Douglas Detrick

AnyWhen Ensemble plays "Boldly Launched Upon the Deep" @ First Presbyterian Church, Portland, OR
2016-03-06 14:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | First Presbyterian Church, 1200 SW Alder , Portland, OR, 97205, United States
Part of the Celebration Works Concert series. For more information about the piece, see here.

Tale in the Telling with Kela Parker @ Outset Series, Turn Turn Turn
2016-05-04 20:00 | Turn Turn Turn, 8 NE Killingsworth St., Portland, 97211, United States

Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble with Holland Andrews
2016-06-03 20:00 | Disjecta, 8371 N Interstate Ave, Portland, OR, 97217, United States

Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble with George Colligan @ Montavilla Jazz Festival
2016-08-13 20:00 | Portland Metro Arts, 9003 SE Stark St, Portland, OR, 97216, United States

Tale in the Telling at Turn Turn Turn
2016-09-18 19:00 | Turn Turn Turn, 8 NE Killingsworth St., Portland, 97211, United States

Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble @ The Old Church
2016-10-29 20:00 | The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th Ave, , Portland, OR, 97201, United States

With Dialectical Imagination @ Redeemer Lutheran
2016-11-12 20:00

Roundrobin Improv set @ Improv Summit of Portland
2017-06-30 23:00

Extradition Concert Series
2017-07-22 19:30 - 21:30 | Leaven Community Center, 5431 NE 20th Ave @ Killingsworth, Portland, OR, United States
The Extradition Series 2017 Summer Concert
July 22nd, 2017 — 7pm
$5-15, sliding scale
Leaven Community Center
5431 NE 20th Ave, Portland, OR
The Extradition Series 2017 Summer Concert will take place on Saturday, July 22, at Leaven Community Center in NE Portland. The concert will include seven intimate works of mostly 21st-century experimental music, performed by a cast of outstanding regional musicians:
> Samuel Vriezen, “The Weather Riots” (2002): Written for two or more high-pitched instruments, this piece by Dutch composer Vriezen allows each performer to construct his or her own score from the same set of parts, selecting among melodic fragments that can be combined in many ways. The piece will be performed by Lee Elderton (clarinet), Catherine Lee (oboe), and Matt Carlson (piano).
> Giacinto Scelsi, “Ko Tha” (1967): For this solo work, the guitar is treated as a percussion instrument, played with a series of complex rhythms and ringing tones. This performance will feature guitarist Doug Theriault on electric guitars, a break from tradition for this typically acoustic piece.
> Nomi Epstein, “Combine, Juxtapose, Delayed Overlap” (2013): A work for four or more instruments of any variety, each of them limited to three sounds apiece. The title conveys the piece’s entire structure, with musicians playing their sounds either in harmony, following directly one after the other, or overlapping the last seconds of the musician that precedes them. The order of players shifts continually, creating interest from a limited palate. The piece will be performed by Matt Carlson (electronics), Loren Chasse (percussion), Lee Elderton (soprano sax), Matt Hannafin (percussion), Branic Howard (electronics), and Reed Wallsmith (alto sax).
> Taylor Brook, “Alluvium” (2016): A piece for oboe and pre-recorded sound, based on the concept of microtonal drift, which occurs when modulating to different keys in an extended just-intonation context, causing the tonic to gradually drift away from equal temperament. Over the course of the piece, the tape part plays a series of precisely tuned microtonal modulations that gradually drifts the harmony from an E-flat tonal center to a D tonal center, spiraling through unfamiliar harmonic territory all along the way. The piece will be performed by oboist Catherine Lee, for whom it was written.
> Branic Howard, untitled (2017): A work for oboe and electronics, commissioned and performed by Catherine Lee. More details to come.
> Anastassis Philippakopoulos, “Onissia” (2002) and “Song No. 2” from “Two Piano Pieces 2006–2008”: Two simple, spacious solo works by Greek Wandelweiser composer Philippakopoulos, played sequentially by Jonathan Sielaff (bass clarinet) and Matt Carlson (piano).
The Extradition Series is a quarterly concert series presenting composed and improvised New Music and works from the 20th-century experimental tradition. The series is directed by Matt Hannafin and presented by the Creative Music Guild.
Saturday, July 22, 2017
Doors open at 7pm, music starts at 7:30pm
Leaven Community Center, 5431 NE 20th Ave @ Killingsworth, Portland, OR
Admission $5 – $15 sliding scale
http://www.facebook.com/TheExtraditionSeries
https://youtube.com/c/TheExtraditionSeries
Support

PJCE with Jasnam Daya Singh @ Roaring Rapids
2017-08-16 19:00 - 21:00 | Roaring Rapids, Springfield, Oregon

PJCE with Jasnam Daya Singh @ Montavilla Jazz Festival
2017-08-19 18:00 | Montavilla Jazz Festival

Little One with Dina Maccabee and Stephanie Lavon Trotter
2017-08-31 19:00 - 20:30 | Open Signal, 2766 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Portland, OR, 97212, United States
My new quartet Little One closes this show, supporting Dina Maccabee’s solo viola/voice/electronics CD release tour, Stephanie Lavon Trotter opens.
Dina Maccabee’s solo viola+voice repertoire combines a life-long pursuit of classical, folk, and improvisatory approaches to her instrument; poignant songwriting; and a talent for defying expectations. Electronic processing has added depth, space, and complexity to her already warm and inviting string and vocal sounds. Recently the violist/backup vocalist for internationally renowned artist Julia Holter, Dina has also toured extensively since 2003.
It’ll sound kinda like this:

