"PEK (aka David Peck) is a multi-instrument improviser who plays all kinds of instruments including saxophones, clarinets, double reeds, percussion, electronics and auxiliary sound making devices of all kinds.

PEK was born in 1964 and started playing clarinet and piano in elementary school. In 7th grade he started saxophones, first on alto, then switching to tenor in high school. He spent 10 years playing in rock bands and studying classical and jazz saxophone with Kurt Heisig in the San Jose CA area before moving to Boston in 1989 to attend Berklee where he studied performance with George Garzone. While Berklee was an excellent place to study harmony, voice training and other important aspects of a conventional formal music training course of study, it was not a very good environment for learning contemporary (or pure) improvisation (apart from his work with George). PEK did find, however, that Boston had a thriving improvisation scene, and it was here that he developed his mature pure improvisation language.

During the 90s, PEK performed with many notable improvisers including Masashi Harada, Glynis Lomon, William Parker, Laurence Cooke, Eric Zinman, Glenn Spearman, Raqib Hassan, Charlie Kohlhase, Steve Norton, Keith Hedger, Mark McGrain, Sydney Smart, Matt Samolis, Martha Ritchey, Larry Roland, Dennis Warren, Yuri Zbitnov, Craig Schildhauer, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Leslie Ross, Rob Bethel, Wayne Rogers, Eric Rosenthal, Taylor Ho Bynum, Tatsuya Nakatani, James Coleman, B'hob Rainey and George Garzone.

PEK met cellist Glynis Lomon when they played together in the Masashi Harada Sextet which existed between 1990 and 1992. They developed a deep musical connection which they continued following the MHS; first with the Leaping Water Trio for a few years and then with the first version of Leap of Faith in 1994. Leap of Faith was very active in Boston from that time until 2001 and went through a series of several core ensembles which always included both PEK and Glynis. Other key Leap of Faith core members during this period were Mark McGrain (trombone), Craig Schildhauer (double bass), Sydney Smart (drums), Yuri Zbitnov (drums) and James Coleman (theremin). Leap of Faith was always a very modular unit with constantly shifting personnel and many different guests. The early Leap of Faith period concluded in 2001 with a dual bill at an excellent room at MIT called Killian Hall with George Garzone's seminal trio the Fringe.

At this time, PEK changed careers for his day gig, returning to college for a computer science degree and beginning to work in the structural engineering industry at Simpson Gumpertz & Heger. He became far too busy to continue the heavy music schedule, and preferring not to do music casually, he entered a long musically dormant period.

Flash forward to early 2014. PEK was a regular mail order customer of Downtown Music Gallery, the premiere specialty shop in Manhattan for free jazz, contemporary classical and other new music. While in New York on SGH business, he went down to DMG and had a lengthy conversation with proprietor Bruce Lee Gallanter about the early Leap of Faith period. He then sent Bruce a package of about 15 CD titles from the 90s and was pleasantly surprised when Bruce managed to sell nearly all of it. This public interest in the old catalog spurred PEK into getting back into performance. He reformed Leap of Faith with Glynis Lomon (cello, voice, aquasonic), Yuri Zbitnov (drums) and newcomer Steve Norton (clarinets and saxophones) and started to record and perform in early 2015.

Now having access to financial resources always absent in the early period, PEK began to accumulate a huge collection of instruments both for himself and also to expand the palate of Leap of Faith and the other projects soon to follow. He acquired new recording equipment and many new saxophones, clarinets, double reeds, metal and wooden percussion instruments, electronic instruments, signal processing equipment and other sound-making devices from many cultures. He revived his old record label, Evil Clown, and created reissues and new releases for much of the early period work by Leap of Faith and many of his other projects to sell at shows, DMG and the internet (around 100 archival titles).

