PEK – Detailed Bio

Early PEK – in California..

PEK (born 1964), began playing music in elementary school on clarinet and then piano.  In junior high school he switched to alto saxophone and then tenor saxophone at the start of high school.  As a senior he was the Drum Major of the marching band, lead tenor sax in the jazz band and played flute in the concert band.  From grades 7 to 10 he studied classical and jazz saxophone with Kurt Heisig.

He went to the University of California at Davis to study mathematics and philosophy, changing schools to the University of Santa Cruz a few years later, and then leaving school to focus on music exclusively.  He resumed studying with Kurt Heisig from 1984 to 1989, spending these 5 years on heavy woodshedding and playing in Heisig’s Sax Quartet.  During this time he also played with several rock bands including Thieves, Villains and Scoundrels Union, Local 12; Ring of Fire, Kings of Hilarity and No Such Thing, among others.  He made experimental tape music with Mike Grialou, Jim Smith and Dave Murray.  He wrote and recorded several compositions including Fission, The Safety Device and Descent Into Madness. 

His day job was at a camping and climbing equipment retailer where he knew rock climbers and he went on many trips to the wilderness with these people where they would go climbing and he would play his instruments all day in natural settings.  He acquired his initial collection of instruments which included clarinet, flute and soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones.

Other Berklee Period Gigs..

During the Berklee period he also performed with the Insane Sax Quartet (including PEK on tenor saxophone and Charlie Kohlhase on baritone saxophone), the Lourdes Avenue Trio (PEK, Eric Zinman on piano and John Fugarino on slide trumpet) and the Jump Cut Orchestra lead by Chris Florio.  He met Martha Ritchey (piano), who became an important collaborator and supporter, and played stretched out jazz standards and then later improvisations with her.  He continued making tape music with Glen Peterson.

The Fractal Period…

At this time PEK took a day job running the receiving department of the newly opened Harvard Square Tower Records where he remained for the next 6 years.  This was an excellent opportunity to study the history of all music and accumulate many recordings, but did not pay very well.  He also started to change his instruments, selling off his higher register saxophones and eventually settling on tenor and baritone saxophones, clarinet, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet and bassoon.  He worked with a guy named Gene Williams at Tower who was using a program called Fractint to create mathematically generated images call fractals.  For several years PEK became obsessed with writing little Fractint programs called formulas to create images which can be either static or animated via color cycling.  He and Martha Ritchey set up a fractal lab with several computers and video equipment at her apartment and spent many hundreds of hours making fractals.

The earliest of this work was ready in time to include as a portion of the Expansions video.  Later, they set up multiple screen environments at large night-clubs like Avalon (next to Fenway Park) and for overnight Raves.  PEK’s friend Raffi Batalian organized these events and arranged for the fractal video to support several internationally known DJs including Armand Van Helden, DJ Sneak and Mixmaster Morris.  These performances were a live fractal mix involving two computer operators and a video mixer to large night club audiences enabling the video mix to fit rhythmically with the club music.

Composing with Fractals…

Matha and PEK also created a Videographic Fractal Score for guided improvisation which was interpreted a number of times by various ensembles including the yet to be formed Leap of Faith.  The score acted as a density map with some sections being smooth and flowing and others aggressive and rapidly changing.  Another Videographic Score was entitled Fractal Suite and was performed to video with improvisation by the Free Trance Ensemble (PEK, Martha on piano and Thom Jones on all kinds of acoustic and electronic devices).  The fractal artwork created by Martha and PEK are the source material for the album artwork of the Evil Clown label during the Archival Period.

Click the links below to view the 5 movements of the Fractal Suite.

YouTube 1 | YouTube 2 | YouTube 3 | YouTube 4 | YouTube 5

Boston Improvisors’ Collective

Matt Samolis (flute, flax, game calls and other), who performed an engineer role on Expansions, had an improvisation ensemble with fluid membership called the Boston Improvisers’ Collective.  PEK performed a number of times between 1994 and 1996 with this band at the Bookcellar Café in Somerville MA.  Performers on these gigs included Matt, PEK, Steve Norton (saxes, clarinets, game calls), Tom Plsek (trombone, didgeridoo), Craig Schildhauer, John Fugarino (trumpet), Ann Dover (poetry recitation), Jason Rodgers (trombone), Tomo Gondo (euphonium, game calls), and John Voigt (bass).

Composer’s Orchestra

In 1995, Eric Zinman organized a Zeitgeist Gallery concert for the Composers Orchestra to play his and Raphe Malik’s compositions.  Performing at this concert were Raphe Malik (trumpet), Glenn Spearman (tenor sax), Eric Zinman (piano), PEK and some unknown others.

Mental Notes

For many years Craig Schildhauer hosted Mental Notes at WMFO (Tufts University, Medford MA) from midnight until 2.  Mental Notes was a different kind of Radio Show than you have ever experienced.  You might call it a Radio Broadcast Performance (with mad genius Craig using the entire Radio Station as an instrument).  He would make a single uninterrupted mix for the entire length of his program.  His show was 2 hours, but he would do it until the next DJ arrived – sometimes for 5 or 6 hours in a row.  WMFO had three studios and Craig would use all three of them at the same time.  He created loops and tapes in advance, he set up huge analog tape loops with two reel-to-reel decks, he sampled albums of all kinds from the library, he set up his bass and then he ran around between the three studios all night like a crazed fiend.  He invited all kinds of different improvising musicians to come and play both as ensembles and as ensembles with Radio Station accompaniment.  PEK participated about 20 times in 1996 and 1997 and always brought blank DAT tapes so he could document the results.  Performing on various Mental Notes broadcasts were Leap of Faith, Bottom Feeder (Craig and PEK as a duet), Jeff Hudgens (woodwinds), Keith Fullerton Whitman (guitar, electronics), Ayler’s Angels (trio with 2 altos and drums), Leslie Ross (bassoon), Rob Bethel (cello), El-Ron (?), Wayne Rogers (guitar, electronics, owner of the Twisted Village record shop and record label), Kate Biggar (bass) and others.

