“Impres­sively clear, inven­tive and com­pelling…”
– George Grella, Big City Blog

Douglas Detrick’s AnyWhen Ensemble — We believe in the unexpected. Our signature instrumentation sets us apart, but we make our real impact through bold new compositions that integrate chamber music conception with jazz spontaneity. We believe that great music can happen anywhere, anyhow, anywhy, and anywhen — ours is fitting music for this bright and rushing world.

The AnyWhen Ensemble was awarded the New Jazz Works and Presenting Jazz grant from Chamber Music America in 2011. This extremely competitive grant, attracting over 250 applicants every year, commissioned a new work by Detrick called The Bright and Rushing World, an ambitious addition to this singular composer’s list of accomplishments. A recording of this work will be released in 2014 on Parma Recordings.

The group has performed at the Jazz Gallery and the Stone in New York, and on festivals including the Festival of New Trumpet Music curated by Dave Douglas, and the Is That Jazz? Festival in Seattle, WA curated by Tom Baker. The group has also performed and given master classes at colleges across the country including Cornish College of the Arts, University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, University of Oregon, and Willamette University.

Albums by AnyWhen Ensemble

Praise For AnyWhen Ensemble

“Another remark­able record, set for release some­time in the spring of this year. This is a through-composed suite from Det­rick, who plays trum­pet, that reaches back sixty years to the noble fail­ure that was Third Stream Music. But rather than try­ing to inte­grate post-romantic clas­si­cal music with­out any ground­ing in coun­ter­point or struc­tural harmony—as was the style—Detrick thinks lyri­cal and poly­phon­i­cally. The voices, includ­ing sax, cello and bas­soon, move along in homophony and hocket. The con­cept is com­po­si­tional, the jazz is actu­ally min­i­mal and comes through in artic­u­la­tion and through some of Ryan Biesack’s drum­ming. The writ­ing itself is impres­sively clear, inven­tive and com­pelling.” (full article)

-George Grella, Big City Blog, 2.4.14

“Perhaps Gunther Schuller’s “third stream” never gained much currency with either listeners or musicians, because of the extreme demands it placed on musicians to be equally conversant in two traditions, jazz and classical music. Douglas Detrick and the Anywhen Ensemble are one of the few ensembles performing today that can move effortlessly between the worlds of traditional, through-composed, chamber music and creative improvisation. In a world where iTunes and “shuffle” have all but obliterated the traditional boundaries that defined musical genres, the music of the Anywhen Ensemble connected with our students in a way that other ensembles, more bound to traditional conventions, will never achieve. Douglas Detrick’s compositions are at once evocative yet intellectually rigorous, conveying his sensual aesthetic with astonishing accuracy, his sonic palette exquisitely tailored to the resources available to him in the ensemble.”

-Kent Deveraux, Chair, Music Department, Cornish College of the Arts

“One of the more promising updaters of what composer, classical musician and jazzer Gunther Schuller termed Third Stream music half a century ago is the young University of Oregon-trained trumpeter composer Douglas Detrick, who brings his AnyWhen Ensemble back to Oregon from his current New York home.” (full article)

– Brett Campbell, Oregon Arts Watch, 2.1.13

“Among successful mergers, we can now count the AnyWhen Ensemble, a quintet that Douglas Detrick brought together to perform his finely crafted compositions. AnyWhen creates nuanced, assured, work that combines the best of its sources. From jazz, the five musicians draw quick-witted flexibility and response—and swing, too, where indicated. At the same time, Detrick’s mature compositions elicit from his ensemble mates refined skills of technique and expression. Those provide the musicians with many resources—and perspectives—that are available to few jazz players.” (full article)

-Peter Monaghan, Cornish Music Series, 1.9.13

‘Rivers Music’ is thought music rendered as stream-of-conscious expression. It is not totally free, but not totally tethered either. Detrick sets up his scaffolding and then allows broad latitude to the rest of the quintet to fill in the spaces, which they do, collectively and alone, with intelligence and warmth.” (full article)

-C. Michael Bailey, All About Jazz, 2.8.2011

Biographies

Douglas Detrick is a Portland, Oregon-based composer and trumpet player. Equally at home as a performer and a composer, he is a versatile and eclectic musician establishing his reputation as an innovator in jazz, chamber music, electronic music and improvised music. AnyWhen Ensemble is his primary musical project, but his music has also been performed by the NOW Ensemble, the Meridian Arts Ensemble, and Brian McWhorter’s Beta Collide, and recently conducted the Cherry Blossom Arts Orchestra in his Downbeat Student Music Award-Winning arrangement of Duke Ellington’s Single Petal of a Rose.

