MULTIDIRECTIONAL CREATIVE MUSIC
I constantly find myself wondering why does
anything have to be the way it already is,
so I look for whatever else might be possible.
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On the shoulders of giants like Ellington, Monk, Mingus, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Henry Threadgill and others, patrick brennan constructs specific sonic and conceptual environments for collective improvisation, a kind of sonic lego from pieces that can be combined in infinite ways.
– António Branco, jazz.pt
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transparency kestra
series at Loove Annex, Bk — details to come
→transparency kestra (mini)
3/2: Downtown Music Gallery→
→Sketchbook Series Continues:
3/2, 5/12→
→s0nic 0penings
6/8: Quinn’s
6/9: Downtown Music Gallery→
→ Purchase KnCurrent CD & tracks — More Info →
KnCurrent is a radically different conception, setting brennan’s hard-edged, expressionist saxophone amidst a minefield of collectively improvising, amplified strings, with Cooper-Moore, more typically thought of as a pianist, on diddly-bo, On Ka’a Davis on electric guitar and Jason Kao Hwang on electric violin, an ensemble that expands the sonic field into a maze of percussive and electronic strings. The group’s startling texture is apparent immediately with a maelstrom of fluctuating electronic burbles, beeps, whirs and glissandi before brennan enters as an insistently human presence, his saxophone at once convulsive, choked and explosive by turn. The whole program is a rich and resounding success. – Stuart Broomer, The Free Jazz Collective
Track One: slip apophatica
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s0nic 0penings — Live, June 21, 2025
Living Gallery, Brooklyn, Lenapehóking
patrick brennan – composition, alto saxophone
Hilliard Greene – contrabass
Jason Kao Hwang – viola
Michael T.A. Thompson – trap drums
composition: tilting curvaceous in varying phases
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transparency kestra — Live, May 28, 2025
Nublu, Manahahthan, Lenapehóking
Eli Asher, Caylie Davis, Thomas Heberer – trumpet // Dick Griffin, Westbrook Johnson – trombone // Paul Austerlitz – bass clarinet // Iván Beremboim – contrabass clarinet // Claire de Brunner – bassoon // Josh Sinton – baritone saxophone // Cheryl Pyle – flutes // Nick Gianni – bass flute // Jason Kao Hwang – violin // James Keepnews, David Sidman – guitar // Evan Palmer – contrabass // Lloyd Haber, Colin Hinton – drums // patrick brennan – composition, conducting, & alto saxophone
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→ s0nic 0penings: tilting curvaceous on Clean Feed →
A disc of extraordinary group focus and playing equally inventive and concise, giving the impression that every single note is inevitable in its incisiveness. brennan’s is music of extreme dynamism supporting a vision somehow both grandiose and accessible.
— Marc Medwin, Point of Departure, June, 2023
→ Purchase tilting curvaceous CD & tracks →
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→ 2/10/24 Interview with Šamo Salamon →
Dr. Jazz Talks #409
Conversations around the concepts behind brennan’s book Ways & Sounds, the tilting curvaceous recording, and some of the history around his various musical initiatives.
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brennan plays within a sense of the jazz continuum, a highly expressive player possessed of a brilliant economy of line who can infest a fragment of a scale with tremendous psychic weight. — Point of Departure
A superior musical endeavor featuring a rare musical vision performed at the highest level. — All About Jazz New York
His compositions are fresh and quite original. patrick brennan’s a first class saxophonist and composer. — Cadence
An abstract conception balanced with plenty of wit and soul. — Time Out
His sound isn’t easy to file. It’s not totally free, unhinged, but what it’s tethered to is hard to say. It’s not exactly melodic either. His sound is puzzling and inviting. He could hold an audience unaccompanied. — The Other Night at Quinns
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→ Book: Ways & Sounds now available from Arteidolia Press.
What transforms sounds into music? What does it mean to compose from the inside out or the outside in? Do recordings reshape our conceptions? In this series of essays, New York composer & musician patrick brennan probes a more inclusive, non-centricized, relational framework for understanding various ecologies of composing — and, most compellingly, how can we, as listeners, listen?
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C L I P S
December 13, 2025
KnCurrent at Soup & Sound, Brooklyn
September 8, 2023
s0nic 0penings at the Rhythm in the Kitchen Festival, NYC
Composition: tilting curvaceous (in varying phases)
Hilliard Greene – contrabass
Jason Kao Hwang – viola
Michael T.A. Thompson – trap drums
June 19, 2022
patrick brennan conducts the Karl Berger Improvisers Orchestra on short notice,
El Taller Latino Americano, NYC
Composition: rough hue (pb)
Michael Wimberley, drums * Rod Williams, piano * Annemarie Wiesner, violin * Westbrook Johnson, trombone * Bill Horberg, flute * Patrick Holmes, clarinet * Thomas Heberer, trumpet * Ratzo Harris, contrabass * Stephanie Griffin, viola * Haruna Fukazawa, flute * Welf Dorr, alto saxophone — Composition, rough hue (pb)
April 9, 2022
s0nic 0penings
El Taller Latino Americano: Music Without Borders series
pb, composition & saxophone * Hilliard Greene, contrabass * Michael TA Thompson,
trap drums
September 12, 2021
s0nic 0penings
Excerpt from titling curvaceous studio recording for Clean Feed CF613, 2023 release,
pb, composition & saxophone * Hilliard Greene, contrabass * Brian Groder, trumpet & fleugelhorn * Michael TA Thompson, trap drums * Rod Williams, piano
October 28, 2018
s0nic 0penings
Quinn’s, Beacon, NY
pb, composition & saxophone * Hilliard Greene & Ken Filiano, contrabass * Thomas Heberer, trumpet * Michael TA Thompson, trap drums
Video by Tola Brennan
June 14, 2018
transparency kestra
El Taller Latino Americano, NYC
pb, composition & alto saxophone * Brian Groder, trumpet * Lloyd Haber, percussion * Thomas Heberer, trumpet * Jason Kao Hwang, violin * Jason Mears, sopranino & baritone saxophones * Cheryl Pyle, Alto Flute * David Sidman, guitar * Annemarie Wiesner, violin
April 8. 2018
patrick brennan & Abdul Moimême
Excerpt from studio recording terraphonia — Lisboa, Portugal
Creative Sources Recordings, CS 579 CD
pb, alto saxophone * Abdul Moimême, 2 electric guitars (played simultaneously) with objects