Tracking the Odds: Tyshawn Sorey: Sep 27, 2021

Tyshawn Sorey is admired as both an exquisite drummer and adventurous composer (he didn’t win a MacArthur just for his great groove). He also plays trombone and piano and writes in no genre and every...

Tracking The Odds: Gen Ken Montgomery: Aug 23, 2021

Sound artist Gen Ken Montgomery in concert and studio recordings illustrating his multi-layered montage techniques built from found sound, field recordings, and domestic noise (percolators, dripping s...

Tracking The Odds: John King: Jul 26, 2021

This edition features two works from composer John King’s 2012 performance at Roulette: Kosmos, for string quartet and electronics featuring the Crucible Quartet with King on viola, and Astral Epita...

Tracking The Odds: Gina Leishman: Jun 28, 2021

Toy piano and tuba! Composer/multi-instrumentalist Gina Leishman, whose concert, film, and theater works are best known with her Kamikaze Ground Crew (formed as a backup band for the Flying Karamozov...

Tracking The Odds: Lary 7 and Tony Conrad: May 24, 2021

Concert recordings from two innovators in sound and media art: analog alchemist Lary 7 and filmmaker/drone music pioneer Tony Conrad, who supported each other’s work on and off the stage for decades....

Tracking The Odds: Lesley Flanigan: Mar 22, 2021

Lesley Flanigan is a New York composer/performer who builds her own instruments using minimal electronics, microphones, and speakers and mixing these with traditional instrumentation that often includ...

Tracking The Odds: Milford Graves: Feb 22, 2021

Performances and commentary by Milford Graves (1941-2021), recorded at Roulette in 2012-13 with bassist William Parker and friends. A percussionist, herbalist, martial artist, programmer, professor,...

Tracking The Odds: Fred Frith: Jan 25, 2021

Solo improvisations by the guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and master synthesizer of technique, genres, structure, and noise, recorded at Roulette on 10 October 1986. Frith emerged as a founding mem...

Tracking The Odds: Jon Gibson: Nov 23, 2020

Solo works by the saxophone, flute, and wind instrument master, composer, and visual artist (1940-2020), recorded at Roulette on October 13, 1994. A founding member of the Philip Glass Ensemble and a...

Tracking The Odds: Charmaine Lee: Oct 26, 2020

The imaginative vocalist in sets recorded at Roulette in 2017 and 2019 ranging from rapid-fire free improvisation to the sober austerity of Japanese onkyo. Here we hear Lee solo and in duos with the u...

Tracking The Odds: Z'EV: Sep 28, 2020

The percussionist Z’EV (1951-2017), credited as an originator of Industrial Music, was a gentle soul more interested in acoustic phenomena than in brutal noise. Usually theatrical in presentation, his...

Tracking The Odds: Mary Halvorson: Aug 24, 2020

This edition features the stunningly imaginative guitarist and composer Mary Halvorson in concert excerpts recorded at Roulette between 2013-19. Coming from jazz roots, and extending the vocabulary wi...

Tracking The Odds: George Lewis: Jul 27, 2020

Selections from the Roulette Archive documenting the composer/trombonist George Lewis’ work over 3 decades from jazz and improvisation, to ensemble compositions, to his innovations in interactive comp...

Tracking The Odds: Brandon Ross: Jun 22, 2020

Composer Brandon Ross (guitar/banjo/vocal) in excerpts from two Roulette performances (2011, 2017) with his group, Blazing Beauty, featuring Stomu Takeishi (acoustic bass guitar) and JT Lewis (drums...

Tracking The Odds: Reggie Workman: Apr 27, 2020

The doublebass master with John Purcell on reeds, Miya Masoaka on koto, and Gerry Hemingway on drums, percussion and electronics, recorded at Roulette on November 15, 2002. Workman described this impr...

Tracking The Odds: Volume (III): Shelley Burgon, Maria Chavez, Stephan Moore, Suzanne Thorpe: Mar 23, 2020

Four distinguished musicians together in a project called Volume, recorded at Roulette on November 19, 2010. Electro-acoustic harpist Shelley Burgon, turntablist Maria Chavez, laptop artist Stephan Mo...

