A mix of avant garde jazz and classical styles, featuring and driven by guitar.

11 MP3 Songs in this album (61:14) !
Related styles: AVANT GARDE: Structured Improvisation, AVANT GARDE: Electro-Acoustic

People who are interested in Bill Frisell Derek Bailey Marc Ducret should consider this download.


Details:
Geordie Haley (guitarist/composer/improviser)
www.myspace.com/geordiehaley

Geordie Haley is a guitarist, composer and improviser living and playing music in Toronto. Geordie has established himself in Toronto as a group leader and performer since moving there from Fredericton, New Brunswick in 1997 where his regular bands Sameboat, the Exploding Meet and Ujamma were festival favourites,

Geordie Haleyâs Everytime Band with Christine Duncan (vocals), Jean Martin (drums), Evan Shaw (sax), Paul Donat (bass), Eugene Martynec (computers) and Ryan Driver (flute and synth) was a featured act in 2007 at LâOff Festival in Montreal and in 2005 at the Toronto and Halifax jazz festivals. Most recently, the group performed at the Eddie Prevost Interface Series in October 2007, hosted by the Association of Improvising Musicians of Toronto (AIMToronto).

Geordie also leads a trio of trios with recent album releases: his East Delta Trio with Evan Shaw (sax) and Vineet Vyas (tabla); his Sea of Song Trio with Rob Clutton (bass) and Brandon Valdivia (drums) and the Geordie Haley Trio with Nick Fraser (drums) and Scott Thomson (trombone).

Other Toronto based groups Geordie performs with include the Liquidaires, the Bill Grove Quartet and the Eve Brown Quartet.

Geordie is currently a co-curator of the Leftover Daylight Series, a weekly, live music presentation with an emphasis on improvisation, and produced in association with AIMToronto and ArrayMusic. He has had the pleasure of playing with improvisers John Oswald, Rhonda Rindone, Lori Freedman, Marilyn Lerner and Roger Turner, dance artists Susie Burpee and Shannon Cooney and video artist June Pak.

Nick Fraser has been an active and engaging presence in the Toronto new jazz and improvised music community since he moved there from Ottawa in 1996. His recorded works include Owls in Daylight (1997); Nick Fraser and Justin Haynes are faking it (2004), and This Moment's Beautiful Line (2002). He also co-leads the co-operative group Drumheller with Brodie West, Rob Clutton, Eric Chenaux and Doug Tielli who released their eponymous debut on the Rat-Drifting label in 2005. Other projects that occupy Nick regularly are The Gulf Port Island Trio, the Lina Allemano 4, Deep Dark United and The Bill Grove Quartet. Nick is a founding member of The Association of Improvising Musicians Toronto, a non-profit organization dedicated to advocacy for the Toronto improvised music
community.

Scott Thomson is an improvising trombonist who works in numerous regular ensembles. These include Joust with John Oswald; Ken Aldcroft's Convergence Ensemble, PST, Lollipop People and the Geordie Haley Trio. Scott enjoys and prioritizes performing in ad-hoc improvising ensembles as well. He has performed in this context with Marshal Allen (Sun Ra), Mick Beck and Paul Hession, Dylan Van der Schyff and Jean Derome. Thomson has also worked with choreographer Julie Label's Ensemble Independent, making music for Lebel's "Cette Violente Franchise" in performance throughout Ontario and Quebec. He is a board member of the Association of Improvising Musicians Toronto.

Shannon Cooney received a BFA honours in dance at York University in 1992. From 1994-2006 she worked with Toronto based Dancemakers, under artistic director Serge Bennathan, which toured extensively nationally and internationally. Within Dancemakers and outside of the company she has worked with several esteemed contemporary Canadian choreographers. Her choreography, which has a sensual and powerful voice, has been presented throughout Canada and in the U.K. Integral to her work is true collaborations with live and/or original music compositions. She has also performed for many years in live improvisations with musicians and dancers. She has had extensive training and practice with master teachers Peter Boneham, contemporary dance, Dianne Miller, the Pilates Method and Robert Harris, cranial sacral therapy. Shannon is currently living in Berlin.

From Exclaim magazine December 07(Best of Improvised 2007)

Geordie Haley Trio Polar Bears (Geo Ha)
Often, free improvisation is a hit-and-miss affair. But in the hands of these three creative individualists, the space for invention bestowed by the thorny genre is commandeered with serious thought, thorough experimentation and the indispensable correlative of genuine artistic invention: hard work. Guitarist Geordie Haley really applied the elbow grease to realise this project. Just pick any tune and check the diversity of guitar sounds; Haley never coasts. Trombonist Scott Thomson and drummer Nick Fraser have never sounded more challenged, and they sound the better for it. Polar Bears has got balls and brains. Glen Hall