2014: Amy Reed & Ross Hammond

Drawing from their past/present musical collaboration and friendship, Ross Hammond and Amy Reed will present a set of improvised music for electric and acoustic guitars.

Amy Reed is a visual artist, songwriter, and composer. Amy lives and works in Sacramento's diverse communities hit hardest by unemployment and recession. She teaches and advocates for free—open to all—art and music programs in public schools and community spaces, building space and materials for students and nurturing relationships with artists and under-served communities. Recently, her students' work was exhibited at Sacramento State University. She is the founder of Ma, a creative music series presenting collaborations and solo performance by women: improvisers, composers, educators, and performing artists.

Ross Hammond started playing guitar—a gift from his mother—at age 12, not long after moving from Lexington, KY, to Sacramento, CA. He wanted to play drums, but his mother advocated for the more portable guitar, a prescient choice given Hammond's extensive touring as an adult. Like many young guitarists, Hammond started playing funk and soul and rock music in high school. Then in college, his horizons expanded. Hammond also gravitated toward free jazz in the Afro sense. Music that has a really strong blues-rooted groove and the rhythmic thing is really there and battling horns—a cacophony of sound. He is busy as both a leader and sideman, playing four or five nights a week in Northern California, LA, Seattle and elsewhere on the West Coast. He also travels at least twice a year to the East Coast, usually to New York, Boston and Philadelphia. He's performed with many well-known musicians, including saxophonist Oliver Lake; drummers Calvin Weston and Mike Pride; and bassist Ken Filiano. Hammond plays in a duo with drummer Scott Amendola called Lovely Builders and in a project called Electropoetic Coffee with poet Lawrence Dinkins. Upcoming tours will see him on stage with Dwight Trible and rising saxophone star Catherine Sikora.

Artist (photo by Photographer)