HighLife
Photo: Amanda Raber
Jacob Wick, Jaimie Branch (trumpet/vox), Peter Hanson (saxophone/vox), Owen Stewart-Robertson (guitar/vox) & Marc Riordan, Nick Jenkins (drums/vox)
Formed at the Harold Arts Residency in Ohio, Jason Ajemian pulls all of his previous conceptual musics together under a solid roof with the HighLife.
Ajemian creates scores for the band in the architectural drafting program AutoCAD. Titled Motion Maps, these scores guide the musicians through spaces and hallways of musical structures. His blueprints dictate the flow and motion of a musical set, opening the performers up to visual and descriptive influences, while leading them through a diverse musical landscape consisting of Ajemian’s orchestrated poems, American folk forms, Native American chants, Canadian sea shanties, Orbison, jazz expressive motion and balladry -- all filtered through the creative/improvised process in a unique communication of the moment.
Discography
Jason Ajemian & the HighLife
"Let Me Get That Digital"
Sundmagi cd
2010
w/ Jacob Wick, Peter Hanson, Owen Stewart-Robertson & Marc Riordan
Jason Ajemian & the HighLife
Monsters & Animals
Sundmagi 7"
2010
w/ Jacob Wick, Peter Hanson, Owen Stewart-Robertson & Marc Riordan
Notable Past Performances
| 2012 | |||||
| Jan 7th | HighLife | Kenny's Castaways | New York, ny |
7:00pm - Jason Ajemian's Highlife -- 8:15pm - Herculaneum -- -- -9:30pm - Mostly Other People Do The Killing ---10:45pm - Shahzad Ismaily, Ches Smith, Mat Maneri ---12:00am - SIFTER w/ Matt WIlson, Kirk Knuffke, Mary Halvorson --1:15am - Steve Lehman Trio |
|
| 2011 | |||||
| Aug 27th | HiLife |
Bernheim Forest CONNECT festival |
Sunset Amphitheater at Bernheim | Louisville, ky | |
| Aug 22nd | HILife | empty bottle | CHicago | ||
| Aug 12th | HiLife |
Recess Festival Charlotte, NC |
Neighborhood Theatre | Charlotte , NC |
w/ Super Ape & Yardwork |
| Aug 11th | HiLife | Conundrum Music Hall | Columbia, SC | ||
| Aug 6th | HiLife<3 |
w/ Hamdingers Sausage Kart |
Blue Ridge Swim Club | Charlotteville , VA | |
| 2010 | |||||
| Oct 18th | HiLife HighLife | Rotunda | Philadelphia , Pa |
w/ Marshall Allen |
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| Oct 5th | HiLife HighLife | Welty Commons | Jackson, Ms | ||
| Apr 6th | HiLife HighLife | Columbia Museum of Art | Columbia, Sc | ||
Press Quotes
article by Scott Burton for RVA Jazz
INTERVIEW FOR LOUISVILLE WEEKLY
LEO: How many groups do you work with? Do you lose track of who’s doing what and when?
JA: I work with the entire population of the world on one level or the other. But with players, I don’t have to keep track — it’s a matter of trust. It’s why I choose to work with professionals. It’s symbiotic.
HiLife:
Jason Ajemian and The Highlife have managed to take traditional jazz instruments out of context to produce something fascinating and truly original on Let Me Get That Digital. They have an acute knowledge of not only when to hold back the fireworks, but also when to launch them, and they will be consistently thrilling because of this.
—Gordon Bruce, Tiny Mix Tapes
The parts are (almost all) related to one another without interruption,
so that even the short fragments are dissolved in being part of a single
scintillating suite that we can define 'cosmic jazzfunk' but only for
lack of more suitable terms. (7 / 8)
Stephen I. Bianchi, Blow Up Magazine