"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."

Michael Caglianone is an American sax player, producer, recording, mixing & mastering engineer, voice-over actor, co-founder of Studio 7A West. Based out of Boston, MA. He is known for the band Zen Bastards.

"Hilary Noble founded Enclave in 2003 with pianist Rebecca Cline with a view to reinterpreting the Latin/jazz fusion for the 21st century. The group paints with a broad palette of Afro-Latin and jazz colors and its music has variously been described as fiery, refreshing, and forward-looking.

Enclave released its first, eponymous title on Zoho in 2005 to critical acclaim and strong support from New England-based fans. The recipient of a 2007 New Works Commission from Chamber Music America, Enclave premiered the new suite, Clay, Iron, Water, in the fall of 2008 in Boston and New York. Enclave Diaspora, the quartets second release, offers fresh material whose engaging melodies belie the adventurous harmonies and rhythms that bubble underneath.

The creative partnership of Noble and Cline shows itself in the finishing of each others musical sentences as they jointly conceive, compose, and arrange the music. Their musical grammar derives from a variety of sources: Hilary has studied saxophone with Yusef Lateef in the U.S., and percussion with Maximino Duquesne in Cuba. Rebecca has studied piano with Joanne Brackeen in the U. S., and with Chucho Valds in Cuba. Hilary and Rebecca have performed with some of the torchbearers of the music, including Giovanni Hidalgo, Bobby Sanabria and John Santos.

Bassist Fernando Huergo and drummer Steve Langone anchor the sound of the group, which has been evolving with unchanging personnel for three years. Fernando and Steve have played jointly with the Jinga Trio, Jinga Quintet, Nando Michelin, and have also performed separately with the likes of Luciana Souza, Danilo Perez, Jerry Bergonzi, Dave Samuels, Dave Kikoski, Paulo Braga, and many others.

Enclave has played at the Heineken Jazzfest Puerto Rico, the Iridium (NYC), B. B. King's (NYC), Jazz Gallery (NYC), Cornelia Street Cafe (NYC), Maine Jazz Festival, The Nuyorican Cafe (San Juan), the Regattabar and other venues."

Kelsey performs as a member of the NODUS Ensemble for contemporary chamber music in Miami, and as a teaching artist with the Newfound Chamber Winds in Norfolk, Virginia. She serves as clarinet faculty for the Manchester Community Music School and Timberlane Regional Performing Arts Center, and as adjunct faculty at the University of New Hampshire, where she also teaches annually at the Summer Youth Music School. She is a freelance performer in New England, and has recently performed with the TUNDI Wagner in Vermont Festival.

While completing her doctoral studies in Miami, Kelsey served as the adjunct professor of clarinet at Florida International University, taught annually with the Nu Deco NXT Youth Ensemble, performed with the Festival Napa Valley Orchestra, and appeared with the New World Symphony and Symphony of the Americas. In 2024 she traveled to Panama City, Panama as a teaching artist for the Alfredo de Saint Malo International Music Festival, and was featured as a concerto soloist with the South Florida Clarinet Choir.

Previous to living in Miami, she maintained a freelance private lesson studio of about 50 middle and high schoolers in nationally acclaimed band programs in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Her students have received high honors at solo and ensemble festivals and have placed in district, region, and state ensembles.

"I have been repairing woodwinds and brass instruments since 1979, beginning with a 3.5 year one-on-one apprenticeship with Harvey LaRose, a respected and beloved instrument repairman of Springfield, Mass.

I began playing clarinet in 1964 and saxophone 1968. As a gigging musician, my passions lie with Latin rhythms, free jazz, and contemporary classical. My love of playing, I believe, enhances my ear for exacting repair work.

Teaching private saxophone and clarinet students for over 20 years has provided a great way to stay in touch with the intricacies of sound and with the joy of discovering how it's produced."

"John Fugarino received his Bachelor of Music from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He then attended the New England Conservatory of Music and earned a Masters in Music Composition. John has performed and taught trumpet in both the classical and jazz idioms. Has performed a wide range of music including Orchestral, Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, Free Form Improvisation and Microtonal Music. Currently John can be seen playing his own jazz compositions and lead trumpet with "The Hornzone" an R&B/ Funk band. John is a music teacher at the Butler Middle School where he teaches in the Midi-Music Lab and directs the school Jazz Ensemble. Trumpet recordings are on the Lyra Ohm label and Zoning Records. Orchestral music recorded by the Radio and Television Orchestra of Bratislava."

"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."

"- 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."

"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."

Jonathan LaMaster is an American violinist and guitarist based in Boston. He is known for the groups Cul de Sac, Saturnalia String Trio, Brian Carpenter & The Confessions.

DNA Girl is a versatile multi-instrumentalist and vocalist affiliated with the Evil Clown collective, a modular ensemble known for its avant-garde improvisations and experimental soundscapes. Her contributions span various instruments, including keyboard, mandolin, and voice, showcasing her adaptability and creative prowess. DNA Girl has been featured in several Evil Clown projects, such as Neurodivergent: Stigma and Evil Clown Shorties, Vol. 3, where her performances contribute to the ensemble's dynamic and exploratory musical narratives. Her involvement in these projects underscores her role in shaping the collective's distinctive sound and artistic direction.

"Tim Mungenast is a surrealist guitar shaman with an almost messianic sense of purpose.

He plays both mystical improv and 60s-flavored rock that flirts with psychosis, featuring odd chords and even odder lyrics (not to mention some really weird sounds). His improbably catchy songs often melt into loopy extended jams a la early Pink Floyd."

"Robin Amos is an American keyboardist and founding member of the band Cul de Sac. His first band was The Girls, a punk band that Amos founded in the late 1970s with George Condo, Mark Dagley and Daved Hild. He continued to explore that band's sound with his next band Shut Up, which he formed with guitarist Glenn Jones."

