https://chrisjonascreative.com Chris Jonas Sun, 09 Apr 2023 23:45:30 +0000 https://chrisjonascreative.com en https://chrisjonascreative.com/Homepage Fri, 24 Mar 2023 01:36:45 +0000 Chris Jonas https://chrisjonascreative.com/Homepage CHRIS JONAS Welcome to the website of Santa Fe-based composer, saxophonist, conductor and video artist, Chris Jonas. <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d51fb8508026a99d64b91643dc58443ce74521d7223b2ae8d8f46aefde8732ca/ChrisJonas_soprano-photo-by-Kate-Russell-sm.jpg" data-mid="226657220" border="0" data-scale="46" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d51fb8508026a99d64b91643dc58443ce74521d7223b2ae8d8f46aefde8732ca/ChrisJonas_soprano-photo-by-Kate-Russell-sm.jpg" />ENTER WEBSITE Jonas’ primary focus has been Music from the Deserts, exploring music and video created while winter camping 2021-25 in the remote Sonora Desert, including Arizona's Barry Goldwater Missile Range.&nbsp;<img width="1200" height="1200" width_o="1200" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9d5218ce41f5d1674ee2f3adc443f1f3400be6e41c0d0c5a39db29ef8f5efccd/Jonas-backwardsupwardsky-CD1200dpi.png" data-mid="226625333" border="0" data-scale="26" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9d5218ce41f5d1674ee2f3adc443f1f3400be6e41c0d0c5a39db29ef8f5efccd/Jonas-backwardsupwardsky-CD1200dpi.png" />The spring 2025 release of the new album “backwardsupwardsky” (on Edgetone Records) is accompanied by an international tour featuring different ensembles in the US Southwest, Chicago, San Francisco, Brooklyn, the NE US, Berlin and Italy.&nbsp; https://chrisjonascreative.com/Menu Sun, 09 Apr 2023 23:45:30 +0000 Chris Jonas https://chrisjonascreative.com/Menu HomepageAbout Bio ContactSelected Discography Creative Music Ensembles&nbsp; &nbsp;Desert Music and Current Projects &nbsp; &nbsp;duo B. Experimental Band &nbsp; &nbsp;Goggle Sax Quartet &nbsp; &nbsp;Santa Fe-Based Ensembles Previous Ensemble Work &nbsp; &nbsp;Sun Spits Cherries &nbsp; &nbsp;Anthony Braxton &nbsp; &nbsp;Braxton/Sonic Genome &nbsp; &nbsp;Cecil Taylor &nbsp; &nbsp;Rrake &nbsp; &nbsp;BING Multi-Arts in Performance &nbsp; &nbsp;Displaced Horizons &nbsp; &nbsp;Garden Series &nbsp; &nbsp;Braxton’s Trillium J (The Non-Unconfessionables) &nbsp; &nbsp;¡Presente!: Stories of Home,&nbsp;Belonging and Displacement in Santa Fe &nbsp; &nbsp;In-Situ/Malangan &nbsp; &nbsp;Bus Opera Co-authored&nbsp;Films, Documentaries, Series &nbsp; &nbsp;Littleglobe TV &nbsp; &nbsp;Sembene! &nbsp; &nbsp;Our Time is Now &nbsp; &nbsp;Inside/Outside https://chrisjonascreative.com/About Mon, 21 Sep 2020 17:29:28 +0000 Chris Jonas https://chrisjonascreative.com/About Chris Jonas is a Santa Fe-based composer, saxophone player, and video artist. As an instrumentalist and composer/conductor, he has performed, recorded, and toured internationally with many of today’s most adventurous artists, working extensively with Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, William Parker, Del Sol String Quartet, TILT Brass, the Crossing Choir, and others. Jonas is a United States Artists Fellow and a winner of the 2012 Meet the Composer/Commissioning USA Award for GARDEN, his ongoing series of live music and transmedia works. He is Executive Director of Littleglobe, the New Mexico arts and social justice non-profit, and is Vice President of the Tri-Centric Foundation, an organization committed to the work and legacy of Anthony Braxton. In 2019, Jonas was conductor for Braxton’s 6-hour, 63-person orchestra project, Sonic Genome, at the Berlin Jazz Festival. Jonas has received commissions for large-scale music and video performance projects with many international artists, including the Del Sol String Quartet, Duo B Experimental Band, the Crossing Choir, with ensembles and musicians in Berlin, Portugal and Ireland, the Chicago Improvisors Group, and with numerous international venues, including SITE Santa Fe, the Lensic, the Santa Fe Opera, Center for New Music, Roulette, Lincoln Center, Knitting Factory, Z-Space in San Francisco, Triskel Arts Center in Cork, Ireland, Gropius Bau in Berlin, Germany, and the National Theater and Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan. You can read his full bio here."Chris Jonas’ remarkable composed suites [are] subtle breakthroughs and fantastic journeys." - Ann Powers,&nbsp;June 6, 2001, New York Times"Chis Jonas [is a] a gifted and original avant-garde soprano saxophonist and composer."