Luggage Store Creative Music Series
1007 Market Street SF
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8pm Johnston/Romus/Monford
Darren Johnston - trumpet
Rent Romus - alto/soprano sax/flutes/percussion
Mike Monford - alto saxophone (Detroit)
9pm Nathan Clevenger's Elective Infinities
Sarah Zaharako-violin
Aram Shelton-alto sax, clarinet
Eric Perney-bass
Britt Ciampa-drums, percussion
Nathan Clevenger-compositions, guitar

Composer/guitarist Nathan Clevenger was born in Oakland, California, and has been obsessed with music from the moment he was able to reach the keyboard of his parents’ piano. Since 2003, Nathan’s main musical outlet has been the cryptically-titled Nathan Clevenger Group.
"Have you ever gotten a foreign film that maybe you weren’t sure about, but then it ripped your face off, and it was the coolest thing you ever saw, and it somehow synthesized straight-up literary frumpiness with avant-gardeness and unexpected twists and you were at the edge of your seat the whole time but then, afterwards, you couldn’t find anyone else who had ever heard of it? That’s pretty much what their music is like." – Rick Stinson, The Little Black Egg

Since settling in San Francisco in 1997, Canada-born trumpeter/composer/songwriter Darren Johnston has collaborated and recorded with an extremely diverse cross-section of artists. His interests rotate around composing instrumental music, writing songs, and performing all styles of jazz, experimental and purely improvised music, as well as traditional music of the Balkans, Greece, Macedonia, Turkey, and the Arab world. These interests have coalesced into his primary ensemble of late, Darren Johnston’s Broken Shadows. He has performed and/or recorded with luminaries such as Fred Frith, ROVA Sax Quartet, Myra Melford, Ben Goldberg, Matt Wilson, Mark Dresser, Marshall Allen, Marcus Shelby, and others.

In 1997, Mike Monford was awarded a musical scholarship to the University of Hartford - Hartt School of Music. There, he studied with jazz great and master saxophonist Jackie McLean. He also was awarded a musical scholarship from the Societie of the Culturally Concerned, formerly known as the Bluebird Reunion, based in Detroit.
While studying at the Hartt School Conservatory, Mike traveled to New York where he found and was hired by bassist Bill Lee (filmmaker Spike Lee’s father), pianist Marc Cary, pianist Alan J. Palmer, trumpeter Raymond Williams, and bassist Hakim Jami. Not only did he perform with these greats, he also recorded with them. Mike spent some 20 years in New York honing his talents, and entrenched in the history and sounds of jazz.

Cost: $6-15 sliding

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