Jason Bivins has been playing improvised music on the guitar for over a decade. Having started out playing punk in and around Washington, D.C., he moved on to funk, fusion, and new music during college. After working in these genres for some time, primarily in the bands Sweatbox and Plum Loco in Washington, he began to focus on improvisation exclusively. Relocated in Indiana to pursue a doctorate in Religious Studies, he became involved in a number of improv projects: a long-standing duo with flutist Richard Patterson, the collective trio M, his own Jason Bivins trio, and the Unstable Ensemble. He has played on bills with the Vandermark Five, Hamid Drake, Scott Fields, Michael Zerang, Frank Gratkowski, Chris Cutler, and others. During this time, he also began writing music reviews for Cadence magazine. Since moving to North Carolina in 2000, he has collaborated with Ian Davis on a number of projects: duo playing, the cooperative Slugworth quartet, and membership in the Micro-East Collective. Jason has recently published his first work of non-fiction entitled "The Fracture of Good Order" (UNC Press), available on-line and through discriminating retailers everywhere.
Ian Davis started drumming at 15 as an R&B drummer with The Barons, playing gigs on the South Carolina “chittlin’ circuit” with Earl Davis, George McCauley, Craig Washington, Phil Griffin, and "Cool" John Ferguson. He played folk and fusion in the 70’s, alt-pop, improvisational, and big band music in the 80’s, and played with Blue Chair, Mind Sirens, Bicentennial Quarters, Trailer Bride, and Chris Stamey/Kirk Ross in the 90’s. He was host drummer for 6 years at the Carrboro Arts Center monthly jazz jam. He moved to the Bay Area in ’95 and played with Mills College-based large improvising ensemble Micro Collective Orchestra along with Scott Rosenberg, Matt Ingalls, Morgan Guberman, Brian Pearson, Brian Kane, and many others. After returning to North Carolina in ’97, he organized the Micro-East Collective, a structured improvisational orchestra similar in design to Micro. He and composer-performer-producer-engineer Chris Stamey have recorded and produced 3 CDs for Micro-East. Ian also manages Umbrella Records. He currently plays in improvisational duos with Jason Bivins (guitar), Mahlon Hoard (soprano and tenor saxes), Onomata, a pulse-based improvising quartet, Unstable Ensemble, a Bloomington-based improvising ensemble, and The Dave Fox Quartet (Greensboro, NC). Recently, he's been invited to do a few gigs with Eugene Chadbourne. In September 2000, he toured with Andrew Voigt, Morgan Guberman, and Toshi Makihara as part of the music and dance group Corpus Ludens. By virtue of coast-spanning employment, the collaboration with Andrew and Morgan continues. Ian also records improvisational performers during house concerts sponsored by the Triangle’s Alliance for Improvised Music.
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