Dec 02, 7:30 p.m.

St. David's Presbyterian Church, 1544 Grafton St, Halifax, NS B3J 0J5, Canada

Tickets on sale at the doors: $25 or pay what you can

 

“Between the three of them they possess a seemingly endless flow of ideas and an extremely high level of musicianship, occasionally creating moments that seem composed, but are indeed the product of their fierce commitment to the act of free improvising.”

- Jonathan Ronle

 

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About the Event

Fresh from an enthusiastically received performance at the 2022 Guelph Jazz Festival, Collateral (Sam Shalabi, guitar/oud, Norm Adams, cello and Tim Crofts, piano) are back for their first performance in Halifax since 2017! This improvising trio combines jazz, classical, North African, punk and noise music to create a collision of sounds that you won't want to miss. Collateral will lead you on a journey through a rich landscape of music and expression.

 

Norman Adams is the Artistic Director of suddenlyLISTEN Music, and is a cellist, organizer, teacher and creator. Norm is a former Principal Cellist of Symphony Nova Scotia (1991 – 2018), has been guest Principal Cellist of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and has performed chamber, new and improvised music throughout Canada, the US, Europe and the UK, (most recently at La Biennale di Venezia 2018).

 

Norman’s passion is creating, performing and presenting new, improvised and electronic music. Through this work he has had opportunities to collaborate with many leading artists including Joëlle Léandre, Gerry Hemingway, Eddie Prévost, Lawrence Casserley, Pauline Oliveros and Marilyn Crispell.  

 

Norm currently performs and tours with Strata (with Brandon Auger), Chimera (with Francois Houle and Tim Crofts) Collateral (with Sam Shalabi and Tim Crofts) and Augmented Celli (with Nicola Baroni). He is also frequently heard with pianist Barbara Pritchard, and fellow cellist India Gailey.

 

Tim Crofts is a true 21st Century pianist. He performs a wide variety of music in concerts, clubs and recordings often with suddenlyLISTEN, Upstream, Symphony Nova Scotia, and with such creative music luminaries as Sam Shalabi, Gerry Hemingway, Evan Parker and Dave Douglas. In 2015 Tim released two recordings: his solo CD 8 Ball and Doorknob, and Literal Lateral with the Crofts/Adams/Pearse Trio and percussionist Gerry Hemingway.  In 2017 he released Collateral with Adams and Shalabi and Arrhythmia, a collaboration with local spoken word artist hermitofthewoods. Tim has toured Canada 4 times, and is a faculty member at the Fountain School for the Performing Arts, at Dalhousie University

 

 

Sam Shalabi (oud / guitar: Montréal / Cairo) is an Egyptian-Canadian composer and improviser, living between Montréal, Québec and Cairo, Egypt. Beginning in punk rock in the late 70s,his work has evolved into a fusion of experimental, modern Arabic Music that incorporates traditional Arabic, shaabi, noise, classical, text, free improvisation and jazz. He has released 5 solo albums (including On Hashish — a musical mediation on German writer Walter Benjamin, Osama, an audio collage on arabophobia in the wake of 9/11 and his most recent Music for Arabs), 5 albums with Shalabi Effect, a free improvisation quartet that bridges western psychedelic music and Arabic Maquam (scales) and 3 albums with Land Of Kush (an experimental 30 member orchestra, for which he composes).

He has appeared on over 30 albums and toured Europe, North America and North Africa.

 

JOYFULTALK is the brainchild of composer, improviser, producer, arranger,

instrument builder, multi-instrumentalist and multimedia artist Jay Crocker. Since relocating from Calgary to a rural Nova Scotia homestead a decade ago, Crocker has been broadening the scope and pace of his visual, sculptural and video work in

tandem with his musical exploration.

JOYFULTALK creates instrumental compositions that straddle analog and electronic sound explorations in uniquely inventive ways. Guided by graphic scores, handmade kinetic sculpture, and junked/recuperated Crocker delicately weaves between

human interaction and machine clockworks.

Crocker’s musical work has received critical acclaim from The New York Times, The Wire, Uncut, The Quietus, The Globe And Mail, and the BBC. In recent years he has been profiled in MusicWorks, Clot Magazine and at KEXP. Crocker has amassed a substantial production resume, including Ghostkeeper’s Polaris-nominated self-titled album (Flemish Eye Records, 2010) and Jon Mckiel’s internationally acclaimed album Bobby Joe Hope (You’ve Changed Records, 2020). Crocker has received awards and grants from Arts Nova Scotia, Music Nova Scotia, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

 

NICOLA MILLER is a jazz performer, composer, and music educator currently

based in Chester Basin, NS. Her playing stretches from melodic and sweet to

avant-garde free improvisation. She has performed with, Frank Gratkowski, Tarek Yamani, JOYFULTALK, Uri Caine, Doug Tielli, Glenn Patscha, Nick Halley and Nick D’Amato. Nicola recently completed a Masters Degree in Jazz Composition at the

Jazz Institute in Berlin where she studied under Frank Gratkowski - giant of the European improvised music community and a former student of Steve Lacy.