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Aram Shelton

Aram Shelton is a multi-instrumentalist on saxophones and clarinets, a composer & improviser, and creates electroacoustic music with computer-based electronics. While the music he makes is spread across a variety of aesthetic lines, it is related by the importance of improvisation to develop material and express the individuality of musicians. He currently lives in Oakland, California.

Shelton has performed with a wide variety of talented musicians, including Tim Daisy, Ken Vandermark, Jason Ajemian, Josh Berman, Audrey Chen, Fred Lonberg-holm, Dave Rempis, Damon Smith, Steve Bernstein, Weasel Walter, Jason Roebke, Liz Albee, Rob Mazurek, Matt Bauder, Jessica Pavone, Fred Frith, Josh Abrams, Harris Eisenstadt, Jeb Bishop, Tim Perkis, Kevin Drumm, Jon Raskin, Frank Rosaly, Guillermo Gregorio, and Chris Brown. He has performed throughout the United States, Canada and Europe including appearances at the Chicago Jazz Festival, the Suoni per il Popolo Festival in Montreal, and the Krakow Autumn Jazz Festival. His playing and music has been documented on more than ten albums through various imprints including 482 Music, Locust Music, MultiKulti, Edgetone, Delmark, and his own Singlespeed Music.

Beginning on tenor saxophone while growing up on a small ranch in southeast Florida, Shelton switched to alto saxophone in college, as a way to focus on the classical techniques of the instrument. After college, Shelton lived in Washington DC for a summer where he met other young musicians interested in making music unrestricted by style. He moved to Chicago in the spring of 1999, inspired by the amount of musical activity and quickly became involved in the city’s creative music scene. While there, Shelton developed his playing style on alto saxophone while also studying clarinet and trumpet. He played creative jazz and improvised music in many settings, including the groups Dragons 1976, Arrive, and Rapid Croche. Over time he also became interested in the use of computer- based electronics for the live sampling and manipulation of acoustic instruments, and formed the group Grey Ghost with Johnathan Crawford.

After several productive years in Chicago, Shelton moved out west to California to focus on his electroacoustic music at Mills College. Shelton continues to focus on live improvisational-based music that uses both acoustic and electronic instruments. In California the groups Flockterkit, Ton Trio, Son of Gunnar Ton of Shel, the Shelton/Healy duo, the Pink Canoes, and Settled represent his music. He maintains his connections to Chicago through the groups Dragons 1976 (Multikulti), Arrive, Rolldown (482 Music), and Keefe Jackson’s Fast Citizens (Delmark).

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79
Album Review

Aram Shelton & Håkon Berre: Dormancy

Read "Dormancy" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


San Francisco Bay Area resident, alto saxophonist Aram Shelton and Norwegian drummer/percussionist Håkon Berre recorded this dynamic session in a studio outside of Copenhagen. Each musician is highly respected in their home turf and beyond, although Shelton has led bands and collaborated with the crème de la crème of fearless improvising risk-takers in the US since the 1990s. On this venture, the duo conveys a synchronous relationship as they challenge, mimic and push each other throughout these largely jolting improvisations. ...

3
Album Review

Aram Shelton: Everything for Somebody

Read "Everything for Somebody" reviewed by Troy Collins


Currently based in Oakland, California, alto saxophonist Aram Shelton initially rose to prominence as a member of the fertile Chicago jazz scene, where he resided from 1999-2005. His tenure in the Windy City resulted in a number of lasting relationships; one of the most notable is his Quartet with tenor saxophonist Keefe Jackson, bassist Anton Hatwich and drummer Tim Daisy. Featuring some of Chicago's finest young improvisers, Everything for Somebody is the group's sophomore release, following These Times, its 2010 ...

2
Album Review

Aram Shelton: Everything For Somebody

Read "Everything For Somebody" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Alto saxophonist Aram Shelton cannot break his Chicago habit. We're not talking that monkey woman Joe Williams used to sing about, back in the day. Shelton, who left Chicago a few years back for the Bay area of California, returns to the windy city often, both physically and for its sound.His second quartet recording, like These Times (Singlespeed Music, 2010) lands smack-dab on the Midwestern map. The saxophonist recruited three Chicagoans--saxophonist Keefe Jackson (Jason Stein Quartet, Josh Berman, ...

93
Album Review

Kjell Nordeson / Aram Shelton: Incline

Read "Incline" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


The avant-garde schema is sort of an open-world platform where almost anything goes. But Incline is an album that sheds a radiant light on the sax-drums duo format, featuring an inordinate degree of textural components and a seamless integration of two like-minded artists, performing on similar planes. Here, Swedish drummer Kjell Nordeson and American alto saxophonist Aram Shelton opt for a reclusive setting, tucked away in the mountains at a cabin in Lake Tahoe, NV. Perhaps all or most distractions ...

95
Album Review

Arrive: There Was...

