2017: Animals and Giraffes
Eveyln Davis: piano
Phillip Greenlief: tenor saxophone, B♭ clarinet
Aurora Josephson: voice
Claudia La Rocco: voice/text
John Shiurba: guitar
Animals and Giraffes is an ongoing collaboration between writer/performer Claudia La Rocco and saxophonist/composer Phillip Greenlief. The project explores the intersection of text and sound, and features a changing roster featuring some of the finest bay area improvisers. The group is currently celebrating the upcoming release of July, their first album, featuring collaborations with Evelyn Davis, Tim Perkis, John Shiurba, Phillip Greenlief & Jon Raskin's 2+2, David Boyce and Dapplegray.
Claudia La Rocco is a writer whose work frequently revolves around interdisciplinary projects and collaborations. She is the author of The Best Most Useless Dress (Badlands Unlimited), selected poetry, performance texts, images and criticism; and the novel petit cadeau, published by The Chocolate Factory Theater as a print edition of one and a four-day, interdisciplinary live edition. She edited I Donʼt Poem: An Anthology of Painters (Off the Park Press) and Dancers, Buildings and People in the Streets, the catalogue for Danspace Projectʼs PLATFORM 2015, for which she was guest artist curator. She has been presented by The Walker Art Center, The Kitchen, The Whitney Museum of American Art, et al; received grants from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation; and had residencies at such places as Headlands Center for the Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and On the Boards theater. Her collaborators include the choreographer Michelle Ellsworth, the performance company Findlay//Sandsmark, and the musician/composer Phillip Greenlief, with whom she is animals & giraffes. Her poetry and prose have been published in such anthologies and chapbooks as 6X6 #34: I Like Softness (Ugly Duckling Presse), Imagined Theatres: Writing for a theoretical stage (Daniel Sack, ed; Routledge), and On Value (Ralph Lemon, ed; Triple Canopy). She teaches and lectures widely, including at Princeton University, the School of Visual Arts, San Francisco Ballet, and Tokyo’s Dance New Air festival; and has bylines in numerous publications, including BOMB, ARTFORUM, The New York Times, and East of Borneo. La Rocco is editor-in-chief of SFMOMA’s art and culture platform Open Space.
Since his emergence on the west coast in the late 1970s, Evander Music founder and saxophonist Phillip Greenlief has achieved international critical acclaim for his recordings and performances with musicians and composers in the post-jazz continuum as well as new music innovators and virtuosic improvisers. He has performed and recorded with Fred Frith, Meredith Monk, Nels Cline and many others.
Animals and Giraffes (photo by Peter B Kaars)
