Michael Raynor Quartet with special guest Skerik

TICKETS $30 | ALL AGES

Drummer/bandleader Michael Raynor moved to Portland from Chicago, where he spent twenty-two years playing with tenor sax icon and NEA Jazz Master, Von Freeman. That immersion, at age 22, in the hard swinging Chicago scene, with a musician who had played alongside Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday, was an incomparable education and led to gigs with Freddie Hubbard, Johnny Griffin, Sam Rivers, Eric Alexander, Steve Coleman, Jon Faddis, Arturo Sandoval, and Fareed Haque. Raynor also toured extensively with vocalist Kurt Elling and can be heard on two of his Grammy nominated recordings, including Live in Chicago with guest vocalist, Jon Hendricks. (They also recorded “Cool Yule” which you’ve heard if you’ve ever been to a Starbucks around Christmas time.) More recently Raynor has worked with Bobby Broom, Gary Bartz, Tia Fuller, Howard Levy, and a host of world class Portland stalwarts including Nancy King, Chuck Israels, George Colligan, Dan Balmer and Dan Faehnle.

Skerik's world is one where dialogue flows freely between wildly disparate strains of musical thought... where no borders exist between jazz & sludge metal, where elements of Congolese soukous dialect might find their way onto the million-selling records of an alternative rock band, where an avant-garde electronic translation of Ornette Coleman's deepest & darkest fantasies (shared with a select few listeners in a small club) easily attains the same level of satisfaction & meaning as an exuberant explosion of jazz/funk catharsis (shared with hordes of sweaty festival crowds all over the world). It is a world where all sounds may communicate freely with each other, so long as they all originate from true inspiration & good faith.

SKERIK has performed with/and or recorded with: Medeski Martin and Wood, REM, Jeff Parker, John Scofield, Fred Wesley, Mike Clark, Charlie Hunter, Bernard Purdie, Zigaboo Modeliste, Clyde Stubblefield, Stewart Copeland, George Porter Jr, The Meters, Trombone Shorty, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Om Johari, Stone Gossard, Pearl Jam, Eric Harland, Reggie Watts, Maceo Parker, Donald Harrison, Leo Nocentelli, Pee Wee Ellis, MonoNeon, Marco Benevento, David Torkanowsky, Andrew Bird, Ani Difranco, Green Sky Bluegrass, Leftover Salmon, Nth Power, Jennifer Hartswick, Cory Henry, Marc Ribot, Larry Coryell, Screaming Trees, Squirell Nut Zippers, Sex Mob, DJ Logic, Bonnie Raitt, Ruth Brown, Howard Tate, Maxi Priest, Steve Berlin, Soulive, Dave Mathews Band, and many more…