Capatosta Trio

[Live Show | Livestream]

Capatosta is a contemporary avant-garde jazz trio led by the boundary-pushing alto saxophonist and composer Tim Berne. Flanked by guitarist Gregg Belisle-Chi and long-time collaborator Tom Rainey on drums, the group embodies an uncompromising, hyper-focused approach to acoustic exploration that strips away conventional rhythm sections to create a raw, conversational environment where compositions serve as elastic launchpads for fierce, collective improvisation.

Celebrated on international avant-garde stages and documented on releases like Yikes Too via Berne’s Screwgun Records, Capatosta stands as a masterclass in modern creative music, delivering high-energy performances that are as cerebral as they are emotionally charged.

Gregg Belisle-Chi (池敏超) is an Asian-American guitarist and composer who over the past decade has been “busily establishing himself as an important and distinctive new voice in the contemporary guitar world” and “has emerged as one of the most creatively dexterous musicians.” (Earshot Jazz) Within a career of mercurial interests, he has performed with Bill Frisell, Tim Berne, Reid Anderson, Hank Roberts, Chris Potter, Mat Maneri, Jim Black, Ches Smith, Marc Ducret, Steve Swallow, Cuong Vu, Wayne Horvitz, Nasheet Waits, and many more in the Jazz, Improvised, Rock, and Chamber music worlds.

Tom Rainey was born in Pasadena, California in 1957. Since moving to New York in 1979 he has performed and or recorded with the following artists: John Abercrombie, Mose Allison, Julian Arguelles, Ray Anderson, Tim Berne, Jane Ira Bloom, Anthony Braxton, Nels Cline, Ted Curson, Kris Davis, Mark Ducret, Mark Feldman, Michael Formanek, Drew Gress, Mark Helias, Fred Hersch, Andy Laster, Ingrid Laubrock, David Liebman, Joe Lovano, Tony Malaby, Albert Mangelsdorff, Carmen McRae, Mike Nock, Simon Nabatov, New and Used, Anita O'Day, Andrea Parkins, Herb Robertson, Angelica Sanchez, Louis Sclavis, Brad Shepik, Ken Werner, Denny Zeitlin.

Current activities include performing and recording music with the Tom Rainey Trio as well as his quintet, Obbligato. Tom also continues performing with many of the aforementioned artists.

Tim Berne is a composer, saxophonist and educator specializing in improvised music. He has been performing internationally since 1982 with various ensembles including Caos Totale,Fractured Fairy Tales,Bloodcount and Snakeoil among others. He has made over 50 recordings as a leader for labels such as Soul Note,Sony,JMT, ECM and Intakt records.

Tim started his own label Screwgun records in 1996 and most recently released is Angel Dusk with Matt Mitchell. He has taught extensively since the late 90’s giving workshops in South America,Europe and America. Recent awards and residencies include: New York State Council on the Arts New York State Foundation for the Arts Readers Digest/Meet the Composer (for the Kronos Quartet and the Rova Saxophone Quartet) McDowell Colony Djerassi Foundation Civitella Ranieri He is currently active with his Snakeoil group and Sun of Goldfinger.