Two pioneering saxophonists from opposite sides of the Atlantic meet to perform solos and duos, and exchange sociopolitical thoughts on the evolution of improvisation over their long and colorful careers.
Michel Doneda (b. 1954) has developed one of the most extensive musical vocabularies in free improvisation. A specialist of the soprano saxophone, he has gradually moved from left-field jazz to the fringes of free improvisation ever since he began to lead his own sessions in the early 1980s. His playing can be at turns lyrical, playful, or raucous, and can switch from the liveliness of street melodies to circular breathing, microscopic sounds, or shrieking outbursts. His most frequent recording and performing partners over the years have included singer Beñat Achiary, percussionist Lê Quan Ninh, hurdy-gurdy player Dominique Regef, bassist Barre Phillips and most recently with a younger generation of performers such as Alessandro Bosetti, Christian Wolfarth, Jonas Kocher and Nils Ostendorf.
After teaching at Temple University in the 1960s and leaving academia in the early 1970s to engage in radical politics and community organizing, Jack Wright has been a full-time improvising saxophonist since 1979. Through years of near constant touring, often performing for audiences in cities and towns where improvised music had never before been heard, he came to be regarded as something of an underground legend.
Today Wright tours frequently in Europe and North America. His vast list of collaborators includes William Parker, Axel Dorner, Michel Doneda, Andrea Neumann, Denman Maroney, and Bhob Rainey. He has made over 40recordings (many published on his own Spring Garden label), performed in over 20 countries, and written for journals such as Improjazz (France) and Signal to Noise (US), as well as his own website.