Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble’s PJCE Online series continues with singer-songwriter and pianist Kathleen Hollingsworth and her trio Mad Love featuring Brent Follis on drums and Tim Gilson on bass. The performance will be pre-recorded with high-quality audio produced by PJCE Executive Director Douglas Detrick and released at 7 pm on December 13th with a livestream discussion with Kathleen Hollingsworth immediately following.
Online event information:
Sunday, December 13th, 2020, 4:00 pm PST.
Tickets: $10 General Admission, $5 for those 65 or older and 35 or younger, free for PJCE Sustainers.
Link to a private page will be provided to ticketholders.
Playing a set of songs composed during quarantine, Hollingsworth says that the essence of them is “deeply personal. The pandemic illuminated my complete exhaustion and burn-out…imagine a wounded creature curled up in a ball in the corner, hardly able to function. That’s what March-June felt like. All I could manage in my music practice was improvising for a very short time in the morning. When I found something I liked, I recorded it and forgot about it. I had no ability to produce anything until about June. I realized, after that compulsory slow-down, that I had a little goldmine of new music that only at that point, was I barely able to start crafting.“
In addition to being a performer and composer, Hollingsworth is also Director of Vocal Music and Music Performance and Technology at Clackamas Community College and a passionate leader of Renegade Gospel, which is on hiatus now as the pandemic continues. Social distancing has hit all of us hard, but singers, especially those who work with choirs, have had an even deeper silence imposed on them. Those conditions have inspired some introspection from Hollingsworth, who said “there is a depth and solace to this new music that I think has not been in my writing before. Power without the angst… Spirit from the inside, where the Divine resides.”
About the Artists
Portland-based musician Kathleen Hollingsworth has been performing and writing for most of her life. A childhood steeped in singing led her to study piano and composition and is highly active in the northwest as a choral educator, adjudicator, director and leads the band, Mad Love. She is the recipient of a Downbeat Award and is a commissioned writer for the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble and the Jazz Educator Network. She is a professional vocalist for Oregon Catholic Press and Resonance Ensemble and is the Founder/Director of the Music Performance and Technology degree at Clackamas Community College in Portland, OR. She has worked with musical giants such as Danilo Perez, Fareed Haque, Phil Mattson, Martin Bejerano, Terence Blanchard, Rhiannon, Billy Martin and John Medeski. https://www.mad-love.net/
Raised on a farm in Southern Illinois, the first thing Brent Follis can remember is picking up a pair of wooden spoons, and tapping out rhythms on some old popcorn tins. Since then, his journey has led him cross country and around the globe, performing music for thousands of people, while in search of inspiration and culture. After receiving his degree in Advertising and music performance from Southern Illinois University, he transplanted himself in the fertile soil of the Pacific Northwest. After receiving a call from a friend and musical writing partner on the East Coast, and needing to fulfill his yearning for diversity, culture, and thin crust pizza, he moved to New York City. After a decade of performing, traveling, and immersing himself deep within the trenches of NYC, he made the sojourn back to the Rose City, where he maintains a busy recording and performance schedule, and can be found backing up many talented singer-songwriters, jazz and pop artists. https://www.brentfollis.com/