&nbsp; - Harvey Pekar,&nbsp;Nov 16, 2000, Cleveland Scene &nbsp; "Jonas’ imaginative, provocative compositions and arrangements that really stick out and make him one to watch." - Peter Margasak, April 25, 2019, JazzTimes "Jonas cultivates a fluid relationship in his music between spontaneous gestures and planned ones; elaborately scored structures and dense improvisations can coexist within an album-length composition, sometimes as contrasting elements and sometimes as simultaneous events." - Bill Meyer, March 29, 2001, Chicago Reader https://chrisjonascreative.com/Bio Sun, 09 Apr 2023 21:17:49 +0000 Chris Jonas https://chrisjonascreative.com/Bio Chris Jonas is a Santa Fe-based composer, saxophone player, and video artist. As an instrumentalist and composer/conductor, he has performed, recorded, and toured internationally with many of today’s most adventurous artists, working extensively with Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, William Parker, Del Sol String Quartet, TILT Brass, the Crossing Choir, and others. Jonas is a United States Artists Fellow and a winner of the 2012 Meet the Composer/Commissioning USA Award for GARDEN, his ongoing series of live music and transmedia works. He is Executive Director of Littleglobe, the New Mexico arts and social justice non-profit, and is Vice President of the Tri-Centric Foundation, committed to the work and legacy of Anthony Braxton. Jonas was conductor for Braxton’s 6-hour, 63-person orchestra project, Sonic Genome, at the 2019 Berlin Jazz Festival. ___________ I am making a website, as likely many of us do, to share ideas, projects I’m proud of, and take a best guess as to why I make things. My current thought is that what drives me is making art with others: how by making art together, we connect. For me, to listen to and form relationships with the world and the people around me is to be changed—and to be changed is to move against a current tendency that seems to be increasingly commodified, transactional, objectifying, and extractive. Art can be personal, relevant, and honest. I’m a multi-arts kind of guy, meaning that I have immersed myself in various creative arenas: jazz, saxophone, composition, conducting, chamber and electronic music, as well as filmmaking, documentary, installation, projected video, theater, production, and how story can affect policymaking. I like mixing and matching from this list, borrowing structures and ideas from one artistic form and applying them to another. I am devoted to finding ways to make art that surprises and stops the world just a bit. I am devoted to art that provides different points of access, maybe to things we have few words to describe. And, I am devoted to working with others to locate a shared set of tools in the chance of forming something like kinship, with empathy and belonging. I won’t embrace a simple way to tell this story or identify a single artistic style, discipline, or perspective. But now that we’re well into the 21st Century, it’s damn clear that there’s no screwing around, and that idealism is a necessity. There is no simple anything but here we are. ___________ I was born in Orange County, California, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. There still existed orange groves, bean fields, valleys of chaparral and California live oak. I watched the landscape become replaced by the Orange County it is today. My parents came from the post-depression/post WWII working class of Los Angeles. They both worked hard and my dad became a doctor. My mom’s family was connected to what was the closest thing to church my family had: the wilderness. My grandmother grew up in a single-room dirt floor house in a live oak forest at the edge of the Mojave Desert. She explored the semi-arid range of mountains rimming Los Angeles and later spent much of her life in the eastern slopes of the Sierras. She and that area profoundly affected who I am today. And I have roots in the so-called “westward expansion” of the US/colonial legacy. My great great grandfather, William E. Crump, was the largest slave owner in Texas but lost it all after the Civil War. The story goes that my grandmother did not have shoes but she knew how to set a formal table. Like others who have such histories, I carry with me the question about how we hold such family legacies that include slavery, violence and objectification. My parents loved contemporary art and I grew up visiting art museums filled with the experimental visual, performance, and installation art of Los Angeles in the 1970s. Then, I went to Oberlin College and Conservatory in Ohio, where I immersed myself in the broad and ongoing question about art and its role in our changing world. After college, I moved to the Bay Area and fell in love with the music world there. It was grounded in the experimental music scene surrounding Mills College, where I met Anthony Braxton and graduate students who were writing the most marvelously quirky and challenging music I had yet encountered—many remain my key collaborators today. Theirs was a world where music tore open the assumed surfaces of things, and they did so in collaboration with one another. This relationship approach to music was as much an inspiration to me as was the music itself. I moved to New York City in 1991, in part because of the improvised and new music scene, but really it was for a single driving purpose: making music with others. NYC still had a wide range of jazz and experimental music venues, and the great jazz musicians of the 1950s and ’60s were still playing and telling stories. In my first years, studying jazz at the New School for Social Research, I