The Aquabear Legion mainly focuses on Ohio music but every once in a while we get a chance to bring in a non-Buckeye musician or band and cannot pass it up. William Hooker’s body of uninterrupted work beginning in the mid-seventies defines him as one of the most important composers and players in jazz. Aquabear presents the William Hooker Trio at The Union in Athens on Friday, August 15th at 9:00pm. Tickets will be only $5 in advance because we don’t want any excuses on this one You can buy them at Haffa’s in advance and they will be more at the door. As bandleader, Hooker has fielded ensembles in an incredibly diverse array of configurations. Each collaboration has brought a serious investigation of his compositional agenda and the science of the modern drum kit. His coming to little old Athens, Ohio on a Friday night to play for you dudes. Hooker’s trio includes an Ohian in Edward Ricart (of Aquabear favorites Hyrrokkin among many more) and DC underground jazz lynchpin Luke Stewart. This will be incredible and I suggest you don’t miss it.
His work is frequently grounded in a narrative context. Whether set against a silent film or anchored by a poetic theme, Hooker brings dramatic tension and human warmth to avant-garde jazz. His ability to find fertile ground for moving music in a variety of settings that obliterate genre distinctions offers a much-needed statement of social optimism in the arts.
William Hooker (drummer,composer and poet) has created works that range from jazz and “new” music to experimental genres. He has released over 60 CDs a a leader. Mr. Hooker has performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Atrium at Lincoln Center, Wadsworth Atheneum, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Walker Art Center,MTV, The Kitchen, Roulette, Real Art Ways. He has also presented his work at the JVC Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, CMJ Music Festival,Vilnius Jazz Festival, Experimenta Argentina,The Knitting Factory and the Victoriaville Music Festival. William Hooker has received commissions and support from the New York State Council on the Arts, Meet the Composer, Tokio Marine Insurance Company and colleges and universities such as Oberlin, Fordham, Columbia, New York University, Boston University, Princeton, Dartmouth and many more. Accompanying musicians have included Billy Bang, David S. Ware, William Parker, Thurston Moore, David Soldier, Roy Campbell, DJ Spooky,Steven Bernstein, Zeena Parkins, Lee Ranaldo, Jason Hwang, Sabir Mateen, Elliott Sharp, David Murray, Ted Daniel, JD Parren and many more.
Edward Ricart is a guitarist and bassist presently located in Yellow Springs, OH. His creative outlets include avant-rock power trio Hyrrokkin; free jazz/noise rock quartet Haitian Rail; free-rock duo Matta Gawa; and the Edward Ricart Quartet, alongside Herb Robertson, Jason Ajemian, and Andrew Barker. He has also collaborated with William Hooker, Marshall Allen, Merzbow, Peter Brotzmann, Paul Dunmall, Andrea Parkins, and members of the rock groups Tortoise, Black Flag, and Fugazi, among many others.
A veteran of Washington DC’s creative music underground, his weekly New Atlantis series of concerts earned him the designation of ‘Avant Garde Savior’ and Best in DC by the Washington City Paper. The series blossomed into a vanguard record label, with an exemplary roster of rising stars and established legends. His work incorporates the processes of new music- including serialism, through-composition, and free improvisation, braced with the dissonant, polyrhythmic backbone of creative rock music
Luke Stewart is an emerging voice on the bass, whose efforts have a pronounced impact on the Washington DC community. As production manager at the storied WPFW radio station, Stewart has worked with Chuck Brown, Yusef Lateef, Randy Weston, Muhal Richard Abrams, Juma Sultan, and Amiri Baraka. He produced many successful programs including a month-long commemoration of Black Music Month. He also co-produced a month-long tribute to pianist Horace Tapscott Los Angeles based community organization UGMAA (Union of God’s Musicians and Artists Ascension). Also notable, he produced Washington, DC’s first live radio appearance of political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal on the program Jazz and Justice with Tom Porter.
Stewart has also helped establish CapitalBop.com, a DC-based jazz website, as its Avant Music Editor. Through the site, he helped launch a live jazz performance series dubbed the “DC Jazz Loftâ€, presenting talented jazz artists in and around the DC area. He has also presented other jazz performances in his “Red Door Loft†series, showcasing artists such as David Ornette Cherry, Ken Vandermark, Rob Mazurek’s Starlicker, Acid Birds, Khan Jamal, Juini Booth, and Elliot Levin. Stewart has played with Trio 000 since 2010 and has performed at many of DC’s historic venues including Bohemian Caverns, Twins Jazz, and HR-57.