Volcano Radar’s concert March 17th at Constellation will feature two Italian legends, trombone virtuoso Giancarlo Schiaffini and percussionist/composer Andrea Centazzo. This event is supported by the Italian Institute of Culture (IIC). Italian masters Giancarlo Schiaffini and Andrea Centazzo are two of the most prominent European improvisers. In collaboration with Volcano Radar they will present a concert at Constellation, Friday Mar.17th, 8:30pm. Get Tickets and Info

Percussionist/composer Andrea Centazzo

The evening will continue the collaboration Volcano Radar started last year with Andrea Centazzo at the same venue and later, during their West Coast tour. For this occasion, trombone star Giancarlo Schiaffini will join the project with Centazzo and Volcano Radar members Elbio Barilari and Julia A. Miller and guest bassist/composer Tatsu Aoki.

On that night, Giancarlo Schiaffini will be on trombone, Andrea Centazzo on drumset and electronics, Elbio Barilari will play electric viola, soprano sax, pocket trumpet, electric guitar & electronics, Julia A. Miller will play both synthesized guitar and electric guitar and Tatsu Aoki will be featured on double bass.

GIANCARLO SCHIAFFINI

Giancarlo Schiaffini, composer-trombonist-tubist, was born in Rome in 1942 and graduated in Physics at the University of Rome in 1965. Self-taught as a musician, he appeared as soloist in the first free-jazz concerts in Italy and subsequently presented his own compositions widely in the mid 1960’s. In 1970 he studied at Darmstadt with Stockhausen, Ligeti and Globokar and formed the contemporary chamber ensemble Nuove Forme Sonore. He also worked with Franco Evangelisti in 1972 and collaborated with the Gruppo di Improvvisazione di Nuova Consonanza until 1983. In 1975 he founded the Gruppo Romano di Ottoni performing Renaissance and Contemporary music. He is member of the well-known Italian Instabile Orchestra.

He taught at the Conservatorio “G. Rossini” in Pesaro, “A. Casella” in l’Aquila and at the Summer Courses of Siena Jazz (instrument, improvisation, composition). He also teaches Contemporary Music, Jazz and Improvisation in clinics and seminars all over the world (New York University, Monash University Melbourne, Hochschule Freiburg i. B., Acanthes-Villeneuve d’Avignon, UNEAC-Cuba).

Schiaffini plays contemporary music, jazz and improvised music in concerts and international festivals of contemporary music and jazz including Teatro alla Scala, Accademia di S. Cecilia, Biennale Musica di Venezia, Autunno Musicale di Como, Settembre Musica di Torino, IRCAM, Upic and Festival d’Automne (Paris), Reina Sofia (Madrid), Ars Musica (Bruxelles), Europa Jazz Festival du Mans, Jazz a Mulhouse, Tramway (Rouen), Wien Modern, Aspekte (Salzburg), Donaueschinger Musiktage, Moers, Tage fuer Neue Musik (Zurich), Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon), Alte Oper (Frankfurt), Berliner Philarmonie, Festival di Gibellina, FIMAV Victoriaville and New Music Concerts-Toronto (Canada), Nuova Consonanza, Bimhuis (Amsterdam), JazzYatra (India), Darmstadter Ferienkurse, Pomeriggi Musicali and Musica del nostro tempo di Milano, UNEAC (Cuba), Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Lincoln Center and Hunter College (New York).

Since 1988 Schiaffini has worked with the singer and writer Silvia Schiavoni on the composition and performance of multi-media events inspired by literature and visual arts (Joyce, Gauguin, Ibsen, Boccioni, Ammaniti, Belli, and others), with images created by Ilaria Schiaffini. In 2000 he has been Composer in residence for the International Composers & Improvisers Forum Munich.

Schiaffini has collaborated with John Cage, Karole Armitage, Luigi Nono and Giacinto Scelsi on various performances and works for solo trombone and tuba that have been dedicated to him by Scelsi, Nono, Amman, Alandia, Dashow, Villa-Rojo, Renosto, Laneri, Guaccero.

He has performed for the National Radios in Austria, Canada, Holland, Germany, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Sweden, France as well as having recorded for BMG, Curci, Cramps, Edipan, Horo, Pentaflowers, Pentaphon, Red Records, Ricordi, Vedette. His music has been published by BMG, Curci, Edipan, Ricordi. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz (Oxford University Press) and the Enciclopedia della Musica (Utet/Garzanti) both dedicate an entry-word to Schiaffini.

His treatise on contemporary trombone techniques is published by Ricordi, and “E non chiamatelo jazz”, about improvisation, by Auditorium Edizioni.

For more information visit his official website ANDREA CENTAZZO

Italian composer, percussionist and multimedia artist Andrea Centazzo has been a bold explorer of contemporary art for 40 years. In the early 70's he introduced a new concept of percussion playing, migrating from the free jazz to a new form of improvised music. 
In the late 70's, Centazzo was one of the founders of the NY downtown music scene through his seminal collaboration with John Zorn, Tom Corra, Eugene Chadbourne, Toshinori Kondo and others, documented in many albums.
In 1976 he established ICTUS Records one of the first musician operated labels, recording with Steve Lacy, Evan Parker, Pierre Favre, Derek Bailey, John Zorn, Alvin Curran, Albert Mangelsdorff, Don Cherry and many others.
He left the improvised music scene in 1986, moving shortly after to Los Angeles, CA, and dedicating himself to composition and video making. Centazzo authored 3 operas, 2 symphonies and almost 500 compositions for all kinds of ensembles, plus many award winning video films.
Returning to live performance in 1998, he created solo concerts and solo multimedia concerts, started playing live in sync with videos that he shot and edited. His last project “Einstein’s Cosmic Messengers” has been produced by LIGO, Caltech and NASA.
Recently, the Library of the University of Bologna at DAMS dedicated to the composer the Fondo Andrea Centazzo where all his works are collected and made available to students and scholars. For more information on Mr. Centazzo visit his website.