met many young musicians and formed my first bands, which evolved and grew over the years. Realizing that to be a bandleader and composer I needed a deeper agility with writing music, I studied theory, harmony, and composition at Mannes School of Music while managing different jobs and gigs to make a living. My main NYC band was a group called “The Sun Spits Cherries” with bass trombone, tenor trombone, drums, and soprano sax—a way to explore music as objects in space and independent lines rather than being pinned to the notion of “harmony.” Throughout these years, I also found myself working more and more in multi-arts projects which included music but also visual arts, installation and, as the medium became more available, live projected video. During my time in New York, I was asked to join many projects led by my heroes: William Parker, Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, and others, recording on 50 albums and touring the world. These mentors and band leaders were inspirations and examples of aspects of art-making that are central to my practice today. With William, I played in his Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra from 1992-2001, playing weekly shows, traveling, and being in a community of musicians who combined incredible skills, artistry, and adventure in their playing. With Cecil, with whom I played on and off for two and a half years, we built a system to create an open-framework of scores for his compositions, written for different sizes of ensembles and going deep into his affinities for mirror structures and bimodality. For those years, I explored how mutable form combined with moments of musical energy can hold the universe open for moments at a time. My relationship with Anthony, which now spans more than three decades, has provided a long term exploration of form, performance and community. After ten years in NYC and meeting Molly Sturges during my graduate studies in composition at Wesleyan University, I relocated with Molly to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2001, and started new bands and ensembles, including Bing, and Rrake. Here, another component in my work started to find purchase: the arts as a tool for community voice work of Littleglobe. In direct collaboration with community members, I’ve worked in cross-discipline ensembles, using co-authorship and creative art-making—building relationships outside the usual daily interactions and political discourse—to bring to the surface a complex weave of stories within our local communities. Littleglobe is a team of artists from across a broad swath of heritages, generations, identities, disciplines, and perspectives. After being asked to take over as Executive Director in 2015, I’ve often found myself in a position to open spaces for artists and community members to facilitate collaborative projects. With the arrival of COVID-19, our team responded by developing a new hyper-local TV program (on a wide variety of broadcast and social media platforms) created for the sharing of co-authored experimental non-fiction short pieces created by Santa Fe residents during the pandemic. This has opened the door for greater levels of storytelling experimentation. It has also demonstrated the power of well-produced, freshly crafted styles and perspectives that can move hearts and reframe civic conflict in ways that make it possible to find solutions together that we could not find alone. After receiving the United States Artist Award in 2008, I began to focus on bringing the varied parts of my own work into a single creative frame. I created a series of immersive cross-media performance pieces, including the GARDEN series, intermedia opera projects with composer Anthony Braxton, and others. I have also worked as a conductor internationally, directing ensembles in premieres of my own works and those of others, striving to bring mixtures of disciplines, musical styles, performance and theater craft, as well as improvisation into the traditional arenas of classical music and the concert experience. Over the past twenty years, my musical work has evolved into focusing more on conducting, composition, and cross media performances. I’ve received commissions for large-scale music and video performance projects with some of my favorite international artists, such as, the Del Sol String Quartet, Duo B Experimental Band (Bay Area), Crossing Choir (Philadelphia), ensembles and a variety of musicians in Berlin, Portugal and Ireland, the Chicago Improvisors Group, and with international venues, including SITE Santa Fe, the Lensic, the Santa Fe Opera, Triskel Arts Center in Cork, Ireland, Center for New Music and Z-Space in San Francisco, Roulette, Lincoln Center, and Knitting Factory in NYC, Gropius Bau in Berlin, and other theaters, art spaces, and festivals worldwide. *&nbsp; &nbsp; *&nbsp; &nbsp; * One of the consistently hilarious challenges I face here in Santa Fe is randomly meeting people in public places like the market, oil change place, dentist, parking lot. People will