Read "There Was..." reviewed by Troy Collins


A longtime fixture of the fertile Chicago jazz scene, Aram Shelton's relocation to Oakland, California has not diminished the alto saxophonist's presence among his peers in the Windy City. Courtesy of a rigorous touring schedule, Shelton maintains memberships in numerous ensembles, including Jason Adasiewicz's Rolldown, the collective ensemble Fast Citizens, and Arrive, his quartet with vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz, bassist Jason Roebke and drummer Tim Daisy--three of Chicago's finest improvisers.Recorded in 2008 after a two week tour of the ...

204
Album Review

Aram Shelton's Fast Citizens: Two Cities

Read "Two Cities" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza


The Fast Citizens was formed by Keefe Jackson in 2002, who led the band on its debut recording Ready Everyday (Delmark Records). The sextet rotates leaders, and this time around it's led by saxophonist/clarinetist Aram Shelton. Shelton is based in Oakland, California but also has an ongoing musical relationship with Chicago. Hence the title, Two Cities.

One of the core strengths of this group is its ability to transform the shape and texture of a composition, doing so with a ...

351
Album Review

Aram Shelton's Fast Citizens: Two Cities

Read "Two Cities" reviewed by Troy Collins


One of the defining characteristics of Chicago's progressive jazz scene is the ubiquity of a tight-knit group of young, post-Vandermark improvisers who alternate sideman and leadership duties in a variety of ensembles. Whether led by individual artists or operating as loose collectives, they approach the tradition from similar angles, seamlessly incorporating aspects of swinging post-bop, edgy free improvisation, and contemporary composition into a cohesive whole. Their historically reverent, yet adventurous inside-outside sensibility has come to define the Windy City's current ...

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112

Music Industry

Aram Shelton and Arrive Present an Interesting Program of Quartet Music on "There Was"

Aram Shelton and Arrive Present an Interesting Program of Quartet Music on "There Was"

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards

For those of you like me who are digging some of the interesting ensembles loosely based in Chicago and taking a post-Dolphy trip through composi- tional-improvisational in & out territory, the new CD by Arrive should appeal. Altoist Aram Shelton has a wry sort of pluck to his solo work. He now resides in California where he is a part of the group Cylinder (see review on these pages), but he reunited with some of the Chicago luminaries for There ...

157

Recording

Aram Shelton's Arrive- There Was... (Clean Feed, 2011) ****a1/2

Aram Shelton's Arrive- There Was... (Clean Feed, 2011) ****a1/2

Source: Free Jazz by Stef Gijssels

By Paul Acquaro Aram Shelton's 'This Was...,' recorded with his group Arrive in 2008 is a serious affair that is quite a fun and demanding listen. I was first struck by how cool this group was, cool in the sense of how the vibes, the upright acoustic bass, the commanding sax, and some very hip drumming, casts a spell. At the same time, I was impressed by how hot the band was, in the sense of, well, just tearing it ...

207

Recording

Aram Shelton's Arrive - There Was... (Clean Feed, 2011)

Aram Shelton's Arrive - There Was... (Clean Feed, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland

Saxophonist Aram Shelton has become a fixture on the modern jazz scene in Chicago, Oakland and many other places around the globe. As a leader or participant in several different groups he has had the chance to explore many of the facets of improvised music.

On this album with his group Arrive, with Jason Adasiewicz on vibraphone, Jason Roebke on bass and Tim Daisy on drums, they explore the open ended intersection between free jazz and composed music that was ...

171

Performance / Tour

Aram Shelton's Fast Citizens' Delmark CD Release Party at the Hungry Brain

Aram Shelton's Fast Citizens' Delmark CD Release Party at the Hungry Brain

Source: Michael Ricci

Delmark CD release party for Aram Shelton's Fast Citizens' TWO CITIES Sunday, December 20, 2009 Aram Shelton's Fast Citizens @ 10pm Hungry Brain 2319 W Belmont Chicago, IL 773-935-2118 Aram Shelton - alto saxophone, clarinet Josh Berman - cornet Keefe Jackson - tenor saxophone, bass clarinet Anton Hatwich - bass Marc Riordan - drums (on CD, Frank Rosaly is drummer, and Fred Lonberg-Holm adds cello!) The ...

"As an improviser, he possesses the mind of a composer, such is the consideration he puts into his work" - All About Jazz

"Shelton’s alto tone is full of the quizzical curls and bitter wisps, not to mention sharp repetition, that recall Roscoe Mitchell at his hairiest."- Clifford Allen

"Shelton plays alto with a singing sound and a wonderful way of developing juicy phrases into full-blown solos." - John Litweiler

"brings to mind a young Anthony Braxton, with an acerbic asceticism, obliquely rooted in jazz, at work." - All About Jazz

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Dormancy

Singlespeed Music
2018

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Octet

482 Music
2014

buy

On and On

Singlespeed Music
2014

buy

Everything For...

Singlespeed Music
2012

buy

There Was...

Clean Feed Records
2011

buy

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