Trio features seasoned improvisers Davu Seru (drums) Bryan Murray (sax) and Liz Draper (upright bass). The evening will highlight this acoustic trio’s musical sensitivity and dive into the depths of improvisation. They will form an acoustic trio for the first evening of Liz Draper’s October residency at Berlin.
Bassist Liz Draper has played with everyone from Sub Pop’s Grammy-nominated slowcore band Low to the Balkan folk group Orkestar Bez Ime, Righteous Babe artist Pieta Brown, Grammy Award-winning Okee Dokee Brothers, and Smithsonian recording artist folk troubadour Charlie Parr. Liz grew up playing jazz and has a degree in classical bass performance. Her improvising led her to Brooklyn’s SIM (School for Improvised Music 2003). Liz is a 2019 Giant Steps Fellow (San Francisco). She is a 2021 American Composers Forum awardee for her solo work which can be described as “classicaldoomfolkjazz.” Liz is currently touring with two-time Grammy-nominated songwriter Iris Dement.
After 20 years of living, studying, and performing in the New York music scene, Bryan Murray relocated to Apple Valley, Minnesota, with his family in 2022. While in New York, Bryan led an “avant country” band called Bryan and the Haggards that focused on the songwriting of country music legend Merle Haggard. The New York Times said, “…their debut is satisfying as both a commentary on Mr. Haggard’s music and a dispatch from the current jazz frontier.” Bryan has also been a regular sideman on other projects including Moppa Elliott’s Unspeakable Garbage and Jon Lundbom’s Big Five Chord, and had the opportunity to join the “Love This Giant” tour with David Byrne and St. Vincent. His latest musical projects utilize a “modified saxophone” of his own creation and are recorded under the pseudonym “Balto Exclamationpoint.”
Davu Seru is gaining an international reputation as a free jazz drummer. He has worked with numerous improvising musicians including Milo Fine, Andrew Lafkas, Jaron Childs, Charles Gillett, Dean Magraw, Jack Wright, Paul Metzger, Elliot Fine, Evan Parker, Rafael Toral, Wendy Ultan, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Stefan Kac, Taylor Ho Bynum, Jim Baker, Robbie Lynn Hunsinger, David Boykin, Dean Granros, Nicole Mitchell, and Harrison Bankhead. Davu appears on the record labels Insides Music, Shih Shih Wu Ai, Emanem, Locust, Roaratorio and Clean Feed. For more information, visit www.davuseru.com.