introduce me and say—this is Chris Jonas, he’s a local composer. In the next encounter I am introduced as the Executive Director of Littleglobe, or Quinn’s dad, or a sax player, or a painter, or a video guy, or a film commissioner, or a crazy outdoorsy person. Maybe this is a 21st Century condition, but it certainly makes it hard to find a way to wrap up so many parts into a single whole. Part of the incentive for making this website might be to compel people to participate in this marvelously hard to sum up the multi-arts and collaborative work I do, which often involves the complex challenge of building a story that unifies such disparate parts. <img width="854" height="1280" width_o="854" height_o="1280" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/97a637935c78b497edcee755c29493fae44f682c458991bf3fc55f71b50753e7/Chris-Jonas-2016.jpeg" data-mid="174754555" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/854/i/97a637935c78b497edcee755c29493fae44f682c458991bf3fc55f71b50753e7/Chris-Jonas-2016.jpeg" /> https://chrisjonascreative.com/Contact Mon, 05 Apr 2021 18:43:01 +0000 Chris Jonas https://chrisjonascreative.com/Contact chris @ littleglobe dot org https://chrisjonascreative.com/Selected-Discography Mon, 21 Sep 2020 18:22:22 +0000 Chris Jonas https://chrisjonascreative.com/Selected-Discography Selected Discography&nbsp;Jonas appears on over 65 music releases, below are some of highlight records <img width="1200" height="1200" width_o="1200" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9d5218ce41f5d1674ee2f3adc443f1f3400be6e41c0d0c5a39db29ef8f5efccd/Jonas-backwardsupwardsky-CD1200dpi.png" data-mid="226625474" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9d5218ce41f5d1674ee2f3adc443f1f3400be6e41c0d0c5a39db29ef8f5efccd/Jonas-backwardsupwardsky-CD1200dpi.png" />backwardsupwardsky: music from the desertsChris Jonas Released March 2025 on Edgetone Records&nbsp; ALBUM WILL AVAILABLE HERE <img width="700" height="700" width_o="700" height_o="700" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b42c450e13423312333330ec6e0a876a7fcbabc9fefa0d231dbb03bd5178aefd/a1252184628_16.jpg" data-mid="208371735" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/700/i/b42c450e13423312333330ec6e0a876a7fcbabc9fefa0d231dbb03bd5178aefd/a1252184628_16.jpg" /> Sax QT (Lorraine)Anthony Braxton Saxophone Quartet2022 ALBUM NOW AVAILABLE HERE Eeyahdi&nbsp; Goggle Saxophone Quartet&nbsp; 2021 Thollem's Astral Traveling SessionsThollem / Santistevan / DeFoe / Hutchinson / Jonas 2021, Astral Spirits&nbsp; Pentet Pentet 2020 Almeda (To Matie) Cecil Taylor 2012, FMP Corona Cecil Taylor &amp; Sunny Murray 2012, FMP Galore Bing&nbsp; 2004 Adventure Reality Amitosis 2002 The Vermilion Chris Jonas' The Sun Spits Cherries featuring Myra Melford 2001, Hopscotch Ensembles Unsynchronized Chris Jonas Quintet 2000, NewSonic Records The Sun Spits Cherries Chris Jonas’ The Sun Spits Cherries1999, Hopscotch Records Child King Dictator Fool Great Circle Saxophone Quartet1997, New World Records Echo Echo Mirror House&nbsp;(NYC) Anthony Braxton 2011, Catalog #: NBH035GTM (OUTPOST)&nbsp;2003 Composition 255 &amp; 265Anthony Braxton, Chris Jonas &amp; Molly Sturges 2010, Leo Records Septet (Pittsburgh) 2008 Anthony Braxton 2008,&nbsp;Catalog #: NBH001 Almeda Cecil Taylor 2005, FMP <img width="500" height="500" width_o="500" height_o="500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8d999831eb51757dae18ff28e37ffcef7363f6f77e87378e6a6daf4152b36046/Mass-for-a-healing-world.jpg" data-mid="110517436" border="0" data-no-zoom src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/500/i/8d999831eb51757dae18ff28e37ffcef7363f6f77e87378e6a6daf4152b36046/Mass-for-a-healing-world.jpg" /> Mass for the Healing of the World William Parker &amp; the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra2004, Black Saint <img width="594" height="832" width_o="594" height_o="832" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/71cb79307d1ba0bf06922f7fbba56887ff192d908ea954d9f03276feb950776e/James-Fei--Alto-Quartets.png" data-mid="110515044" border="0" data-no-zoom src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/594/i/71cb79307d1ba0bf06922f7fbba56887ff192d908ea954d9f03276feb950776e/James-Fei--Alto-Quartets.png" /> Alto Quartets James Fei 2004,&nbsp;Organized Sound Light of Corona Cecil Taylor 2003,&nbsp;FMP Tentet (Paris) Anthony Braxton 2001,&nbsp;Catalog #: NBH037 Tentet (Wesleyan) 2000 Anthony Braxton 2000,&nbsp;Catalog #:NBH013NBH014 &nbsp; Tentet (Antwerp) 2000 Anthony Braxton 2000,&nbsp;Catalog #:NBH009.1NBH009.2 Tentet (Wesleyan) 1999 Anthony Braxton 1999, Catalog #: NBH020NBH021 Trillium R: Shala Fears for the Poor (Opera) Anthony Braxton 1999,&nbsp;Catalog #: BH008 Sax Quintet (Middletown)Anthony Braxton 1998,&nbsp;Catalog #:NBH006.1NBH006.2 Sax Quintet (NYC) 1998 Anthrony Braxton 1998,&nbsp;Catalog #: NBH038 Three Orchestras (GTM) 1998 Anthony Braxton 1998 Four Compositions (Washington, D.C.) 1998Anthrony Braxton 1999 Two Compositions ( Trio ) 1998 Anthrony Braxton, 1998 <img