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Angela on the Arts

Freely improvised chamber jazz for trumpet, viola and bass clarinet with special guests

Angela on the Arts is a trio convened by jazz trumpeter/composer John D’earth who has performed internationally, and appeared on over 100 recordings with Dave Matthews, Bruce Hornsby, John Abercrombie, Emily Remler, Kait Dunton, Pat Metheny, Lionel Hampton, Tito Puente, and Buddy Rich, among many others. D'earth has recorded as a leader for Vanguard Records, ENJA Records, DoubleTime Jazz and his own Cosmology label.

Within is Angela on the Arts' debut album. D’earth plays trumpet, flugelhorn, flutes and percussion, Bonnie Gordon plays viola, and Michelle Oliva plays bass clarinet and employs looping. The group has been exploring freely improvised music since late 2017.

Their jazz-and-chamber-music-inflected sound reflects a cacophony of influences: early jazz, Miles Davis, Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman, medieval music, Arnold Schoenberg, John Cage, rock & roll, Charles Ives… they keep discovering new ways to summon and conjoin, spontaneously, the music they’ve heard throughout their lives. The music is dramatic, original, humorous, surprising, meditative, outraged and outrageous. Angela on the Arts embraces a cheerful acceptance of chaos in the search for musical meaning and order.

Angela on the Arts: Within

by Troy Dostert
January 7, 2020

Aside from its somewhat unusual name, Angela on the Arts brings a well-grounded sensibility to its identity as a trio specializing in free improvisation. Espousing a patient, disciplined chamber aesthetic with an occasional hint of whimsy, its debut disc Within offers almost an hour's worth of intelligent, creative music spread over sixteen well-crafted vignettes. The veteran of the trio is trumpeter John D'earth, a musician with omnivorous tastes that range from mainstream jazz to pop, having played with ...

Let's say that Salvador Dali, and John Cage had a love child. And their love child had a favorite movie. And in that movie was their love child's favorite band playing their love child's favorite music. That band would have to be Angela on the Arts.

Within is a breathtaking display of artistry that flows like a long, pronounced, outward breath on a very cold day, warming everything in its path.

-Jeff Coffin, Saxophonist, Dave Matthews Band

This is totally improvised music - music you've never heard, nor had they until the moments it was made!

A sound world both familiar and mysterious, uncharted lands of notes, timbres, and rhythms