Second Act
1727 Haight St. SF
Click for Venue page

GGIO - The Golden Gate Improvisers Orchestra's Big Bang

After playing with the London Improvisers Orchestra on a recent UK tour, Joe Lasqo has started a new Bay Area outpost of LIO's hand-signal language for conducting large-scale improvisations — GGIO.

The London Improvisers Orchestra, formed by Steve Beresford, Evan Parker, & Ian Smith after their tour with Butch Morris in 1997, has continued for almost 30 years to use, refine, & extend Morris' conduction hand-signal language for large groups of improvisers. Prior outposts of the LIO language are the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, the Toronto Improvisers Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Improvisers Orchestra (Санкт-Петербургский оркестр импровизации), the Royal Improvisers Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Seattle Improvisers Orchestra, the Tokyo Improvisers Orchestra (東京インプロヴァイザーズオーケストラ), the Berlin Improvisers Orchestra (Ber.I.O.), and others.

The LIO improv conduction language can express the most spontaneous and unplanned of musical gestures via an orchestra of many players, — or, paradoxically, can even be used to create "composed improv" pieces for large ensembles (for example, Steve Beresford's great 3-movement piano "Concerto For Soft-Loud Key-Box").

The results of either approach are fluidly pyrotechnic.

GGIO's Big Bang appropriately features a rare encounter of 3 master percussionists (as well as another power trio of saxists) and a crew of the Bay Area's most adventurous improvisers:

— Aaron Bennett: saxes
— Tom Djll: prepared trumpet | electronics
— Ron Heglin: voice | trombone
— Joe Lasqo: MSP/laptop | piano | objects
— Jason Levis: drums
— Scott R. Looney: piano | electronics
— Joshua Marshall: saxes
— David Michalak: SkatchArt (invented instrument designed by Tom Nunn…)
— Suki O'Kane: percussion
— Tim Perkis: electronics
— Mika Pontecorvo: guitar | electronics | flute
— Donald Robinson: drums
— Rent Romus: saxes | flutes | joik | toys | invented wind instruments
— John Shiurba: guitar | prepared guitar
— Scott Walton: contrabass

For more info on the LIO improv language, see: http://www.londonimprovisersorchestra.co.uk/lexicon.html.

Cost: $10 online purchase (link coming...), $15 door

Audio samples in which musicians at this event play:

Videos featuring musicians playing at this event