Listen to a track from the new solo CD HERE! http://overblown.co.uk/dina-maccabee-5-things-that-inspired-go-ahead/
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Stephanie Lavon Trotter uses her voice and Sound as a foundation for creating performative installations. She is reclaiming Opera; forming its unknown contours into something her own. Stephanie composes, and improvises with electronics and acoustically; in ensembles and solo. stephanielavontrotter.com
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Little One explores Americana, jazz, and chamber music through original works that aren’t afraid to share closely-held truths. The group’s first recording features songs dedicated to bandleader Douglas Detrick’s family—it is the most personal project he’s ever tackled, in a long line of intimate work. The quartet’s unconventional instrumentation—Detrick on clawhammer banjo, voice, and trumpet, William Seiji Marsh on guitar, Lauren Elledge on viola, and Andy Rayborn on bass clarinet—gives the group a unique ability to access sounds that no other group can.
$10 at the door

From Maxville to Vanport: Community Input Event
2017-09-26 08:00 - 17:00 | Oregon Historical Society, 1200 SW Park Ave, Portland, OR, 97205, United States
A community discussion event produced by the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble in partnership with Oregon Historical Society, Vanport Mosaic, and Maxville Heritage. Generously funded by the Oregon Community Foundation. The first event of our “From Maxville to Vanport” project!

From Maxville to Vanport: Community Input Event - Portland
2017-09-30 15:00 - 16:30 | Oregon Historical Society, 1200 SW Park Ave, Portland, OR, 97205, United States
The Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble (PJCE) is creating a new piece of community-guided music, “From Maxville to Vanport,” incorporating the stories of two unique towns in Oregon’s history: Maxville and Vanport. The project will culminate in a concert-length composition for the PJCE to be performed May 26 and 27, 2018, as part of the Vanport Festival (May 25–28). Maxville and Vanport both had significant multicultural populations at a time when Oregon was particularly unfriendly to non-white residents, and their histories deserve to be heard and better understood by all Oregonians.

Love Letters: A Violin Recital by Casey Bozell - Community Music Center
2017-10-07 19:00 - 20:30 | Community Music Center, 3350 SE Francis St, Portland, OR, 97202, United States
The wonderful violinist Casey Bozell asked me to write a piece for her recital. “Love Letters” is the theme, with every piece inspired by another violin piece. Instead of writing my own love letter to another violin, I interviewed Casey about a piece that had been important to her, and she told a beautiful story about her experience with the Tchaikovsky violin concerto, and then I edited and scored the interview for solo violin. I can’t wait to hear what she does with it!

Love Letters: A Violin Recital by Casey Bozell - Marylhurst University
2017-10-08 19:00 - 20:30 | Marylhurst University, 17600 Pacific Highway, Marylhurst, OR, 97036, United States

PJCE 10th Anniversary Celebration - Fremont Theatre
2017-10-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Fremont Theater, 2393 NE Fremont St, Portland, OR, 97212, United States
Portland’s only non-profit organization dedicated exclusively to Oregon artists celebrates its tenth anniversary season in a fundraiser and “story-concert” event at the Fremont Theatre.
The Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble is turning ten! Since our first concert in January of 2008, the PJCE has been proving that Oregon jazz artists can make world-class music when the opportunity. On October 20th at the Fremont Theatre, we celebrate this important milestone by telling our story—how artists can build a network of support that allows them to reach new heights of creativity, and connects them to the most important conversations of our time.

From Maxville to Vanport: Community Input Event - Wallowa County
2017-11-04 19:00 - 20:30 | Josephy Center for the Arts, 403 Main St, Joseph, OR, 97846, United States

Little One @ Muddy Rudder with Caleb Paul
2017-11-17 20:00 - 22:00 | Muddy Rudder, 8105 SE 7th Ave, Portland, OR, 97202, United States

Little One @ Turn Turn Turn with Paper Gates and Portland Kora Project
2017-11-20 20:00 - 22:00 | Turn Turn Turn, 8 NE Killingsworth St., Portland, 97211, United States

Detrick/Gamble/Hannafin and Duval/Haning/St. James/DuRoche @ Turn Turn Turn
2017-12-10 20:00 - 22:00 | Turn Turn Turn, 8 NE Killingsworth St., Portland, 97211, United States
From the organizer: Join us for the latest installment of our monthly improvised music series at Turn! Turn! Turn! This one is a doozy, featuring a veritable “who’s who” of the Portland improv scene.
Doug Detrick-trumpet
Mike Gamble-guitar
Matt Hannafin-percussion
PLUS
Dan Duval-guitar
Doug Haning-keyboards
Andre St. James-bass
Tim DuRoche-drums
These are some tasty ensembles, don’t miss out ok?
8pm
$5-$10 cover
21+

CMG Ad-Hoc Improv Night | Outset Series @ Turn Turn Turn
2017-12-20 20:00 | Turn Turn Turn, 8 NE Killingsworth St., Portland, 97211, United States
I’ll be joining a group of improvisers curated by the Creative Music Guild.
From the CMG: Portland musicians participate in a night of music improvisation featuring ad hoc groups created just for the night.
Featuring:
Andy Rayborn
Grant Pierce
Lee Elderton
Tim DuRoche
Doug Detrick
Alissa DuRubeis
Reed Wallsmith
Joe Cuningham
Derek Monypenny
Matt Carlson
Rich Halley
John Savage
TJ Thompson
Noah Bernstein
John Niekrasz
and more….

