Jazz returns to the Freight! Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core bring their spare take on modern jazz improvisation to our stage, with the Satoko Fujii/Carla Kihlstedt Duo opening the evening with a set of free improvisation duets on piano and violin.

Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core perform what they term "A meditation on and a 21st-century distillation of the songs of American and eastern European blues-shouters, and of traditional chant-singers from Asia and Africa," full of snappy musical dialogue and melodic, polyrhythmic exchanges. Led by Larry Ochs on tenor and sopranino saxophones, the group also features Scott Amendola and Don Robinson on drums, Satoko Fujii on synthesizer and piano, and Natsuki Tamura on trumpet.

Larry Ochs has released dozens of CDs and toured Europe and Japan as a member of numerous bands including Rova Saxophone Quartet, as well as collaborating with folks from Anthony Braxton to John Zorn. He has released two CDs with his Sax & Drumming Core, most recently Up From Under, with a third, live CD soon to be released. A collaborator in an array of improvisational ensembles in jazz, blues, rock, and new music, drummer Scott Amendola is also a mainstay in the Bay Area avant-garde jazz scene. Described by Coda as a "percussive dervish," Don Robinson is a technical master of the drums and another Bay Area jazz stalwart. Unpredictable and wildly creative, Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii is one of the most original new voices in jazz and a wide-ranging and virtuosic improviser. A deeply compelling performer, Japanese trumpeter Natsuki Tamura is internationally recognized for his ability to blend a unique vocabulary of extended techniques with touching jazz lyricism.

The opening set tonight is played by the duo of Satoko Fujii and violinist Carla Kihlstedt, an influential musical voice in the Bay Area and a founding member of Tin Hat Trio and the art-rock band Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. In their free-improvisation duets, Satoko and Carla play with virtuosic precision, using their great range of technique and captivating interplay to create a series of tight, dramatic events. In concert and on their live CD, Minamo, the duo beautifully demonstrates Carla's comment that "Music is a medium where you do actually feel after the song that you've gone on some sort of journey."