Amplified Ambitions Series: Gene Pritsker's Sound Liberation Trio

• Gene Pritsker, guitar
• Adam Holzman, Moog bass
• David Cossin, drums

Gene Pritsker's Sound Liberation Trio takes the stage of the new music club Spectrum as part of their Amplified Ambitions Aeries, in a program of eclectic trio compositions. Joining the trio in this performance are poets Erik T. Johnson and Robert C. Ford. The event will feature Gene Pritsker's and Adam Holzman's compostions for the trio instrumentation combined with modern poetry.

About Sound Liberation

Sound Liberation, an eclectic chamber ensemble/band, was formed in 1996. The band has gained exposure in the New York city area and has generated a loyal core following playing such notable venues as Joe's Pub, Wetlands, Knitting Factory, The Blue Note, Downtime, New Music Cafe, Cutting Room, Le Poisson Rouge, and many other performing spaces.

Sound Liberation's musical philosophy, developed by band founder Gene Pritsker, is based upon "ending the segregation of sound vibration (i.e. musical Genres)". The group incorporates its philosophy by performing compositions that encompass a diverse range of musical genre, heavily influenced by hip-hop and rock rhythms. This enables one to hear elements from classical music to Jazz to music of various cultures at a Sound Liberation show.

The group performed at the Outreach Festival '06 and '07 and '14 in Schwaz, Austria. In '07 Sound Liberation performed at the Estonian House and presented Gene Pritsker's opera Money at the Players Theatre and Flea Theatre in New York. In May of '08, Money was performed at the Etna music Festival in Catania, Sicily and Sound Liberation played in Ragusa, Sicily. In July '08, they performed at the Blaine jazz Festival in Blaine, Wa. In May of '09, Sound Liberation presented 2 nights at the Flea theater, performing Gene Pritsker's one-hour VRE Suite written for the Sound Liberation Quintet and a concert with B3+ of music from their albums on Col-Legno records. In September 2011, they performed at the Bremen Musik Fest in Germany. In past years the group was part of the Peekaboo Festival of New Music, 21st Century Schizoid at Cornelia Street Cafe and Theater, and toured Newfoundland, Canada in April of '99.

In August of '09 the Song No Truth was featured in the Universal Home Videos motion picture The Wedding Bothers. In the fall of 2010, Human Condition was featured on PBS's Road Trip Nation series. The band played a very publicized concert at New York's Le Poisson Rouge in January '10. The New Yorker wrote: "Pritsker, a rule-breaking composer-guitarist (and rapper) who impresses funk and rock beats onto classical structures, fronts this eclectic jazz-type combo of singers and instrumentalists."

About Amplified Ambitions Series

Amplified Ambitions is a new series at NYC's Spectrum, where traditionally amplified instruments (e.g., electric guitar, electric organ, synthesizer) feature prominently. Performances can vary widely, from psychedelic / progressive rock-influenced sets to forms and formats perhaps never seen before (we encourage that). The principal requirements (as one might infer) are that the music should involve amplified instruments (for at least part of each set) and be unmistakably ambitious.

About Gene Pritsker, guitar

Composer/musical polymath Gene Pritsker has written over nine hundred compositions, including chamber operas, orchestral and chamber works, electro-acoustic music and songs for hip-hop and rock ensembles. His compositions employ an eclectic spectrum of styles, that are influenced by his studies of various musical cultures.

He is the founder and leader of Sound Liberation, an eclectic hip hop-chamber-jazz-rock-etc. ensemble. He also Co-Directs Composers Concordance. Gene's music is performed all over the world at internationally recognized festivals and by highly respected ensembles and performers.

He co-founded the Grammy-nominated Absolute Ensemble with Kristjan Jarvi and has been a composer in residence and guitarist since its creation in 1993. He worked closely with jazz fusion legend Joe Zawinul and has orchestrated major Hollywood movies, including Cloud Atlas, for which he wrote additional music and composed his Cloud Atlas Symphony. He is also the lead orchestrator for such TV series as Babylon Berlin, Jett, Netflix's Sense8, and Messiah. Gene is the lead orchestrator and has additional music in the 2021 film The Matrix Resurrections.

