FPE Records presents a record release party for post-bop group Noah Barker Quartet’s new LP Instrumental Memory coming out November 18th. The group features Noah on piano and his father Thurman Barker of AACM fame on drums. Supporting the group will be Tatsu Aoki’s long-running ensemble MIYUMI Project and a new duo from Tatsu w/ guitarist Da Wei Wang.

Bios:

Noah Barker is an accomplished pianist with a masters in Jazz Performance and has produced several albums between his band Noisebody and his solo project. Noah studied music at the University of Louisville and later at SUNY Purchase under Hal Galper, Kevin Hays, and Kenny Werner. In 2017 Noah Barker released his solo debut Business Actual. The album is composed of six of Barker’s originals paying tribute to the music that he studied in school. The album features Dean Torrey, Aaron Seeber, Mike Troy, and Jon Saraga. In 2020, Barker released two solo piano records Spring Themes, a soundtrack to a film that doesn’t exist, and Urgency!, an impromptu cathartic recording made on Election Day, 2020. Both were self-produced and recorded at home. Currently, Noah Barker is scoring his second documentary. Noah Barker has played in the bands of Joe Piscopo, Jamey Aebersold, and Don Hahn (Buddy Rich, Manyard Ferguson).

Thurman Barker. got his start playing in the pit in Chicago’s Shubert Theatre and backing singers like Mighty Joe Young, Billy Eckstine, Marvin Gaye, and Bette Midler. In 1960s Chicago, Thurman began working with the newly formed AACM, becoming one of his most notable musical experiences. As a charter member of the group, he played with many of its members including Muhal Richard Abrams, Amina Claudine Meyers, Roscoe Mitchell and Anthony Braxton. He later moved to New York where he joined Sam Rivers and eventually Cecil Taylor. Thurman Barker has six albums out as a leader and is a tenured professor at Bard College.

Tatsu Aoki’s The MIYUMI Project is one of the longest standing amalgams for improvisational collaborative musical endeavors. The ensemble draws upon the aesthetics of Japanese traditional music and Chicago’s avant-garde jazz and experimental music. Their presentations are improvised compositions that stem from a conceptual framework for each band member to interpret, which is then transformed into a contemporary musical immersion for the audience. Each successive grouping of MIYUMI Project musicians over the past two decades have contributed to the unique blending of modern application with traditional sensibility. The final result is a continuous evolution of a “live and raw” musical happening. This evening will feature members from the current roster of the MIYUMI Project including: Mwata Bowden, Edward Wilkerson Jr., Jamie Kempkers, Kioto Aoki, and special guests. Tatsu Aoki teaches experimental filmmaking at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He heads the non-profit Asian Improv aRts Midwest, managing classes in Japanese taiko and shamisen. For decades, he has been a leading member of Chicago’s jazz and experimental music scenes, leading his own groups including MIYUMI Project, Bass Dreams minus B, Trio WAZ, and collaborating with legendary performers such as Fred Anderson, Hamid Drake, Mwata Bowden, Edward Wilkerson Jr., Michael Zerang and Nicole Mitchell.

For over a decade, Da Wei Wang has been a veteran guitar hawk of the Chicago avant-rock scene. He is best known for his work in the legendary industrial-gospel-punk band, Ono. He is also an improviser in Street Tentacle and the defunct Suckling Pigs. He has toured throughout the United States and internationally to disseminate the hymns of experimental guitar music. Da Wei’s fractured, atonal guitar style spans from dada funk to existential doom to ambient raga. He applies extended techniques and tools on his guitar to conjure dense, textured landscapes. His solo guitar work is like a storm cloud whose gaseous firmament is carpeted with hoary sprouts and dust geysers.

$15 – Tickets Available at the Door