WILLIAM HOOKER is a percussionist at the heart of New York City’s storied avant-garde underground.  Taken as a whole, his work reflects a lifelong commitment to advancing and evolving the historical continuum of jazz, while navigating a myriad of creative trajectories through new music.  His discography spans more than 30 years, and boasts collaborations with David S. Ware, Andrea Parkins, Thurston Moore, Billy Bang, Lee Ranaldo, Roy Campbell Jr, David Murray, Elliott Sharp, Alan Licht, Nels Cline, William Parker, and many more.  Each collaboration has been marked by a serious investigation of his compositional agenda, and the science of the modern drum kit.  Hooker brings dramatic tension and human warmth to avant-garde  jazz.  Over the past three years, he has become progressively active throughout the Midwestern USA, while fostering an ongoing collaboration with Ohio-based multi-instrumentalist Edward Ricart.

Like Hooker, Ricart’s work cuts a wide swath through a diverse range of the creative contemporary music underbelly, including the avant-rock power trio Hyrrokkin; free jazz/noise rock quartet Haitian Rail; free-rock duo Matta Gawa; and the Edward Ricart Quartet (alongside Herb Robertson, Jason Ajemian, and Andrew Barker), as well as collaborations with Marshall Allen, Merzbow, Peter Brotzmann, Paul Dunmall, Andrea Parkins, Rhys Chatham, Ches Smith, Travis Laplante, and members of the rock groups Black Flag, Fugazi, Bardo Pond, and Tortoise, among many others… As curator of New Atlantis Records, he has played an active role in nurturing a new community around the music, transcending the aesthetic constraints of experimental jazz, creative rock, and more

In this most recent iteration of the William Hooker Trio, Hooker has enlisted bassist Luke Stewart, a rising voice in Washington DC’s independent music community, and a frequent collaborator of trumpeters Jaimie Branch and Lewis ‘Flip’ Barnes, saxophonists James Brandon Lewis and Ras Moshe, electric guitarist Anthony Pirog, and many more.  This unit is poised to offer new points of entry to Hooker’s free-ranging aesthetic, marrying his bounding, propulsive rhythms and masterful technique to the angularity, energy, and electric backbone on supply from Stewart and Ricart.

Listen to A Postcard from the Road by William Hooker Strings 3, a collaboration between Hooker, Ricart, and guitarist Dave Ross, here: https://newatlantisrecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-postcard-from-the-road.

Brooklyn based violinist, composer, and software engineer CHRISTOPHER TIGNOR is best known for his work through his bands Slow Six, Wires.Under.Tension and as a composer for forward­-thinking classical ensembles over the last 15 years. Tignor’s emotionally charged scores are built from layered strings, percussion, and live electronics and live neatly between worlds, performed around the world at venues ranging from the rock clubs of South by Southwest to Carnegie Hall. His 7 LP’s are available from the Western Vinyl and New Albion record labels and compilation records featuring Tignor’s work for others are available through In a Circle and GPR records including music for the renown Brooklyn Rider string quartet and A Far Cry string orchestra. As a string arranger, Tignor has worked with This Will Destroy You, Lymbyc Systym, and several other bands at the boundaries popular music. Several of his live processing software instruments are available from his website: wiresundertension.com. You can stream his entire discography here: https://christophertignor.bandcamp.com/.

As an accomplished 12-string guitarist/composer, ALEXANDER TURNQUIST was naturally alarmed when the ulnar nerve in his left hand seized up in 2013, but after a surgical procedure he gratefully started the process of learning to play guitar again. His recovery was cut short when not long after the surgery he was hospitalized with meningitis. Though his recovery is ongoing, and he continues to struggle with a weakened immune system and memory loss, he was inspired to soldier on, rather than being deterred by his physical struggles. Turnquist’s latest full-length Flying Fantasy confirms the idea that out of great hardship can come great art. As he wrote the material for the new album it became clear that his sensitivity had sharpened, his empathy magnified, and his sense of purpose blossomed. The unfortunate circumstances he endured ostensibly forced his metamorphosis from a remarkable guitar player to a truly great composer. Much like the butterflies that adorn the album cover, he seems to have changed form and taken flight.

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