"My music is extremely eclectic, for me music has no bounds – I view the world of music as one big genre. My motto for my art is ending the segregation of sound vibration."

Gene is also a guitarist/rapper/Di.J./ and producer he incorporates each of these musical attributes to create music that is "not designed for easy listening or to melt into the background. It is insistent. It demands attention and curiosity." (New York Newsday) "Mischief-maker and cultural blender-in-chief, Pritsker is a serious artist, yet much of his work is witty and irreverent. Anyone can draw a mustache on the Mona Lisa, but few musicians draw it as artistically and creatively as Gene Pritsker." (Raymond Tuttle, Fanfare Magazine)

About Adam Holzman, Moog bass

Keyboard player Adam Holzman was a member of the Miles Davis Band from 1985 to 1989. He performed with the trumpet legend in more than 200 concerts worldwide. He can be heard on the albums Tutu, Live Around the World, Rubber Band, and The Complete Montreux box set (all on Warner Bros.). In 1988 he became Miles's musical director. For his session and live performances, Adam was praised by The New York Times for his "innovative keyboard work," and by Keyboard magazine as "one of the most promising synth soloists."

Adam has also toured and recorded extensively with Grover Washington, Jr., Chaka Khan, Steps Ahead, Wallace Roney, Wayne Shorter, Michel Petrucciani and many others.

Adam currently tours and records with British rocker Steven Wilson. Adam is featured on Steven's acclaimed albums The Raven That Refused To Sing, Hand.Cannot.Erase, 4 1/2, To The Bone and The Future Bites, as well as appearing in the full-length concert videos Get All You Deserve and Home Invasion: Live at Royal Albert Hall.

Adam has released 11 albums as both a solo artist and with his band, Adam Holzman & Brave New World. His most recent studio album of hard-edged jazz-rock is titled Truth Decay. The album features many guest artists, including appearances by members of the Steven Wilson band and Adam’s longtime New York-based group, Brave New World. A follow up live album, The Last Gig, was released in 2021.
Adam also has a new project with Nick Beggs and Craig Blundell called ‘Trifecta.’ Their first album Fragments was released on Kscope to great critical acclaim. A follow-up titled The New Normal is coming soon.

Adam has been nominated for "best electric jazz keyboard player" several times by Keyboard Magazine. In 2007 he was awarded by the Jazz Journalists Association for his work co-producing the Miles Davis box set The Cellar Door Sessions (Sony). Adam is now getting attention in the rock world, placing high in the "Best Keyboard Player" category in Classic Rock/Prog Magazine polls for the past 10 years.

About David Cossin, drums

David Cossin is a specialist in new and experimental music who has worked across a broad spectrum of musical and artistic forms to incorporate new media with percussion. He has recorded and performed internationally with composers and ensembles including Bang on a Can All-Stars, Steve Reich and Musicians, Philip Glass, Yo-Yo Ma, Meredith Monk, Tan Dun, Cecil Taylor, Talujon Percussion Quartet, and the trio Real Quiet. Numerous theater projects include collaborations with Blue Man Group, Mabou Mines, and director Peter Sellars.

Cossin was featured as the percussion soloist in Tan Dun's Grammy and Oscar-winning score to Ang Lee's film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. He joined Sting for the world tour Symphonicities and has performed as a soloist with orchestras around the world, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, São Paulo State Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

His ventures into other art forms include sonic installations, which have been presented in New York, Italy, and Germany. He is an active composer and has also invented several new instruments that expand the limits of traditional percussion. David Cossin is the curator for the Sound Res Festival, an experimental music festival in southern Italy, and he also teaches percussion at Queens College in New York City.