Tracking The Odds: Kaffe Matthews: Feb 24, 2020

Violinist, electronic musician, and composer Kaffe Matthews in a solo performance recorded at Roulette on 13 December 1997. Beyond the violin, Matthews has utilized theremin, wild salmon, star maps, N...

Tracking The Odds: Vernon Reid: Jan 26, 2020

The guitarist’s Night of Radiance, with Laraaji Venus and Suphala, for acoustic, electric, and electronic guitars, autoharp, and tabla/percussion recorded at Roulette on 28 March 1999. Vernon Reid w...

Tracking The Odds: William Parker: Dec 23, 2019

The premier performance of William Parker’s large ensemble work, “Inscription”, recorded at Roulette 16 February 2013. Composer/bassist/bandleader William Parker is an essential voice the current avan...

Tracking The Odds: Guy Klucevsek: Nov 25, 2019

Composer, accordionist, and long-time conduit for new music Guy Klucevsek is profiled here with three concert recording excerpts from the Roulette Archive: an April 2002 duo and exchange of tunes and...

Tracking The Odds: Christian Marclay: Oct 28, 2019

Equally visual artist and composer, Christian Marclay emerged in the 1980s as a forerunner, in parallel with the hip hop community, of turntablism; manipulating and mixing vinyl records on multiple tu...

Tracking The Odds: Miya Masaoka: Sep 23, 2019

Miya Masaoka in concert with her unique inventions of techniques, songs, and contraptions ranging from the traditional Japanese Koto to her computer-assisted Laser Koto. Often seen in collaboration wi...

Tracking the Odds: Val Jeanty’s AfroElectronica: Jul 22, 2019

A program featuring Haitian-born electronic music artist Val Jeanty, recorded in a collaborative performance with fire dancer Ra Nubi, at Roulette on 22 May 2017. Jeanty, a virtuoso percussionist, mas...

Tracking the Odds: Bob Ostertag: Jun 24, 2019

Composed entirely from fragments of music from computer games, Bob Ostertag created w00t, with custom software enabling a live interactive montage with Quebecois filmmaker Pierre Hébert’s animation. T...

Tracking the Odds: Billy Bang: May 27, 2019

Violinist, composer, and improviser Billy Bang in a solo concert of original works and a Thelonious Monk classic recorded at Roulette on 13 March 2006. Bang (1947-2011) is known for his Vietnam War ex...

Tracking the Odds: Ikue Mori: Apr 22, 2019

This edition illustrates two projects of composer/percussionist Ikue Mori whose drumming, drum machine experiments, and laptop electronics all display a unique sense of time and timbre. From her emerg...

Tracking the Odds: Shelley Hirsch with Kazu & Christian Marclay: Mar 26, 2019

Excerpts from two 2008 Roulette concerts featuring the composer/vocalist/improviser and storyteller Shelley Hirsch in collaboration with artist/turntablist Christian Marclay and guitarist Uchihashi Ka...

Tracking the Odds: Dave Douglas: Feb 25, 2019

Thoughts Around Mahfouz is a collection of compositions and improvisations inspired by the writing of Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz by composer Dave Douglas (trumpet and electrics) and an ensemble...

Tracking the Odds: Myra Melford and Leroy Jenkins: Jan 17, 2019

Two creative virtuosos coming out of Chicago jazz and blues meet for a wide-ranging exchange. Melford begins with solos including a remarkable rendition of Ornette Coleman’s Passion Culture and soulfu...

Tracking the Odds: Thurston Moore: Dec 20, 2018

Guitarist Thurston Moore in a solo performance, recorded at the Roulette Concert Series in NYC on October 25, 1997. Moore, a pivotal figure in the 80s alternative rock movement along with his band mem...

Tracking The Odds: Jennifer Walshe and Tony Conrad: Nov 15, 2018

Ma la Pert is the duo of Jennifer Walshe and Tony Conrad, here recorded in concert at Roulette on 19 February 2010. They use voice, violins, viola, bass, autoharps, autotune, keyboard, shells, broken...

