HONK! At the Loove

Newman Taylor Baker, known artistically as WashboardXT, has been hailed as “a true virtuoso of the washboard,” “astonishing,” and “simply amazing.” After more than five decades as an internationally respected jazz drummer, Baker experienced a profound artistic shift in 2010 when he first picked up the washboard while performing with the Ebony Hillbillies. That moment opened a new creative and personal chapter, prompting him to explore his family’s history and the deeper cultural meaning embedded in the instrument’s sound.

A performance experience devised in October 2023 by Frank London, Kenny Wolleson, Elijah J. Thomas, and Skyler Hagner, composed of various sonic, aesthetic, and lived experiences all intersecting at different points and different degrees in time. Such convergence of various experiences breeds the unexpected and the familiar, the known and yet unheard, in the tradition of forerunner musician Thelonious Sphere Monk and the very tune after which this ensemble is named!

Sunjay Jayaram, violin/viola
Daniel Hass, 'cello
Elijah J. Thomas, flutes/whistles
Skyler Hagner, clarinets
Ariana Varvaro, oboe and English horn
Austin Wegener, bassoon
James Ellmore III, soprano and alto saxophone
Ayumi Ishito, tenor saxophone and electronics (pedals)
Lincoln Barron, baritone saxophone
Malcolm Stokes, trumpet
Mike Irwin, trumpet
Josh Roseman, trombone
Richie White, trombone
Isla Brownlow, trombone
Ron Caswell, tuba
Naomi Nakanishi, keyboard (piano) -- whichever is most accessible
David Brancazio, melodica
Max Dolgin, drum kit
Nick Herman, percussion
Deric Dickens, percussion
Michael Dudley Jr. Trumpet

Josh Roseman is a New York-based jazz trombonist whose presence has been felt in the downtown scene of improvisers from the 1990s onward.

Born June 5, 1967, in Boston, he picked up the trombone because it was the most prevalent instrument in his household. His father, uncle, and cousins were all musicians. Moving to higher education, Roseman stayed close to home, studying at both the Berklee and New England Conservatories. A quintessential sideman, Roseman has played with Dave Holland, Don Byron, Steve Coleman, Dave Douglas, Jason Moran, the Skatelites, the Roots, John Zorn, Medeski Martin & Wood, Meshell Ndegeocello, and the late Lester Bowie, as well as leading his own bands. His album New Constellations was released in the U.S. by Russ’s Accurate Records. Roseman is busy aside from staged music, as a trombone instructor and improvisation coach for the New School for Social Research at NYU, the Harlem School for the Arts, and the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada.