Tag Archives: Karl Evangelista

“MFM Speaks Out” EP 21: Karl Evangelista on the Bay Area Improvised Music Scene

An Alternative (music business) infrastructure is one of the things that helps us keep this sustainable.”

In this episode of MFM Speaks Out, Dawoud Kringle interviews Oakland, California based guitarist Karl Evangelista is among the new wave of  21st century experimental / improvisational musicians. His work blends contemporary improvised music with popular song, 20th century composition, psychedelic rock, free jazz, and multicultural concepts.

The topics discussed include his beginnings and inspiration as a professional improvisational / experimental musician, his work with Oliver Lake, Fred Frith, Eddie Gale, Trevor Watts, Hafiz Modizradeh, Muhal Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell and many others, his involvement in music education (including lecturing at UC Berkeley and directed guitar ensembles at the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts and San Francisco Waldorf High School, and as a licensed instructor in the Kinderguitar method), his prolific recording output, his GREX project with Rei Scampavia, his iconoclastic interpretation of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, his approach to the music business, the production of four “Lockdown Festivals” during the coronavirus pandemic, music activism, and his involvement with MFM.

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CD Reviews: GREX (Oakland) “Everything You Said Was Wrong” & “A Love Supreme”

GREXArtist: GREX
Title: Everything You Said Was Wrong
Label: Geomancy Records
Genre: art rock/experimental music

Reviews by Dawoud Kringle

In 2014, I reviewed GREX’ live performance at Spectrum NYC. I recall their performance to be unique, adventurous, and utterly fascinating. In the course of my research, I learned that “grex” is a biological term for an entity composed of several smaller organisms. So I had to wonder what kind of music awaited me in their studio work.

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