Join us for a night of improvisation with TRAP (Tashi Dorji + Thom Nguyen) and the GAF TRIO (Will Greene, Ishmael Ali, Lily Finnegan). Tashi Dorji and Thom Nguyen will start our evening with experiments in rhythm, followed by a deep dive into the GAF TRIO’s distinctive and expansive sound.
About TRAP
TRAP is a new duo experimentation of minimal rhythm patterns from Thom and Tashi of MANAS.
Thom Nguyen is an Asheville-based improvisor and drummer of MANAS (w/ Tashi Dorji), Wasting, We Bow To No Masters, Nest Egg, etc. Producing energetic bursts and invoking a sensitivity to space that one often associates with Free-Jazz and New Music percussion, Nguyen’s approach elegantly bridges works of sonic sculpture with a punk aesthetic of immediacy, of aggression and playfulness.
Tashi Dorji is a Bhutanese-born, Asheville-based experimental guitarist whose fiercely intuitive improvisations have carved out a unique space in the contemporary avant-garde. His expansive discography includes deeply felt solo works like Stateless (2020) and we will be wherever the fires are lit (2024), and his forthcoming electric album low clouds hang, this land is on fire (2026) on Drag City. Dorji is one half of Manas, the dynamic duo with drummer Thom Nguyen, and a founding member of the free jazz trio KUZU, alongside saxophonist Dave Rempis and drummer Tyler Damon. His collaborators span a wide spectrum: from Mette Rasmussen, Susie Ibarra, Efrim Manuel Menuck, Alex Zhang Hungtai, John Dieterich, Audrey Chen and Joe McPhee to more recent partnerships with Tony Buck, Terrie Ex, Andy Moor, bassist John Edwards, and drummer Steve Noble. Across his solo and group projects, Dorji’s playing, rooted in alternate tunings, prepared guitar, and spontaneous gesture, articulates an aesthetic of resistance, deep listening, and collective transformation.
About GAF TRIO:
An ensemble defined by restlessness and sonic curiosity, this improbable improvising trio rides the edge between sonorous melodies, atonal outbursts, and tilted grooves — creating music that feels both elemental and unpredictable.
Individually, each artist in the trio brings a distinct voice: Will Greene’s saxophone moves effortlessly between melodious phrasing and jagged rupture; Ishmael Ali’s cello oscillates between textural articulations, idiomatic gestures, and rhythmic grooves; and Lily Finnegan’s percussive approach spans pliant, groove‑oriented dialogue to fractured, pointillist soundscapes, providing a platform for both abstraction and lyricism. Together, their interplay coalesces into a dynamic conversation that propels the trio into spaces at once visceral, exploratory, and delightfully capricious.
WILL GREENE plays guitar and saxophone and currently resides in Chicago, after spending many years as an active member of various Brooklyn, NY music communities. His musical practice explores time-bending, pitch excursions, and interactive notions. In addition to an active schedule of jazz and improvisation adjacent activities, Will is a member of avant-thrash outfit TRIGGER, italo-prog orchestra TREDICI BACCI, and leads the CHICAGO MICROBES. He is also proud of and grateful for his past and ongoing collaborations that have taken him across the United States and several continents. A woefully abbreviated list of these collaborators: John Zorn, Joe Morris, Raf Vertessen, Elias Stemeseder, Zoe Christiansen, Kenny Wollesen, Max Jaffe, Henry Fraser and Carrie Furniss.
Ishmael Ali is a dynamic cellist, guitarist, improviser, and composer based out of Chicago. His work centers on exploring sound through improvisation, experimentation, composition, and collaboration, focusing on a wide array of idiomatic approaches in an ever-changing, always-growing list of projects informed by diverse influences. While varying drastically, a common thread in his work is the juxtaposition of seemingly disparate elements to create something new: both foreign and familiar. Ishmael is leader or co-leader of a plethora of working projects including Hearsay, Ensemble Ziraph, and Akjai. He currently performs with Kahil El Zabar and the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble and has performed and recorded with Avreeayl Ra, Josh Berman, Jim Baker, Fred Jackson, Ed Wilkerson, Angel Bat Dawid, Jason Stein, Tom Skinner, and many more. In addition to performing, Mr. Ali is a co-curator of the Thursday night Improvised Music Series at Elastic Arts, a co-founder and audio engineer at Marmalade, a recording and rehearsal space in the West Loop, and along with close friend and collaborator Bill Harris, runs the co-operative record label Amalgam Music.
Lily Finnegan is a Chicago-based drummer, composer, improviser, and organizer. In 2026 she became a Next Jazz Legacy awardee. She was spotlighted by The Chicago Reader as a “Chicagoan of Note” and included in The Chicago Sun Times “Next Generation of Jazz Musicians.” She leads her own quartet, Heat On, which released their debut album on Cuneiform Records. Finnegan has collaborated with wide ranging artists including James Brandon Lewis, gabby fluke-mogul, Ken Vandermark, Macie Stewart, Bill Orcutt, Edward Wilkerson, Nick Dunston, Tashi Dorji, Lia Kohl, Patrick Shiroishi, Brandon Seabrook, and Shanta Nurullah. She is a member of the Catalytic Sound Collective and co-curates the Option Series.