 Chris
Jonas was raised in Laguna Beach, California. As an undergraduate
he attended Oberlin College in Ohio (B.A. 1988) where he studied creative
writing and music, but received his degree in art history and art studio,
focusing on work that combined color and sound. He then moved to Oakland,
California to work as an artist, where he also became acquainted with a
circle of composer / performers who had recently completed Master's Degrees
studying with Anthony Braxton at Mill's College. This association became
a point of gravity that pulled him away from painting and into music. Subsequently,
he moved in 1991 to New York City to focus full-time on music.
Since his move to the east, he has studied jazz at the New School for
Social Research (1991), theory and composition at the Mannes College of
Music (1993), receiving his Master's Degree in composition from Wesleyan
University (1998), where he studied composition with Anthony Braxton, Ron
Kuivala, and Alvin Lucier, and sculpture with Jeffrey Schiff.
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Statement
As a composer, Chris Jonas has written for a number of formats, working
between the worlds of 20th century European classical music and improvisation/jazz.
Central to his music has been the use of 'distinct musical objects', musical
sections that have been made to posses their own unique and easily recognizable
qualities of timbre and musical texture. These 'objects' may be through-composed
pieces, open-form sections consisting of instructions and/or pitch cells,
or improvisations based on specific musical / philosophical guidelines.
The objects, orchestrated as solos, duets, trios or quartets, are then
arranged together into an open set of music, combined by means of an 'entry
schedule' ("...quartet section 'J' begins at 14 minutes 55 seconds and
continues until it reaches the end of the music; duet section 'K' begins
at 16 minutes 10 seconds, overlapping quartet section 'J' at whatever stage
it may have reached by that point..."). In this way, each unique object
/ section progress in a manner that is unsynchronized and independent from
the other unique object / sections, allowing complex and unplanned relationships
to form between one another and thereby creating a clear and complex whole
made up of simple and distinct things.
Because of the fact that the musical sections occur in a layered fashion,
there are not different 'movements' to the set of music, but an array of
compositions that take place at any one time.
As a soprano and alto saxophone player, he performs in a wide range
of ensembles. He works often as a soloist, leads trios, quartets, quintets,
and a septet, and recently formed the Chris Jonas Ensemble, with
two reeds, two brass and percussion. As a sideman, he is a member of The
Cecil Taylor Ensemble, William Parker's "Little Huey" Creative Music
Orchestra, Anthony Braxton's Ghost Trance Ensembles, Fred Ho
and David Bindman's Brooklyn Saxophone Quartet, and is a founding
member of the cooperative Great Circle Saxophone Quartet.
He also works with Bay Area composer/performer Dan Plonsey in set-long
duets in which both performers collaborate, mixing various compositions
and improvisations while working on a 8-foot by 14-foot charcoal and chalk
drawing -- a project touring the Pacific Northwest in August 1998.
SELECTED LIST OF COMPOSITIONS:
Ensembles, unsynchronized (four winds & two brass w/ percussion)
(performer #1: soprano and tenor saxes; performer #2: bass clarinet, e-flat
alto saxophone and baritone saxophone; performer #3: flute, clarinet, f-alto
saxophone, contrabass clarinet; two trumpet players; trombone; percussion/mallets),
1998
Duets for Wind Quartet and Percussion (sop./ tenor saxes,
alto sax /bass clar., trumpet, tromb., percussion), 1998
Three Ensembles for Orchestra Divided (commissioned by the Wesleyan
University Orchestra), 1998
Duet (soprano saxophone, bass clarinet with two projected videos),
1998
Black Top (sax quartet), 1997
Eight Pieces for Wind Quartet (soprano sax, alto sax, trumpet,
trombone), 1996-1997
Ootheca (solo oboe), 1997
Oort's Cloud (string quartet), 1997
Five Pieces for Steve Porter (piano), 1996-1997
Five Pieces for Wind Quartet (soprano sax, alto sax, trumpet,
trombone),1996-1997
Black Shag (sax quartet), 1993-1997
Echolalia (collaboration with writers Randy McKean and Francis
Richards: soprano sax, trombone, peckhorn, percussion and two readers),
1995
String Quartet, 1994
Piano Preludes 1-8, 1993-94
Snake Tectonics (improvisational strategy for any ensemble),
1993
1992-1995, Music for small jazz ensembles (selected works): Lumber/Lumbar,
Les Trois Petit Cochon, Saints' Remains, Red Mountain, Talus, They Used
to Kiss My Little Feet Why Don't They Kiss Them Now?, Rainbirds, E-Pock,
Aramuru's Doorway
DISCOGRAPHY:
As a composer / co-leader:
Child King Dictator Fool, Great Circle Saxophone Quartet
fs22 ('97, New World Records)
(Y)Earbook II, Duets: Chris Jonas and Daniel Sarid (piano)
('92, Rastascan)
As a side-man:
Vision Vol. I: Vision Festival 1997 Compiled , "Hoang",
Wm. Parker's "Little Huey" Creative Music Orch. ('98, Aum)
Vision Vol. I: Vision Festival 1997 Compiled, "Conduction #72",
Butch Morris ('98, Aum)
4.11.98 and 4.27.98, The Middletown Creative Orchestra
('98, Newsonic)
Sunrise on the Tone World, William Parker's "Little Huey"
Creative Music Orchestra ('97, Aum)
Mayten's Throw
plain, Crawling with Tarts ('94, ASP)
Flowers Grow in My Room, William Parker's "Little Huey" Creative
Music Orchestra ('94, Centering)
American Works for Balinese Gamelan Orchestra, Gamelan Sekar
Jaya ('93, New World)
Upcoming '98/'99 releases:
Live at Total Music Meeting '96, Cecil Taylor New York Ensemble
(3 CD set) (FMP)
Live at Verona Jazz Festival '98, William Parker's "Little Huey"
Creative Music Orchestra (Black Saint)
Live at the Library of Congress, Anthony Braxton's Ghost
Trance Ensemble (Braxton House)
Composition No. 227, Anthony Braxton Trio (Braxton House)
Trillium R: Shala Fears for the Poor (No. 162), Anthony Braxton
/ Tri-Centric Ensemble (Braxton House)