Kalia Vandever | Bruno Raberg | Jonah Parzen-Johnson

Mandorla Music is excited to welcome three wonderful musical voices for an evening of solo performance and perhaps some collective improvisation. This is in a new space for Mandorla Music, the Parker Room in Eliot Hall, a fully accessible space close to the busy central business district of Jamaica Plain. $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Students with ID $10 at the door. Under 18 free.

KALIA VANDEVER

After acclaimed quartet releases in 2019 and 2022, Brooklyn-based trombonist and composer Kalia Vandever released her debut solo recording ‘We Fell In Turn’ in the early Spring of 2023. Vandever, who also plays with Harry Styles and Japanese Breakfast, “sculpts her trombone’s golden tones into dazzling compositions” (Pitchfork), writing music that tends to “dip you into a feeling or a pattern or a breathing speed, and keep you there” (The New York Times).

Recorded over three days in upstate New York, ‘We Fell In Turn’ is improvisational — a stark palate of solo trombone, voice, effects, and little more. The work was informed by her exploration of her person and family history, including her maternal Hawaiian heritage. “In Hawaiian mythology, ‘aumākua are known as ancestral spiritual guides that manifest in different forms, whether physical or intangible,” says Vandever. “My ‘aumākua visits me in my dreams, usually with a reassuring hug or a reminder of my past,” she says, and now they’ve found their way into ‘We Fell in Turn’.

BRUNO RÅBERG

By the time Bruno Råberg moved to Boston from his native Sweden to study at the New England Conservatory 1981, he was already years into an active performing career and had toured throughout Europe and in the US. At NEC, he studied with Miroslav Vitous, Mick Goodrick, George Russell, and Bob Moses. In the decades since, he has made 12 recordings as a leader, about 30 as a sideman, and has performed around the world with a who’s who of world-class artists, all while leading several constellations of his own Bruno Råberg Trio and the Triloka Ensemble. 2023 saw the release of his first solo album, ‘Look Inside,’ described as “bass playing at its most enchanting” (Ian Patterson, All About Jazz) that “ooz[es] warmth and intimacy” (Fred Grand, Jazz Journal UK) and “showcas[es] his deep, resonant timbre and wide-ranging influences, from classic jazz to world music and beyond” (Kevin Lowenthal, Boston Globe).

JONAH PARZEN-JOHNSON

Jonah Parzen-Johnson makes music for baritone saxophone & flute that challenges listeners with experimental textures & forms while embracing them with warm approachable melodies. A Chicago native and longtime Brooklyn resident, Jonah has performed solo in more than a dozen countries across four continents. He has brought his music to festivals in Berlin & Helsinki, concert halls in Istanbul & Brugge, rock clubs in Rotterdam & Montreal, and Jazz clubs in New York & Chicago. His solo performances are a deeply intimate experience in which he endeavors to share who he is, how he sees our world, and the temporary moments of community that we can all embrace together. His new project, ‘You’re Never Really Alone,’ is coming in early 2024, and celebrates the precious relationship between improvisor and audience.