The Amarkalam Project: Varshini Narayanan, John Bitoy III, Aparaajit Sriram
Paul Giallorenzo (photo by Peter Gannushkin)
Bill Harris (photo by Ricardo Adame)
Two trios (almost alike in instrumentation), bringing unique sensibilities at the edges of jazz, from loose compositions and tight improvisations to Indo-Jazz fusion:
8:30 pm:
Bill Harris - drums
Paul Giallorenzo - piano
Fred Jackson Jr. - saxophone, flute, percussion
9:30 pm: The Amarkalam Project
Varshini Narayanan - flute/vocals
John Bitoy III - piano
Aparaajit Sriram - Carnatic percussion
$15 / $10 w/ Student ID - Tickets Available at the Door
About the Artists
amarkalam (அமர்க்களம்) adj.; exciting; impressive; energetic. n.; chaos; a battlefield.
The Amarkalam Project is an Indo-jazz trio comprised of Varshini Narayanan (flute/vocals), John Bitoy III (piano), and Aparaajit Sriram (Carnatic percussion). We approach traditional Carnatic melodies, ragas, and compositions in dialogue with jazz harmonies and a genre-agnostic improvising sensibility, in an exploration of convergence and dissonance that ultimately leads us towards cohesion and co-articulation across boundaries of different kinds. The Amarkalam Project's debut album AMARKALAM (2025) is available now on Bandcamp.
Fred Jackson Jr has been a Chicago based saxophonist since 2001. Originally from Fort Worth, Tx. He became a member of Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in 2010. Also around this time he went to Poznań, Poland on a “Made in Chicago” tour with Saalik Zyiad. His first time traveling to Germany was with the AACM New Generations ensemble (under the direction of Ben Lamar Gaye). He was also in the first inaugural band of “The Bridge” that played at the MCA in 2010. toured France in 2017 with that same ensemble from the “Bridge”). Jackson has also ventured into theatre working as music director at Free Street with Jerrell Henderson and Marvin Tate’s Theater Y. (Michael Montenegro’s Little Karl) Nowadays, he continues to work on his on projects while collaborating with many Chicago based artist. The current ensembles he performs with, just to name a few, are Magic Carpet (Chicago), Sitarsis (Shanta Nurullah of AACM), Adam Zanolini’s Heliacal Rising Of Sothi, Mai Sugimoto Quartet, AACM’s Great Black Music Ensemble (directed by Mwata Bolden), his band Erudition Project, his newest ensemble “Where’s Charlie” and many more to come.
Originally from Long Island, NY, Paul Giallorenzo is a Chicago-based improviser, composer, producer, and sound designer using piano, synthesizer, keyboards, and electronics. His work has been praised for its “inside-out” nature – his ability to push the boundaries of “conventional” jazz toward more freedom but also, on the other side, to bring a measure of structure to more avant-garde material. Writing in the online journal Point Of Departure, John Litweiler said, “His solos and aggressive duets are gems of after-Bop, after-Bley melody,” while AllAboutJazz.org lauded music that “smudges the lines between the tradition and the avant-garde.” Current working projects as a (co)leader include the Paul Giallorenzo Trio (w/ Joshua Abrams and Mikel Patrick Avery), Hearts & Minds (with Jason Stein/Chad Taylor), RedGreenBlue (with Ryan Packard, Ben LaMar Gay, and Charlie Kirchen), and a collective trio with Gerrit Hatcher and Julian Kirshner. His work can be found on the Chicago-based Delmark Records and Austin-based Astral Spirits labels, as well as various other imprints including Leo Records (UK), Not Two Records (Poland), and 482 Music (NY). Giallorenzo is the Artistic Director of the intermedia arts organization Homeroom and a co-founder and programmer of the music venue/art gallery Elastic Arts, producing hundreds of creative music concerts and art events in Chicago since 2001.
Bill Harris is a percussionist, improviser, and audio engineer in Chicago. He also operates and produces for Amalgam, a Chicago-based label and collective, and co-operates Chicago recording studio Marmalade. Bill is a prominent Chicago-based percussionist, improviser, audio engineer, and curator working in areas of improvisation, jazz, noise, rock, and bluegrass. Presented both nationally and internationally, Bill's work focuses on a number of dedicated groups, ad hoc groups, and solo work, with over three decades of experience studying, practicing, and creating music. Some of his most frequent collaborators include Ishmael Ali, Jake Wark, Carol Genetti, Emily Beisel, Allen Moore, Timothee Quost, Dave Rempis, Jim Baker, Norman Long, PT Bell, Gerrit Hatcher, Mai Sugimoto, Eli Namay, Peter Maunu, Nick Meryhew, Matt Piet, Brianna Tong, Wills McKenna, Mabel Kwan, David Fletcher, Jess McIntosh, Aaron Smith, Jeff Kimmel, Molly Jones, Keefe Jackson, and Josh Berman. Additionally, Bill focuses on solo work incorporating acoustic and electronic material, using feedback and timbral manipulation. He has recorded three solo records: MACRODOSE (2024), Blinking Glue (2022), and ONOMAT (2021).