ZACHARY CALE + EMBER SCHRAG + MARY HALVORSON & JESSICA PAVONE

"ZACHARY CALE is the best singer-songwriter working right now. Period." - Pop Matters

EMBER SCHRAG "A song so good it can only be described in clichés about angels and airplanes and weeping clouds." - Stephen Elliott

MARY HALVORSON & JESSICA PAVONE  “A challenging fusion of oblique art song, reflective chamber music and thorny free improv." - Time Out New York

Zachary Cale is a songwriter originally hailing from the small town of Enon, Louisiana.  His music ranges from lyrical folk balladry and American primitive inspired guitar instrumentals to experiments in popular song forms.

Over the span of 6 years he has released four full length albums, Outlander Sessions (2005), Walking Papers (2008), a full band rock record See-Saw (2008) under the name Illuminations, and most recently his third solo effort, Noise of Welcome (2011).  He often performs alone with an acoustic guitar but has been known to include a revolving cast of musicians whom he calls The Rainband.

http://allhandselectric.com/zacharycale.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk6BAvfhmbs&feature=related

Ember Schrag grew up in western Nebraska. She spent several years carving out a space in the Midwest as a distinctive lyricist, singer and guitarist. 2010's acclaimed EP Jephthah’s Daughter (Eh?), and Schrag’s debut studio effort, A Cruel, Cruel Woman (Lone Prairie 2009), were preceded by nearly a dozen home-recorded CD-Rs and cassettes. She has toured with Kath Bloom and collaborated with The Chiara Quartet, Susan Alcorn, P.G. Six, Amy Denio, The Black Twigs, Low Hums, L. Eugene Methe and Lucky Bone. Schrag also performs improvised electroacoustic music in the project Office Park, a collaboration with instrument builder Bryan Day.

http://www.emberschrag.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOzWKtaY3kE

Guitarist Mary Halvorson and violist Jessica Pavone's longstanding duo embraces a wide range of musical traditions to create what Time Out New York describes as "a challenging fusion of oblique art song, reflective chamber music and thorny free improv."

Critics have noted their "level of interplay that borders on the clairvoyant" (Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz.com) and likened them to "an avant-garde Thelma and Louise, blazing a trail across the stylistic horizon like a 1966 Ford Thunderbird jerry-rigged from scraps of Eric Dolphy, Django Reinhardt, Appalachian gothic campfires, Charles Ives, and Hendrix-laced psychedelia" (Aidan Levy, Village Voice).

Known as "two of the most exciting figures in New York’s jazz and improvised-music community" (Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader), Halvorson and Pavone have worked together in a variety of musical settings over the past decade, most notably the collective quartet The Thirteenth Assemble and the ensembles of the iconic saxophonist/composer Anthony Braxton.

Unlike those larger groups, their duo boils down its diverse influences into intimate original compositions that skillfully blend ethereal vocals and folk-inspired simplicity with an experimental edge, expanding their appeal beyond the boundaries of avant-garde jazz.

http://www.maryhalvorson.com/

http://jessicapavone.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6c0V0uvF04