The Arsenal of equipment has a grand purpose: To establish a large scale aesthetic problem to use the instruments to make long form broad palate improvisations with dramatic transformation and development. The very broad palate enables the long improvisations to evolve with very different movements and pronounced development over their length. PEK started the Leap of Faith Orchestra, a greatly expanded Leap of Faith, to achieve this purpose along with a number of smaller ensembles which are sub-units of the full orchestra including String Theory (focusing on orchestral strings), Metal Chaos Ensemble (focusing on metallic percussion), Turbulence (horn players), Mekaniks (electronics) and Chicxulub (space rock). In all, the Evil Clown roster includes over 40 musicians who contribute to one or more of the various projects, with PEK participating in all of them. Leap of Faith has also had some special guests like Steve Swell (trombone), Thomas Heberer (trumpet), Jeremiah Cymerman (clarinet) and Jim Hobbs (alto sax). The Leap of Faith Orchestra happens whenever several of these groups play together at the same time, or the ensemble exceeds 7 or 8 players. The Full Orchestra is a special case discussed below.

The current roster is comprised in part of: - Core Leap of Faith: PEK, Glynis Lomon, Yuri Zbitnov (Steve Norton has since left to go to Graduate School) - Percussion: Andria Nicodemou (vibes), Kevin Dacey (perc), Joe Hartigan (perc), Syd Smart (drums) - Strings: Jane Wang (cello), Clara Kebabian (violin), Tony Leva (bass), Mimi Rabson (violin), Kirsten Lamb (bass), Brendan Higgins (bass), Silvain Castellano (bass), Rob Bethel (cello), Kit Demos (bass), Matt Scutchfield (violin), Helen Sherrah-Davies (violin) - Piano: Eric Zinman, Peter Cassino, Emilio Gonzales - Horns: Dave Harris (tuba, trombone), Charlie Kohlhase (saxes), Bob Moores (trumpet), Sara Honeywell (trombone), Forbes Graham (trumpet), John Baylies (tuba), Dan O'Brien (woodwinds), Zack Bartolomei (woodwinds), Kat Dobbins (trombone), Steve Provizer (trumpet, baritone horn), Matt Samolis (flute) - Electronics: Greg Grinnell, Jason Adams (electric bass, electronics) - Guitar: Dru Wesely, Grant Beale, Chris Florio - Voice: Dei Xhrist

Evil Clown is documenting the ongoing solutions to this aesthetic challenge by creating limited CD editions and digital download albums of every performance and studio session by this array of ensembles. Interested audience can track the development of the grand scale project over the many releases - over 80 albums recorded and released so far between Jan of 2015 and March of 2017. All of the bands are highly modular, changing personnel and instrumentation with each meeting. The result is an enormous amount of music that shares the same fundamental improvisational language but differs from event to event greatly both in sonority (overall sound) and specific detail.

For the full Leap of Faith Orchestra, PEK composes a graphic notation score to guide the improvisation. The full Orchestra is comprised of roughly 20 players from the roster and performs twice a year. Two performances have occurred to date - The Expanding Universe in June of 2016 and Supernovae in November of 2016. Composition for Possible Universes is completed and the work will be performed on May 28, 2017 with another performance (score not yet begun) scheduled for November.

The scores use a device called Frame Notation where written English descriptions of the overall sonority desired and simple graphic symbols are given durations for each player on their part along with direction on when to play and when not to play. The directions are put in little boxes called frames which are arranged on a timeline and are simple enough to be immediately understood by the performers. Horizontal lines, called Duration Bars, extend across the page indicating when each Event (the Frame + the Duration Bar) begins and ends. An Event can be intended for the full ensemble, a defined group within the ensemble (for example, Metal Chaos Ensemble), a custom group (for example, Tubas), or an individual (for example, Andria Feature).

Parts are the full score annotated with Hiliters so that each player's instructions stand out. They can clearly see their individual instructions, but can also see the big picture, enabling far more knowledge about the pending actions of the rest of the ensemble than typical in pure improvisation. The players track the elapsed time on a very large sports clock. There is no melodic, harmonic or rhythmic information specified. This system allows PEK to compose detailed Ensemble Events without having to notate pitches or rhythms which would require significant rehearsal to accurately achieve."

