THE ALCHEMISTS are a Boston-based band of free form, genre-crossing jazz musicians devoted to the art of collective improvisation. Our music offers a spicy concoction of improvised, melody-driven, inventively original songs that weave together jazz, standards, Latin rhythms, Indian beats, chamber music, Baroque counterpoint and other far-flung styles into a surprisingly eclectic whole. POTIONS, our debut studio album, is a CD Baby Editors Pick.
IMPROVISED MUSIC
By definition, what you hear at the release party will not reproduce the tracks on Potions - but it will reflect the kind of improvising, melody-centered, genre-mixing band we are....
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THE ALCHEMISTS are a Boston-based band of free form, genre-crossing jazz musicians devoted to the art of collective improvisation. Our music offers a spicy concoction of improvised, melody-driven, inventively original songs that weave together jazz, standards, Latin rhythms, Indian beats, chamber music, Baroque counterpoint and other far-flung styles into a surprisingly eclectic whole. POTIONS, our debut studio album, is a CD Baby Editors Pick.
IMPROVISED MUSIC
By definition, what you hear at the release party will not reproduce the tracks on Potions - but it will reflect the kind of improvising, melody-centered, genre-mixing band we are.
How does this kind of spontaneous music happen in a coherent way? By careful listening to each other, quick glances from one musician to another, body language, paying attention to when it feels appropriate to join the music making, play a solo or drop back for a time. To ensure variety, we sometimes began with a certain beat or particular instruments - or no rules at all - always letting the music go where it wants to go.
BAND MEMBERS
Matt Langley - Saxophones, Bass Clarinet
Matt teaches at Shaker Road School (Concord, NH) and is on the faculties of the Portsmouth (NH) Music and Arts Center and the Concord (NH) Community Music School. He performs widely around Boston and the Maine-NH seacoast in such bands as In Ears n Eyes, Sojoy, Mother Superior and the Sliding Royales and Ourbigband and has recorded with the Pandelis Karayorgis Quintet and the Charlie Kohlhase Quintet, among others.
http://mattlangley.com
Jerry Leake - Percussion
Associate Professor of Percussion at Berklee College of Music and faculty member at the New England Conservatory; Jerry is a founding member of the world-music ensemble Natraj and Club dElf; he authored eight widely used texts on North and South Indian, West African, Latin American percussion, and rhythm theory.
www.rhombuspublishing.com/biography.html
Dennis Livingston - Flute, Sopranino and Alto Recorders
As a composer/lyricist of cabaret and jazz songs, Dennis work has appeared in four ASCAP-MAC Songwriter Showcases in New York, while revues of his songs have been presented in Boston, Washington, DC, and New York. Dennis has also been an improvising jazz flutist for many years, joining musicians by invitation or chance who gather to jam and jive.
www.dennislivingston.com
Bob Nieske - Bass
Professor of the Practice in Jazz at Brandeis University and on the faculty of New England Conservatory; Bobs compositions have been performed around the world by his own groups, The Either Orchestra, Matt Wilson and Jimmy Giuffre 4; he has performed with Charlie Byrd, Eartha Kitt, Dakota Stayton, John Blake, Richie Cole and Larry Coryell and recorded with Alan Dawson, Dave Grisman, Stephane Grappelli and George Russell, among others.
www.bobnieske.com
Randy Roos - Guitar
Associate Professor of Guitar and Music Systems at Berklee College of Music, following 14 years in the New England Conservatory jazz department, he has participated in many recordings from Photogenic Memory (Agharta, Japan), George Jinda and World News (JVC) and the Narada label, among others and has composed music for hundreds of television shows, including programs from Scientific American Frontiers and the PBS NOVA series.
www.squamsound.com
LINKS
FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/thealchemistsbostonband/
BANDCAMP
https://thealchemists1.bandcamp.com/
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