Filipino-American guitarist/composer Karl Evangelista presents Apura (Tagalog for “Very Urgent”), a thrilling new composition meant to explore the relationship between jazz-based musical improvisation and social transformation in an era of worldwide political upheaval. Apura uses original musical content, live projection, and spoken word components to tie the revolutionary music of the past to the activist music of the present day, touching on American, South African, and Filipino musical traditions. Apura unites two veteran musicians, legendary jazz drummer Andrew Cyrille (in for the great Louis Moholo-Moholo, the project's original 4th member) and Asian American Jazz icon Francis Wong, with firebrand pianist Alexander Hawkins (UK) and experimental music powerhouse Evangelista.

Offering a rare opportunity to hear a multigenerational, international cast of improvising musicians in the heart of the Bay Area, Apura celebrates the ways in which creativity, community, and heritage can plot a course through troubled times.

Karl Evangelista (Guitar, Composer)
Filipino-American guitarist/composer Karl Evangelista has been called “one of the most original instrumentalists and composers of his generation” (Signal to Noise), ranking among a new wave of musicians pushing the traditions of jazz and experimental rock into the 21st century. Evangelista has garnered wide acclaim for his work with the likes of boundary-breaking art rock duo Grex, Fred Frith, Louis Moholo-Moholo, Trevor Watts, Scott Amendola, Ben Goldberg, Tatsu Aoki, and Francis Wong. He has presented at the Great American Music Hall, the United States of Asian America Festival, and Myra Melford’s New Frequencies Festival, and he is a prolific educator, community organizer, and arts activist throughout the Bay Area.

Alexander Hawkins (Piano)
Alexander Hawkins is a composer, pianist, organist, and bandleader who is ‘unlike anything else in modern creative music’ (Ni Kantu). An in-demand sideman, Hawkins has worked with the likes of Louis Moholo-Moholo, Evan Parker, Mulatu Astatke, Wadada Leo Smith, Anthony Braxton, Matana Roberts, and Shabaka Hutchings, and his own work as leader has garnered commissions from the BBC, the London Jazz Festival, and the Cheltenham Jazz Festival.

Andrew Cyrille (Drums)
Master musician Andrew Cyrille is one the most celebrated drummer-composers in the history of jazz, performing with the likes of Mary Lou Williams, Coleman Hawkins, Illinois Jacquet, Kenny Dorham, Freddie Hubbard, Walt Dickerson, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Horace Tapscott, Muhal Richard Abrams, John Carter, Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas, Vijay Iyer, and Nigerian percussionist Babatunde Olatunji. Andrew's contributions to free jazz and improvised music are legendary, including an iconic 11-year collaboration with pianist Cecil Taylor, several percussion groups featuring notable drummers such as Kenny Clarke, Milford Graves, and Rashied Ali, and work in both ensembles under his own leadership and the all-star Trio 3.

Francis Wong (Saxophone)
For over two decades Francis Wong has performed his innovative brand of jazz and creative music alongside such luminaries as Jon Jang, Tatsu Aoki, Genny Lim, William Roper, Bobby Bradford, John Tchicai, James Newton, Joseph Jarman, Don Moye, and the late Glenn Horiuchi. Wong is renowned as co-founder of Asian Improv aRts, and he has been recognized as a California Arts Council Artist in Residence, a Meet The Composer New Resident, and a Rockefeller Next Generation Leadership Fellow.