PJCE with Edna Vazquez @ Old Church, PDX Jazz Festival
2018-02-15 19:30 - 21:00 | The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th Ave, , Portland, OR, 97201, United States

PJCE with Edna Vazquez @ Columbia Center for the Arts
2018-02-17 19:00 - 21:00 | Columbia Center for the Arts, 215 Cascade Ave, Hood River, OR, 97031, United States

PJCE "From Maxville to Vanport" @ Eastern Oregon University
2018-03-02 08:00 - 17:00 | Eastern Oregon University, One University Boulevard, La Grande, OR, 97850, United States
A live performance of the The Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble’s (PJCE) “From Maxville to Vanport” featuring poetry by Renee Mitchell, music by Ezra Weiss, and video by Laura Lo Forti.
This piece of community-guided music incorporates the stories of two unique towns in Oregon’s history, Maxville and Vanport, in songs for Marilyn Keller with our 12-member jazz ensemble. Maxville and Vanport both had significant multicultural populations at a time when Oregon was particularly unfriendly to non-white residents, and their histories deserve to be heard and better understood by all Oregonians.
The Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble is a 12-piece jazz chamber orchestra which commissions and performs original works by its members and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community. The PJCE has received support from the OCF’s 2015 Creative Heights and Small Arts programs, the Regional Arts and Culture Council, and the Oregon Arts Commission. Now in its tenth year, the PJCE has commissioned more than 50 composers, and produced more than 30 concerts of original works.

Little One and Anna Fritz @ The Firkin
2018-03-04 20:00 - 22:00 | Firkin Tavern, 1937 SE 11th Ave, Portland, OR, 97214, United States
A double bill show with the wonderful Anna Fritz!
Cello-wielding folksinger Anna Fritz plays songs that crack you open and heal you. She creates a musical alchemy of cello and voice, strumming the cello like a guitar and playing beautiful melodies with the bow as she sings. Her songs boldly dig into themes of colonization, climate change, racial justice, gender, spirituality, and connection to the natural world. Like the great folksingers of previous generations, Anna is a catalyst for people to sing together. Her songs are infectious and easy to learn, imbued with a sense of timelessness as if they’ve been sung for generations. Her disarming, gentle nature and powerful presence gets unlikely crowds of people singing together from town halls to night clubs.
Listeners will find plenty of rockstar cred in this folksinger’s past. Anna Fritz is a sought after cellist with a 15 year tenure spanning the world of classical music and Portland, Oregon’s indie rock scene. She toured nationally with Portland Cello Project for seven years and can be heard on albums from My Morning Jacket, Band of Horses, The Decemberists, case/lang/veirs, and the most recent release from First Aid Kit. As a solo artist, Anna has independently released three albums and performed for audiences in more than 50 venues in seven states.
http://annafritz.com/

Creative Music Guild Round Robin Improv Night
2018-04-04 20:00 | Turn Turn Turn, 8 NE Killingsworth St., Portland, 97211, United States
I’ll be improvising on the trumpet with a bunch of other musicians, round robin style!

PJCE "From Maxille to Vanport" @ Eastern Oregon University
2018-04-12 19:30 | Eastern Oregon University, One University Boulevard, La Grande, OR, 97850, United States
(PORTLAND, OR)—Supported by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program, the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble’s (PJCE’s) concert of original songs and film shorts inspired by the stories of the multicultural populations of Maxville and Vanport, Oregon debuts in April 12–14, 2018 in La Grande, Enterprise, and Baker City, Oregon and May 26, 2018 at Portland, Oregon’s Vanport Mosaic Festival. This collection of songs and short films produced by composer Ezra Weiss with writer and speaker S. Renee Mitchell providing lyrics and vocalist Marilyn Keller performing with the PJCE accompanied by shorts by filmmaker Kalimah Abioto to celebrate the shared history of African-American Oregonians, focusing on two towns that represent distinctive viewpoints of the state’s under-discussed Black history. Tickets to PCJE’s concerts are on sale now and are available online at pjce.org.
It isn’t widely known, but among the homesteaders, loggers, ranchers, and other hardy folks who were Oregon’s early settlers, African-Americans played vital roles. Songs like “Oregon Sounds Like Freedom” weigh the relative freedom of living Oregon against the hardship of staying in the Jim Crow South. MAXVILLE TO VANPORT may leave listeners wondering if the dangerous work falling logs in the woods of Wallowa County was worth the pain of leaving one’s birth community.
The project invites the audience to ponder these questions through joyful music composed by Portland jazz composer and pianist Ezra Weiss. Writer, speaker, and self-styled creative revolutionist S. Renee Mitchell has written lyrics featuring legendary jazz vocalist Marilyn Keller. The songs will be interspersed with two short films by Kalimah Abioto focused on the work that women did in Maxville, and a young boy playing in an imagined Vanport who encounters rushing waters that foreshadow the flood that destroyed the city in 1948.
PJCE Executive Director Douglas Detrick serves as artistic director for the project which employs a five-member creative team aiming to speak with the communities that are connected to these stories, not for them. The team drew heavily on records and research of Gwendolyn Trice, Executive Director of Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, whose father worked at Maxville.
MAXVILLE TO VANPORT’s public events are:

