Peyton Pleninger, saxes
Jonathan Ragonese, saxes
Phil Haynes, tunes and drums
A concert + recording debut by 2 HORNS & WHAT? - presenting nearly 50 years of original compositions by Haynes in a spirit driven setting with next gen saxophone whizzes Pleninger & Ragonese - a raw jazz SAXrUS 'Colossus' unearthed for us all, HEAR & NOW
Phil Haynes (b. June 15, 1961, OR) is a 25 year veteran New York based artist/author now teaching at Pennsylvania’s Bucknell University. Haynes is featured on more than 100 LP, CD and video releases by numerous American and European record labels. The international media have compared his drumming to masters Jack DeJohnette, Roy Haynes and Elvin Jones, and his compositions to Duke Ellington, Charles Ives, Charles Mingus and the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
"The perfect middle between tradition and avant-garde, between power and sophistication, between accessibility and adventure."
~ Stef, www.freejazzblog.org
Haynes' recording credentials include many of the seminal musicians of this generation, notably saxophonists Anthony Braxton, Ellery Eskelin, and David Liebman; trumpeters Dave Douglas, Herb Robertson, and Paul Smoker; bassists Mark Dresser, Ken Filiano, and Drew Gress; pianists David Kikoski, Denman Maroney, and Michelle Rosewoman; guitarists Ben Monder, Steve Salerno, and Jim Yanda; vocalists Theo Bleckman, Nicholas Horner, and Hank Roberts; violinist Mark Feldman, and the composers collective Joint Venture.
Contemporary Haynes ensembles include: his Americana string band, Free Country, featuring vocalist/cellist Hank Roberts; Two Brass Hit, w/trumpeters Thomas Heberer, Nate Wooley, and bassist Ken Filiano; Terra with guitarist Ben Monder and saxophonist Peyton Plenninger; his new originals trio, 2 Horns & What?, as well as the romantic piano trio, Day Dream, featuring Yamaha artist Steve Rudolph and bassist Drew Gress.
philhaynesmusic.bandcamp.com/music
Peyton Pleninger (b. April 7, 1996, NJ) is a saxophonist, improviser, bandleader, astrologer and guerilla contractor(!), forging a personal path that challenges the boundaries of what it means to be a musician. Pleninger’s experience involves a variety of disciplines centered around music, which also includes astrology, painting and sculpture, botany, construction, massage and medical inquiry.
Pleninger worked as a mentee of artist/musician Milford Graves, from spring 2019 until Graves’ passing in early 2021, helping Graves prepare artwork and archival materials for his retrospective exhibit A Mind Body Deal at the ICA Philadelphia; Heart Harmonics: Sound, Energy and Natural Healing Phenomena at the Fridman Gallery; as well as Fundamental Frequency at Artist's Space.
Pleninger leads his group, Biotonic, which has recorded the live album alive (2019), plus 2 EPs. He has also released two solo saxophone recordings Post Human Folk Dances (2022) and Wind Music (2023). Pleninger has performed with Henry Threadgill’s "One" and "The Other One", which resulted in the recording The Other One (2023); drummer Phil Haynes’ Terra, with guitarist Ben Monder; John Benitez’ Latin-Bop; Roy Ben Yosef's Moringa; Colin Hinton’s Glassbath; Michel Maurer’s Meridian and Quinn Bachand’s Brishen, among numerous others.
Composer-arranger-saxophonist, Jonathan Ragonese is the Director of Jazz Studies and Saxophone Professor at the Wells School of Music at West Chester University. As a saxophonist he has performed and recorded with a wide array of musicians including Steve Wilson, David Liebman, Jon Faddis, The Sirius Quartet, Gideon Alorwoyie, the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, Tim Warfield, Tin Can Buddha and Steve Rudolph.
As a composer his works have been commissioned and premiered by The New York Film Festival, saxophonist Steve Wilson, Jazz@Lincoln Center, The Museum of Modern Art, the Vermont Mozart Festival Orchestra, the Harrisburg Symphony, the The Righteous Girls, Bucknell University, Messiah University, West Chester University and the Harrisburg Youth Symphony. Pandora’s Box, a new film score for G.W. Pabst’s iconic film, was commissioned by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and premiered at Alice Tully Hall in October of 2017, with Jonathan conducting a 17-piece ensemble. In 2014 Ragonese premiered his ‘Not-this’ for two saxophones, at Carnegie Hall. His Concerto for Saxophone and Wind Ensemble was premiered in 2021, and in April of 2022 portions of letters from an unknown woman to an unknown people, a double concerto for Trumpet and Marimba was premiered by William Stowman and the Messiah University Symphony Orchestra.
Active educational endeavors include lectures, writings, and the development of Music Before Words, a music program for infants with educator Renee Bock. His first recording, Ardent Marigolds, was released in 2013, a duo with musical father Steve Rudolph. He has many other recordings to his name since that time, including pale blue flowers and two men singing, with four new recordings released in the past year.