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Bill Gilliam

Experimental & New Music
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Recordings

Urban Undercurrents

Record Details

Artist
Bill Gilliam Ensemble
Release
1988
Genre
Contemporary Jazz
cd_cover_urban_under

Record Tracklist

  1. Alecia -:-- / -:--
  2. Paradiso Perdido -:-- / -:--
  3. When the Sun Turned Radiant Blue -:-- / -:--
  4. Night Sight -:-- / -:--
  5. Desert Fall -:-- / -:--
  6. Cat Walk -:-- / -:--
  7. Pleasure -:-- / -:--
  8. South of the River -:-- / -:--
  9. Santina -:-- / -:--
  10. Ebb & Flow -:-- / -:--

The rich and eclectic music of this ensemble has evolved from Bill’s unique piano playing and writing style that combines contemporary jazz with nuances of new music performed by some of Toronto’s hottest jazz players. Ernie Tollar’s lyrical sax improvisations on these bitter sweet melodies with Lina Allemano on trumpet and Bill’s compelling piano style, are underscored on this album by Howard Gaul on drums and Dave Young on bass engaged in a masterful interplay of driving grooves and sensitive accompaniment.

personnel and instrumentation…

Bill GIlliam – piano
Ernie Tollar – sax, bamboo flute
Lina Allemano – trumpet
Dave Young – bass
Hward Gaul – drums

liner notes…

Recorded and mixed at Inception Sound
Engineered by Mike Roper
Produced and mastered by Ron Allen, Hypmelodics

About Bill

Bill is a Toronto based composer / pianist who creates and improvises new music compositions blending contemporary harmony and jazz idioms with his unique style of piano and prepared piano playing.

Originally from London UK, he studied jazz and film composition at Berklee College of Music. His diverse compositions, performances and recordings, with support from the Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council, have been showcased at Canadian venues as well as in London, UK and the USA.

He is active in Toronto as a composer, improvisor and presenter of innovative performances combining composed and improvised music, spoken word and visuals.

Upcoming Concerts

Date
June 15, 2025 Jun 15
Art of Improv - June 2025 Edition
Annette Studios, 566 Annette St, Toronto, M6S 2C2
Note

Art of Improv - June 2025 Edition, is excited to present:
- Germaine Liu & Mark Zurawinski
- future proof: Bea Labikova & Raphael Roter

Sunday June 15th, 8pm
Annette Studios
566 Annette St, Toronto,
$20 / PWYC

Doors open 7:30pm

Set 1
future proof - Bea Labikova (woodwinds + electronics) and Raphael Roter (percussion + electronics).

Set 2
Part 1) Germaine Liu (sound artist, percussionist, improvisor, and explorer of found objects) and Mark Zurawinski (percussion) will play a few percussion pieces and also work with prompts / scenarios to inspire music-making.

Part 2) Germaine and Mark will improvise music with Bill Gilliam (piano), Eugene Martynec (electroacoustics) and Bill McBirnie (flute).

Germaine Liu (germaine.she.her.hers) and Mark Zurawinski (he/him) are long-term loving partners, life and art collaborators and makers. Together, and with the support of their friends and arts organizers, they have been fortunate to dream and create many joyous projects like And With (supported by The Bentway) - a sound walk inviting participants to experience sounds and textures of The Bentway and We Made This With Love (supported by Music Gallery), a candy-inspired two-part sharing (1. sonic and visual exploratory film 2. sound/movement performance, with Fahmid Nibesh and Raphael Roter, where performers become “NERDS/Nerds” a symbiosis of candy+state-of-being.)

Germaine and Mark, along with their friend Joe Sorbara, are co-founders of Imaginary Percussion Ensemble where they play works like Water Music (sonic/physical/touch exploration with water + objects), CeramiX (sonic/physical/touch exploration with ceramic objects made by Chiho Tokita) and most recently Suite May Sixteen (a collection of pieces for idiophones, drums, cymbals, objects and images). Germaine and Mark also love to garden and cook food. They are grateful to share art, life, food, nourishment, joys and grief with communities that they are fortunate to be in relationship with.

future proof is the improv-avant-groove amalgam of Bea Labikova (woodwinds + electronics) and Raphael Roter (percussion + electronics). In the age of fast fashion, faster obsolescence and fastest disembodiment, all that remains for ‘future proof’ is human creation and connection in the present tense. Bea and Raphael exist here, grazing on feelings, circumstances, happenstances and humanstances to make immersively large and driving music of the moment.

More
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