Tracking The Odds: Stuart Dempster & Greg Powers: Oct 18, 2018

Virtuosos Stuart Dempster and Greg Powers in a Druphad style raga for didjeridu and trombone, recorded in concert at Roulette on March 4, 1999. Powers develops the raga on trombone while Dempster pro...

Tracking The Odds: Toshio Kajiwara and Taketo Shimada: Sep 20, 2018

A sound installation/performance recorded at Roulette on May 15, 1999. Entitled Ferris Wheel, the piece is designed as a sonic flashback museum of digital samples, an archaeology of ideas, and a post-...

Tracking The Odds: Annie Gosfield: Jul 19, 2018

The composer/keyboardist performing original compositions as well as work by mentor/alter-ego PW Schreck, “Father of Calamitonality”, recorded live in concert at Roulette on 28 October 1994. Along wit...

Tracking The Odds: Bern Nix and Ayman Fanous: Jun 21, 2018

The gentle and ferociously inventive guitarist Bern Nix (1947-2017), a former Ornette Coleman collaborator, and Egyptian bouzouki/guitar/flamenco/jazz master Ayman Fanous in duos and solos, restored f...

Tracking The Odds: Hamid Drake & Michael Zerang: Apr 21, 2018

This percussion duo performed at Roulette on 22 March 1995 in an eclectic cross genre, cross cultural program with Afro-Cuban, jazz, Middle Eastern, and Indian influences and utilizing instruments inc...

Tracking The Odds: Joseph Jarman: Apr 19, 2018

Jazz legend, saxophonist, and multi-instrumentalist Joseph Jarman appears here in a 1995 concert at Roulette with pianist Myra Melford and guitarist Mikele Navazio. In the early sixties in Chicago Jar...

Tracking The Odds: Guy Klucevsek: Mar 15, 2018

Guy Klucevsek is one of the world’s most versatile and award-winning accordionists. He has performed and/or recorded with Laurie Anderson, Bang On a Can, Brave Combo, Anthony Braxton, Anthony Coleman,...

Tracking The Odds: Hans Reichel with Fred Frith & Ned Rothenberg: Feb 15, 2018

Berlin-based guitarist Hans Reichel (1949-2011) in an improvising trio with Fred Frith, guitar/bass and Ned Rothenberg, alto sax/bass clarinet, recorded at Roulette on 24 October 1987. All three lege...

Tracking the Odds: Matthew Shipp Trio: Jan 18, 2018

A live concert by the Matthew Shipp Trio, recorded January 22, 2004 as part of the Roulette Concert Series held at the Thalia Theater in Manhattan. The Trio features Shipp on piano, William Parker on...

Tracking the Odds: Min Xiao Fen: Dec 21, 2017

Min Xiao Fen is a Chinese pipa player and vocalist, known for her work in traditional Chinese music, contemporary classical and experimental music, and jazz and has worked with numerous contemporary c...

Tracking the Odds: "Blue" Gene Tyranny: Nov 16, 2017

A performance by composer/pianist ”Blue" Gene Tyranny whose tonal yet asymmetrical compositions have inspired and tantalized artists from John Cage to Iggy Pop. He is widely known for his substantial...

Tracking The Odds: Eugene Chadbourne: Oct 19, 2017

The guitarist and free styling provocateur Eugene Chadbourne with his renegade rockabilly noise band recorded at Roulette on December 10, 1994. Featuring Chadbourne on banjo, guitar, voice; Barry Mitt...

Tracking The Odds: Susie Ibarra & William Parker Duo: Sep 21, 2017

Recorded in concert on May 2, 1997, Susie Ibarra on drums and percussion and William Parker on bass and percussion utilize bells, strings, wood, bows, skins, gongs, sticks and brass in a rare meeting...

Tracking The Odds: Bill Frisell Live 1989: Aug 17, 2017

Guitarist Bill Frisell, whose extraordinary touch, technique, and daring has led him to collaborate with artists including Nora Jones, Paul Simon, Elvis Costello, and John Zorn, did some of his earlie...

Tracking The Odds: Deep Listening Band: Jul 20, 2017

Tune into the premiere broadcast of Tracking The Odds, a new monthly program featuring selections from the Roulette Concert Archive. This month's broadcast features the Deep Listening Band. From delic...