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Skychefs, Tomchess and James Keepnews to Perform at Knitting Factory -- June 12

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Improvisation goes global and undergoes electro-shock therapy at the Knitting Factory's Old Office on Sunday, Jun 12th, as Richi Debonis' Skychefs, the new inter-galactic free-funk rave group, joins forces with multi-cultural multi-instrumentalist Tomchess and computer-interactive guitarist and improviser James Keepnews for scorching sets of new, experimental beat-driven electronic explorations, drawing upon music from around the world for their inspiration. Skychefs lifts off from the template defined by the genre-exploding work of electric Miles Davis and late-century, slice-and-dice DJs, blasting into uncharted realms powered by the exceptional, jazz-honed talents of its members. Led by drummer Richi Debonis -- whose jazz chops and tight, fast drum 'n bass jungle beats for which he is renowned -- Skychefs serves up a tantalizing array of directions in music including electronica, jazz and funk that will rock your senses and show you a groovy taste of the future. Joining Richi will be saxophonist Joel Frahm and his fellow performers on the bill for the evening. Both Tomchess and James Keepnews have had a long association with New York area experiemental music, and this will be the first appearance at the Knitting Factory for either in many years. Skychefs, Tomchess and James Keepnews will achieve escape velocity on Sunday, June 12th in the Old Office at the Knitting Factory. Admission is $8 and doors open at 7:00. Biographies of the artists continue below. For further information, contact Richi Debonis at 646.342.8075. _______________________________________________________ Richi Debonis (SkyChef Drummer, leader) Richi Debonis has preformed and recorded with great musicians of all styles and eras. Jaco Pastorius, Ace Frehley, Bill Watrous, Ron Carter, Chris Potter to name but a few. He has been touring recently with Chris Calloway (singer, daughter of Cab Calloway) and jazz great Frank Morgan. He currently has numerous creative projects in New York City including SkyChefs, the Nowtet and many others. Joel Frahm (SkyChef Saxophone) Joel Frahm has worked with a vast array of musical peers and jazz legends, including Maynard Ferguson, Betty Carter, Matt Wilson, Larry Goldings, Dewey Redman, Lee Konitz, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Brad Mehldau, Andrew Hill, Ben Allison, Jane Monheit, Kyle Eastwood and many more. He has appeared an dozens of records and has three of his own as a leader: Sorry No Decaf, The Navigator and Don't Explain (featuring Brad Mehldau) all on Palmetto Records. Don't Explain, his latest, was the number one jazz release for radio play in the United States for two consecutive weeks in 2004, according to jazzweek.com airplay chart and also reached number one on college radio for one week, according to College Music Journal's airplay chart. Joel continues to work and record, and will be touring this year with Ingrid Jensen's band Project O and Ben Allison's Medicine Wheel in addition to his own projects and clinician dates. _______________________________________________________ Tomchess (Ney, western flute, Oud) Tomchess is a Multi-instrumentalist/Improviser/Composer. He plays reeds, flute, arabic/turkish ney flute, oud, djembé and guitar. He has performed with Drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson' Decoding Society, Butch Morris's Sheng Skyscraper, recorded with Tenor players Dewey Redman, and Pharoah Sanders, Morrocan Sintarist Hassan Hakmoun and drummer Cody Moffett. He also leads a guitar trio with Drummer Phil Haynes and bassist Drew Gress called Seven Times a Year. He has studied Middle Eastern and West African music spending time in West Africa playing and performing. He has studied with Bassam Saba, Tidiani Bangoura, Abdul Aziz Tourè and Mohammad Camarra. He currently lives in NYC where he performs in the trio Music of Their Disapearance with Matt Heyner and David Gould, his ensembles The Lovedogs, and Bombpop.

_______________________________________________________ James Keepnews is a musician, composer, writer, actor and multimedia artist -- often blurring each of these roles in his work. He has performed with dozens of bands and performing artists over the course of two decades, including George Lewis, Joe Giardullo, Linda Montano, Holland Hopson, Damian Catera and many others. Keepnews has performed at such venues as The Kitchen, Knitting Factory, Bard College, Bennington College, Washington Square Church, Continental, One Station Plaza, among many others. He attended the Interactive Electronic Arts program (iEAR) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, receiving his MFA degree in electronic art. While a student, he collaborated as an actor, writer and video artist with fellow iEAR student, Johnny DeKam, in an early streaming media performance/virtual installation, “Ethereal/Corporeal". With fellow iEAR student Holland Hopson, he also collaborated with pioneering interactive improviser (and recent Macarthur Foundation “genius grant" awardee) George Lewis on a software-based computer video sampler for Lewis' performance, “Following the Northstar Bugaloo". He performed “ADM Sonata" at New York City’s The Kitchen with a computer video sampler system he controlled in real-time with his guitar. His writing appeared in The Squid's Ear, Reign of Toads and Metroland Magazine. Keepnews is presently at work on a full evening’s performance utilizing computer-interactive video in a theatrical setting, as well as a variety of musical performances and releases on his Metaharmonic Records label. He considers SkyChefs and Tomchess to be some of the most exciting performers playing anywhere today, and is honored to be playing with them at the Knitting Factory on June 12.

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