width="500" height="497" width_o="500" height_o="497" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ba56608c60d083f27413721a4ba471488dd6d257010e7661fe67168c5a4dad4a/Composition-169---Ghost-Trance.jpg" data-mid="110519967" border="0" data-no-zoom src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/500/i/ba56608c60d083f27413721a4ba471488dd6d257010e7661fe67168c5a4dad4a/Composition-169---Ghost-Trance.jpg" /> Composition 169 + Ghost Trance (Ljubjiana) Anthony Braxton / The Slovenia National Radio Orchestra2001, Leo Records Mayor of Punkville, William Parker's "Little Huey" Orchestra William Parker2000, Aum&nbsp; <img width="500" height="500" width_o="500" height_o="500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/14e845c43233705bf4da46c2b4badd38620f48f6178b9f6c4237d143c37c1f61/The-Way-of-the-Saxophone-Brooklyn-Sax-Quartet.jpg" data-mid="110520226" border="0" data-no-zoom src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/500/i/14e845c43233705bf4da46c2b4badd38620f48f6178b9f6c4237d143c37c1f61/The-Way-of-the-Saxophone-Brooklyn-Sax-Quartet.jpg" />The Way of the Saxophone Brooklyn Sax Quartet (C. Jonas, Sam Furnace, David Bindman, Fred Ho)2000, Innova <img width="500" height="496" width_o="500" height_o="496" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/02c2db065b8c430504666792f40fe501ccff9aaf7442e5934e61203db12e2ced/The-Hollow-World.jpg" data-mid="110520266" border="0" data-no-zoom src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/500/i/02c2db065b8c430504666792f40fe501ccff9aaf7442e5934e61203db12e2ced/The-Hollow-World.jpg" /> The Hollow World Assif Tsahar’s Brass Reeds Ensemble1999, Hopscotch Records Full Circle Suite Joe Fonda Quintet (C. Jonas, J. Fonda, Gebhard Ullman, Taylor Ho Bynum, Kevin Norton)1999, CIMP Vision Vol. I: Vision Fest. ‘97 Compiled&nbsp; "Hoang", William Parker's "Little Huey" Orchestra 1998, Aum Vision Vol. I: Vision Fest. ‘97 Compiled, "Conduction #72", Butch Morris ('98 Aum) Sunrise on the Tone World William Parker's "Little Huey" Creative Music Orchestra1997, Aum <img width="300" height="292" width_o="300" height_o="292" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9f000bc5a3e47d7d24883da3fac1b13e5a3962751d359bd0284539ee616dc4f7/Flowers-Grow-in-my-room.jpg" data-mid="110520325" border="0" data-no-zoom src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/300/i/9f000bc5a3e47d7d24883da3fac1b13e5a3962751d359bd0284539ee616dc4f7/Flowers-Grow-in-my-room.jpg" /> Flowers Grow in My Room William Parker's "Little Huey" Creative Music Orchestra 1994, Centering American Works for Balinese Gamelan Orchestra Evan Ziporyn/Nyoman Windha’s "Kekembangan"(for sax quartet and Balinese Gamelan Orchestra), Gamelan Sekar Jaya1993, New World Records https://chrisjonascreative.com/Cover-Desert-Music-and-Current-Projects Wed, 28 Jul 2021 17:09:50 +0000 Chris Jonas https://chrisjonascreative.com/Cover-Desert-Music-and-Current-Projects Music from the Deserts and Current Projects <img width="1280" height="289" width_o="1280" height_o="289" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/999ec6344bb6e8a5e6bbb9cae9308756d33ae7cff37719c24aa55a8ab641f444/Jonas-Creative-Pix-2016-21---77.jpeg" data-mid="174752215" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/999ec6344bb6e8a5e6bbb9cae9308756d33ae7cff37719c24aa55a8ab641f444/Jonas-Creative-Pix-2016-21---77.jpeg" /> https://chrisjonascreative.com/Desert-Music-and-Current-Projects-1 Wed, 28 Jul 2021 17:10:07 +0000 Chris Jonas https://chrisjonascreative.com/Desert-Music-and-Current-Projects-1 Music from the Deserts and other current projects Chris Jonas: Music from the Deserts explores the music and videos&nbsp;created over&nbsp;80 days / four years of solitary winter camping in Arizona's Barry Goldwater Missile Range throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.&nbsp; This collection of music and videos tours worldwide in 2023-2025 (shows listed below) <img width="4529" height="3288" width_o="4529" height_o="3288" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4b18dcf67388aa791625daef3728273ae2a7a1cc70bbfeb69a3cc18c5b574d46/Desert-at-Mosswood-B-W-image-by-Sevgi-Sungun.png" data-mid="201708129" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4b18dcf67388aa791625daef3728273ae2a7a1cc70bbfeb69a3cc18c5b574d46/Desert-at-Mosswood-B-W-image-by-Sevgi-Sungun.png" />JONAS PERFORMANCES2025 <img width="1400" height="1555" width_o="1400" height_o="1555" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c947dedfa91961b46b732c99cfba12176b4375c149746f2a7b3e191306e8bced/braxton1_171025_113004.png" data-mid="226628027" border="0" data-scale="44" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c947dedfa91961b46b732c99cfba12176b4375c149746f2a7b3e191306e8bced/braxton1_171025_113004.png" />Saturday, March 8 Music of Anthony Braxton @ Library of Congress 6pm Pre-concert panel (Jonas as panelist) moderated by Timo Hoyer 8pm Concert Thomas Jefferson Building - Coolidge Auditorium 10 1st Street SE, Washington, DC 20540 Performing: Compositions 222, 100 and Thunder Music Performers &nbsp; Jean Cook, violin, Erica