The Roulette Tapes

Yasunao Tone (1935-2025) was a composer, sound artist, technology disrupter, theorist, and author who was a participant in the 1960s Japanese Fluxus movement, and an early influential innovator in noise and glitch music, conceptual art, chance operations, and computer-assisted composition. His work utilized optics, sensors, interactivity, and techno-abuse, most notably his technique of scratching...

DoYeon Kim is known for her expansive and pioneering performances and compositions and for introducing the gayageum, an ancient Korean zither, into contemporary music. Trained extensively in jazz and improvisation as well as in the canon of classical Korean music including sanjo, jeongak, and modern gugak, DoYeon channels history, literature, and an ever-evolving sense of the human spirit. Here, w...

The guitarist and composer Gary Lucas, acclaimed for his technique, imagination, and fearless commitment to both tradition and innovation from his work with Captain Beefheart, Jeff Buckley, his band Gods & Monsters, scores for silent films, reviving Chinese music, and many other projects presented all around the world, and all rooted in the Blues. The program includes Lucas' 2026 commentary alongs...

Vocalist, percussionist, composer, music director, and community facilitator Anaïs Maviel has associated her practice with the inextricable currents that move spaces and people between times and lands. One passion is to explore the use of language, and its vibratory essence in music, expanding its power as a healing and transformative act. Here we hear the artist on voice, percussion, n’goni, and...

The guitarist Wendy Eisenberg profiles Squanderers, the collaborative, improvising trio of Eisenberg with David Grubbs (gastr del sol) on electric guitars, and Bonner Kramer (Shimmy Disc) on bass ukulele. Eisenberg’s commentary reveals the roots and flowers of this multi-generational exploration heard alongside excerpts from their 2025 performance at the Roulette concert hall in Brooklyn.

Pianist/composer Aruán Ortiz, classically trained in Cuba and influenced by jazz musicians from Chick Corea to Muhal Richard Abrams, narrates his journey over excerpts from his 2025 concert at Roulette pushing the boundaries of musical Afro-diasporic traditions and storytelling. A 2024 Guggenheim Fellow, we'll hear solos and ensemble works with clarinetist Don Byron, flutist Nicole Mitchell, and p...

The sonic world and career of composer Pauline Oliveros (1936-2016) featuring a 2008 interview with the artist conducted by David Weinstein for the radio station of the Clocktower Gallery in support of an exhibition at PS1 Contemporary Art Center (now MoMA PS1) entitled WACK: Art of the Feminist Revolution. We also hear solos and collaborative works recorded for the Roulette concert series dating...

Vibraphonist, marimbist, and composer Patricia Brennan in conversation with excerpts from performances at the Roulette Concert Hall in Brooklyn. Raised in Mexico and now in Brooklyn and honoree of many awards, Brennan's work as a bandleader and side person includes projects with pianist Sylvie Courvoisier, trumpeter Adam O'Farrill, and her ensembles More Touch and Patricia Brennan Septet. Brennan...

The music of composer, pianist, and cultural explorer “Blue” Gene Tyranny (1945-2020) in solos and collaborations recorded by Roulette from 2004-10 including archival commentary by the artist and a 2025 introduction by friend and colleague, the writer/producer Mary Griffin. We’ll hear excerpts from pieces including A Letter From Home (2004 version) and Flipside (2008) with vocalists The Smithereen...

Virtuoso pianist Vicky Chow in musical excerpts and commentary from the artist. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, now in Brooklyn, Chow has put a personal touch on multitudes of contemporary music, engaged commissions, and explored experimental forms expanding the piano repertoire. We hear bits from performances of works by Philip Glass, David Lang, Cassie Wieland, Jane Antonia Cornish, and Trist...

The musical works of drummer, percussionist, and instrument builder Kenny Wollesen and his Wollesonic project. We'll hear excerpts from two multimedia, theatrical, large ensemble pieces recorded at Roulette in 2006 and 2008 plus his contribution to a trio led by pianist/composer Sylvie Courvoisier with bassist Drew Gress. Wollesonic is a band, a laboratory, a record label, an archive, and a collec...

Composer and trumpet player Wadada Leo Smith in commentary and concert excerpts recorded at Roulette including a duo with keyboardist Amina Claudine Myers (Central Park Mosaics, 2024), passages from his Pulitzer-nominated Ten Freedom Summers (Golden Quartet and the Pacifica Coral Reef Ensemble, 2013), and a Rastafarian ceremonial ritual with vocalist Jeanne Lee (1989) An early member and proponent...

The music of Shahzad Ismaily, a multi-instrumentalist widely admired for his mastery of the bass guitar and drum set in solos, collaborations, and groups across genres. The program features the artist’s remarks on personal history, spiritual growth, and musical projects alongside excerpts from several performances at Roulette: a duo with guitarist Indigo Street, a vocal duo with Arooj Aftab, and i...

