Sunday May 30 * 7pm * outside at Rhizome

THOMAS HELTON is a composer and bassist who writes and performs music in both solo and ensemble settings. As a composer Mr. Helton was awarded a Houston Arts Alliance Individual Artist Fellowship Grant in 2007 for the commission and premiere of a new work for fifteen-piece ensemble, the Torture Chamber Ensemble. He was awarded an artist residency for the commission and premiere of Pride from DiverseWorks ArtSpace in Houston in October 2004, a work for ten-piece ensemble and video projection created in collaboration with video artist Maria del Carmen Montoya. Other new music commissions include 5 works for the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble. Desesperados (2005), a suite of tangos, is featured on Houston Public Radio’s CD The Best of the Front Row. Black Rain (2005), a work for saxophone, guitar, string bass, percussion and dancers, was chosen to be performed as part of FotoFest’s 2006 Biennial dedicated to the themes of The Earth and Artists Responding to Violence. As a bassist, Thomas Helton performs with his own ensemble, The Core Trio, as well as with many celebrated jazz and free improv artists including Tim Hagans, Milt Jackson, Daniel Carter, Monty Alexander, Frank Gratowski and Ernie Watts, William Parker, Weasel Walter and Steve Swell. He recently performed the music of Tim Hagans as a guest artist with Sweden’s Norrbotten Big Band. He was also featured at the 2009 ISB Bass Convention curated by Mark Dresser. Thomas has released three CD’s: Doublebass; Experimentations in Minimalism; and Saga. All three have received positive reviews in the press in both in the U.S. and Europe. In the spring of 2010 he spent 3 month a the TAKT Artist residency in Berlin, Germany.

A collective of local improvising impresarios will open the evening with a free-form avian accompaniment. Including Nik Francis / Sarah Hughes / Layne Garrett / Nate Scheible / Luke Stewart