Dicker, violin , James Fei, saxophone, Nick Hallett, voice, Chris Jonas, saxophone, Adam Matlock, accordion and voice, Dan Peck, tuba, Reut Regev, trombone, Tomeka Reid, cello, Anne Rhodes, voice, Stephanie Richards, trumpet, Aaron Siegel, percussion, Carl Testa, double bass, electronics, Cory Smythe, piano, Katherine Young, bassoonhttps://www.loc.gov/item/event-415334/music-of-anthony-braxton/2025-03-08/ <img width="1600" height="3106" width_o="1600" height_o="3106" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4f442e347a20ca2c0879cdd6ac00c58dab1a1bcadf8c352474cc21a304e0ffba/Deserts25-Beauty---1.jpeg" data-mid="226657461" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4f442e347a20ca2c0879cdd6ac00c58dab1a1bcadf8c352474cc21a304e0ffba/Deserts25-Beauty---1.jpeg" /> March 12 7:30pm - Troy NY Jonas Deserts Quartet @ Improv Spaces Mount Ida Preservation Hall, 548 Congress St, Troy, NY 12180 www.improvspaces.wordpress.com/ $20 suggested donation March 13 7:30pm - Saugerties, NY Jonas Deserts Quartet @ Upstate Films/Orpheum Theater 156 Main St, Saugerties, NY 12477 www.upstatefilms.org Tickets: $14 general/$10 members March 15 7:30pm - Brooklyn, NY Jonas Deserts Quartet @ Soup &amp; Sound 292 Lefferts Ave., Brooklyn, NY www.soupandsound.org/ Soup at 7:30, Music at 8
$20 suggested donation Chris Jonas Deserts Quartet (Brooklyn) with Chris Jonas, saxophones, video, composition Thomas Heberer, cornet Cyrus Campbell, bass Andrew Drury, drums ITALY <img width="1440" height="1080" width_o="1440" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c5aad51aec1be123c4613a421e95124d85f52b10a0e267ce40a41b7fe2829d89/Bologna-Desert-4tet.jpg" data-mid="201710106" border="0" data-scale="59" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c5aad51aec1be123c4613a421e95124d85f52b10a0e267ce40a41b7fe2829d89/Bologna-Desert-4tet.jpg" /> Wednesday, April 23 Deserts Quartet (Bologna band) Club Zuni, Via Ragno 15, Ferrara, Italy <img width="1388" height="1386" width_o="1388" height_o="1386" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c852a74d987ec1b535d87a085af73e4a2804d6be25b7adc395c1b318078edf3c/Screenshot-2025-02-15-at-8.56.51-AM.png" data-mid="226628036" border="0" data-scale="60" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c852a74d987ec1b535d87a085af73e4a2804d6be25b7adc395c1b318078edf3c/Screenshot-2025-02-15-at-8.56.51-AM.png" /> Saturday April 26 9:30pm Fonterossa Night (workshop performance with other conductors) Toscana Produzione Musica at Exwide Club Via Franceschi 13, Pisa, Italy https://exwide.com/ <img width="2048" height="1366" width_o="2048" height_o="1366" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bb6b2fe1e4d54cc87b9d3a5807a258218bcc536537aeb5e27677f1595357dfdc/475910226_1096572742265717_7597235699568471617_n-1.jpg" data-mid="226628044" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bb6b2fe1e4d54cc87b9d3a5807a258218bcc536537aeb5e27677f1595357dfdc/475910226_1096572742265717_7597235699568471617_n-1.jpg" /> Sunday, April 27 6pm Deserts Quartet and Jonas Conducts Fonterossa Open Orchestra (40 person creative orchestra) Jonas: Three Afternoons, Tinajas 2025 (three movements) Fonterossa Day #9 Teatro di Sant'Andrea, Pisa Italy https://toscanaproduzionemusica.it/fonterossa-open-lab-2025/ April 28 &amp; 29 Masterclasses with Deserts Quartet Conservatorio A Vivaldi Via Parma, 1, 15121 Alessandria AL, Italywww.conservatoriovivaldi.it April 30 9:30pm Deserts Quartet (Bologna band) Alessandria Jazz Club @ Ristorazione Sociale viale Milite Ignoto 1/a www.alessandriajazzclub.it Deserts Quartet (Bologna)Chris Jonas, compositions, projected video, soprano and tenor saxophonesLuca Serrapigglio, contrabass clarinet and baritone saxophoneLuca Bernard, bassGiacomo Pisano, drums <img width="960" height="518" width_o="960" height_o="518" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/50871fa323a84b031506daeb78474e14443c6375a85329cbc8d610e073eaad04/Bologna-Deserts-Image-Colywood-Aug23.jpg" data-mid="201710064" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/960/i/50871fa323a84b031506daeb78474e14443c6375a85329cbc8d610e073eaad04/Bologna-Deserts-Image-Colywood-Aug23.jpg" /> DESERTS ENSEMBLES Music from the Deserts features Santa Fe-based composer and saxophone player Chris Jonas along with musicians from a few key collaborations across the globe. Brooklyn, NY Chris Jonas, compositions, projected video, soprano and tenor saxophonesThomas Heberer, trumpetCyrus Campbell, bassAndrew Drury, drums Oakland, CAChris Jonas, compositions, projected video, soprano and tenor saxophonesCory Wright, baritone sax, clarinetsLisa Mezzacappa, bassJason Levis, drumsBologna, Italy Chris Jonas, compositions, projected video, soprano and tenor saxophonesLuca Serrapigglio, contrabass clarinet and baritone saxophoneLuca Bernard, bassGiacomo Pisano, drums Chicago, ILChris Jonas, compositions, projected video, soprano and tenor saxophones Jeff Kimmel, clarinetsRobert Lundberg, bassSam Scranton, drumsSanta Fe, NM Chris Jonas, compositions, projected video, soprano and tenor saxophones with various