Steve Baczkowski is a baritone saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, improviser, music producer and educator who has been performing professionally in a variety of musical contexts for over ten years. Born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., Steve began studying music playing alto saxophone at age eight. He switched to baritone by the time he was twelve and has remained committed to mastering this often-overlooked member of the saxophone family ever since. He began studying jazz in earnest in high school at the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts and went on to study music and ethnomusicology at The University at Buffalo from 1994-99.

In 1999 Steve became the Music Director of Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center where he has since produced and presented over 100 concerts of jazz/improvised music, new music, and multi-media performances as well as several artist residencies. This is where, as he puts it, “my real music education began.” Working closely with saxophonists such as Odean Pope, Charles Gayle, Oliver Lake, Joe McPhee, Peter Brötzmann and countless others as well as studying with Pope, Hamiet Bluiett, David Mott, Joe Maneri, and others has afforded Steve infinite inspiration and solid direction.

In addition to leading several ensembles, including his sextet Eulipion and the Protozoan Improvisers Collective, Steve also plays with the trio Hylozoa (with Tom Abbs and Ravi Padmanabha), The 12/8 Path Band, The Genkin Philharmonic, Protozoa (with Leland Scott Davis), Visiting Sun Ra, and others. Steve performs frequently in the Buffalo area, as well as in NYC and abroad. He has worked and/or performed with many great musicians including Odean Pope, Bobby Previte, Carlo Actis Dato, Joe McPhee, Leland Scott Davis, Dominic Duval, Ramon Lopez, Tom Abbs, Paul Flaherty, Chris Corsano, Jay Rosen, Daniel Carter, Chris Jonas, Birth, Tony Conrad, Ravi Padmanabha, John Bacon, Jonathan Golove, Rey Scott, and countless others. Steve has performed numerous festivals in North America including, most recently, a two-week residency in Monterrey, Mexico for El Encuentro International, and a performance at Toronto’s Fringe Jazz Festival.

Steve has developed a very powerful and unique sound on the bari sax. Extracting every ounce of sonic possibilities from his instrument, he plays with a raw passion and energy colored by a mastery of overtones, multi-phonics, circular breathing, and considerable technical facility. For the past eight years Steve has invested in deep study of the didjeridu, developing his breath control and understanding of harmonic overtones, and enabling him to play his baritone saxophone with a rare degree of strength and control. He can whisper deep warm tones at barely audible frequencies and roar multi-toned wails at fire truck decibels.

Steve has lectured on improvisation, didjeridu techniques, and overtone based music at Buffalo State College, The University at Buffalo, and The State University at Fredonia.

Bassist, tubist and improviser Tom Abbs has been performing and recording in a variety of contexts (classical, rock, jazz, and improvised musics) since age eleven. Tom started his musical training at the age of seven playing piano. A couple of years later he changed his instrument to cello and by the time he was eleven he was playing the bass. He was handed a tuba in seventh grade and his conquest of the "low end" began. Tom went on in his teens to win accolades in state and national competitions for his work as a soloist and ensemble player.

He came to New York in 1991 to attend the New School’s Jazz and Contemporary Music program where he studied with such masters as Reggie Workman, Buster Williams, Joe Chambers, Brian Smith, Junior Mance, Arnie lawrence, Chico Hamilton and Arthur Taylor. By the end of his third semester at the New School Tom was playing gigs every night of the week and made the decision to leave school and concentrate on performing. He has been working steadily ever since.

In the past decade Tom has developed a driving percussive style on the bass that encompasses the deep emotion and grit of Charles Mingus and Jimmy Garrison while showing the dexterity and inventiveness of Scott La Faro. His fluid tuba style has shed many of the instrument’s sluggish connotations and transformed it into a soaring solo and sharply percussive groove machine. Equally comfortable in "free" and "inside" settings, Abbs' versatility and depth as a player has kept him busy backing up the likes of Lawrence "Butch" Morris, Charles Gayle, Daniel Carter, Cooper-Moore, Steve Swell, Roy Campbell Jr., Sabir Mateen, Ori Kaplan, Jemeel Moondoc, Assif Tahar, Borah Bergman, Billy Bang, Andrew Lamb, Warren Smith and many others. Tom is currently a member of the collective groups, The Transcendentalists, Dichotomy with Okkyung Lee and the experimental improvisational trio, Triptych Myth.

Tom is the founder and driving force behind the arts coalition Jump Arts (http://jumparts.org), which since its 1997 inception has presented over 150 performances and educational workshops in New York City. Jump Arts is dedicated to creating viable opportunities for revolutionary artists of different generations, backgrounds, and experiences with a strong focus on emerging artists.

Tom has taught music through the New York City Parks Department, Columbia University’s Greenhouse Nursery School and currently teaches artist residencies in the New York Public Schools. He also presents a free outreach program through Jump Arts called “The Creative Sound Workshop” which incorporates musical story telling and hands-on learning.

http://TomAbbs.com

Ravi Padmanabha began playing Western Percussion at age 13. His initial interest was in rock, which later turned to jazz. Through out high school and college Ravi performed in jazz and percussion ensembles. His pursuit of jazz lead him to Buffalo’s infamous Colored Musicians Club. It is here where Ravi performed regularly with many jazz Veterans.

From an early age Ravi was exposed to Indian Classical Music. At age 18 he began his formal tabla studies with Pt. Ananda Gopal and later with Pt. Samar Saha from Calcutta. Later Ravi continued his tabla studies with world renowned tabla Maestro Pt. Sharda Sahai of Benares. Ravi has performed on tabla with the Malestrom Percussion Ensemble at the Masters of Percussion concert series in 1998 and 1999.

Ravi has released 3 solo CD’s, Visarjana, Collection, and Prophecy, all on Sunburst 50 records. Each CD features a variety of original compositions in which Ravi plays various percussion, dulcimer, bansuri, flute, piano, shenai, dij, tampura, violin, voice, jawharp and gopichand. In 1999 Ravi completed an entire CD of moorsing (jawharp) compositions.

In 1995 Ravi and guitarist Ron Locurto formed Tala Rasa and released West of East on Sunbusrt 50 records. The duo has performed at the 1998 Buffalo Drum Day, the 2001 Niagara Guitar Festival and numerous Indian cultural events. In 1996 Ravi and baritone saxophonist Steve Baczkowski formed an eclectic improv duo called Hylozoa. They have performed throughout Western New York at Hallwalls, Big Orbit Gallery and the Albright Knox Art Gallery. In 2001 bass/tubist Tom Abbs joined Ravi and Steve to form the Hylozoa trio.

In 2000, the St. Thagaraja Music Society of Buffalo commissioned Ravi to compose music for a narrative text of the Ramayana. In 2001 Ravi was awarded an educational scholarship from Triveni Arts to study Tabla in Calcutta at the Sangeet Research Academy.

Since moving to New York City in 2001 Ravi has been playing in a wide variety of musical genres. They range from traditional middle eastern and indian classical to jazz and free improvisation. He has played with Daniel Carter, Tom Chess, Drew Gress, Joseph Jarman, Peter Kowald, Adam Lane, Pauline Oliveros, Sabir Marteen and Blaise Siwula.