Jason Robinson The music of American reedist and composer Jason Robinson focuses on the relationship between improvisation, experimentalism and cultural identity. Most of his recent work explores the intersection of improvisation and composition, as well as new electroacoustic processing and interaction enabled through software-based technologies, multisite networked performance and the relationship between popular music and experimentalism. He performs regularly as a soloist (acoustically and with electronics), with his group the Janus Ensemble (featuring Drew Gress, Liberty Ellman, and George Schuller), with groups he co-leads (the Outnumbered and Hit the Nail on the Nose), as a leader of varying ensembles performing his original music and in a variety of collaborative contexts.

His most recent albums include three concurrent Fall 2010 releases that showcase an enormous breadth of his creative work. These releases include The Two Faces of Janus (Cuneiform), featuring a New York-based ensemble that includes Drew Gress, Liberty Ellman, George Schuller, Marty Ehrlich and Rudresh Mahanthappa; Cerulean Landscape (Clean Feed), featuring the long time collaboration of Robinson and acclaimed pianist and composer Anthony Davis; and Cerberus Reigning (Accretions), the much anticipated second installment of the “Cerberus” trilogy, featuring Robinsonʼs remarkable solo electroacoustic music. Robinson has performed at festivals and prominent venues in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe. He has performed or recorded with Peter Kowald, George Lewis, Anthony Davis, Marty Ehrlich, Eugene Chadbourne, Earl Howard, Emily Hay, Jeff Kaiser, Toots and the Maytals, Groundation, Elijah Emanuel and the Revelations, Bertram Turetzky, Mark Dresser, John Russell, Roger Turner, Gerry Hemingway, Kei Akagi, Mel Graves, Liberty Ellman, Babatunde Olatunji, Mel Martin, Marco Eneidi, Lisle Ellis, Raphe Malik, Mike Wofford, J.D. Parran, Dana Reason, David Borgo, Nathan Hubbard, Michael Dessen, Contemporary Jazz Orchestra (at Pearl’s, San Francisco), the La Jolla Symphony, SONOR (UCSD), and the San Francisco Mime Troupe, among others. Robinson has published articles and reviews in Ethnomusicology, Critical Studies in Improvisation/ Études critiques en improvisation and Jazz Perspectives. He is an Assistant Professor of Music at Amherst College and holds a Ph.D. in Music from the University of California, San Diego

David “Goody” Goodrich was born and raised in the Washington D.C. suburb Bowie Maryland, David Goodrich (a.k.a. Goody) began playing music at the age of two on a drum set given to him by a neighbor. Picking up guitar in junior high, he spent his teenage afternoons jamming with friends and soon found himself in a variety of bands, gigging professionally in Annapolis and D.C. clubs before he was old enough to get into them.  Earning a scholarship to Boston’s Berklee School of Music in 1985, Goody moved to Boston, found himself studying with jazz greats Joe Henderson and Pat Metheny, and quickly began laying the foundation for his own innovative musical style. Integrating jazz and improvisation with folk and world music, Goody’s approach to composing, playing, and performing is based on years of listening and training, along with a carefully honed sense of intuition. Specializing in stringed instruments (acoustic, electric, Hawaiian, steel & slide guitars, mandolin, mandocaster, piano), he has been an integral part of numerous jazz, rock, and acoustic ensembles. As a member of the influential rock band Groovasaurus from 1991-1998, Goody and his bandmates helped define the resurgent Boston music scene of the ’90s, receiving consecutive Boston Music Awards and Best of Boston accolades.  When Groovasaurus called it quits, Goody began collaborating with an extraordinary array of today’s best independent singer/songwriters as an accompanist and producer. He has produced recordings for artists such as Chris Smither, Peter Mulvey, Jeffrey Foucault, Rose Polenzani, The Amity Front, and Moses Atwood. He appears on over 75 recordings, including the Grammy-nominatedAvalon Blues, and has performed internationally on hundreds of stages.

Doug Raneri has been a professional musician for thirty-six years.He has studied privately with Fred Buda, Alan Dawson, Bob Gullotti, Gary Chaffee, and Bob Moses as well as attending the New England Conservatory of Music as a jazz performance major. He has performed with Charlie Haden, Michael Brecker, Yusef Lateef, Milcho Leviev, Roberto Miranda and many others within a diversity of musical genres. Being comfortable in many styles of music affords Doug the opportunity to share his knowledge with a wide range of students and performers.

Jamie MacDonald is known in the New England-area as a professional, musical, and eclectic bassist. Additionally, his students consider him to be a hardworking, challenging, and eye-opening teacher. Though Macdonald’s degree was conferred over ten years ago, his studies have continued. Jamie Macdonald refers to himself as a “student of music.” In other words, he feels music offers an endless number of lessons, and an endless number of opportunities for growth. He has studied privately with Mike Formanek, Cameron Brown, and Don Baldini.

Professionally, Macdonald performs in a number of genres. including work as a principal bassist in the Keene Chamber Orchestra, Vermont’s Windham Orchestra, Vermont Jazz Center Big Band performed in concert with Gene Rush, Pete Yellin, Satoshi Takeishi, Helmut Kagerer, Jay Clayton, Claire Arenius, James Williams, Sheila Jordan. Bobby Bradford, Rod Levitt Orchestra, Peter Eldridge, Carlos Averhoff, Catherine Legard, Emilie Conway, and Harvey Diamond. He is currently performing as part of the Jazz Demolition Project with David Goodrich on guitar and Doug Raneri on dums. He also regularly performs with Mitch Seidman,The Diamond Cosmos and his own groups featuring Mike Wakefield, Dan Rosow and others.