Hashem Assadullahi is a saxophonist, bandleader and music educator in New York City. Hashem has performed music ranging from the big band repertoire of the swing era, to straight-ahead styles, to contemporary projects performing the works of Ornette Coleman, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, John Zorn, and Tim Berne. In 2008 Hashem formed his Quintet, featuring some of the best musicians in the Pacific North West, along with trumpet icon Ron Miles. The group has since expanded to a sextet and has recorded two albums: Strange Neighbor (8bells, 014) and Pieces (OA2 records). Hashem has lead groups featuring some the world’s greatest talents in Jazz, including Alan Ferber, Ben Monder, Mark Ferber, and Rich Perry. In addition to performing, he has held positions teaching music courses and directing numerous ensembles at various institutions including Mahidol University in Salaya, Thailand, Lane Community College, and the University of Oregon.

Praised for her imaginative and inspired performances, American cellist and viola da gamba player Shirley Hunt embraces life as a soloist and collaborator dedicated to the performance of historical and contemporary art music.  She performs extensively with the nation’s leading period instrument ensembles and has been featured as a soloist at the Museum of Jurassic Technology, the Berkeley Early Music Festival, and the Banff Centre for the Arts.  She holds degrees from Northwestern University and the University of Southen California, and has served on the faculty of California Institute of the Arts.  Current collaborative projects include Bradamante, a baroque cello duo with Canadian cellist Elinor Frey; Douglas Detrick’s AnyWhen Ensemble, a chamber-jazz quintet based in Portland, Oregon; and Sonnambula, a consort of viols based in New York City.  Ms. Hunt plans to release the first volume of her complete recording of the cello suites and viola da gamba sonatas of J.S. Bach in early 2014.

University of Oregon bassoon professor Steve Vacchi enjoys performing and teaching a wide variety of repertoire from the newest experimental pieces to early music on historical bassoons. He studied at the Eastman School of Music, Yale, The Hartt School, and Louisiana State University, and has performed in 23 countries throughout Europe, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East, and the Caribbean. A member of the Oregon Ballet Theatre, Oregon Wind Quintet, Oregon Bach Festival, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music (CA), and Music on the Hill (RI), Vacchi has also performed with many orchestras throughout the United States and abroad.

Ryan Biesack holds a Bachelors of Music from The University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, and a Masters of Music in Jazz Performance from The University of Oregon. He currently is an Instructor of Music at both Willamette University and Oregon State University. In demand as performer throughout the Pacific Northwest and Midwest, Ryan maintains an active performing career equally spanning the jazz, rock, and new music worlds. His past tours have included a year in India, several countries in western Europe, and continued collaborations with artists from around the globe.

Past Performances

  • 3.8.14 – Neighborhood Church of Greenwich Village, New York, NY
  • 3.7.14 – Adelphi University, Garden City, NY
  • 1.17.14 – Rubin Museum of Art, New York, NY
  • 11.9.13 – Center For New Music, San Francisco, CA
  • 11.8.13 – Head-Royce School, Oakland, CA (Story Concert)
  • 3.23.13 – Surplus of Options, Chicago, IL
  • 3.22.13 – Electric Earth Cafe, Madison WI
  • 3.21.13 – University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, Stevens Point, WI (and masterclass)
  • 2.1.13 – Cornish College of the Arts, Cornish Music Series, Seattle, WA (and masterclass)
  • 2.2.13 – Community Music Center, Portland, OR
  • 2.3.13 – The Jazz Station, Eugene, OR
  • 9.14.12 – The PAC House Theatre, New Rochelle, NY
  • 9.13.12 – The Jazz Gallery, Festival of New Trumpet Music, New York, NY  (and masterclass)
  • 1.28.11 – Is That Jazz? Festival, Seattle, WA
  • 1.31.11 – University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
  • 2.1.11 – Mission Theatre, Portland, OR (with Ben Darwish, piano)
  • 4.1.10 – The Stone, New York, NY
  • 4.8.10 – Willamette University, Salem, OR  (and masterclass)
  • 4.9.10 – DIVA Arts Center, Eugene, OR
  • 4.10.10 – Community Music Center, Portland, OR
  • 8.26.09 – South Pasadena Music Center, South Pasadena, CA
  • 8.27.09 – University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
  • 8.28.09 – Community Music Center, Portland, OR
  • 8.29.09 – Wayward Music Series, Good Shepherd Chapel, Seattle, WA (with Wayne Horvitz, piano)
  • 5.25.08 – University of Oregon, Eugene, OR (with Ben Monder, guitar)
  • 4.20.08 – University of Oregon, Eugene, OR