"Improvising cellist, vocalist and aquasonic player Glynis Lomon graduated from Bennington College in 1975 with a degree in Music/Black Music. At Bennington she studied with musician/composer Bill Dixon and continued to perform and record with his ensembles until his recent death. Glynis has also been privileged to play with Arthur Brooks, Jimmy Lyons, Cecil Taylor, Butch Morris, William Parker, Joe Morris, Greta Buck, Masashi Harada, Lowell Davidson, Raqib Hassan and many others. For almost a decade she and multi reed player PEK performed in the Boston area with their group Leap of Faith."

"Yuri Zbitnoff is a drummer/composer/arranger who has been simultaneously providing cutting edge musical entertainment and fomenting revolution of the mind for over 20 years.

Yuri can be heard playing in Atompunk Go-Go Jazz pioneers Mission Creep as well as jazz/rock powerhouse, Axemunkee.

Yuri is perhaps best known for his nearly 10 year stint with the roiling cauldron of apocalyptic cosmic jazz thunder known as Enuma Elish.

From 2000 to 2008, Yuri ran Lithiq, a label dedicated to promoting music at the nexus of electronic music, jazz and rock. During this time, Yuri released albums by both Enuma Elish and Sky Saw and performed with SpiralZero, Caduceus, and many others.

Yuri's association with PEK dates back to the late 90's and includes numerous performances with Raqib Hassan's ensembles as well as Leap of Faith. All of these recordings are available on Evil Clown."

"Mimi Rabson has distinguished herself as one of Boston's most creative and versatile musicians. She is a first-prize winner of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in composition. Her compositions and arrangements are published by StringLetter Press (distributed by Hal Leonard). Her published works include arrangements of music by Duke Ellington, James Brown and Cole Porter as well as her originals. Her music and her articles frequent the pages of Strings Magazine. Her newest compositions include a formal string quartet performed and recorded by the Berklee Chamber Players and a string trio that offers classically trained musicians an outlet for improvisation.

Ms. Rabson commissioned 6 fellow Berklee faculty members to compose new works for solo violin. Those works range in style from rock to hip hop and include contemporary practices like improvisation, interaction with computer and effects pedals.

She used her electric violin in a power trio setting with electric bass and drums to record "Music", featuring noise-rock, post-jazz and electro-acoustic compositions and improvisations. Ms. Rabson created RESQ - the Really Eclectic String Quartet that plays her compositions and arrangements of jazz, funk, fusion, gospel and Latin music. That group produced two recordings.

Ms. Rabson was a founding member of the Klezmer Conservatory Band and worked with that organization for many years touring, recording, composing and acting as musical director.Ms. Rabson appeared with Itzhak Perlman on the recording called "In the Fiddler's House" and on "The Late Show with David Letterman". She was featured in a documentary about Klezmer music called "A Jumpin' Night in the Garden of Eden". Ms. Rabson served as musical director to academy award winner, Joel Grey in his production of "Borschtcapades '94". Her composition "Klezzified" was featured on Saturday Night Live.

Ms. Rabson's other performance credits include the premiere of "Fresh Faust" by Leroy Jenkins, soundtrack for "Sensorium"- the award winning film by Karen Aqua, with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, Stevie Wonder, Meatloaf, Kristin Chenoweth, the Boston Gay Men's Choir, the Boston Camarata, the New England Ragtime Ensemble, the Klezmatics, Deborah Henson-Conant, the Pablo Ablanedo Octet, and XLCR. She has appeared on A Prairie Home Companion twice, at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Wolf Trap, the Mann Center, the Place des Arts in Montreal and other world class venues.

Ms. Rabson is a sought after clinician. She has presented at The Mark O'Connor Fiddle Camp, ASTA, and numerous schools and colleges. Ms. Rabson has had compositions played by the Jazz Composers Alliance. Ms. Rabson is an Associate Professor at the Berklee College of Music and has received several Berklee grants to support her creative endeavors. She is a Yamaha String Educator."