April 12, 7:30 pm, Groth Hall, Eastern Oregon University, One University Boulevard, La Grande, OR 97850 – Concert, Free admission, no ticket required.
April 13, 7 pm, OK Theatre, 208 W Main St, Enterprise, OR 97828 – $20 general, $15 senior & veteran, $10 students, Tickets available online.
April 14, 5 pm social hour, 6 pm dinner, 7 pm concert, Grand Ballroom, Baker Heritage Museum, 2480 Grove St, Baker City, OR 97814 – $50 includes concert and dinner, tickets available online, or by calling 541-523-5369.
May 26, 7 pm, Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR 97211 – Concert, $35 preferred GA, $25 general, $20 senior & veteran, $5 Arts For All tickets available at the door day of show only. Tickets available online or by calling 503-764-4131.

Other events not open to the public include:

April 12, 1 pm, OK Theatre, Enterprise, OR | Concert for Wallowa County students
April 13, 1–2 pm, Josephy Center, Joseph, OR | Improvised performances for art students

The year-long project that began with community discussion events in Portland and Joseph in the fall culminates in a performance tour to La Grande, Enterprise, and Baker City, as well as a studio album, a short documentary film and a performance in Portland in conjunction with the Vanport Mosaic. The project was generously funded by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program and was sponsored by the Oregon Historical Society. Project partners include Vanport Mosaic, Josephy Center for the Arts, Crossroads Carnegie Center for the Arts, Eastern Oregon University, and the OK Theatre.
ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM
Lyricist: S. Renee Mitchell is an award-winning writer and published author, multimedia artist, social justice advocate, and teacher/facilitator. Mitchell’s more than 25 years of journalism experience has groomed her exceptional communication, analytical and grant-writing skills, yet, Renee is also a community-grounded visionary. She is the 2015 Yolanda D. King Drum Major Award winner in recognition of dedicated community service; was the librettist of “Sherman: A Jazz Opera;” has published a novel, children’s story, and several small-press zines; and teaches writing to children as the leader of the Saturday Academy Social Justice Camp as well as many other Portland institutions.
Composer: Ezra Weiss has recorded seven albums as a bandleader, most recently “Before You Know It,” recorded live Portland, and composed songs and book for Northwest Children’s Theatre’s “Alice in Wonderland.” He has led his own bands at major venues throughout the U.S., including several week-long engagements at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club. He has won the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award three times and has been listed in DownBeat Critics Polls in the Rising Star Arranger category. He currently teaches at Portland State University and holds a Bachelors in Jazz Composition from the Oberlin Conservatory and a Masters in Jazz Piano from Queens College.
Vocalist: Marilyn Keller is a singer who performs a diverse range of jazz, gospel, and musical theatre throughout Oregon and abroad and was voted into Oregon Jazz Society’s Hall of Fame 2016. She joined Black Swan Classic Jazz Band in 1997 and has toured throughout Europe and the US. She has also remained active in a wide variety of other performance ensembles and styles: The Don Latarski Group, Darrell Grant’s The Territory, Thara Memory, Tall Jazz, Disciples in Song, and the Augustana Jazz Quartet among many others.
Filmmaker: A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Kalimah Abioto began playing the drums at age three, writing in elementary school, and makings films in high school centered around dreams, sexuality, and the nexus between Black people, humans, freedom, and the natural-spirit worlds. She received her BA in film and video from Hollins University and is a co-creator, along with her four sisters of The People Could Fly Project, a multimedia project documenting the dreams and stories of people in the African Diaspora. Abioto has worked with different artists and groups including Afropop Worldwide, Holy Mojo, The Black Portlanders, Spirit Law Center, Diamond Law, and others that value life force. She was a 2017 Artist in Residence at Open Signal.
Historian: Gwendolyn Trice founded Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, a non-profit cultural heritage center in Wallowa County, Oregon and currently serves as its Executive Director. She also provided support and information for OPB’s 2009 video Logger’s Daughter. Currently, she serves on the Oregon Commission on Black Affairs and is part of a Leadership cohort for the Center for Diversity and Environment.
ABOUT PJCE
The Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble is a 12-piece jazz ensemble which commissions and performs original works by its members and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and beyond. It is our mission to operate a large musical ensemble, to commission and perform original works by members of the ensemble and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and elsewhere, to act as a forum for the development and presentation of works for large ensemble by established and emerging jazz composers, and to engage and enrich community awareness and appreciation of contemporary music.
PJCE’s guiding principles are to:

Enrich the first uniquely American art form.
Cultivate the development of new music.
Encourage and promote established and emerging living composers.
Provide a forum for experimentation without commercial concern.
Disseminate contemporary American music through publicity, recordings, newsletters and affordable concerts in varied venues to promote jazz appreciation both locally and nationally.
Collaborate with artists, other nonprofits, and creative organizations in multiple disciplines.
Foster relationships with educational institutions.

