Celebrating its 15th anniversary, the Danny Fox Trio, featuring pianist Danny Fox, bassist Chris van Voorst van Beest, and drummer Max Goldman, is a true working band hailed for reinventing the classic piano trio format with genre-defying, uniquely personal original music. Whether holed up in a Brooklyn basement rehearsing or touring around the country crammed into a sedan, the trio has spent countless hours developing a rapport that's immediately palpable in their music.  Described as a modern-day Ahmad Jamal Trio, the band mixes tight ensemble playing with interactive, attuned improvisation.  Drawing on influences as varied as Ellington, Bartok, and The Meters, the music can switch gears at any moment yet remains cohesive thanks to strong motivic development and rigorous arrangements that challenge the traditional roles of the piano trio instruments.  Hailed as “changing the sound and expectation of a jazz piano trio” (WNYC) and “cool but not modish” (NY Times), the band is set to release its fourth album “Time Took Care of It” in April 2023.

Ryan Blotnick (b. 1983) is a New England-based composer and improviser who creates ambient score music for documentary films, and specializes in jazz, avant-garde, and afrobeat guitar.

As a film composer he taps into a wide range of sounds from the underground music scene - backwards guitars, analog synths, and edgy strings - to create compelling scores that lend an authentic feel and emotional depth to documentaries. He shaped his sound alongside his brother’s energetic docs including Gods and Kings (2011), and The Hand that Feeds (2014), which won the Audience Awards at both Full Frame and DOC NYC. His most recent score for Knock Down the House (Netflix, 2019) helped earn it the Festival Favorite Award at Sundance Film Festival.

As a jazz guitarist, Blotnick’s debut album Music Needs You (Songlines, 2008) was praised for its maturity and synthesis of freshly contemporary jazz and rock. The next year, Everything Forgets (Songlines, 2009) expanded on those concepts with a focus on free improvisation. After several years of playing with Pete Robbins and Centric, the Michael Blake Band, and Akoya Afrobeat, he did some soul-searching with Solo, Volume I (2012), an ambient exploration of the acoustic guitar sounds of his childhood. His latest album Kush (Songlines, 2016) expresses an “ambient approach rooted in jazz, blues, Afro/Latin and even psychedelia (Elliott Simon).”

Blotnick attended William Paterson University on a full scholarship for jazz and transferred to the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Denmark, where he earned a Masters in Music Performance. Upon returning to New York, he studied counterpoint and Schoenberg’s Theory of Harmony with Paul Caputo. His mentors on guitar include Bob Thompson, Gene Bertoncini and Steve Cardenas.  He has also studied with other improvisers including Lee Konitz, Ben Street and Andrew Cyrille.

As a guitarist, his work has been praised by the New York Times’ Nate Chinen and guitarists John Abercrombie and Ben Monder. He lives in Southwest Harbor, Maine next to Acadia National Park and travels often to New York and Europe to perform and record.

Doors @ 6p, music @ 7p

• 21+ only
• ticket required for event
• no refunds or exchanges

Ticket presale ends at 10am day of show - additional tickets available at the door, bring cash!