Russ Johnson Quartet, Cisco Bradley

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Richard Hayes

The Russ Johnson Quartet on stage.

Russ Johnson Quartet (from left): Mark Feldman, Ethan Philion, Russ Johnson and Tim Daisy.

This BlueStem Jazz event is a doubleheader offering something for both music listeners and readers. Music is by the quartet led by trumpeter Russ Johnson, with the current lineup also featuring violinist Mark Feldman, bassist Ethan Philion, and percussionist Tim Daisy; it’s the official Madison release show for the quartet’s August album, Reveal. The evening also features a talk by author Cisco Bradley on The Williamsburg Avant-Garde: Experimental Music and Sound on the Brooklyn Waterfront. Released in March, the book traces the history of the DIY jazz and noise scene in the New York City neighborhood from the 1980s until its eventual displacement by gentrification in the 2000s (a topic that has particular relevance for a rapidly growing Madison).

media release: Blue Stem Jazz Presentation. Bradley will be reading from his book "The Williamsburg Avant-Garde"

- "...particularly Russ Johnsons lyrical, deeply melodic trumpet linesinvariably lifts the music to another realm." Down Beat

"Trumpeter Russ Johnson has been all over the progressive jazz map. Hes been an A-list performer for several years." - All  About Jazz

"Johnson plays a hard-swinging strain of postbop-brawny yet sophisticated, tartly melodic yet probing.  Long one of the bestpostbop practitioners in New York.: - Chicago Reader

"The effect of Johnsons compositions was an almost instantaneous provocation of interest." The Examiner

"Leading his new Headlands band, Johnson offers a wide range of expression, from his brilliant opening fanfare to the lyricism listeners have come to expect from him. A trumpeter of keen sensitivities and questing spirit." - Chicago Tribune

A violin virtuoso, Mark Feldman is a classically trained performer known for his adventurous, genre-bending work in avant-garde jazz. Following early work as a Nashville studio musician, Feldman garnered critical acclaim in the '90s working in New York's creative music scene with luminaries like John Zorn, Dave Douglas, Uri Caine, and Michael Formanek. His own albums have found him moving from artful solo violin sessions like 1995's Music for Violin Alone to challenging small group dates like 2006's What Exit? with John Taylor. Feldman has collaborated regularly with his wife, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier, releasing a bevy of sophisticated classical- and jazz-informed albums, including 2006's Malphas: Book of Angels, Vol. 3 and 2019's Time Gone Out. In 2021, he again showcased his expansive solo skills with Sounding Point.

Ethan Philion is an award-winning bassist, composer, and bandleader based in Chicago. A graduate of Oberlin Conservatory and DePaul University,  Philion has been praised by the Washington Post for his "well honed chops and astounding musicality and his debut album, Meditations on Mingus, was commended as a labor of conspicuous love and respect for a musical titan by Downbeat Magazine. He has performed with an extensive list of jazz artists including Rufus Reid, Greg Ward, Dana Hall, Mark Feldman, Russ Johnson, Howard Levy, Ryan Cohan, Tito Carillo, Gary Bartz, Alfonso Ponticelli, Ernest Dawkins, Geof Bradfield, Dee Alexander, Mark Gross, Alyssa Allgood, Thaddeus Tooks, Victor Garcia, Mike Allemana, Mai Sugimoto, Paul Marinaro, and more.

Tim Daisy is an American drummer and composer working in the fields of improvised and composed music. Tim moved to Chicago in 1997 and since that time has performed, recorded, and toured with many national and international improvised musicians and ensembles.Some of the musicians he has performed with inclue Dave Rempis, Ken Vandermark,Jeb Bishop, Mars Williams, Steve Swell, Jaimie Branch, Katherine Young, Fred Lonberg-Holm, James Falzone, Russ Johnson, Kyle Bruckmann, Katinka Kleijn, Elizabeth Harnik, Christof Kurzmann, Ikue Mori, Rafael Toral, Mikolaj Trzaska, Per Ake Holmlander, Darren Johnston, Havard Wiik, Jason Stein and Michael Zerang.