###

PJCE "From Maxille to Vanport" @ OK Theater
2018-04-13 08:00 - 17:00
From Maxville to Vanport: A Celebration of Oregon’s Black History
World-premiere performances of songs and two short films for Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble with vocalist Marilyn Keller, and workshops across the state.
(PORTLAND, OR)—Supported by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program, the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble’s (PJCE’s) concert of original songs and film shorts inspired by the stories of the multicultural populations of Maxville and Vanport, Oregon debuts in April 12–14, 2018 in La Grande, Enterprise, and Baker City, Oregon and May 26, 2018 at Portland, Oregon’s Vanport Mosaic Festival. This collection of songs and short films produced by composer Ezra Weiss with writer and speaker S. Renee Mitchell providing lyrics and vocalist Marilyn Keller performing with the PJCE accompanied by shorts by filmmaker Kalimah Abioto to celebrate the shared history of African-American Oregonians, focusing on two towns that represent distinctive viewpoints of the state’s under-discussed Black history. Tickets to PCJE’s concerts are on sale now and are available online at pjce.org.
It isn’t widely known, but among the homesteaders, loggers, ranchers, and other hardy folks who were Oregon’s early settlers, African-Americans played vital roles. Songs like “Oregon Sounds Like Freedom” weigh the relative freedom of living Oregon against the hardship of staying in the Jim Crow South. MAXVILLE TO VANPORT may leave listeners wondering if the dangerous work falling logs in the woods of Wallowa County was worth the pain of leaving one’s birth community.
The project invites the audience to ponder these questions through joyful music composed by Portland jazz composer and pianist Ezra Weiss. Writer, speaker, and self-styled creative revolutionist S. Renee Mitchell has written lyrics featuring legendary jazz vocalist Marilyn Keller. The songs will be interspersed with two short films by Kalimah Abioto focused on the work that women did in Maxville, and a young boy playing in an imagined Vanport who encounters rushing waters that foreshadow the flood that destroyed the city in 1948.
PJCE Executive Director Douglas Detrick serves as artistic director for the project which employs a five-member creative team aiming to speak with the communities that are connected to these stories, not for them. The team drew heavily on records and research of Gwendolyn Trice, Executive Director of Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, whose father worked at Maxville.
MAXVILLE TO VANPORT’s public events are:

April 12, 7:30 pm, Groth Hall, Eastern Oregon University, One University Boulevard, La Grande, OR 97850 – Concert, Free admission, no ticket required.
April 13, 7 pm, OK Theatre, 208 W Main St, Enterprise, OR 97828 – $20 general, $15 senior & veteran, $10 students, Tickets available online.
April 14, 5 pm social hour, 6 pm dinner, 7 pm concert, Grand Ballroom, Baker Heritage Museum, 2480 Grove St, Baker City, OR 97814 – $50 includes concert and dinner, tickets available online, or by calling 541-523-5369.
May 26, 7 pm, Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR 97211 – Concert, $35 preferred GA, $25 general, $20 senior & veteran, $5 Arts For All tickets available at the door day of show only. Tickets available online or by calling 503-764-4131.

Other events not open to the public include:

April 12, 1 pm, OK Theatre, Enterprise, OR | Concert for Wallowa County students
April 13, 1–2 pm, Josephy Center, Joseph, OR | Improvised performances for art students

The year-long project that began with community discussion events in Portland and Joseph in the fall culminates in a performance tour to La Grande, Enterprise, and Baker City, as well as a studio album, a short documentary film and a performance in Portland in conjunction with the Vanport Mosaic. The project was generously funded by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program and was sponsored by the Oregon Historical Society. Project partners include Vanport Mosaic, Josephy Center for the Arts, Crossroads Carnegie Center for the Arts, Eastern Oregon University, and the OK Theatre.
ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM
Lyricist: S. Renee Mitchell is an award-winning writer and published author, multimedia artist, social justice advocate, and teacher/facilitator. Mitchell’s more than 25 years of journalism experience has groomed her exceptional communication, analytical and grant-writing skills, yet, Renee is also a community-grounded visionary. She is the 2015 Yolanda D. King Drum Major Award winner in recognition of dedicated community service; was the librettist of “Sherman: A Jazz Opera;” has published a novel, children’s story, and several small-press zines; and teaches writing to children as the leader of the Saturday Academy Social Justice Camp as well as many other Portland institutions.
Composer: Ezra Weiss has recorded seven albums as a bandleader, most recently “Before You Know It,” recorded live Portland, and composed songs and book for Northwest Children’s Theatre’s “Alice in Wonderland.” He has led his own bands at major venues throughout the U.S., including several week-long engagements at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club. He has won the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award three times and has been listed in DownBeat Critics Polls in the Rising Star Arranger category. He currently teaches at Portland State University and holds a Bachelors in Jazz Composition from the Oberlin Conservatory and a Masters in Jazz Piano from Queens College.
Vocalist: Marilyn Keller is a singer who performs a diverse range of jazz, gospel, and musical theatre throughout Oregon and abroad and was voted into Oregon Jazz Society’s Hall of Fame 2016. She joined Black Swan Classic Jazz Band in 1997 and has toured throughout Europe and the US. She has also remained active in a wide variety of other performance ensembles and styles: The Don Latarski Group, Darrell Grant’s The Territory, Thara Memory, Tall Jazz, Disciples in Song, and the Augustana Jazz Quartet among many others.
Filmmaker: A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Kalimah Abioto began playing the drums at age three, writing in elementary school, and makings films in high school centered around dreams, sexuality, and the nexus between Black people, humans, freedom, and the natural-spirit worlds. She received her BA in film and video from Hollins University and is a co-creator, along with her four sisters of The People Could Fly Project, a multimedia project documenting the dreams and stories of people in the African Diaspora. Abioto has worked with different artists and groups including Afropop Worldwide, Holy Mojo, The Black Portlanders, Spirit Law Center, Diamond Law, and others that value life force. She was a 2017 Artist in Residence at Open Signal.
Historian: Gwendolyn Trice founded Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, a non-profit cultural heritage center in Wallowa County, Oregon and currently serves as its Executive Director. She also provided support and information for OPB’s 2009 video Logger’s Daughter. Currently, she serves on the Oregon Commission on Black Affairs and is part of a Leadership cohort for the Center for Diversity and Environment.
ABOUT PJCE
The Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble is a 12-piece jazz ensemble which commissions and performs original works by its members and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and beyond. It is our mission to operate a large musical ensemble, to commission and perform original works by members of the ensemble and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and elsewhere, to act as a forum for the development and presentation of works for large ensemble by established and emerging jazz composers, and to engage and enrich community awareness and appreciation of contemporary music.
PJCE’s guiding principles are to:

