Dave Sewelson / Matt Hollenberg / Steve Hirsh

Matt Hollenberg / Dave Sewelson / Steve Hirsh unites three distinct voices from the avant-garde jazz world into a thrilling improvisational trio. Sewelson’s baritone saxophone roar and freewheeling phrasing intertwine with Hollenberg’s electric surges and Hirsh’s textural drumming. The music is spontaneously composed, balancing raw energy with nuanced interplay: thunderous and cathartic one moment, exploratory and abstract the next, always rooted in the adventurous spirit of free jazz improvisation.

Matt Hollenberg’s electric guitar work—famed from Philadelphia experimental metal band Cleric and John Zorn’s organ trio Simulacrum—is by turns brutally intense and surprisingly nuanced. Steve Hirsh’s collaborations with top free-jazz innovators have shaped a responsive, interactive style that anchors the trio with rhythmic drive and creative color. Baritone saxist Dave Sewelson, a fixture of New York’s downtown creative music scene since 1977, has a muscular, fleshy tone capable of explosive blues-soaked blasts and subtle, spiky nuance.

Steve Hirsh composes music on the drumset. He’s been leading improvising ensembles around Minnesota’s Twin Cities for 20 years. He has played with some of the world’s leading practitioners of real-time group composition, including Joel Futterman, William Parker, Dave Sewelson, Matthew Shipp, Ivo Perelman, Eri Yamamoto, Steve Swell, Chad Fowler, and Matt Lavelle. In addition to performing around Minnesota, he plays regularly in New York, around the United States, and collaborates internationally.

The burning guitarist of Cleric and John Zorn’s Simulacrum, Matt Hollenberg has created a sonic world that traverses avant-garde classical, free jazz, dissonant math metal, ambient music, and world music. Originally from Philadelphia, Hollenberg is now based in Brooklyn, where he composes complex, exciting pieces. As a collaborator with John Zorn, John Medeski, and many others, his work is a mind-melting blend of fiery solos and improvisational madness.

Dave Sewelson is a baritone saxophone specialist. He arrived in New York City in the summer of 1977, settled in the East Village, became a stalwart of the downtown scene, and played in many bands of the area. He is probably best known as a founding member of the Microscopic Septet and a lifetime member of William Parker’s Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra.

Steve Hirsh is a recipient of a Fiscal Year 2025 Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.