Avant Music News

From Philly’s Bowerbird:

THE MEICHT GROUP
DOUBLE CLUTCH
@ Community Education Center
(CEC) [ website ]
3500 Lancaster Avenue
Philadelphia, PA[ directions ]
9:00pm, $5-$10 sliding scale

THE MEICHT GROUP
Brendan Dougherty : drums
Aaron Meicht : trumpet
Seth Meicht : saxophones

The members joined together in 1997 in Philadelphia to present new music. Early albums exhibited a great deal of composed material combined with expansive improvisations. Loud Like Hemlocks, however, saw the Group move into a purly free method of improvisation in order to realize the music. All the music was engineered by George Whittam and his ears can certainly be said to have assisted in the shaping of the sound. The first two albums also featured guitarist Jameison Ledonio, a co-founder of the Group.

Brendan was a founding member of the Meicht Group in 1998. The group performed a blend of composition of improvisation at many venues across the east coast, holding a regular gig at the Knitting Factory. The group collaborated and performed with such artists as Bobby Zankel, Toshi Makihara, Todd Margasak and Bhob Rainey. In 2001, The Meicht Group relocated to Paris during their involvement with Le Centre Création Musicale Iannis Xenakis (CCMIX). While in Paris the group collaborated with many performers and composers and began incorporating more electronic music into their performances.

Seth Meicht was born in 1976 and grew up in the Philadelphia area. He studied saxophone at the University of the Arts and studied privately with Ron Kerber, David Murray, Odean Pope, and Ben Schachter.Seth leads his own trio as well as being a founding member of The Meicht Group and The Sepia Trio. The Meicht Group garnered critical acclaim for the recordings Dig the Sound Live (2000) and Loud Like Hemlocks (2001) which were released on Scrapple Records. The Sepia Trio’s newest release is on Utech Records and is entitled cleft. The Seth Meicht Trio has just released its debut CD on Cadence Jazz Records (CJR1196) and, adding Matt Bauder, has released Illumine on C.I.M.P. (#350).Seth has shared the stage with such luminaries as Michael Brecker, James Carter, Ravi Coltrane, Byard Lancaster, Prince Lasha, Joe Lavano, David Murray, Odean Pope, and Bobby Zankel. Seth is a member of the Odean Pope Saxophone Choir and also the Lars Halle Jazz Orchestra.
DOUBLE CLUTCH
Todd Margasak - cornet
Dan Blacksberg - trombone
Mike Szekely - percussion
Toshi Makihara - percussion

Prior to the introduction of the synchromesh gearbox, back in the days when a car was a seat bolted atop a
roaring engine and man and machine were united free from mechanical and digital mediation, a special
music filled the highways and byways of this great country. That music was the whir and mesh of the
Double-Clutch. Now as the seas rise with ice-melt and the ski slopes lie bald in the winter sunlight, four
men have ditched their jalopies and transposed that old-time song into a creative, musical format. Hear
Todd Margasak (cornet), Dan Blacksberg (trombone), Michael Szekely (drums, percussion), Toshi
Makihara (drums, percussion), accelerate, decelerate, idle, depress the clutch and hit the throttle in
improvised mini-symphonies. Thrill in the race and delight in the moments of failure, when the battery
and horns fail to mesh and the stage reverberates with the grind and crash of a Double-clutch clinker.

Todd Margasak (cornet) -
Hailing from Philadelphia, cornetist Todd Margasak spent the formative years of his musical life in
Chicago, as a student of the late A.A.C.M. trumpeter Ameen Muhammad and as a part of the then-
burgeoning Northside scene championed by Ken Vandermark. He currently resides in Philadelphia,
where he is a member of Sonic Liberation Front, a frequent collaborator with percussionist Toshi
Makihara, and a member of San Francisco-based reedist Scott Rosenberg’s Red. Todd appears on
recordings on the New World, Cadence, CIMP, Truck Stop and 482 Music labels.

Dan Blacksberg (trombone)
Dan Blacksberg is a trombonist who is working to expand the range of the trombone in jazz and
improvised music. A native and resident of Philadelphia, he has been seen all around town with such local
musicians as Jack Wright, Toshi Makihara, and with Bobby Zankel’s Warriors of the Wonderful Sound.
He has appeared in concerts produced by Bowerbird and the Ars Nova Workshop. In addition, Dan has
performed with Anthony Braxton (the premiere of Composition 19 for 100 tubas), Taylor Ho Bynum, Joe
Morris, Mike Pride, Nate Wooley, Katt Hernandez and Joe Maneri in many venues in New York and
Boston.

Michael Szekely (drums, percussion)
Michael Szekely studied jazz at the Hartt School of Music (Hartford) led by the late saxophonist Jackie
McLean. He also studied percussion with drum master Milford Graves at Bennington College. Since 1993,
Michael has co-led various projects with saxophonist Allen Livermore, resulting in two recordings: Feet
Music’s “Assertions & sketches” (Chroma Independent Media, 1995) and the ALMS Trio’s “Advocates”
(Eighth Nerve Records, 2005). The Philadelphia-based Trio Rhizome (with Seth Meicht and Matt Engle)
was formed in 2005 and has performed at various local venues. Michael has also collaborated with
Anthony Braxton, Stephen Haynes, Taylor Ho Bynum, and Toshi Makihara. He also teaches and writes
on philosophy, especially aesthetics and the philosophy of music.

Toshi Makihara (drums, percussion)
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.