"Classically trained at the Royal Academy of Music in London and an experienced orchestral and chamber music performer, Elinor has been crossing over to jazz and world music for several years. She has performed klezmer, yiddish, balkan, flamenco and jazz concerts and recorded on several albums in various parts of the world. In 2012 Elinor relocated to New York City in pursuit of a music education that only such a city can provide. She completed her master's in jazz performance at NYU under the tutelage of formidable jazz pianist, Kenny Werner. Inspired by the education she received, Elinor won a place in the prestigious doctorate of musical arts program at NEC, relocating once again to educational hub, Boston."

"Composer/multi-instrumentalist/multimedia artist Jane Wang develops and curates/co-curates work in the disciplines of installation art, fluxus, musical instrument construction, performance art, video. Her works have shown at the 2009 Open Performance Art Festival (Beijing), Fluxhibition 3, A Book About Death (NYC), various happenings by Matthew Lee Knowles (UK). She curated the 2012 six month series: the art of the UnGrand and continues to curate the ongoing mobius blogs and open calls for work: Signs of Our Times and The Prostitution of Art. She composed and performed scores for her long-time collaborator performance artist Hanne Tierney, playwright Renita Martin, conceptual artistJason Hendrik Hansma, choreographers Danny Swain, Liz Roncka, Yuka Takahashi. She has an ongoing artistic partnership with choreographer Nathan Andary with future projects planned for 2016 and beyond. Her sculptures knit from electrical wire have shown at Mobius, Zeroplan, The NY Fountain Art Fair 2011, and the group exhibition Forest, For the Trees. She received a 2013 Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Music in a Play for Hanne Tierney's Strange Tales of Liaozhaiwherein she performed on and built space places - the invention of Tom Nunn."

Boston area bassist Silvain Castellano is known for the bands Leap of Faith and Leap of Faith Orchestra.

Albey Balgochian performs on bass, who has performed with Cecil Taylor, Paul Rishell and has led his own band.

Jim Warshauer is a saxophonist and multi-reed player in the Boston area. He runs the JWSax store selling vintage saxophones and mouthpieces.

"Alto, tenor and baritone saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase has been a mainstay of Boston's jazz scene for over twenty years. Whether leading his two newest bands, performing in a dozen others or writing over 50 compositions, his music spans a broad range of styles with an emphasis on the contemporary and the improvised.

Born and raised in Portsmouth, New Hampshire (11/28/56), Charlie began playing saxophones at 18. After private studies with Stan Strickland and Roswell Rudd , he moved to Boston in 1980.

In 1989, he formed the Charlie Kohlhase Quintet , an ongoing project that has performed locally and nationally for a decade and half. Their long-awaited live 2-CD set, "Play Free Or Die," has been released on the Boxholder label to critical acclaim. Kohlhase also leads the CK5, a second quintet that recently released its live debut, "CK5 Live!" Charlie's two newest bands, Explorer's Club and Saxophone Support Group , are charting new territory. Explorer's Club , another quintet for Kohlhase, builds upon his long relationship with New England saxophonist Matt Langley. SSG is an ever-changing quartet to octet of local sax luminaries.

Other recent activities include work with the Nate McBride Quartet, Matt Steckler's Dead Cat Bounce, and Chris Allen's Central Artery Project. He also performs with The Estate, the Charlie Kohlhase/Matt Langley Saxophone Duo, and the Chuck Gabriel Septet.

In addition, he co-led groups with the great Danish/Congolese saxophonist John Tchicai for New England tours in 1997, 1998 and 2003. Charlie was also a member of Either/Orchestra from 1987 to 2001, playing throughout North America, Europe and Russia. His recordings with Tchicai and Roswell Rudd have received critical acclaim.

Charlie was an artist-in-residence at Harvard in 2003 with Dave Douglas and Roswell Rudd. That same year, he recorded with Anthony Braxton's Genome Project and worked with violinist/composer Leroy Jenkins at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art. Charlie has also recently been touring in a trio with John Tchicai and Garrison Fewell .

