Alliance for Improvised Music |
Bhob Rainey |
BHOB RAINEY \ Nmperign
"Music enigmatically jerry-rigged with this funky history of ours how else to explain the firework timbres, the sudden turn of the lonely line, the loving abandon, and shy wit in these sounds? So this is the new American gypsy ."
Bhob Rainey has performed in such notable venues as NYs Knitting Factory and CBGBs; Bostons Jordan Hall, Karma Club, Green Street Grill, and Zeitgeist Gallery; Philadelphias Ortelliebs and Blue Moon; What is Art? In Santa Cruz; and the Hollywood Art & Cultural Center in Miami. He has appeared with John Zorn, Bob Moses, Ben Schwendener, Masashi Haradi (with whom he performed in Bostons esteemed "Autumn Uprising" improvised music festival), and others as well as leading several groups of his own. His current trio with Mat Maneri on electric violin and John McLellan on drums has recorded an album due out this winter and has been performing all over the Northeast with high acclaim. Bhob has a Masters of Music from New England Conservatory where he has also directed the Jazz Composers Ensemble.
About Nmperign
Bhob Rainey (soprano sax), Greg Kelley (trumpet), and Tatsuya Nakatani (percussion) have been creating a compelling sound in Boston and New York for several years now. They've each received a great deal of critical acclaim for their far-reaching work as improvisers and performers of new music and Nmperign is one of the most powerful outcomes of this work. This spare trio creates an enormous sound, both violent and fragile, with an emphasis on the complete spectrum of instrumental sound: the light and the shadows. Their music reminds one of the work of Joe Maneri, Evan Parker -- even the traditional music of Japan, without ever losing its own unique, organic sound.
Bhob Rainey plays across the US and has performed with John Zorn, Joe McPhee, Pauline Oliveros, Michael Zerang, Jack Wright, Bob Moses, Joe and Mat Maneri, and a host of other fantastic improvisers, as well as performing the works of John Cage, Pozzi Escot, and those of several younger Boston composers. He holds a masters of Music from the New England Conservatory where he also directed the Jazz Composers Ensemble.
Tatsuya Nakatani has become one of the most vital drummers on the Boston/NY improv scene. Hailing from Kobe, Japan, he studied with Yosuhiro Yoshigaki (Altered States, Ground Zero). Since moving to Boston in 95, he has become indispensable to many of the city's most compelling improvisers, including Sabir Mateen (of Test), Masashi Harada, Jonathan LaMaster (Saturnalia), and Dan DeCellis.
Since graduating from the Peabody Conservatory of Music in 95, Greg Kelley has been an active and acclaimed performer of new, improvised, and experimental musics. He works furiously in the Boston & NY areas and has performed with countless musicians, including Joe McPhee, Pauline Oliveros, Steven Drury, and Raphe Malik. "Greg manages to eek sounds out of his trumpet that range from quiet, organic rumblings to buzzing, almost electronic sounding waves, to sonorous snippets" (Michael Rosenstein, Cadence)
They've just released the fine 44'38" on Twisted Village records. They should have this at both XYC and XDU, so call them up with a request if you want to hear something.
And there's this from Bob Falesch, posted to the chicago improv list: Reflections stemming from the performance of *nmperign* last night at Uncommon Ground: 44'38'/5 (Twisted Village Records) is a good document and at first hearing it said to me: "These guys are serious and they seek subsumption of the individual in order for a higher collective energy." That experience last night at Uncommon Ground (my first hearing of the Trio live) transcended even that, and put me into a place of no longer being certain what I think nmperign is about, but liking it even more. My fever over this performance was there for both sets -- the first, which was the Trio only, and the second, which added Chicagoans cellist Bob Marsh and bassist Kurt Johnson.
Selected Discography:
Early Gypsy - live in Santa Cruz; Stare, Venus Band; Witness of the Sun, Ben Schwendener; and coming soon are recordings with the Masashi Harada trio, Titi Nqwenya, Ginger Butkiss, and his own album of solos and trios, The Narrators Umbrella.
In addition to both of Bhob Rainey's CD projects (*ink* and *44'38"/5*), available were several cassettes and a knockout CD called REALTIME, featuring percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani's trio with a pianist and guitarist from their hometown, Boston.
What People are Saying:
"Absolutely fresh and compelling I have played with many great sax players, and Bhob dazzles me still!" Paul Bley
"Bhob has made the soprano sax." Joe Maneri
"Challenging by any jazz fans standards." Jon Gaerlick, The Boston Phoenix
Rainey's sound is pure and beautiful, even when he's delivering multiphonics or streams of harmonics. -- Walter Horn, Cadence
Compelling, talented, forward-looking -- Boston Phoenix
Discussing all that beauty would take more roses than would fill this space. -- Stu Vandermark, Cadence
Twisted, swallowed lines erupt mid-phrase, dancing -- Michael Rosenstein, Cadence
A beautiful, fragile technology of sound...creating dimensions, reflecting facets of light, occupying space and memory in waves, like the color in a glass marble. -- Maria Klein, The Disembodied Ear