VOLCANO RADAR

Uruguayan born multi-instrumentalist and composer Elbio Barilari and American guitarist and composer Julia Miller played together for the first time in 2012. They made their first public appearance as Volcano Radar at Chicago’s Empty Bottle shortly after. The band moves fluently through a stylistic range from noise-funk improvisation to structured sonic forms.

Volcano Radar’s soundscapes have been described as: noise-funk, post-jazz, avant-rock, improvised experimental music, jazz-electronica and neo-psychedelia. Volcano Radar’s first recording, “Refutation of Time”, just reached the 30,000 downloads mark. Their new recording, “Electro Parables”, has been released by “Pan & Rosas” in 2016.

The band has been joined by reedists Edward Wilkerson Jr. and Jim Gailloreto, bassists Rollo Radford and Harrison Bankhead, drummers Tim Davis, Lou Ciccotelli, Ernie Adams and Avreeayl Ra. Their studio CD featuring Paquito D’Rivera is currently in the post-production stage. Their first collaboration with Tatsu Aoki occurred in 2016 during the Asian-American Jazz Festival.

ELIBIO BARIARI

Elbio Barilari is professor of Latin American music at UIC in Chicago and hosts the weekly radio show “Fiesta!” on WFMT 98.7. Barilari has been active for already four decades in the fields of classical music, jazz and experimental music. His symphonic and chamber works, as well as his extended jazz compositions have been performed in the US, Europe and Latin America.

Among his extended jazz compositions are: “Lincolniana” (commissioned by Ravinia Festival in 2008), “Sounds of Hope” (commissioned by Morse Theatre for President’s Obama first inauguration), “Flag from Hashes” (commissioned by WFMT 98.7 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11) and “Diasporas”, a work in progress commissioned by the Robert & Terri Cohn Foundation to celebrate diversity and tolerance.

On the field of jazz and improvised music Barilari has worked in collaboration with Paquito D’Rivera, Danilo Pérez, Jon Faddis, Naná Vasconcellos, Hermeto Pascoal, Misha Mengelberg, Andrea Centazzo and other prominent international American and European artists as well as many of the most relevant Chicago musicians, such as Orbert Davis, Ernest Dawkins, Dee Alexander, Kahil el’Zabar, Edward Wilkerson Jr., Jim Gailloreto, Guillermo Gregorio, Darwin Noguera and many others.

Barilari’s symphonic music has been performed by Chicago Sinfonietta, Orquesta de la Radio y Televisión de España, Colorado Symphony, Grant Park Festival Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta Chamber Ensemble, Ravinia Festival, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Chicago Children’s Choir, Lyric Opera Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmónica de Montevideo, Chicago Arts Orchestra, and Baroque Band, among others. Barilari was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1953. He studied in his own country as well as in Brazil and Germany, and moved to the US in 1998.

JULIA A. MILLER Julia A. Miller is a guitarist, composer, improviser, sound artist, visual artist, curator and educator. Julia specializes in synthesized electric guitar, performing as a soloist or collaborator and with the band Volcano Radar, along with Elbio Barilari. In 2011, a live recording of her solo performance on Chicago's Experimental Sound Studio Sunday Solos Series, "Solo Variations", was released as a digital EP on the Chicago netlabel Pan y Rosas. in 2012, Julia was asked to participate in the $100 Guitar Project, a double cd release of improvised and composed short pieces by 65 different guitarists which was released on Bridge Records with proceeds benefitting CARE. Also in 2013, Volcano Radar released the digital EP "Refutation of Time" on Pan Y Rosas. Julia's music has also been released on the Artco and Pilgrim Talk labels. Julia has been recognized by the blog Prepared Guitar

Many Many Women and Squid's Ear, as well as the Chicago Reader.

Julia is Guitar Professor at Carthage College in Kenosha, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Sound at the School of the Art Institute (SAIC) in Chicago. Julia received a DMA in composition from Northwestern University in 2005. TATSU AOKI Tatsu Aoki is a prolific artist, composer, musician, educator and a consummate bassist and Shamisen Lute player. Based in Chicago, Aoki works in a wide range of musical genres, ranging from traditional Japanese music, jazz, experimental and creative music Aoki was born in 1957 in Tokyo, Japan into an artisan family. Aoki was active performer during the early 70’s in the mist of Tokyo Underground Arts movement. Became a member of Japanese Experimental Music ensemble, GINTENKAI presenting mixture of traditional music and new western music. After coming to U.S. in 1977, Aoki studied experimental filmmaking at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is currently an adjunct Full Professor at the Film, Video and New Media Department, and teaches film production and history courses. During the late 80’s, Aoki has become a leading advocate for Chicago's Asian American community and one of Chicago's most in-demand musicians on both contrabass, taiko (Japanese drums) and shamisen (Japanese lute). Working in film and music.
To this date, Aoki has produced and appeared in more than 90 recording projects and over 30 experimental films. He is one of the most recorded artists in Chicago music scene. Among many of recordings, he has worked with musical masters and legends and produced remarkable duet works with bassist Malachi Favors, multi instrumentalists such as Roscoe Mitchell, Don Moye and world renowned Pipa virtuoso, Wu Man and another Chicago legend, the late Fred Anderson. Get Tickets and Info or call 312-555-5555 *****

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