Cyrus Shauoul is an improviser and electronic musician active in the Massachusetts-area experimental and free music scene, frequently contributing modular synthesis and live electronics to ensembles associated with Evil Clown and related creative music collectives. Though relatively new to synthesis within the Evil Clown roster, Shauoul has appeared on multiple releases alongside seasoned improvisers such as Jared Seabrook and others, bringing an exploratory, textural approach to electronic sound within ensemble contexts.

His work tends to focus on real-time electronic processing and synthesis that interacts with acoustic instruments and other electronic sources, contributing to the dense, dynamic collective improvisations typical of Evil Clown projects. While detailed formal biographical information (such as training or earlier career history) is not widely published, Shauoul's presence in these recordings highlights him as an emerging voice in contemporary improvised electro-acoustic music.

"Count Robot was created to carve audio stupidity into art. Since being conjured into existence, Count has been a member of the following active music projects; Astro Al, Amplissima, and Static Apparitions. In another form Count has also contributed words and occasionally performed with Georgia space metal rockers, Spaceseed. The Count has well over 40 recordings to his credit.

What else can be said about this space buffoon? He's wanted for public onstages displays of moronics in Austin Texas, Cullman Alabama, Portland Maine, and New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Bromsgrove England, and Massachuestts."

"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."

"I'm a Boston-based musician who plays all kinds of Jazz and improvised music. I grew up in the New York City area (New Jersey) and moved to Boston in 1970. I attended Berklee and have performed around New England ever since.

Music is an avocation for me. I was called early, and I play every day. I get up in the morning and make coffee, feed my cats and pick up an instrument. My practice routine is really a series of meditations. I don't practice, I play. I learned a long time ago that the word play meant exactly that. For me, it isn't work; it is simply the joy of playing. Improvisation requires that you be in the moment, fully present and an open vessel. Performance challenges me to bring that state of being into the public space.

I currently play in a number of groups. My band Muse Stew has been together since 1990 and performs my original compositions as well as arrangements of tunes I like. There are two Muse Stew CDs: Crossings, recorded in 1996 and Muse Stew Live at The Zeitgeist Gallery, recorded in 2004. Muse Stew performs regularly.

I'm also a member of the Sounds of Swing Orchestra which is a 16-piece big band. I've been holding down the bass chair for 35 years. In the 80s and 90s, we had lots of work playing "society" gigs at the Copley Plaza, Parker House, Harvard Club, etc. We played lots of weddings and annual gigs at the Marblehead Yacht Club. As the DJ thing emerged, wedding gigs became scarce. We've transitioned from being a working band to becoming a rehearsal band over the years and only occasionally play in public. The band is my extended family. Many of the best musicians in the Boston area play in the group, and we've got several composers and arrangers, enabling us to have original charts and a huge library that grows all the time.

I also enjoy performing free improvised jazz whenever possible. Recent performances have included a concert of free jazz and poetry at the Arlington Center for the Arts (ACA) this past January, a Muse Stew concert also at ACA this past May, and a couple of performances with Avant Unguarded at the LilyPad in Cambridge in June and July.

In addition to performing and producing shows, I'm a long-time member of Sustainable Arlington and a member of the Arlington Cultural Council. I'm an arts and climate activist who is trying to work to maintain our humanity, dignity and create a sustainable and humane future. All forms of Art are all about self-expression and empowerment. That's why we artists are so dangerous and scary.

I am, therefore I play music!"

"Michael Knoblach Percussion---Knoblach has played with Ad Frank, Twitcher, Reg Bloor (from Glenn Branca Ensemble), Cul de Sac, John Fahey, Jon LaMaster's Saturnalia, Neovoxer Ensemble, The Boston Village Gamelan, Kiniwe African Percussion Ensemble, Donald "the junkman" Knaack (ex-John Cage), The Calypso Invaders, The Valhalla Kittens, Emily Grogan, Ted Drozdowski's The Scissormen, The Trojan Ponies, Ken Lovelett, John Amaral, Tim Mungenast, Bill T. Miller and others. He played the New Year's Countdown in Copley Square for Boston, MA for a number of years. He has done soundtrack work for the Troma Films release "Terror Firmer." Michael has had extensive studies in Arabic hand drumming and classical Egyptian tambourine, as well as having studied tabla and North Indian classical music with Ali Akbar Khan and Swapan Chaudhuri. He studied drum set with Gene Piccolo (ex-Jack McDuff, ex-Woody Herman, ex-Glenn Miller Band and Piccolo was a long time student of Ed Thigpen (Oscar Peterson Trio, more...) and Shelly Manne (Stan Kenton, more...)). He is currently playing percussion with Dahlman & Nugent in the band Auddity and is playing washboard and old timey percussion with banjo/fiddle player Nicholas Bogosian, as well as other projects."

Jared Seabrook is drummer from Boston, Massachusetts, known for the groups Seabrook Power Plant, and The Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

"Joel Simches: A multi-instrumentalist born 10/18/65, Joel Simches has been an active member of the Boston music scene for 35 years, played in well over 40 bands, traveling the world as a musician, audio engineer, tour manager and record producer. He has worked with a diverse array of bands including Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys, DeVotchKa, Bang Camaro, Dresden Dolls and Big Dipper, to name a few. He has also written for The Noise and Boston Soundcheck Magazine. Currently a staff engineer at Watch City Studios, Joel also plays in Count Zero, Joe Turner and the Seven Levels, Butterscott, Nisi Period, Didactics, Curious Ritual and is executive producer/talent booker of On The Town with Mikey Dee on WMFO."