Robust improvisations

More about
Scott Heustis Group

Scott Heustis. Unable to score a guitar from his parents, let alone guitar lessons. Scott rode his bicycle every day to work as a gas station attendant and eventually saved enough money to buy a guitar. Problem: Scott bought a crappy electric guitar, not an acoustic guitar, and with no money to buy an amp, Scott's electric guitar sounded nothing like what he was hearing on the radio (this was the 70's.) With a trip to Radio Shack, Scott purchased a cable and an adapter, which enabled him to plug his instrument into one channel of his parents gigantic six foot long, wooden, Magnavox console stereo. Slightly better sounding than unplugged, but still not producing the "beans," another trip to the Shack ensued and Scott returned with a crude voltage amplifier. Once assembled and in place, and all volumes up to eleven, for one brief moment, the howl of an out of tune guitar, played badly, rattled the windows of my parents house in the suburbs. OH YES! But fate intervened, and Scott blew out one of the channels on the Magnavox. Fortunately, Scott's parents rarely listened to music, and when they did, it was at very low volumes. They never noticed that no music emanated from the left side of the stereo. Sorry mom and dad.....

Robert Leng. Contemporary composition and improvisation are the primary focus of composer/multi-instrumentalist Robert Leng. He has composed for and has performed in a number of ensembles throughout the Americas and Europe and has received numerous commissions to compose and improvise for modern and improvisational dance, performance art, theatre and film, as well as small and large ensembles. He appears on numerous recordings for Cal of ROR, Cleveland Music Group, Corpor-It, Innova, Maia Records, Monkey Middle Finger, Undercurrents, WTKIS, and Redline Park. In addition to working as a composer, orchestrator, arranger, and performer, Robert is also an independent producer; His website is http://www.apointbeyond.com

Jeff Schwartz is a bassist principally interested in contemporary music and improvisation. A student of David H. Young, he has also twice participated in the Vancouver Creative Music Institute. He has performed with artists including Glenn Branca, Anthony Braxton, Wolfgang Fuchs, Vinny Golia, Barry Guy, Lynn Johnston, and Jim McAuley, and is currently principal bass in MESTO (the Multi-Ethnic Star Orchestra) as well as playing in the Watts Ensemble, Melic Sub Rosa, Dot Dot Dot, Surrealestate, and the eponymous groups of Scott Heustis, Charles Sharp, and Rich West. He appears on recordings on Innova, Redline Park, Kill Shaman, and Big As Records and his writing has been published in American Music, Popular Music, Postmodern Culture, The Velvet Underground Companion, and A Basic Music Library.

Breeze Smith: Drums, percussion, instrument maker/designer, educator . . improviser. Working in solo and ensemble formats in Europe & the U.S. David Ornette Cherry, Rod Poole, Hannibal Lakumbe, String Planet, Roberto Miranda, Justo Amario, Ralph "Buzzy" Jones, Yuval Ron, Tadashi Namba; this is a warm list of artists that I am so grateful to have performed along side in the vast realm of the musical arts. Through deeper studies in Ethnomusicology, I facilitate sound guided meditations with a myriad of gongs, singing bowls and eclectic percussion. Modern Dance accompaniment is also an area that has made it possible for me to create many performances with the Ohio State University Dance Dept. Among them, with my wife, Cheryl Banks-Smith, famed dancer with Sun Ra, Peter Kowald, Cecil Taylor and Dianne MacIntyre. Guest artist at the NOW festival at Capital Universities Music Conservatory. Here I performed on five of my own sound sculptures. 2004 solo, self produced CD, "SightSoundingBackDrops+8" I am honored to be creating new music with Scott, Robert and Jeff, amazing musicians in our Scott Heustis Group!

Ken Boe has worked as an artist, poet, and playwright for over two decades. He has been in numerous exhibitions including in Illinois, Washington, Arizona, California, and Montana. His paintings often concern the surface, experimental media, and developing original techniques, such as painting with whips.