CHRIS JONAS DESERTS QUARTET
CHRIS JONAS reeds, compositions, video
THOMAS HEBERER cornet
CYRUS CAMPBELL bass
ANDREW DRURY drum set
soup at 7:30, music at 8
Music from the Deserts is a project of Santa Fe-based composer/sax player Chris Jonas, featuring Thomas Heberer on cornet, bassist Cyrus Campbell and drummer Andrew Drury.
Deserts explores music written in complete solitude during winter camping over 3 years during the Pandemic, created in Arizona's Barry Goldwater Missile Range adjacent to the Trump Border Wall that cuts across Arizona's granite Tinajas Altas. This collection of music is in the midst of touring worldwide in 2023-25. Jonas’s music contains some elements of jazz while mixing elements that are quirky, delicate, weirdly groovy, polyphonic, and a mixture of the disjointed and melodic.
Biographies
Chris Jonas, reeds, compositions, video
Santa Fe-based Jonas has been a long time and very active artistic figure in the creative music world, working as a collaborator in video, conducting and performing with Anthony Braxton (with whom he has recorded dozens of albums, conducted orchestras, produced operas and large scale events, and toured extensively), Cecil Taylor (1996-98 as performer and musical director), William Parker (as a member of Little Huey 1992-2001), and touring across the EU as a member of the Anthony Braxton Saxophone Quartet in 2022 which was just released as a four record set Sax QT (Lorraine). He is currently working in the EU and US with an array of projects, including leading the Fronterossa Open Lab with bassist Sylvia Bolognese and Toscana Produzione Musica, conducting three movements of new Desert compositions with a 37 person creative orchestra in Pisa, Italy, tours with Desert project ensembles in Italy, Germany, UK and Sweden, with Myra Melford on a series of video and music pieces about painter Cy Twombly, and with Anthony Braxton in a variety of ensembles, including a concert at the Library of Congress March 8, 2025. He is co-founder of the Santa Fe-based multi arts non-profit, Little Globe (www.littleglobe.org) and won the United States Artists Award in 2009.
www.chrisjonascreative.com | www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Jonas
Thomas Heberer, cornet
Time Out New York called him "an innovator," The Penguin Guide to Jazz "outstandingly gifted," and pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach "our new trumpet genius." Thomas Heberer, born 1965 in Schleswig, Germany, started playing the trumpet at age 11. From 1984 to 1987, he studied under Manfred Schoof at the Cologne University of Music. He has performed in 70 countries on 6 continents; was a lecturer at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts (1993-97); and can be heard on approximately 150 recordings. Honors include receiving the prestigious SWR Jazzpreis in 1990, and being awarded the Down Beat Critics Poll as a member of the ICP Orchestra in 2002. Wim Wenders' feature-length dance movie Pina, winner of the 2011 European Film Award, includes music Thomas contributed to Ten Chi, a choreography by Pina Bausch. Besides his ongoing work with the ICP Orchestra, Heberer maintains a busy performance and recording schedule with numerous New York City based ensembles, among them the Nu Band, Remedy and the Angelica Sanchez Nonet.
Andrew Drury, drums
There is no doubt that Andrew Drury is one of most innovative and bold drummers on the
modern music scene. (Hrayr Attarian, All About Jazz). Andrew Drury is a drummer, improviser, composer, bandleader, producer, educator, and a pioneer of extended techniques for percussion. Rooted in a fascination for Jazz and African-diasporic creativity that began in childhood, and further inspired by a nearly decade-long mentorship with the drummer Ed Blackwell, Drury’s work engages with tradition while exploring the infinite. He has worked with artists such as Kris Davis, Michel Doneda, Mark Dresser, Peter Evans, Satoko Fujii, Jason Kao Hwang, Earl Howard, Howard Johnson, Ku-umba Frank Lacy, Ingrid Laubrock, Annea Lockwood, Myra Melford, J. D. Parran, Tomeka Reid, Roswell Rudd, Elliott Sharp, and Wadada Leo Smith, to name a few. Originally from Seattle, he lives in Brooklyn.
Cyrus Campbell, acoustic bass
Having moved to New York City late 2024, Cyrus has been New Mexico's fastest rising performing artists, performing with many of the region's greatest musicians, including Eddie Daniels, James Emery, Alex Murzyn, Donald Bailey, John Trentacosta and many others. He has performed all over the US as well as the southwest region.