ensembles, includingDelbert Anderson, trumpetJerry Weimer, clarinetsJeremy Bleich, electric bassCyrus Campell, double bassMilton Villarrubia III, drumsJonah Minkus, drums Jonas’s music for the Deserts contains some elements of a jazz-based ensemble, and works with colors and sounds outside of the usual domains of traditional jazz, mixing elements that are quirky, delicate, weirdly groovy, polyphonic, and a mixture of the disjointed and melodic.Videos projected during each concert include images from the Goldwater Missile Range, Trump and Obama's border walls, the complex community of Yuma, Arizona and the vast wilderness surrounding these places. <img width="1280" height="567" width_o="1280" height_o="567" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fd151b6b10a6b586f6b20fb1b8221c924404814379dd18214c4d5985f0d6b537/Jonas-Saguaro-Trump-Wall-Pano-low-res.jpeg" data-mid="201710207" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fd151b6b10a6b586f6b20fb1b8221c924404814379dd18214c4d5985f0d6b537/Jonas-Saguaro-Trump-Wall-Pano-low-res.jpeg" /> 2023 &amp; 2024 CONCERTS <img width="1920" height="1005" width_o="1920" height_o="1005" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/01b81c78a03a0c3e3f97f141d276b0755ca4854a85eda6506274810236ea4c60/Music.png" data-mid="213451931" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/01b81c78a03a0c3e3f97f141d276b0755ca4854a85eda6506274810236ea4c60/Music.png" /> July 20, 2024 at Paradiso Santa Fe with Delbert Anderson, Trumpet, Cyrus Campbell, bass, Jonah Minkus, drums (with guests Alex Murzyn, flute/alto sax, Jerry Weimer, clarinet) <img width="610" height="800" width_o="610" height_o="800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/454ab73a66f846fc2ea7ef1fdaa3fe3c2ad434dd59f6b236a6def3f926e6095e/Jonas-Deserts-at-Outpost-July2024.png" data-mid="213451933" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/610/i/454ab73a66f846fc2ea7ef1fdaa3fe3c2ad434dd59f6b236a6def3f926e6095e/Jonas-Deserts-at-Outpost-July2024.png" /> July 18, 2024 at Outpost, Albuquerquewith Delbert Anderson, Trumpet, Cyrus Campbell, bass, Jonah Minkus, drums <img width="1080" height="1920" width_o="1080" height_o="1920" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e3fc4f9e40d4abd80b4e0722e2b5b369e94ededfca2f9e8a0805c37eb41497d7/2.png" data-mid="213868979" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e3fc4f9e40d4abd80b4e0722e2b5b369e94ededfca2f9e8a0805c37eb41497d7/2.png" /> July 17, 2024 at Reno Public Market/Art Town, Reno, Nevadawith Delbert Anderson, Trumpet, Cyrus Campbell, bass, Jonah Minkus, drums <img width="1080" height="1080" width_o="1080" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8ead2cdf5d11ec4a3dd41c7702a548aec8644e7c11dfdc3f5b7adf938c79feda/desert-quartet-Instagram-Post.png" data-mid="213451876" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8ead2cdf5d11ec4a3dd41c7702a548aec8644e7c11dfdc3f5b7adf938c79feda/desert-quartet-Instagram-Post.png" />March 2, 2024 at Santa Monica Libraywith Cory Wright, clarinet and baritone saxophone, Lisa Mezzacappa, bass, Jason Levis, drums <img width="1080" height="1375" width_o="1080" height_o="1375" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8c12fe3bba42cdedb442cf1e05af0020c8e7885c3962e6eebaaa5d6440120acb/Santa-Monica-Library-Shows-March-2024-Deserts-Quartet.jpg" data-mid="213451877" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8c12fe3bba42cdedb442cf1e05af0020c8e7885c3962e6eebaaa5d6440120acb/Santa-Monica-Library-Shows-March-2024-Deserts-Quartet.jpg" />March 2, 2024 at Santa Monica Libraywith Cory Wright, clarinet and baritone saxophone, Lisa Mezzacappa, bass, Jason Levis, drums <img width="1440" height="1440" width_o="1440" height_o="1440" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/98b8da16687a69acaab6b1d5c8f363f1c05a4f557001ac621915b19df038cd10/Mosswood-Deserts-Oct-22-2023.jpg" data-mid="201710110" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/98b8da16687a69acaab6b1d5c8f363f1c05a4f557001ac621915b19df038cd10/Mosswood-Deserts-Oct-22-2023.jpg" />October 22, 2023 at Mosswood Chapel, Oakland, CA with Cory Wright, clarinet and baritone saxophone, Lisa Mezzacappa, bass, Jason Levis, drums <img width="2000" height="2001" width_o="2000" height_o="2001" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d2066fddb61dd6a046899c150c389a1dad0165cb4ca48e10cd7cb4c17d91e6c1/Desert-at-Mosswood-band-2-image-by-Sevgi-Sungun.png" data-mid="201710813" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d2066fddb61dd6a046899c150c389a1dad0165cb4ca48e10cd7cb4c17d91e6c1/Desert-at-Mosswood-band-2-image-by-Sevgi-Sungun.png" /> October 20, 2022 at the Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto, CA with Cory Wright, clarinet and baritone saxophone, Lisa Mezzacappa, bass, Jason Levis, drums August 6, 2023 at Shape Shoppe Paradiso studios Siena/Monteriggioni, ItalyChris Jonas Desert 4tet with Luca Serrapigglio, contrabass clarinet and baritone saxophone, Luca Bernard, bass and Giacomo Pisano, drums <img