presents a broad diversity of contemporary artists working at the intersections of neo-classical, avant-garde, electronic, improvisation, and drone.
Jeremiah Chiu is an LA-based synthesist widely recognized for his versatile electronic music as a solo artist, textured recordings in a duo with violist Marta Sofia Honer, and the experimental quintet he co-leads, SML. Josh Johnson is a saxophonist, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and Grammy Award-winning producer. He is a member of the quintet SML, Jeff Parker ETA IVtet, Uhlmann Johnson Wilkes trio, and Openness Trio with Nate Mercereau and Carlos Niño. Recently, Johnson produced and performed on Flea's debut solo album, Honora.
SML is a quintet composed of luminaries from Los Angeles’s thriving jazz, improvised, and indie music scenes: bassist Anna Butterss (Jeff Parker, Jason Isbell, Phoebe Bridgers, Makaya McCraven), synthesist Jeremiah Chiu (Ariel Kalma, Marta Sofia Honer), saxophonist Josh Johnson (Meshell Ndegeocello, Flea, Leon Bridges, Carlos Niño), percussionist Booker Stardrum (Wendy Eisenberg, Horse Lords, Nels Cline) and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann (Sam Wilkes, Meg Duffy, Perfume Genius).
Maria Chávez, Shahzad Ismaily (Arooj Aftab, Ceramic Dog) and Greg Saunier (Deerhoof) came together as a trio for the first time for a show in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in May 2025. That debut performance received a glowing review in The Wire, where writer Vanessa Ague heralded it as “a reminder of the sheer joy of seeing what surprises we can find in sound”.
“Seeing is Forgetting combines analog synths (Elori Saxl) with baritone saxophone + bass clarinet (Henry Solomon). Drawing equal parts from American jazz abstraction, New York classical minimalism, and contemporary pop’s sense of harmony, form, and hooks, the album is an exploration in presence, physicality, intuition, and vulnerability.”
The Cedar is thrilled to present these cutting-edge artists together for one night only.
Setting is Nathan Bowles (solo/trio, Pelt, Black Twig Pickers) on strings, keys, tapes, and percussion; Jaime Fennelly (Mind Over Mirrors, Peeesseye) on synthesizers and harmonium; and Joe Westerlund (solo, Califone, Sylvan Esso, Jake Xerxes Fussell) on drums, percussion, metallophones, and zither. Keith Fullerton Whitman is a performer of “Live” Electronic Music based in Fort Greene, Brooklyn; his work is governed by the outcome of ongoing experiments with Generative & Algorithmic frameworks in both the Analog & Digital Domains, blurring the lines between improvisation & composition while openly embracing an agnostic & (often) contrarian approach to genre & setting.
Gabriel Mindel Saloman and Pete Swanson aka Yellow Swans carved an influential path through America’s experimental music underground, at the axis of noise, psychedelia, industrial, drone, and hardcore. Their music is restless, ragged, and forever in flux, untethered and unresolved.
Dustin Laurenzi and Matt Gold, key collaborators in the Chicago creative scene and with genre-spanning artists such as Bill Callahan and Makaya McCraven, step forward on Devotional Fade (We Jazz Records) with a major artistic statement, a product of extended improv sessions that capture the duo’s hypnotic interplay. This is the sound of two of Chicago’s most vibrant instrumental voices listening deeply, communing in sound. An incomparable Twin Cities trio of highly sought-after sidemen, Alpha Consumer, opens the night.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
This grant is overseen by Executive Director Michelle Woster - mwoster@thecedar.org
