2023 Open House: Caleb Willitz, WiHuBa, Jack & Ben Wright

2023 Open House: Caleb Willitz, WiHuBa, Jack & Ben Wright

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Join us for our Winter Open House, featuring an art exhibit and live musical performance in our historic Chicago studio. The evening opens with a reception at 5:30; music starts at 7PM.

Caleb Willitz a multi-disciplinary artist who has spent his career cultivating communities for free improvisation and artistic expression. He is also the co-founder of the Midnight Tea performance series. Tonight we celebrate the release of his newest work, a book of paintings aptly titled, "Work."

"The work you’ll find in this book is that of a musical artist, not a plastic artist, and it is built from the same energy, ethos and ephemera that feeds Caleb’s practice in jazz and improvisation.

It would be a mistake, however, to see Caleb’s painting entirely through music, or to understand him as a true outsider. During his formative years as a musician, he lived with visual artists, including Mike Kloss, who curated the paintings included in this book. Whether by influence or osmosis, the work of his peers, and friends, made their way into his brain and now out of his hands." ~ Tim Schwab, liner notes to "Work" (2023)

WiHuBa is a trio of Edward Wilkerson Jr., Steve Hunt, and Jim Baker. From the artists:

WiHuBa is

edward WIlkerson, jr;

steve HUnt;

and jim BAker;

One or more of their names might be familiar from other contexts

(8 Bold Souls; Hal Russell NRG Ensemble; Extraordinary Popular Delusions, and/or dozens of other conclaves),

WiHuBa has been playing improvised music as a trio for a number of years now;

has played at various other venues in Chicago, Madison, and Milwaukee, and has a "live" CD entitled

"'Don't mind me, i'm just everywhere, always', said the basilisk, unreassuringly (WiHuBa Live at the Owl)"

(and also all three have been playing most Monday evenings, with Extraordinary Popular Delusions, at Beat Kitchen).

As WiHuBa, they will be playing improvised music,

likely on some combination of

waterphone

viola

tenor saxophone

repurposed gadgets

piano

oud

glockenspiel

drums

digeridoo

cymbals

clarinet

analog synthesizer

alto clarinet

(perhaps not all of the above; but almost certainly, some of the above)

WiHuBa is--for now, anyway--standing firm in its insistence that humans be allowed to attend their live performances,

(even despite the acknowledged superiority of AIs as listeners); and we are happy to be playing for human listeners

(in addition to any AIs in attendance) at our Midnight Tea performance in December

Jack Wright is a veteran saxophone improviser based mainly in Philadelphia, regularly touring North America and Europe the past four decades and well known to improvisers. Continually seeking out interesting partners and playing situations, Wright is one of the originals of American free improv, and now at 77 he is still the "Johnny Appleseed of Free Improvisation," as the late Davey Williams (guitarist) called him in the 80s.

Ben Wright from Taos, New Mexico plays double bass. He cut his teeth in Philadelphia punk rock, and has since been working the double bass for 30 odd years, bolstered by intense spats of incidental formal training. A lover of the lowest frequencies, Ben has explored many disparate forms of music through the bass, yet always returns to the wellspring of improvisation.