Enrich the first uniquely American art form.
Cultivate the development of new music.
Encourage and promote established and emerging living composers.
Provide a forum for experimentation without commercial concern.
Disseminate contemporary American music through publicity, recordings, newsletters and affordable concerts in varied venues to promote jazz appreciation both locally and nationally.
Collaborate with artists, other nonprofits, and creative organizations in multiple disciplines.
Foster relationships with educational institutions.

###

For updates: Date TBA, Roosevelt High School, Portland, OR | Concert for students

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 3/1/2018
Attn: Portland, Wallowa, Union and Baker Counties arts and entertainment
Douglas Detrick, Executive Director
Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble
503-347-1416 – douglas@pjce.org

From Maxville to Vanport: An inclusive celebration of Oregon’s Black history
Performances and workshops across the state of new songs for 12-member jazz ensemble with vocalist Marilyn Keller, and two short films.
Portland, Oregon: Supported by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program, the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble’s concert of original songs and video inspired by the stories of the multicultural populations of Maxville and Vanport debuts in April and May 2018. This collection of songs and short films celebrates the shared history of Oregonians from the African-American perspective, focusing on two towns that represent important elements of the black experience in this state.
It isn’t widely known, but among the homesteaders, loggers, ranchers and other hardy folks who were Oregon’s early settlers, African-Americans played vital roles. Songs like “Oregon Sounds Like Freedom” weighs the relative freedom of living Oregon against the hardship of staying in the Jim Crow South. But was the dangerous work falling logs in the woods of Wallowa County worth the pain of leaving the community you were born in?
The project invites the audience to ponder these questions through joyful music composed by Ezra Weiss with lyrics by S. Renee Mitchell, featuring vocalist Marilyn Keller. Two short films by Kalimah Abioto with live music from the ensemble focus on the work that women did in Maxville, and a young boy playing in an imagined Vanport who encounters rushing waters that foreshadow the flood that destroyed the city in 1948. PJCE Executive Director Douglas Detrick is Artistic Director.
The public events in the project are as follows:

4/12/18, 7:30 pm, Eastern Oregon University – Concert in Groth Hall. Free admission. One University Boulevard, La Grande, OR 97850-2807.
4/13/18, 7 pm, OK Theater, Enterprise, OR – Concert, $20 general, $15 senior and veteran, $10 students. 208 W Main St, Enterprise, OR 97828
4/14/18, 5 pm social hour, 6 pm dinner, 7 pm concert, Baker Heritage Museum, Grand Ballroom – $50, includes dinner. 2480 Grove St, Baker City, OR 97814.
5/26/18, 7 pm, Alberta Rose Theater, Portland, OR – Concert. $20 general, $15 senior and veteran, $10 students. 3000 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR 97211.

Other events not open to the public include:

4/12/18, 1 pm, OK Theatre, Enterprise, OR – Concert for Wallowa County students
4/13/18, 1-2 pm, Josephy Center, Joseph, OR – Improvised performances for art students.
4/14/18, 2 pm, Baker Heritage Museum, Baker City, OR – Workshop with Baker City High School students

This year-long project, that began with community discussion events in Portland and Joseph in the fall and culminates in a performance tour to La Grande, Enterprise and Baker City, a studio album, a short documentary film and two performances in Portland in conjunction with the Vanport Mosaic. It employs a five-member creative team in a collaborative process that hopes to speak with the communities that are connected to these stories, not for them.
The project was generously funded by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program, and was sponsored by the Oregon Historical Society. Project partners include Vanport Mosaic, Josephy Center for the Arts, Crossroads Carnegie Center for the Arts, Eastern Oregon University, and the OK Theatre.
The Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble is a 12-piece jazz ensemble which commissions and performs original works by its members and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and beyond. It is our mission to operate a large musical ensemble, to commission and perform original works by members of the ensemble and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and elsewhere, to act as a forum for the development and presentation of works for large ensemble by established and emerging jazz composers, and to engage and enrich community awareness and appreciation of contemporary music.

