John Bacon: vibraphone & percussion
Jonathan Golove: electric cello
Esin Gunduz: voice
Michael McNeill: piano
resAUnance began as the trio of vibraphonist and percussionist John Bacon, vocalist Esin Gunduz, and pianist Michael McNeill. The group debuted at Buffalo's Pausa Art House in March of 2013. The following year the group collaborated with master brass improvisers Dave Ballou and Adam Unsworth in concerts at Pausa and Villa Maria College, and in June 2014 became a quartet with the addition of 'cellist Jonathan Golove for a concert as part of the legendary June in Buffalo New Music festival. The group's first album, Migration, is slated for release in May 2016 on FMR.
John Bacon (1963), percussionist and composer, has performed with Lester Bowie, Roswell Rudd, Bobby Previte, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Bobby Militello and as featured soloist with the SUNY Fredonia percussion ensemble. He teaches percussion, and directs a Latin Jazz Ensemble at SUNY Fredonia. He also teaches at UB and Villa Maria College in Buffalo, NY. He holds a PhD. in Music Composition form SUNY at Buffalo and a Masters Degree in Music Performance from SUNY Fredonia. Equally skilled as a percussionist and trap drummer, he has been a member of (hatArt) recording artists The Maelstrom Percussion Ensemble, as well as leading his own ensembles. His music has been performed by a diverse collection of musicians, including The Amherst Saxophone Quartet , Leroy Jenkins, the New Jazz Orchestra of Buffalo, the New York New Music Ensemble, Amanda Deboer and the Colorfield Ensemble, Duo Cuentista and Ensemble Laboratorium. He has toured in England, Italy, Canada, and the US. A 2004 CD release, Jack Rabbitt, is an organ trio outing on the Cadence Jazz Records label featuring tenor saxophonist Don Menza and organist Bobby Jones. He performs regularly with the Bobby Militello Quartet and George Jones trio. Recent creative projects include bacbaclove with Jonathan Golove (cello) and Steve Baczkowski (winds), Improv Ork (a group of composer-improvisors playing graphic music and free improv), and the Bacon/McNeill Quartet playing modern Jazz.
Cellist/composer Jonathan Golove's career is marked by its versatility, sense of adventure, and commitment to the performance of both new and traditional works, as well as of improvised music. He has been featured as soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Slee Sinfonietta, New York Virtuoso Singers, and, as a baroque cellist, with the USC Early Music Ensemble. He has recorded for the Albany, Centaur, CRI, Albuzerque, and Nine Winds labels, and his performances and interviews have been broadcast by numerous National public radio stations, as well as the West German Radio, Radio Nuevo León, and Radio France. He has performed and recorded with groups including the Michael Vlatkovich Quartet, Ubudis Trio, and Vinny Golia's Large Ensemble, and made appearances at the Vancouver Jazz Festival, the Eddie Moore Jazz Festival (Oakland), and the International Meeting of Jazz Musicians (Monterrey, Mexico). He has also been honored to perform with such leading figures as Andrew Cyrille, Rashied Ali, Sonny Fortune, Ramón Lopez, and Andre Jaume. Mr. Golove gave the first performance of Varese's Ecuatorial using Floyd Engel's recreated theremin cello in 2002, and he played the work with the Asko/Schoenberg Ensemble this past year at the Holland Festival (Amsterdam) and Festival d'Automne (Paris), and more recently with the London Sinfonietta at the Southbank Centre. He will bring this historic instrument to New York City for a performance at the Lincoln Center Festival in July 2010.
A composer of contemporary music, and vocal performer, Esin Gunduz was born in 1983, in Istanbul, Turkey. As an active voice performer / soloist she appeared at the Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland), and the Jazz a Juan Festival of Nice (France), in 2009, for MUJE big band. She performed at Nardis Jazz Club of Istanbul, as the soloist of TRT Jazz Orchestra, and at the Pullman Jazz Festival in Huntington, as well as the shooting of some educational TV programs in WV. As a vocal improviser, she is the voice of the unique improvisational trio of Buffalo: resAUnance, playing with John Bacon (vibraphone and percussion), Michael McNeill (piano), and Jonathan Golove (electric cello). She is the soprano member of the new music collective: Wooden Cities, performing new works, along with the underrepresented works of the 21st and 20th century, and working towards the awareness for contemporary music in wider Western New York. She's become part of several other different musical projects: Buffalo Improvisers' Orchestra, Buffalo Jazz Octet, “null-point” events, and other improvisatory collaborations. Along with international venues, Esin performed at EMPAC (Troy, Albany NY), Colombus (OH), Huntington (WV) in US, and these venues in Buffalo: Burchfield Penney Art Center, Albright Knox Art Gallery, University at Buffalo's: Slee Hall, Baird Hall and Center for the Arts, Villa Maria College, Trocaire College, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, The Vault, Nietzche's, Unity Church, River Fest Park, Canvas, WASH Community Project Laundry-Mat, and Pausa Art House (along with Church of Ascension, Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo, Calvary Episcopal Church, Saint Joseph University Parish, and Pro-music Center).
Pianist Michael McNeill has cultivated a personal style that has found a home in contexts both mainstream and avant-garde, from the ethereal chamber-jazz sounds of resAUnance, to the post-bop energy of Kelly Bucheger's What Would Mingus Do?, and of course in his own music for his trio with veteran improvisers Ken Filiano (bass) and Phil Haynes (drums) and for the Buffalo Jazz Octet. His two CDs with Filiano and Haynes have drawn praise from critics in the US and abroad, who note that the band plays “thoughtful... interactive music that is seriously playful” (StepTempest), “brimming with intelligence and passion” (AllAboutJazz.com), and that the trio “has much to offer not only to jazz or classical music, but music as a whole” (Music On The Run, Brazil). Other projects and collaborations have included concerts with Dave Ballou, Juini Booth, Joe Ford, Drew Gress, Paul Smoker, and David Taylor. McNeill served as pianist and arranger on vocalist Mari McNeil's 2014 release Here Beneath The Blue and can be heard as a sideperson on Kelly Bucheger's 2012 CD House of Relics as well as four albums by percussionist Ravi Padmanabha. Forthcoming recordings include a CD from resAUnance and an album of duets with drummer/composer John Bacon.