width="1032" height="540" width_o="1032" height_o="540" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/97412556985eccc745cfba115818eb3884d951dbf5d4bc9f89b14a82e3852178/Collywood-Deserts-Promo-Aug23.jpg" data-mid="201710091" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/97412556985eccc745cfba115818eb3884d951dbf5d4bc9f89b14a82e3852178/Collywood-Deserts-Promo-Aug23.jpg" /> August 3, 2023 at Collywood, Bologna, Italy Chris Jonas Desert 4tet with&nbsp;Luca Serrapigglio, contrabass clarinet and baritone saxophone, Luca Bernard, bass and Giacomo Pisano, drums<img width="1080" height="1080" width_o="1080" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dbce0f32fec5cbe7626e650992a5ddf85d3aa01b899f0426c3a411084f183540/Jonas-w-Lost-Time-Orchestra-Levontin7-Tel-Aviv.jpg" data-mid="201710059" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dbce0f32fec5cbe7626e650992a5ddf85d3aa01b899f0426c3a411084f183540/Jonas-w-Lost-Time-Orchestra-Levontin7-Tel-Aviv.jpg" /> July 21, 2023 at Levontin 7, Tel Aviv, Israel Chris Jonas conducting the Lost Time Orchestra featuring Assif Tsahar, tenor saxophone <img width="1766" height="1174" width_o="1766" height_o="1174" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/046b02d61949e19eb702f24a110d1a790afd07b04d332b5402846f11c91a9d6e/Screen-Shot-2023-04-10-at-12.31.18-PM.png" data-mid="174847747" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/046b02d61949e19eb702f24a110d1a790afd07b04d332b5402846f11c91a9d6e/Screen-Shot-2023-04-10-at-12.31.18-PM.png" /> May 4, 2023 at Elastic Arts Foundation in Chicago, IL, as part of their Improvised Music Series and featuring&nbsp;Jeff Kimmel on&nbsp;clarinets,&nbsp;Sam Scranton on precussion, and&nbsp;Robert Lundberg on bass <img width="1280" height="1000" width_o="1280" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6e6d96e045e76fd1c066e3cb0b5d18bb847086744feec10a4d83aa53035ae258/Deserts-Chicago-Elastic-2023-Veena-Image1---1.jpeg" data-mid="201710796" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6e6d96e045e76fd1c066e3cb0b5d18bb847086744feec10a4d83aa53035ae258/Deserts-Chicago-Elastic-2023-Veena-Image1---1.jpeg" /> May 2, 2023 at Uncle Art Gallery in Chicago, IL, presented by&nbsp;Department of Harmony and featuring&nbsp;Jeff Kimmel on&nbsp;clarinets,&nbsp;Sam Scranton on precussion, and&nbsp;Robert Lundberg on bass <img width="1600" height="2071" width_o="1600" height_o="2071" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a26e859c81d170772e03d0b7051a3fe7ab45372da2113fcea72863bac43a70f4/Jonas-Deserts-San-Miguel-Promo-Apr23-for-four-up.jpg" data-mid="175019120" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a26e859c81d170772e03d0b7051a3fe7ab45372da2113fcea72863bac43a70f4/Jonas-Deserts-San-Miguel-Promo-Apr23-for-four-up.jpg" /> April 20, 2023 at San Miguel Chapel in Santa Fe, NM, with two ensembles consisting of a broad swath of multi-generational musicians: A trio with Jeremy Bleich on electric bass and Milton Villarrubia III on drums, and a Quartet/Quintet featuring Jerry Weimer on clarinet, Leroy Medina on bassoon, Cyrus Campbell on Double Bass, and Dan Cuatt on drums November 10, 2022 at Bird &amp; Beckett Books, San Francisco CAfeaturing Chris Jonas withLiza Mezzacappa, bassJordan Glenn, drums https://chrisjonascreative.com/Overview-Cover Tue, 27 Jul 2021 20:12:31 +0000 Chris Jonas https://chrisjonascreative.com/Overview-Cover Creative Music Ensembles (conducting/composing) https://chrisjonascreative.com/Overview-of-Creative-Music-Ensemble-Work Mon, 29 Mar 2021 13:59:33 +0000 Chris Jonas https://chrisjonascreative.com/Overview-of-Creative-Music-Ensemble-Work Chris Jonas’ remarkable composed suites [are] subtle breakthroughs and fantastic journeys. -Ann Powers, The New York Times Ensemble Projects Drawing from my experiences working in ensembles led by my long term collaborators of the Goggle Sax Quartet, Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, Butch Morris, and William Parker, I became fascinated with how composition can be the halfway point between an idea and a performance, cuing up a diverse body of musicians to have enough stability and fresh materials to create new things on stage while freeing them to be fully themselves in the moment. For each of these bandleaders, there became the necessity for developing unique ways of communicating with an ensemble in performance: for Braxton it was structured by his Language Music, and for Butch Morris, the complex array of hand symbols codified in what he called “Conduction.” My own activity as a composer/performer/conductor has come to be central to my work. Current Ensemble Work Somehow, there’s an entirely new spirit of music and creative work in my life today. This is very much a carryover from the work I did in the Bay Area in the weeks before Covid. There, I worked on a series of projects in collaboration with long-time comrades in duo B. Experimental Band, co-led by Lisa Mezzacappa and Jason Levis; Goggle Saxophone Quartet with lifelong collaborators Cory Wright, Dan Plonsey, and Randy McKean; and my collaborations with the Del Sol String Quartet, which has been ongoing since 2008.