Philip Greenlief (sax), Toshi Makihara (percussion), and friends -- Feb. 16, 2008

Saturday, February 16th, 2008 -- 6.0000

Philip Greenlief (sax), Toshi Makihara (percussion), and friends

Philip Greenlief: Since his emergence on the west coast in the late 1970’s, Evander Music founder Phillip Greenlief has achieved international critical acclaim for his recordings and performances with musicians and composers in the post-jazz continuum as well as new music innovators and virtuosic improvisers. His ever-evolving relationship with the saxophone unfolds with an expansive sound vocabulary, a deep regard for melody and form and a rollicking humor and wit that is not dissimilar to the Native American Coyote tales. In addition to club dates and tours across North America and Europe, he has performed at the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival; 1st Annual John Coltrane Festival in Los Angeles; North Sea Festival in Den Hague; Freiburg Zelt Muzik Festival; Big Sur Sound Shift; Olympia Experimental Music Festival; Du Maurier Festival in Vancouver, B.C.; Werkstatt for Improvisierte Musik in Zurich; Ulrichsburg Festival and Konfrontation Festival in Nickelsdorf, Austria; Isole Che Parlano Festival in Sardegna, the Biennale in Venice, Italy; and the International Festival of Arts in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In 1998 he lived in Saint Petersburg (Russia), where in addition to playing solo he performed and recorded with several jazz groups, singer-songwriter Yelena Kolokolnikova, electronic musician Nadezhda Voskaboynik, and the Russian folk ensemble Dubinushka. Mr. Greenlief holds a BA in Music Education and a MA in 20th Century Literature from the University of Southern California. In addition to a busy performing and recording schedule, he currently teaches at Oakland School for the Arts, East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, and is Director of Music at San Francisco Waldorf High School. www.evandermusic.com

Toshi Makihara studied drums, percussion and improvisation with Sabu Toyozumi, a prominent percussionist in Tokyo. Since arriving in the United States in the late 1970's he has worked with various new music ensembles as well as with numerous dance and theater companies internationally. Makihara has provided original music to Arden Theater Company, Diversions Dance Company (Wales), Pennsylvania Ballet, ZeroMoving Dance Company and Leah Stein Dance Company among others, and has worked with musicians including Steve Beresford, Peter Brotzmann, John Butcher, Nels Cline, Eugene Chadbourne, Tom Cora, Amy Denio, Thurston Moore, William Parker and John Zorn. He has also collaborated with poets, visual artists, filmmakers and performance artists widely. Since the fall of 2000, Makihara has been focusing on three separate performing styles: 1. New Jazz performances on a conventional drum-set, 2. music for theater and dance using a variety of percussion and discovered sound media, and 3. the experimental free improvisation using a simple setting consisting of one snare drum and one small cymbal. www.toshimakihara.com