| thollem
mcdonas San Francisco Bay Area composer/pianist/vocalist, has enjoyed success in a wide variety of musical situations and his travels as a performer have covered much of the North American Continent and some in Europe. He has performed extensively as a soloist as well with groups. He is a founding member of several innovative ensembles including: ‘The Hundredth Monkey Generation’, ‘Monk and Cage’, and ‘Asterisk* Movement and Sound’. He was commissioned by ‘The Limon Dance Company’ for a large scale composition in commemoration of their 50th year anniversary. He is responsible, in full or in part, for many albums of original music. Currently he is performing as a soloist, with Thollem/Rivera, with the amino trio, developing a participatory sound experience called the MakeSoundArium, And scoring a play about Pavel Florensky, an influential Communist era russian scientist and the gulag where he was eventually executed. | "some of the most creative stuff I’ve ever heard." – Alisa Clancy, KCSM
| rick
rivera During his 5-year apprenticeship with Bob Gullotti, Rick performed at the Willow Jazz Club, Wally’s and Berklee College of Music and was a first-call session drummer for some of Boston’s finest musician’s, including Jane Wang, John Aruda, Jeff Rorback and Russell Fortunato. After completing his studies with Bob, Rick went on to pursue jazz across two continents, teaching and performing in Boston, Hawaii, and Japan. While in Japan, Rick appeared at many venues such as Body and Soul, Live Inn Pier and Shinjuku Pit Inn. He co-led the Monk Tribute Band, alongside Natori Toshihiko, and powered the Mineko Ogata Trio and Hisashi Nakajima Quartet with his traditional and experimental jazz drumming. Now a resident of the Bay Area, Rick continues his pursuit of jazz and experimental music with top musicians in the Bay Area including as the regular drummer for the house jazz band at Cafe VanKleef, with the eclectic jazz group Theloni On Wry, and as a sideman for other Bay Area Groups. |