#1: 1986.1 by SIMF

The first Seattle Improvised Music Festival took place on March 2, 1986 when reed player Paul Hoskin organized an evening of spontaneous music-making in a loft space at the Lincoln Arts Center at 66 Bell Street in Belltown, combining more than a dozen local and visiting improvisers in unfamiliar groupings to ensure surprising interplay. It reportedly lasted for six hours (three of which were recorded and compiled by Hoskin in 2010 as a 3x CD-R). Little did the participants in this low-key event suspect that it would evolve into the longest-running annual showcase for freely improvised music in the United States.

"My friends Chris Cochrane and Doug Henderson from New York were touring, and I told them something like, “I have a duo show set up for you, but why don’t we do this large ensemble thing as well?” And they went, “Sure, OK!” So then I sent out invitations to almost anyone that I had played with or seen play in the improvised world at all… And it just turned into this large thing… it was basically divided [into] three sets of different small ensembles… I asked people whether they wanted to just decide that evening, or if they wanted me to do it, and they all said, “You do it, please!” Some of them were similar instruments, like a clarinet quintet with James Pelletier and Beverly Setzer and [Brad] Stevens. And then there was a Wally Shoup with electric guitar kind of thing. You know, those arrangements… It was Robert Jenkins that did the next one." (Paul Hoskin interviewed by Steve Peters, October 8, 2014)

The SIMF has striven to present the full range of freely improvised musics – not only free jazz, but also spontaneous musics rooted in rock, classical, electronic, and world music. Ultimately, the festival's only criteria are that the music be entirely improvised and that it be executed with conviction and skill, regardless of genre or instrumentation. For many years the festival enforced a 20-minute time limit on performances, with five or six acts per evening – an effective device for focusing the musicians' improvising skills and for guaranteeing a far-ranging listening experience for the audience. More recently, festival organizers have opted for fewer performances of longer duration. (Dennis Rea)


"Festival Musicians Make it All Up (Paul de Barros, Seattle Times; Feb. 28, 1986)

Experimental musicians often speak of "rules" when they perform, rather than the notes, scores, keys, or time signatures of traditional music. An example of a musical rule might be, "No musician may play any note higher than B-flat above middle C, unless it is held for 30 seconds."

The only rule for this weekend's Festival of Improvised Music, at 6 PM Sunday at the Lincoln Arts Center, 66 Bell St., is that no musician may play with his or her regular group.

Twenty musicians will be involved. Some of their music will be performed on electronic gizmos, tape, synthesizers and electric guitar, but the majority will come from traditional instruments such as clarinet, trumpet, saxophone and trombone. Members of the Paul Hoskin Trio, the Greinke/Angus duo, Fred, Entropics, Jeffrey Morgan's New Art Orchestra and the Wally Shoup/Mary Horn duo will perform.

In the past year there has been a remarkable amount of activity - underground and overground - on Seattle's diverse improvised-music scene. "Improvising" is a fancy word for making up the music as you go along, instead of reading it from a page. At Cabaret Hegel, Soundwork, the 1411 Gallery, The New Melody Tavern, The Fabulous Rainbow, The Oxford Tavern and the now-defunct Here Today Gallery, a small group of improvisers has been presenting concerts regularly.

Paul Hoskin, a bass-clarinetist, has organized Sunday's festival to celebrate the diversity of the scene as well as to offer a new, casual context for the music.

Donations of $3 are requested."


Participating musicians:
Eric Amrine, guitar
Rob Angus, electronics/electric guitar
Johnny Calcagno, electric guitar/tapes
Chris Cochrane, electric guitar (NYC)
Cri (Christian Ninaud), saxophones
Philip Goldman, saxophones/voice
Lori Goldston, cello
Jeff Greinke, electric guitar/trumpet/voice
Jeffrey Haloff, percussion
Doug Henderson, electric guitar/alto sax (NYC)
Mary Horn, voice/movement
David Hoskin, synthesizer
Paul Hoskin, clarinets/saxophones
Robert Jenkins, electric guitar/euphonium
Kate Johnston, violin/concertina/voice
Pete Leinonen, bass/tuba
David Milford, bass guitar/cello/tubes
James Pelletier, clarinets/saxophones
Greg Powers, trombone
Charley Rowan, alto sax
Beverly Setzer, clarinets/tubes/voice
Wally Shoup, alto sax
Bradley Stevens, clarinets/tenor sax
Harlan Mark Vale, drums (Olympia)

Initiated in 1986 by Paul Hoskin, the Seattle Improvised Music Festival is perhaps the longest running festival of free improvised music in North America.

More material will be added here as it emerges. We welcome contributions.

Artists wishing to have their recordings removed will be accommodated upon request.