Swiss-born pianist/composer in commentary and excerpts from four performances at Roulette: A trio with percussionist Kenny Wollesen and bassist Drew Gress (2016, 2020), Amalthea (aka Poppy Seeds) (2024) with Patricia Brennan, vibes; Thomas Morgan, bass, Dan Weiss, drums, and Chimaera (2022) with Christian Fennesz, electronics; Nate Wooley, trumpet; plus Wollesen (vibes) and Gress.

The music of Bobby Previte and ensembles recorded between 1987 and 2018 at the Roulette performance spaces in New York. Admired as both a drummer and composer, Previte is also one the great raconteurs of the downtown experimental music scene. We'll hear the 1987 band with Marty Ehrlich (reeds),Tom Varner (horn), Wayne Horvitz (keys), Dave Hofstra (bass); a trio from 1994 with Horvitz (piano & elec...

The Palestinian-born US resident singer Nibal Malshi in excerpts and commentary on selections from the 20th-century classical Arab repertoire of the Levantine – Egyptian region, highlighting songs performed by female singers from Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon. In 2021 Malshi performed at Roulette with an ensemble led by master qanun (zither) player Firas Zreik with Zafer Tawil on oud (lute), John Murc...

The music of composer Shamar Watt (aka BongoWattZ), whose work incorporates everything from techno to gospel, ecstatic movement, and manipulated light, with excerpts from the artist's archive alongside commentary on his Jamaican heritage, spirituality, technology, and noise. Watt performs at Roulette on March 1, 2025 as part of the annual Mixology Festival and again on March 13 with Lester St. Lou...

Composer/performer and instrument maker Ellen Fullman describes the origins and development of her Long Strong Instrument; dozens of strings running 40 feet or more, excited by longitudinal vibration in just intonation. The artist’s commentary is illustrated with samples from rare recordings and releases with cellist Theresa Wong, the JACK String Quartet, and others. Fullman and Wong return to Rou...

Excerpts from two performances at Roulette by drummer, composer, improviser, activist organizer Lesley Mok with commentary by the artist. "she smashed the enclosure" from 2020 features composer Mok with Charmaine Lee, voice; Maya Keren, piano, voice; Aliya Ultan, cello, voice. "a bird in its chest" from 2022 features Ultan, Joanna Mattrey, viola; Cleek Schrey, violin; David Leon, sax; Yuma Uesaka,...

A project launched by Tim Spelios and David Weinstein in the 80s, Impossible Music features cutup, montaged, recycled material, lopsided grooves, appropriated, restored, or reconstituted audio, new and legacy technologies, loops of contrasting and colliding musics, sound effects, disembodied vocal tracks, and noise merged into panoramic constructions. Illustrated with a 2004 performance at Roulett...

Composer, harpist, and multi-instrumentalist Zeena Parkins introduces the projects Phantom Orchard with electronic percussion artist Ikue Mori and a duo with electronic sound artist Laetitia Sonami. Alongside excerpts from performances at Roulette, Parkins discuses process, technique, and history. Parkins returns to Roulette on Oct. 24, 2024 with Ikue Mori and their Phantom Orchard project.

Bassist, composer, and activist Luke Stewart is best known as an accomplished  jazz musician, but he is also an innovator of techniques incorporating feedback as an extension of his sound. This edition features Stewart’s commentary on his musical trajectory as well as the role of liberation politics in music. With excerpts from the Feedback Ensemble with cellist Leila Bordreuil, and the compositio...

Improvisers John Zorn (alto sax, game calls) and Michihiro Sato (shamisen, three-stringed banjo-like instrument) in a 1985 performance at Roulette. Rescued from a reel-to-reel tape and documenting an early chapter in the downtown improv scene, the concert came shortly after the release of the duo's album Ganru Island, since re-released on Tzadik Records.

Admired as a bold saxophonist (and also sometimes guitarist, vocalist, pianist), composer Zoh Amba traces a journey from a difficult Tennessee childhood to musical and spiritual revelation. The remarks are coupled with excerpts from two performances at Roulette: the Bhakti project (2022, with Micah Thomas, piano; Thomas Morgan, bass; Marc Edwards, drums; and Matt Hollenberg, guitar) and Sun Quarte...

The trombonist Jim Staley traces his path from playing in a Vietnam-era Army band and as an orchestral musician; through encounters with influential mentors and techniques; and musical awakenings that led to a career as a master improviser and Director of Roulette, the New York City concert series. With musical appearances by John Zorn, Ikue Mori, Zeena Parkins, Bill Frisell, Fred Frith, Chris Coc...