FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Glenn Siegel, 413-320-1089 [email protected] Pioneer Valley Shares presents: ROVA Saxophone Quartet Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares continues its 4th season with a performance by ROVA Saxophone Quartet: , tenor and sopranino sax; Bruce Ackley, soprano and tenor sax; Jon Raskin, baritone, alto and sopranino sax; Steve Adams, alto and sopranino sax on Tuesday, January 26, 2016 at 7:30pm at 121 Club, Eastworks , 116 Pleasant St, Easthampton, MA 01027. Single tickets ($15) available at www.jazzshares.org and at the door. Rova Saxophone Quartet explores the synthesis of composition and collective improvisation, creating exciting, genre-bending music that challenges and inspires. One of the longest-standing groups in the music, Rova has its roots in post-bop, , avant-rock, and 20th century new music, and draws inspiration from the visual arts and from the traditional and popular music styles of Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States.

In noting Rova’s innovative role in developing the all-saxophone ensemble as “a regular and conceptually wide- ranging unit,” The Penguin Guide to Jazz calls its music “a teeming cosmos of saxophone sounds” created by “deliberately eschewing conventional notions about swing [and] prodding at the boundaries of sound and space…” Likewise Jazz: The Rough Guide notes, “Highly inventive, eclectic and willing to experiment, Rova [is] arguably the most exciting of the saxophone quartets to emerge in the format’s late ’70s boom.”

Inspired by a broad spectrum of musical influences – from Charles Ives, Edgard Varese, Olivier Messiaen, Iannis Xenakis and Morton Feldman to The Art Ensemble of Chicago, , , Steve Lacy, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra and Ornette Coleman – Rova began in 1978, writing new material, touring, and recording. Early collaborations with like-minded colleagues such as Henry Kaiser, , and , spurred the growth of the Quartet. Also in its early years, Rova shared the stage in collaborations with fellow San Francisco based trailblazers Kronos Quartet and Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. A 1983 tour of the USSR and accompanying PBS documentary highlighted the first five years of Rova’s existence.

In 1985, the Rova Saxophone Quartet incorporated as the not-for-profit organization Rova:Arts. Founding member Andrew Voigt left Rova in August 1988 and was replaced by Steve Adams. Otherwise, the personnel – Larry Ochs, Jon Raskin and Bruce Ackley – has remained the same over 37 years, giving the group a consistency and sensitivity that has enabled its ever-evolving and highly nuanced explorations into new musical territory.

Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares concerts are produced by a group of music lovers who have purchased jazz shares . Like farm shares, where stakeholders ensure the success of the farm by pre-paying for food, Pioneer Valley Jazz Share members purchase jazz shares to provide the capital needed to produce concerts with minimal institutional support. Operating under the fiscal sponsorship of The Northampton Center for the Arts, we are a grassroots, all-volunteer organization dedicated to the continued vitality of the music.

Thanks to our business sponsors: Davis Financial Group, Florence Savings Bank, UMass Fine Arts Center, Downtown Sounds, Carol Abbe Smith Delap Real Estate, River Valley Co-op, Simmer Music, Bueno y Sano, Tony Margherita Management, Haydenville Woodworking & Design, Artisan Gallery, Amanouz Café, Clarion Hotel, Barbara Ween: Visage, Hampshire College and Dean’s Beans.