ACJF: Ches Smith’s Clone row + Mary Halvorson & Tomas Fujiwara duo
Details
Date: October 17, 2025 @ 8:30 pm
Venue: 2220 Arts + Archives
2220 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA+ Google Map
View Venue Website
Tickets: $20 https://angelcityjazz.com/event/ches-smiths-clone-row/
Possible dinner before, TBD
Doors at 8:00pm
8:30pm – Mary Halvorson & Tomas Fujiwara duo
Mary Halvorson – Guitar
Tomas Fujiwara – drums
9:30pm – Ches Smith’s Clone Row
Ches Smith – Drums, vibes, electronics
Mary Halvorson – Guitar
Liberty Ellman – Guitar
Nick Dunston – Bass, electronics
Clone Row is used by Smith as a vehicle to display and showcase a talent at the height of its powers, demonstrating not only his own superlative musicianship but also his strengths as a composer.
“One of the wiliest drummers on the experimental scene”
– The New York Times
“Ches Smith builds here on his reputation as a gifted new voice with an important vision, while showcasing some of the most creative musicians of our time.“
– Marc Ribot
Drummer Tomas Fujiwara and guitarist Mary Halvorson have been collaborating for almost 20 years. They met in New York City in the early 2000’s, and first started playing together in cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum’s sextet.
Since then they have become each other’s most frequent collaborators, working together in a myriad of projects. Their duo project showcases a new book of music built on years of history and collaboration in a stripped down setting.
Ches Smith
Originally from Sacramento, California, Ches Smith is a drummer, percussionist, and composer based in New York. He has collaborated with a host of artists on many scenes since the early 2000s, including Marc Ribot, Tim Berne, John Zorn, Darius Jones, David Torn, John Tchicai, Nels Cline, Mary Halvorson, Trevor Dunn, Terry Riley, Kris Davis, Dave Holland, Secret Chiefs 3, Xiu Xiu, Good for Cows, Theory of Ruin, and Mr. Bungle, among others.
He has nine records to his name as a bandleader that feature his writing and ensemble curation, and is a devout student of Haitian Vodou drums, performing in religious and folkloric contexts in New York and Haiti for the last decade.
Mary Halvorson & Tomas Fujiwara
Guitarist, composer, and MacArthur fellow Mary Halvorson has been described as “a singular talent” (Lloyd Sachs, JazzTimes), ”NYC’s least-predictable improviser” (Howard Mandel, City Arts), “one of the most original jazz guitarists of our time” (Peter Margasak, Bandcamp Daily), and “one of today’s most formidable bandleaders” (Francis Davis, Village Voice). In recent DownBeat Critics Polls, she has been celebrated as guitarist, rising star jazz artist, and rising star composer of the year.
Over the past two decades, she has worked with such diverse musicians as Tim Berne, Anthony Braxton, Taylor Ho Bynum, John Dieterich, Trevor Dunn, Bill Frisell, Ingrid Laubrock, Myra Melford, Jason Moran, Joe Morris, Tom Rainey, Jessica Pavone, Tomeka Reid, Marc Ribot, Ches Smith, and John Zorn.
Brooklyn-based Tomas Fujiwara is an active player in some of the most exciting music of the current generation. He leads the bands Triple Double, 7 Poets Trio, and Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up; has a collaborative duo with Taylor Ho Bynum; is a member of the collective trio Thumbscrew (with Mary Halvorson and Michael Formanek); and engages in a diversity of creative work with Anthony Braxton, John Zorn, Mary Halvorson, Tomeka Reid, Matana Roberts, Nicole Mitchell, Ben Goldberg, Amir ElSaffar, Benoit Delbecq, and many others.
“Drummer Tomas Fujiwara works with rhythm as a pliable substance, solid but ever shifting. His style is forward-driving but rarely blunt or aggressive, and never random. He has a way of spreading out the center of a pulse while setting up a rigorous scaffolding of restraint…A conception of the drum set as a full-canvas instrument, almost orchestral in its scope.”
— New York Times