2013: Wiener Kids

Jordan Glenn: small instruments, percussion, drums
Aram Shelton: small instruments, percussion, alto saxophone
Cory Wright small instruments, percussion, tenor saxophone

Brainchild of drummer/composer Jordan Glenn, Wiener Kids began in 2007 as a duo with guitarist, composer, and musical thinker, Steini Gunnarsson. After Steini moved back to his native Iceland, Jordan continued on with the project with the help of reed masters Aram Shelton and Cory Wright. Wiener Kids has been described as whimsical and raucous, blurring the line between the poignant and the humorous. The group continues to evolve, expanding to a 10-piece ensemble on occasion. The Outsound performance will premiere several new pieces, taking advantage of Jordan's recent venture into homemade percussion.

Jordan Glenn was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. His early years involved drawing cartoons and taking dance classes from his aunt. At the age of 12, music and movies took over and he studied classical percussion, jazz, and made short movies with his friends during high school. During college he played a lot of dinner jazz gigs and recorded and toured in various rock bands In 2006, he relocated to the Bay Area and since then have been lucky enough to cross paths and work with Fred Frith, William Winant, Zeena Parkins, Roscoe Mitchell, Anantha Krishnan, Ben Goldberg, John Schott, Cory Wright, Aram Shelton, Steini Gunnarsson, Dominique Leone, Darren Johnston, Graham Connah, and the bands Jack O’ the Clock, Host Family, Efft, 20 Minute Loop, The Monolith, Beep!, tUnE-yArDs,Science Fiction, Evon, Arts & Sciences, and the Oakland Active Orchestra.

Aram Shelton is an avant-jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, improviser and composer. Originally from southeast Florida, Shelton lived in Chicago from 1999 to 2005, and currently lives in Oakland, California, where the groups Stratic, Ton Trio, These Are Our Hours, and Marches represent his music. He stays connected to Chicago through his Quartet, the Fast Citizens (Delmark), and Jason Adasiewicz's Rolldown (Cuneiform). His writing and playing is grounded in and influenced by the rich history of avant-jazz and free improvisation in America and Europe since the 1950s and has been documented through more than a dozen albums since 2003.

Reeds player Cory Wright, educated at Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Southern California, has been involved in both the jazz and creative music worlds for the past 20 years, including time in New York, Los Angeles, and his current home, the San Francisco Bay Area. His recent projects reflect his interest in blurring the distinction between composed and improvised material and combining the harmonious with the atonal, and groove with the arrhythmic. Cory has played in ensembles lead by Anthony Braxton, Vinny Golia, Eddie Gale, Adam Rudolph and Yusef Lateef. He is currently a member of Bay Area groups Marches, Bristle, Wiener Kids, Daniel Popsicle, the Oakland Active Orchestra, and leads his own projects Green Mitchell and the Cory Wright Quintet.

Artist (photo by Photographer)