Charlie also teaches at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts and offers private lessons.

He has also been active in jazz radio for many years and currently hosts "Research and Development," a program devoted to modern jazz heard on WMBR, 88.1FM in Cambridge, Massachusetts and on the web."

"Zachary Bartolomei teaches saxophone and flute for all ages and experience levels, as well as beginner piano, guitar, and bass guitar. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies from The Hartt School's Jackie McLean Institute, as well as a Master of Music degree in Jazz Composition & Arranging from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he taught jazz ensembles as a Graduate Teaching Assistant. He takes a holistic approach to teaching, giving a solid foundation in technique and theory while also emphasizing improvisation and creativity. He is active as a performer across many genres in the Pioneer Valley and beyond, as a member of Shokazoba and World Eaters, as well as his own jazz and creative music projects."

"- Performed with free jazz icon Hal Russell & his NRG Ensemble, Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, Travis Chandler Philharmonic, Auddity, Rakalam Bob Moses, DMJE quartet and DME trio. Dahlman has appeared on Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty's Discovery Channel soundtrack "Bridges".

- Music appears in the documentary film "The Bear Cult" (2015 Hyperion).

- Studied with Ingrid Monson, Dave Frank, Anthony Davis & John Luther Adams."

"Forbes Graham born 1977 in Washington, DC. Forbes Graham is a trumpet player, electronic musician, and composer living and working in Boston, Massachusetts. He has worked with a diverse array of musicians and currently is a member of Para Quintet, Rock Flint Contemporary Ensemble, Wild May, Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra, Grizzler, Construction Party, Equal Time and Citizens Orchestra. He is the founder of the Rock Flint Artists Retreat, and has appeared at numerous festivals including High Zero, Full Force, and Vision."

"Bob Moores Having spent most of his life flying under the radar working on obscure projects that may some day come to the light of day, trumpeter/guitarist/composer/improviser/artist/photographer/poet/conceptualist Bob Moores has finally started to emerge into the light playing in the free improvisation collective Fable Grazer and through his solo project Resonator.

Having played every kind of music imaginable on trumpet in every kind of setting from classical to funk to blues to R&B to pop punk and metal to jazz, in small and large ensembles, Bob has settled on playing only freely improvised music at this stage of his evolution, both in group situations and as a solo artist. Moores is an exponent of what he calls unschooled primitive coloristic guitar having started to play in earnest with Fable Grazer.

He has been composing music since he was a child and composes and arranges for a variety of ensembles types, instrumentations and genres."

"Trombonist, pianist and composer/arranger David Harris is a member of Naftule's Dream, a klezmer-influenced, avant jazz band based out of Boston. Harris also co-founded Brass Planet, an eclectically styled ensemble of trombones, tuba and drums. Born in St. Louis, Harris graduated from the New England Conservatory around 1980, and has remained in the Boston area since. Harris has performed various styles of music including jazz, classical and folk on over 30 recordings, and has performed around the world from North America to Australia, throughout Europe and in Japan. He has performed at many venues and festivals of note, including The Smithsonian Institute, the Blue Note, the Knitting Factory, the Berlin Jazz Festival and the Montreal Jazz Festival. A past featured soloist of Les Miserables Brass Band, Harris continues to compose and arrange for them. He also is a founding member of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, and recorded with them for three albums. Harris has performed music for television commercials and film soundtracks including Stranger Among Us and Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry. A '90s recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship's first prize for music composition, Harris and his wife, violinist Mimi Rabson, remain in the Boston area where he teaches piano, computer music and trombone. In 1998, Naftule's Dream released Smash, Clap!, their second album for the Tzadik label's Radical Jewish Culture series."

"Originally trained as an electric bassist in funk and jazz in high school, Eric's interest in new music began after studying at Northeastern's Music Technology program, composing acousmatic music on the computer, with an interest in mixed electronic works for live performance, as well as algorithmic and chance operations. While at Northeastern, Eric honed his improvisation skills in the Electronic Music Ensemble, performing pieces such as John Zorn's "Cobra" and Stockhausen's "From the Seven Days".