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PJCE "From Maxille to Vanport" @ Baker Heritage Museum
2018-04-14 18:00 | Baker Heritage Museum
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 3/7/2018
Attn: Union and Baker counties, Portland, and Wallowa, arts and entertainment
PJCE CONTACT:
Douglas Detrick, Executive Director, douglas@pjce.org; 503-347-1416
PRESS CONTACT:
Kim Gumbel, Vesperine Works, kim@vespertineworks.com, 713-854-6162

From Maxville to Vanport: A Celebration of Oregon’s Black History
World-premiere performances of songs and two short films for Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble with vocalist Marilyn Keller, and workshops across the state.
(PORTLAND, OR)—Supported by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program, the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble’s (PJCE’s) concert of original songs and film shorts inspired by the stories of the multicultural populations of Maxville and Vanport, Oregon debuts in April 12–14, 2018 in La Grande, Enterprise, and Baker City, Oregon and May 26, 2018 at Portland, Oregon’s Vanport Mosaic Festival. This collection of songs and short films produced by composer Ezra Weiss with writer and speaker S. Renee Mitchell providing lyrics and vocalist Marilyn Keller performing with the PJCE accompanied by shorts by filmmaker Kalimah Abioto to celebrate the shared history of African-American Oregonians, focusing on two towns that represent distinctive viewpoints of the state’s under-discussed Black history. Tickets to PCJE’s concerts are on sale now and are available online at pjce.org.
It isn’t widely known, but among the homesteaders, loggers, ranchers, and other hardy folks who were Oregon’s early settlers, African-Americans played vital roles. Songs like “Oregon Sounds Like Freedom” weigh the relative freedom of living Oregon against the hardship of staying in the Jim Crow South. MAXVILLE TO VANPORT may leave listeners wondering if the dangerous work falling logs in the woods of Wallowa County was worth the pain of leaving one’s birth community.
The project invites the audience to ponder these questions through joyful music composed by Portland jazz composer and pianist Ezra Weiss. Writer, speaker, and self-styled creative revolutionist S. Renee Mitchell has written lyrics featuring legendary jazz vocalist Marilyn Keller. The songs will be interspersed with two short films by Kalimah Abioto focused on the work that women did in Maxville, and a young boy playing in an imagined Vanport who encounters rushing waters that foreshadow the flood that destroyed the city in 1948.
PJCE Executive Director Douglas Detrick serves as artistic director for the project which employs a five-member creative team aiming to speak with the communities that are connected to these stories, not for them. The team drew heavily on records and research of Gwendolyn Trice, Executive Director of Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, whose father worked at Maxville.
MAXVILLE TO VANPORT’s public events are:

April 12, 7:30 pm, Groth Hall, Eastern Oregon University, One University Boulevard, La Grande, OR 97850 – Concert, Free admission, no ticket required.
April 13, 7 pm, OK Theatre, 208 W Main St, Enterprise, OR 97828 – $20 general, $15 senior & veteran, $10 students, Tickets available online.
April 14, 5 pm social hour, 6 pm dinner, 7 pm concert, Grand Ballroom, Baker Heritage Museum, 2480 Grove St, Baker City, OR 97814 – $50 includes concert and dinner, tickets available online, or by calling 541-523-5369.
May 26, 7 pm, Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR 97211 – Concert, $35 preferred GA, $25 general, $20 senior & veteran, $5 Arts For All tickets available at the door day of show only. Tickets available online or by calling 503-764-4131.

Other events not open to the public include:

April 12, 1 pm, OK Theatre, Enterprise, OR | Concert for Wallowa County students
April 13, 1–2 pm, Josephy Center, Joseph, OR | Improvised performances for art students

The year-long project that began with community discussion events in Portland and Joseph in the fall culminates in a performance tour to La Grande, Enterprise, and Baker City, as well as a studio album, a short documentary film and a performance in Portland in conjunction with the Vanport Mosaic. The project was generously funded by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program and was sponsored by the Oregon Historical Society. Project partners include Vanport Mosaic, Josephy Center for the Arts, Crossroads Carnegie Center for the Arts, Eastern Oregon University, and the OK Theatre.
ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM
Lyricist: S. Renee Mitchell is an award-winning writer and published author, multimedia artist, social justice advocate, and teacher/facilitator. Mitchell’s more than 25 years of journalism experience has groomed her exceptional communication, analytical and grant-writing skills, yet, Renee is also a community-grounded visionary. She is the 2015 Yolanda D. King Drum Major Award winner in recognition of dedicated community service; was the librettist of “Sherman: A Jazz Opera;” has published a novel, children’s story, and several small-press zines; and teaches writing to children as the leader of the Saturday Academy Social Justice Camp as well as many other Portland institutions.
Composer: Ezra Weiss has recorded seven albums as a bandleader, most recently “Before You Know It,” recorded live Portland, and composed songs and book for Northwest Children’s Theatre’s “Alice in Wonderland.” He has led his own bands at major venues throughout the U.S., including several week-long engagements at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club. He has won the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award three times and has been listed in DownBeat Critics Polls in the Rising Star Arranger category. He currently teaches at Portland State University and holds a Bachelors in Jazz Composition from the Oberlin Conservatory and a Masters in Jazz Piano from Queens College.
Vocalist: Marilyn Keller is a singer who performs a diverse range of jazz, gospel, and musical theatre throughout Oregon and abroad and was voted into Oregon Jazz Society’s Hall of Fame 2016. She joined Black Swan Classic Jazz Band in 1997 and has toured throughout Europe and the US. She has also remained active in a wide variety of other performance ensembles and styles: The Don Latarski Group, Darrell Grant’s The Territory, Thara Memory, Tall Jazz, Disciples in Song, and the Augustana Jazz Quartet among many others.
Filmmaker: A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Kalimah Abioto began playing the drums at age three, writing in elementary school, and makings films in high school centered around dreams, sexuality, and the nexus between Black people, humans, freedom, and the natural-spirit worlds. She received her BA in film and video from Hollins University and is a co-creator, along with her four sisters of The People Could Fly Project, a multimedia project documenting the dreams and stories of people in the African Diaspora. Abioto has worked with different artists and groups including Afropop Worldwide, Holy Mojo, The Black Portlanders, Spirit Law Center, Diamond Law, and others that value life force. She was a 2017 Artist in Residence at Open Signal.
Historian: Gwendolyn Trice founded Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, a non-profit cultural heritage center in Wallowa County, Oregon and currently serves as its Executive Director. She also provided support and information for OPB’s 2009 video Logger’s Daughter. Currently, she serves on the Oregon Commission on Black Affairs and is part of a Leadership cohort for the Center for Diversity and Environment.
ABOUT PJCE
The Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble is a 12-piece jazz ensemble which commissions and performs original works by its members and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and beyond. It is our mission to operate a large musical ensemble, to commission and perform original works by members of the ensemble and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and elsewhere, to act as a forum for the development and presentation of works for large ensemble by established and emerging jazz composers, and to engage and enrich community awareness and appreciation of contemporary music.
PJCE’s guiding principles are to:

