JoAnne Powers - Saxophones, etc.
Jennifer Pendur - Bass
Paul Baker - Drums; Percussion

Occasionally punctuating high-energy free jazz with and exploratory improvisations with Arabic maqams and Hindustani ragas, the JoAnne Pow!ers Trio rose from the ashes of Madison, Wisconsin's creative music scene. Bringing the irreverent spontaneity of percussionist Paul Baker together with Jennifer Pendur's inscrutable bass and the dulcet yet harrowing tones of saxophone terrorist JoAnne Powers, the trio plays spontaneous compositions and collective improvisations characterized by densely intricate communication and the cathartic energy of early sixties fire music.

About the Performers:

JoAnne Powers:

Once referred to in Isthmus as a "free jazz outlaw" and branded "probably the loudest person ever to play in San Francisco's subway system," multi-instrumentalist JoAnne Powers plays frequently in the Madison Area both as a solo act and with her trio (The aptly-named JoAnne Powers Trio). Powers also makes occasional appearances in the [sometimes literally] underground music scenes of New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. Her frenetic saxophone abuse is often compared to that of Albert Ayler and Peter Broetzmann, with further influences from late-period John Coltrane and legendary Japanese free-improviser Kaoru Abe. With a tone that has been known to alternately peel the paint off of walls and lull angry babies to sleep, Powers is known for her marathon blowing sessions (occasionally long enough to draw blood), lightning-fast keywork, and heavy use of multiphonics and other extended techniques. While largely operating within the "Energy music" school of improvisation, Powers' music also incorporates elements of the music of the Middle East and India. In addition to her trios, Powers' collaborators have included extreme vocalist D.B. Pedersen, Chicago free percussionist Robert Cozzolino, free-jazz pianist Clay Ruby, turntable manipulator Endless, and the late multi-instrumentalist Lyx Ish. Her most recent CD, "Conflicts of Interest" is available on the 23 Productions label.

Jennifer Pendur: Jennifer Pendur evolved her eclectic multidimensional musical aesthetic from many sources, including early exposure to Cleveland radio during its experimental non-commercial heyday. As a child she cheerfully absorbed musical influences from anywhere and everywhere, discovering in her teens the works of John Cage, Morton Feldman, Arnold Schoenberg, Ornette Coleman, and Charles Mingus. The interplay of natural environmental sounds and "noise" has always fascinated her, and she began composing with magnetic tape in eight grade, when she became fascinated with collage and its application to sound and begged her parents for a tape recorder. While she has also studied french horn, piano, flute, guitar and dulcimer, her bass and her voice are her primary instruments at this time. She took up the upright bass after moving to Chicago in 1974, and has studied at length with the legendary Russell Thorne, and also recorded with him in the Giordanisti Trio and Emergency Theatre Ensemble. During her tenure in the Midwest improvised music scene, she has also performed with the likes of Donald Raphael Garrett, Chicago free-jazz legend Hal Russel (who began his avant-garde career with Russell Thorne in the Joe Daley Trio), and Milwaukee instrument-inventor Hal Rammel. She has appeared numerous times with the astonishing jazz-rock guitarist Elijah Israel (now tragically deceased) in the psychedelic jam-band Earthen Vessels.

Paul Baker: Percussionist Paul Baker has been playing drums and percussion for the last 35 years, in a wide variety of contexts. His musical experiences include classical music, theatre, and a number of styles of jazz, primarily free-jazz at this time. Baker has performed and recorded with musicians associated with the Madison Music Collective, including the Silt Loam Ensemble, Scott Fields, and the JoAnne Pow!ers Trio, among others. He studied drumming with Alan Dawson in Boston, and hosts a program of chamber music on WORT-FM, Madison.

"Pow!ers possesses an immense tone. Her broad vibrato, penchant for multiphonics, and tendency to push whatever sax she's playing to the edge of its range brings to mind Albert Ayler and Peter Brotzmann." -- Bill Meyer, "Signal to Noise, the Journal of Improvised and Experimental Music," Winter 2004