Darren — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 15:40:00 +0000

Photo by Warren Difranco Hsu

The Nice Guy Trio
With Rob Reich on accordion, and Daniel Fabricant on bass, the sound we create is intimate and spontaneous as we navigate through a uniquely diverse collection of original compositions and songs from folk traditions all around the globe, from jazz to klezmer to balkan dance forms, to afro-beat and beyond.

The Evan Francis/Darren Johnston Quartet
Co-led with my roommate, saxophonist Evan Francis, this 2 horns, 2 rhythm ensemble plays original modern jazz tunes by Evan and myself.

The Darren Johnston Quintet
The idea behind the compositional approach for this group is to allow for a maximum of freedom for the other musicians, while growing organically from a single melodic idea. Playful, adventuresome and swinging music, the quintet features Ben Goldberg on clarinet, Sheldon Brown on tenor sax and bass clarinet, Devin Hoff on bass, and Smith Dobson V on drums and vibraphone.
There are a couple examples from a live show posted at
http://www.BayTaper.com/2007/02/26/darren-johnston-quintet-live-at-the-red-poppy-art-house/.

The United Brassworkers Front
The United Brassworkers Front, originally a four brass plus drums ensemble featuring 2 trumpets, trombone, and tuba, plus drum-set, has grown since its inception in early 2001 to include an acoustic bass, electric guitar, and a second trombone. The sound of a brass choir is like no other, and can sound equally at home performing Bach, Romanian brass band music, New Orleans “second line” marching band music, be-bop or free jazz. My having heard a recording of the Angolan songwriter Carlos Vierra Diaz’s Birin Birin, from which I immediately heard in my mind an arrangement for this instrumentation, originally inspired this ensemble. The UBF have played in various San Francisco venues such as the Black Cat, Bruno’s, The Make-out Room, the Blue Room Gallery and Intersection for the Arts. In Oakland and Berkeley they have performed at the Jazzschool, the Jazz House, and the Oakland Box. They have performed live on both KFJC, and KPFA radio stations. In 2002, the UBF performed an original score of mine live to the 1926 silent Russian film By The Law at the El Rio Film Festival. For a Cinco de Mayo show the following year, I orchestrated a collaboration with this ensemble plus accordion, two percussionists, and a laptop musician, featuring a piece of mine for laptop and audience, as well as arrangements of traditional Mexican and Mexican-American songs. A forty minute piece for five brass and live sound processing (also on laptop), was written by myself in 2004 and performed at Oakland’s Jazz House featuring Chris Brown on electronics. Also in 2004, the UBF performed at the ROVA Saxophone Quartet’s New Music on the Mountain series at the amphitheatre on Mount Tamalpais. Members have included Henry Hung, and Joel Behrman – trumpet, Mike Rinta, Adam Theis, Danny Grewen, Scott Larson, and Joel Behrman – trombone, Marc Bolin – bass bone and tuba, John Finkbeiner – electric guitar, Bill Artola – accordion, Aaron Germaine and Devin Hoff – bass, Sameer Gupta and Ches Smith – drums.

Ensembles