After college, Eric began playing mandolin as a founding member of the improv collective Fable Grazer. Craving more of the sonic flexibility of his earlier computer music work, Eric was drawn to modular synthesizers in 2012, which has became his primary instrument. He records and performs solo work under the moniker Machine Machine that are largely unedited, improvised recordings. Last year, Eric went on his first nation-wide tour as the synth player in the psychedelic electronic folk trio Vilicon Sally."

"Chris Florio is an Ipswich, Mass. resident and award winning composer and performer. His works have been performed by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Metrowest Symphony, the Greater Trenton Symphony and the Berklee Contemporary Orchestra. He has released five albums of his compositions on Passion Records as well as albums of improvised duets with guitarist Jonathan Keezing, woodwind player Hiro Honshuku. He has performed and Recorded with Full Metal Revolutionary Jazz ensemble (Drimala Records). Chris teaches game audio, animation and game programming at the New England Institute of Art and lives in Ipswich with his wife Helen, a young terrier, a barn cat and a rescued race horse."

"Eric Zinman was born and educated in Boston, MA . He studied music/composition with Bill Dixon at Bennington College and later George Russell and Jimmy Giuffre at New England Conservatory. He formed a piano trio with percussionist Laurence Cook, bassist Craig Schildhauer and later bassists John Voigt and Jacob William. For years, he has been an active producer, performer and organizer and composer and arranger of ensembles in Boston including Citizen's Orchestra with Stanley Jason Zappa and the ensemble New Language Collaborative with Syd Smart, drums and Glynis Lomon, cello. Turning away from the music scene he worked in theatre, with poets and with painter Linda Clave. Mr. Zinman has collaborated with artist, Aldo Tambellini in presenting performances which used Tambellini's films, videos and poetry read with poet singer actress Lo Galluccio. In 2006, he began to play and gain recognition in Europe in collaboration with Austrian based musician/artist Mario Rechtern, and a trio with French bassist Benjamin Duboc and percussionist Didier Lasserre and later Makoto Sato with bassist Yoram Rosillio He has performed in 6 different countries and has been reviewed in 5 different languages. Since 2005 musician/composer Eric Zinman has been recorded and produced on Cadence(US), Ayler, (France) Studio234(USA), Improvising Beings(France. ) and"Nottwo Records(Poland). He is listed in the 19th edition Penguin Guide To Jazz Recordings."

"Drummer Eric Rosenthal is based out of the Boston area. The former student of Ed Blackwell has studied and performed more than American jazz drumming; he has also delved into West African traditional and South Indian classical percussion. Rosenthal has performed and improvised with Anthony Braxton, Mat Maneri, Pandelis Karayorgis, Mario Pavone, and the Either/Orchestra. He has performed all over North America and Europe, and appeared in Greece at the Patras Jazz Festival, at Montreal's North Sea Jazz festival, even at Finland's Pori Festival. Besides producing his own improvised music recordings, he also appears on CDs with the Hypnotic Clambake and the Zairean soukous band Freestyle. The late '90s found Rosenthal busy in the group Naftule's Dream. The band has two releases on John Zorn's Tzadik label, Search for the Golden Dreydl and Smash, Clap!"

"Steve Niemitz is a percussionist and pianist with over 15 years of performing experience, 12+ years of recording experience, and 5 years of teaching experience. Well versed in a variety of musical styles including jazz, rock, punk, metal, classical, and experimental/avant-garde, Steve's teaching philosophy emphasizes creativity and independence as well as a solid foundation in practical skills such as music reading, drum rudiments, and technique.

Steve has studied drumset with Jerome Deupree (Morphine, Either/Orchestra, Bourbon Princess), Luther Gray (Tsunami, Ida, Jenny Toomey) and Jeff 'Siege' Siegel (Sir Roland Hanna Trio, Ron Carter, Kenny Burrell, Ravi Coltrane), and has been playing piano/keyboards for over a decade."