse project has tackled john coltrane's "meditations" and "a love supreme", dismantled steve grossman's "some shapes to come" and attacked elvin jones' "live at the lighthouse." youtube clips to come. watch us play here

abort? retry? fail!

loosely collected musicians playing ambient-esque electronic noise. we aim for extended continuous sets of morphing sounds. featuring instruments ranging from vintage analog synths to iphones.

ugetsu

high-energy hard bop sextet originally inspired by art blakey's jazz messengers. co-led with saxophonist jon bentley. featuring original compositions by members of the band. our first album can be found here

some other bands I play(ed) in

altered laws

dark blue world

food for thought trio

brad turner trio

jon bentley quintet

sharon minemoto quintet

elevatorhead

hard rubber orchestra

ihor kukurudza trio

fred stride jazz orchestra

jennifer scott trio

daryl jahnke quartet