Olympia Free Jazz Festival: Solos, Duos, and Trios

Olympia Free Jazz Festival 2024 Day 1
Thursday, July 11th from 7 to 10 pm come to Dr. Wheelz’ Pad for a house concert featuring small group performances by bassist Cooper Schlegel, steel guitarist Hal Merrill and Arrington de Dionyso.

Dr. Wheelz’ Pad is on Olympia’s West Side near Harrison and Division.

For more information please RSVP to drwheelzpad@gmail.com as seating is limited. Suggested Donation $20.

Cooper Schlegel studied music at the University of Wisconsin under Richard Davis after being told to do so by Bert Wilson and Steve Luceno. He then got his Masters in Music Education through University of Washington. Cooper has had the opportunity to play with Linda Oh, John Raymond, Caili O’doherty, Ingrid Jensen, Freddie Cole, and Bob Sheppard (among others), scored two full length plays, wrote small theater/music pieces with buddy Christopher William-Wolter, played bass for the Olympia Symphony Orchestra, and released “Please Take Us Seriously;” an all-original album with the collaborative Left Field Quartet. Cooper is finishing up his first year teaching public K-12 music in Willapa Valley (close to Raymond, WA), which was amazing.

Hal Merrill has been playing jazz on pedal steel guitar for more than 40 years, and for more than 30 years in the Pacific Northwest. You will enjoy the mixture of jazz standards and original free improvisation that Hal presents on this beautiful musical instrument.
An uncompromising voice in contemporary music, Arrington de Dionyso integrates ancient soundmaking techniques with trans-modernist inquiries into the nature of consciousness. His propulsive improvisations utilize voice and reeds (primarily bass clarinets and his invention the Bromiophone) as multiphonic tools in the navigation of liminal spaces between shamanic seance and rock and roll ecstasy.
While deeply rooted in the punk inclination to tear down musical standards in an effort for liberation, Arrington’s music weds no-wave iconoclasm to the spiritual searching of Albert Ayler era free jazz along with more indigenous approaches to improvisation, reaching for an unveiling of primordially potent universalities. His compositions embrace sounds as colors, placing emphasis on the complimentary spectrums- from circular overtones whispered through bamboo flutes to the penetrating deep and guttural howls of amplified throatsinging- all with the lungs of an athlete.

Over the last 25 years he has spearheaded groups such as Old Time Relijun, Malaikat dan Singa, and This Saxophone Kills Fascists. He has also performed alongside many great icons of contemporary music including Deerhoof, the Master Musicians of Jajouka, Senyawa, Keiji Haino and The Violent Femmes.
Whether as a band leader, solo performer, or in collaborative settings, Arrington’s music evokes an “Ancient Future”, sometimes shocking and hallucinatory, always aiming to channel Spirit.
The Olympia Free Jazz Festival 2024 is a four-day festival from Thursday, July 11 through Sunday, July 14 occurring at four different venues and featuring performers from all along the west coast from Vancouver BC to San Francisco.

Beginning with a house concert of solos, duos and trios at Dr. Wheelz’ Pad Thursday, Friday night at New Traditions features the Joe Mailhot Jazz Unit and TRILOGY. Saturday evening is a music in the park event at West Central Park with The West Coast Free Jazz All-Stars and Spontanea, followed by an after-hours show at ABC House. Sunday at New Traditions features the poetry and music of Bay Area saxophonist Lewis Jordan.