Be Bread

Pianist Myra Melford and Be Bread featuring Cuong Vu, trumpet, Brandon Ross, guitar, Ben Goldberg, clarinet, Stomu Takeishi, bass, and Matt Wilson, drums.

Be Bread features Myra Melford on piano, Brandon Ross on electric guitar and banjo, Cuong Vu on trumpet and electronics, Ben Goldberg on clarinets, Stomu Takeishi on electric and acoustic bass guitar and Matt Wilson on drums. The band draws extensively on Melford’s experiences in India. Their first CD, The Image of Your Body, was released on Cryptogramophone, in 2006. The band is now performing the music from their upcoming CE release and 2004 CMA/New Works Presentation commission the whole place goes up.

Originally from Chicago, Myra Melford gravitated early in her career to musicians associated with the AACM collective such as violinist Leroy Jenkins and alto saxophonist/composer Henry Theadgill. She’s first gained attention with her brawny trio featuring bassist Lindsey Horner and drummer Reggie Nicholson. Known for her high energy, percussive attack, Melford is also a deliciously lyrical player with a passion for classical Indian music (the harmonium has become an important textural element in her sound). An inventive composer and inveterate creator of bands, she has recorded with many ensembles, including The Same River, Twice, with trumpeter Dave Douglas, cellist Erik Friedlander, drummer Michael Sarin and Chris Speed on reeds, and Equal Interest, a cooperative trio with Joseph Jarman and the late Leroy Jenkins. Since 1991, she has appeared on more than 30 critically acclaimed recordings, including 17 as a leader or co-leader. Based in Berkeley since 2004, Melford is an Assistant Professor of Improvisation and Jazz in UC Berkeley’s Music Department.

Brandon Ross is a guitarist/composer/singer/songwriter who is best known as the musical director for renowned jazz singer Cassandra Wilson. Ross studied at the Berklee College of Music and at Hampshire College. He has crafted a personal approach to jazz guitar, and improvisation that has taken him all over the world and allowed him to work with a wide range of artists from across the musical spectrum, including Henry Threadgill, Jewel, Tony Williams, Arto Lindsay, The Lounge Lizards, Leroy Jenkins, Butch Morris, Bill Frisell, Me'Shell N'degeocello, Moreno Veloso, Arrested Development, Archie Shepp, Don Byron, Ron Miles, Oliver Lake, Bill Laswell, Zeena Parkins, Michelle Branch and Wadada Leo Smith. Ross co-leads the Pan-African avant power trio, Harriet Tubman with bassist Melvin Gibbs and drummer JT Lewis. He also composes for his acoustic based quartet Blazing Beauty and the acoustic string duo, For Living Lovers with bass guitarist Stomu Takeishi.

Cuong Vu was six when his family left their home in Vietnam and moved to Seattle, Washington. When he was 11 his mother gave him a trumpet to satisfy his musical curiosities, which led to relentless practice sessions and eventually a scholarship to the New England Conservatory of Music. Though he received his BM in jazz studies, Vu was exposed to classical and post-modern classical music at the conservatory. He fell in love with the music of Beethoven, Schoenberg, Lutoslawski and Ligetí. Vu has funneled these influences into a variety of ensembles that include JACKhouse, Scratcher (featuring Holly Palmer), and VU-TET (featuring Jim Black, Curtis Hasselbring, Chris Speed and Stomu Takeishi). In addition to recording and performing stints with Dave Douglas, Gerry Hemingway, Dougie Bowne, Bobby Previte, Mark Helias, Chris Speed, Andy Laster, Ken Schaphorst and Orange Then Blue, Vu has toured worldwide with the Pat Metheny Group as a singer and guitarist.

Clarinetist Ben Goldberg grew up in Denver, Colorado and currently lives in Berkeley, California. He was a pupil of the eminent clarinetist Rosario Mazzeo, and studied with Steve Lacy and Joe Lovano. Goldberg’s group New Klezmer Trio took a slightly different view of the klezmer tradition. Their CD Masks and Faces was listed as one of the ten best recordings of 1992 by Cadence magazine, and as The San Francisco Chronicle noted, it “kicked open the door for radical experiments with Ashkenazi roots music.” Masks and Faces and Melt Zonk Rewire, as well as the group's third CD Short for Something, are on the Tzadik label. Ben's other recordings include a record of duets with Kenny Wollesen, The Relative Value of Things (33 ¼ Records); two records by Junk Genius (with John Schott, Trevor Dunn, and Wollesen): Junk Genius (Knitting Factory Works), an examination of the bebop repertoire, and Ghost of Electricity (Songlines), dealing with aspects of American folk music; Light at the Crossroads (Songlines) with Marty Ehrlich; Here by Now (Music and Arts); What Comes Before (Tzadik), reflections on post-tonal harmonic structures with John Schott and Michael Sarin; and Twelve Minor (Avant), compositions for sextet featuring Miya Masaoka. Goldberg is currently planning a record of new compositions for solo clarinet.

Stomu Takeishi has played electric fretless bass in a variety of jazz settings throughout the '90s and 2000s. He came to the United States from Japan in 1983 to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston. After completing his degree in 1986, he moved to Manhattan to continue his studies at The New School. In the 1990s he began to achieve prominence as an innovative New York jazz bass player, and critics have noted both his adventurous playing and sensitivity to sound and timbre. A member of Myra Melford's Crush Trio and Erik Friedlander's Topaz (with brother Satoshi Takeishi on percussion), Takeishi has also played in trumpeter Cuong Vu's group Vu-Tet and in the North Indian-influenced Alankar. Takeishi has played with such musicians as Henry Threadgill, Satoko Fuji, Dave Liebman, Butch Morris, Paul Motian, Don Cherry, Randy Brecker and Wynton Marsalis. He has played in many international jazz festivals and often performs at major venues in New York, the United States, and Europe.

Matt Wilson is considered one of the most creative jazz artists of his generation. He allows any musical setting to flow and explore with child-like fascination. His versatility and enthusiasm has been welcomed by a wide range of ensembles including those led by Dewey Redman, Lee Konitz, Charlie Haden, Joe Lovano, Denny Zeitlin, Frank Kimbrough, Dena Derose, Ted Nash, Bill Mays and many others. Wilson has appeared on over 165 recordings as a sideman and has recorded 7 acclaimed recordings for Palmetto records. He currently leads three ensembles that perform worldwide- Arts and Crafts, the Matt Wilson Quartet and the Carl Sandburg Project as well as being a co-leader of Trio M. Wilson has been voted #1 Rising Star Drummer for the past 5 years in the DownBeat Critic’s Poll and his group, Arts and Crafts, was voted #1 Rising Star Small Group in the 2007 poll. The Jazz Journalists Association voted Matt Wilson Drummer of the Year in 2003.