Enrich the first uniquely American art form.
Cultivate the development of new music.
Encourage and promote established and emerging living composers.
Provide a forum for experimentation without commercial concern.
Disseminate contemporary American music through publicity, recordings, newsletters and affordable concerts in varied venues to promote jazz appreciation both locally and nationally.
Collaborate with artists, other nonprofits, and creative organizations in multiple disciplines.
Foster relationships with educational institutions.

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For updates: Date TBA, Roosevelt High School, Portland, OR | Concert for students

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 3/1/2018
Attn: Portland, Wallowa, Union and Baker Counties arts and entertainment
Douglas Detrick, Executive Director
Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble
503-347-1416 – douglas@pjce.org

From Maxville to Vanport: An inclusive celebration of Oregon’s Black history
Performances and workshops across the state of new songs for 12-member jazz ensemble with vocalist Marilyn Keller, and two short films.
Portland, Oregon: Supported by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program, the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble’s concert of original songs and video inspired by the stories of the multicultural populations of Maxville and Vanport debuts in April and May 2018. This collection of songs and short films celebrates the shared history of Oregonians from the African-American perspective, focusing on two towns that represent important elements of the black experience in this state.
It isn’t widely known, but among the homesteaders, loggers, ranchers and other hardy folks who were Oregon’s early settlers, African-Americans played vital roles. Songs like “Oregon Sounds Like Freedom” weighs the relative freedom of living Oregon against the hardship of staying in the Jim Crow South. But was the dangerous work falling logs in the woods of Wallowa County worth the pain of leaving the community you were born in?
The project invites the audience to ponder these questions through joyful music composed by Ezra Weiss with lyrics by S. Renee Mitchell, featuring vocalist Marilyn Keller. Two short films by Kalimah Abioto with live music from the ensemble focus on the work that women did in Maxville, and a young boy playing in an imagined Vanport who encounters rushing waters that foreshadow the flood that destroyed the city in 1948. PJCE Executive Director Douglas Detrick is Artistic Director.
The public events in the project are as follows:

4/12/18, 7:30 pm, Eastern Oregon University – Concert in Groth Hall. Free admission. One University Boulevard, La Grande, OR 97850-2807.
4/13/18, 7 pm, OK Theater, Enterprise, OR – Concert, $20 general, $15 senior and veteran, $10 students. 208 W Main St, Enterprise, OR 97828
4/14/18, 5 pm social hour, 6 pm dinner, 7 pm concert, Baker Heritage Museum, Grand Ballroom – $50, includes dinner. 2480 Grove St, Baker City, OR 97814.
5/26/18, 7 pm, Alberta Rose Theater, Portland, OR – Concert. $20 general, $15 senior and veteran, $10 students. 3000 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR 97211.

Other events not open to the public include:

4/12/18, 1 pm, OK Theatre, Enterprise, OR – Concert for Wallowa County students
4/13/18, 1-2 pm, Josephy Center, Joseph, OR – Improvised performances for art students.
4/14/18, 2 pm, Baker Heritage Museum, Baker City, OR – Workshop with Baker City High School students

This year-long project, that began with community discussion events in Portland and Joseph in the fall and culminates in a performance tour to La Grande, Enterprise and Baker City, a studio album, a short documentary film and two performances in Portland in conjunction with the Vanport Mosaic. It employs a five-member creative team in a collaborative process that hopes to speak with the communities that are connected to these stories, not for them.
The project was generously funded by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program, and was sponsored by the Oregon Historical Society. Project partners include Vanport Mosaic, Josephy Center for the Arts, Crossroads Carnegie Center for the Arts, Eastern Oregon University, and the OK Theatre.
The Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble is a 12-piece jazz ensemble which commissions and performs original works by its members and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and beyond. It is our mission to operate a large musical ensemble, to commission and perform original works by members of the ensemble and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and elsewhere, to act as a forum for the development and presentation of works for large ensemble by established and emerging jazz composers, and to engage and enrich community awareness and appreciation of contemporary music.

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