LOS: Mervine/Holmes Duo & Anwar Marshall & Matter of Fiction

Trumpeter BEN HOLMES & percussionist GREGG MERVINE have played and studied music together for almost a decade. It is remarkable how many musicial languages and traditions they share: Balkan music (Slavic Soul Party / West Philadelphia Orchestra), klezmer (together in Klez Dispensers), Turkish (Ben’s Zeybek Trio and Gregg’s collaborations with percussionist Nezih Antakli), modern jazz, and free jazz. In their duo performances their starting points are folk melodies (Turkish, Balkan, klezmer, perhaps Brazilian), which they use to create sparse, dynamic, and raw improvisations. Inspired by the spirit of the classic duo recordings of Don Cherry & Ed Blackwell, Holmes & Mervine draw on their common uncommon musical backgrounds while taking full advantage of the flexibility and openness of the duo format. Ben is based in Brooklyn, New York and performs regularly with his own trio & quartet, Cynthia Hopkins/Gloria Deluxe, Justin Mullen’s Delphian Jazz Orchestra, Romashka, the Carlberg/Urie City Band, and One Ring Zero. His debut record, ‘Ben Holmes Trio’, was released in 2009 and received 4/5 stars from DownBeat Magazine. Gregg is a drumset player, percussionist, composer, and arranger, and the founder of the West Philadelphia Orchestra. New projects include Rhinoceri Trio, a crossover jazz project, and ‘Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins,’ a new theatrical work by Gas and Electric Arts for which he’s composing and arranging music. He’s currently living in Monteiro, Paraiba, in the interior of Brazil, where he studies and plays pifano music (Brazilian fife and drum), forro, and folkloric styles.

At age 22, drummer ANWAR MARSHALL is already one of Philadelphia’s most sought-after drummers. He can be heard frequently with a variety of bands at various venues around Philadelphia and in New York, including in the house band for Orrin Evans’s weekly happy hour jam session at World Cafe Live and with the Captain Black Big Band. Anwar has worked with a wide range of musicians: saxophone legend Bootsie Barnes, composer/pianist Matt Mitchell, saxophonist Wade Dean, keyboard player Luke O’Reilly, organist Lucas Brown, and many others. Anwar is also a composer, and tonight’s show will be an opportunity to hear his original music in trio format–with bassist BRIAN HOWELL (a member of the Victor North Quartet) and alto saxophonist ADAM SIEGEL (a member of the Wade Dean Enspiration).