Bowerbird is pleased to present THUMBS at The Rotunda with an opening set by Aaron Pond on horn, voice, daxophone, duck callers, and surprises.
Performing as the duo Thumbs, multi-reedists David Leon and Yuma Uesaka have developed a peculiar improvised practice. Built around a shared interest in extended timbres and hairpin counterpoint, their music explores extremes: quiet and loud, dense and desolate, serious and silly.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Yuma Uesaka is a Japanese-American saxophonist, clarinetist, improviser, performer, and composer based in New York City since 2014. Over the last decade, Yuma has contributed to scenes that embrace various experimental and historic practices primarily rooted in jazz, creative improvised music, and new music. His music often explores the fringes of instrumental and compositional techniques to question traditional musical roles and deconstruct assumed binaries of improvised/composed, acoustic/electronic, and music/noise. An active sideperson, Yuma has performed in groups led by Anna Webber, Lesley Mok, and DoYeon Kim, at venues such as Roulette, National Sawdust, and The Jazz Gallery. He can be heard on Pi, American Dreams, and NotTwo Records. As a composer, he has received recognition from the ASCAP Foundation, Metropolis, and Either/Or Ensemble.
David Leon is a Cuban-American saxophonist, woodwinds player, composer, and improviser living in Brooklyn, New York. His work is guided by a persistent search for vitality through autonomy, contradiction, hyperbole, and humor. His work with the saxophone investigates alternate methods for producing a tone, refinement of these techniques, and development of a distinct vocabulary using these sounds; he melds this timbral approach with melodic and rhythmic phrasing from Cuban folkloric traditions, narrative playing, Free Jazz & avant-garde esthetics, and microtonality to reveal a personal conceit. In 2024, David was named a Music Composition Fellow by the CINTAS Foundation and was awarded a Jerome Commission by Roulette Intermedium to support the creation of A Divine Echo, a hybrid work of chamber music and wordless puppet theatre. In April 2025, he will present a new solo work for amplified saxophone and electronics as part of his Roulette 2024/2025 Jerome Artist Residency. His work has been recognized by The Jazz Gallery’s Mentoring Series, and New Music USA.
Aaron Pond is a musician and curator active in the east coast improvised music scene from Philadelphia to Miami. Emerging from a childhood steeped in the rigorous forms of Judaic and classical music, Pond now plays with and transcends musical genres. Since 2014, he has dedicated himself to improvisation and oral composition. Utilizing Horn, Wagner Tuba, Wood Flutes, Duck Calls and Daxophone, he has developed a voice defined by a kaleidoscopic approach to idiom, multiphonic singing, and rich tones.
Pond serves as President of People’s Music Supply, a presenting, educational, and social non-profit organization dedicated to Creative Music.
Admission is FREE/pay what you wish