Nathan Hanson photo (at right) by Benny Moreno

After a musical meeting at Jazzorca in Mexico City earlier this year, Nathan Hanson and Álvaro Torres are joining forces to investigate the spaces where spontaneity meets the familiar, and where familiarity meets the unknown. Their quartet is completed by Liz Draper and Davu Seru, who expand the field of viable sound research.

Pianist and composer Álvaro Torres is an emerging voice in New York City's creative jazz scene. An international trajectory spanning Spain, Berlin, Nepal, and New York has shaped his life. His work, which has deep roots in Western classical music, is interested in dialogues and possibilities within jazz and free improvisation.

Saxophonist and composer Nathan Hanson makes music that invites listeners to stand outside themselves and the flow of time. His improvisations are “lithe and soaring, engaging in judicious honk 'n' splatter” (New York City Jazz Record). In Europe, Hanson has performed at the Atlantique Jazz Festival, Splendor in Amsterdam, and the Sons d’Hiver Festival in Paris. In the United States, he has played at the Knitting Factory in New York, the Outpost in Albuquerque, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and Elastic in Chicago. Hanson investigates how to channel the sound of each performance space. The energy of the audience circulates with the music, silence, and breath. The effect leads listeners to become more present to the unfolding of each moment. He has recorded more than a dozen albums on labels including Innova, nato, BudaMusique, and Skirl.

Bassist Liz Draper has played with everyone from Sub Pop's Grammy-nominated slowcore band Low to the Balkan folk group Orkestar Bez Ime, Righteous Babe artist Pieta Brown, Grammy Award-winning Okee Dokee Brothers, and Smithsonian recording artist folk troubadour Charlie Parr. Draper grew up playing jazz and has a degree in classical bass performance. Her improvising led her to Brooklyn's SIM (School for Improvised Music 2003). Draper is a 2019 Giant Steps Fellow (San Francisco). She is a 2021 American Composers Forum awardee for her solo work, which can be described as "classicaldoomfolkjazz." Draper is currently touring with two-time Grammy-nominated songwriter Iris DeMent.

Davu Seru is gaining an international reputation as a free jazz drummer. He has worked with numerous improvising musicians including Milo Fine, Andrew Lafkas, Jaron Childs, Charles Gillett, Dean Magraw, Jack Wright, Paul Metzger, Elliot Fine, Evan Parker, Rafael Toral, Wendy Ultan, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Stefan Kac, Taylor Ho Bynum, Jim Baker, Robbie Lynn Hunsinger, David Boykin, Dean Granros, Nicole Mitchell, and Harrison Bankhead. Davu appears on the record labels Insides Music, Shih Shih Wu Ai, Emanem, Locust, Roaratorio and Clean Feed. For more information, visit www.davuseru.com.