Equilibrium

In September 1999, Glynis couldn’t make a Leap of Faith gig at the last second at Mass Art in Boston.  At the concert the first set was a sax duet between Charlie Kohlhase and Matt Langley, the second set was a trio with PEK, James Coleman (theremin) and Tatsuya Nakatani (drums and bowed percussion) and the third set featured all 5 players.  PEK called the band Equilibrium since Glynis was not playing.  The Evil Clown release of this performance contains the second and third sets

Review by Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery

EQUILIBRIUM [With PEK/JAMES COLEMAN/TATSUYA NAKATANI + CHARLIE KOHLHASE /MATT LANGLEY] – Fitness Landscapes (Evil Clown; USA) Featuring Pek on saxes, clarinet & bassoon, James Coleman on theremin, Tatsuya Nakatani on percussion plus added on one long track: Charlie Kohlhase & Matt Langley on saxes. Equilibrium is another of Dave Peck’s (aka Pek) projects. Equilibrium consists of Pek, James Coleman on theremin (who has worked with Bhob Rainey & Greg Kelley) and percussion wiz Tatsuya Nakatani (one of my fave players, who has worked with Dr. Chadbourne, Mary Halvorson and Billy Bang). Both guest saxists here, Charlie Kohlhase & Matt Langely, are Boston-based and have recorded together on more than a half dozen discs. This is the one disc by Mr. Peck and his cohorts that has all familiar names on board. This disc consists of two long pieces, the first of which features just the trio of Pek, Coleman and Nakatani. It was recorded live at Mass Art in Boston in September of 1999. I dig the way the trio take their time and improvise, quietly at first, slowly getting to know each other as they evolve together. At nearly 40 minutes long, it is like a long story unfolding, paced just right never too busy or too intense but always interesting. The second piece is called “Phase Space” and it features three reeds, theremin & percussion. This piece again takes it time but lets all three reeds work together in strong and spirited ways, building, criss-crossing with sections of free/jazz frenetics. Again, the balance, recording and pace is careful and well-handled. Often Mr. Nakatani’s unique approach to percussion (bowed gongs, etc.) and theremin are in similar timbral terrain. More great music form points little known.

New Leap of Faith Core Unit

In late 1999, Craig relocated to Hawaii and PEK and Glynis reformed Leap of Faith into a quartet with PEK, Glynis, James Coleman and Yuri Zbitnov (drums and percussion).  For a detailed history of Leap of Faith, see the band bio at the beginning of this document.

Sky Saw

Yuri had several pop culture bands combining elements of rock and jazz and improvisation.  PEK played on a number of the Skysaw performances during 2002.  Skysaw was a duet between Yuri on drums and Core Redonnett (Blue Man Group) on electric zither.  Skysaw utilized prerecorded electronic tracks and loops and real time electronic performance interacting with the zither and percussion.  One of the shows including PEK also featured Brandon Seabrook on guitar and banjo.

Mission Creep

In 2012, PEK once again started performing with one of Yuri’s bands, Mission Creep.  In early 2014, the Mission Creep studio band recorded an album entitled On the Sea of Suns. The 2014 live performance version of this band is a collaboration between Gregory Damien Grinnell (composition, electronics, bass, guitar, and trumpet) and Yuri Zbitnov (composition, drums) with the other regular members being Tony Savarino (guitar), PEK (baritone saxophone), Steve Norton (alto sax, horn arrangements), Johnny Blazes (vocals), and Tamora Gooding (electronic percussion).

The PEK Long Bio above this point was written in 2015 as I rebooted Evil Clown and created the first version of the Evil Clown website. Now, as of this writing in January 2024, the Archival Period and the Contemporary Period are roughly the same length and I am taking the opportunity to extend this long bio to include Evil Clown’s activity from 2015 to the present .

I immediately instituted a grand plan to build the Evil Clown Roster with enough players to perform Improvisation Orchestra performances of Graphic Scores following up on my 1994 Composition Expansions. I also determined to massively broaden the available resources now that I had more resources available. I started buying lots more horns, tons of percussion instruments, electronic instruments and all manner of miscellaneous sound makers.

In parallel with Leap of Faith, Yuri and I also formed Metal Chaos Ensemble to explore the new worlds of sound brought about by all the metal percussion I was accumulating. Starting with the duet Null Theory, we did more duets and also larger groups where we invited other percussion players and some more rock/pop culture oriented players.

I started renting the Lilypad Jazz club in Cambridge for live shows where we would perform a two CD length performance with smaller sub-units for the first hour and everyone together for the second hour as the Leap of Faith Orchestra. Some of the LOFO sets included up to 10 musicians. Leap of Faith also played several shows in NYC with the core quartet.

By the end of 2015 I had started Turbulence for wind instruments, and String Theory for me and Glynis with other String players. The plan was to combine Leap of Faith with Metal Chaos Ensemble, Turbulence, and String Theory into the Leap of Faith Orchestra which would perform large ensemble improvisations and work towards graphic score performances, the first one of which, The Expanding Universe, was performed in 2016.

2017

2017 was a huge year for Evil Clown. The pace increased and by the end of the year we recorded 38 albums. There were 2 Leap of Faith Orchestra Graphic Score performances, Possible Universes and SuperClusters.

The LOFO preparation performances moved to a new venue, Third Life Studios in Somerville. The venue was large enough for 15 or so musicians in the ensemble and the load-in was straight forward. For each show I brought a full van of gear and the musicians were encouraged to play these auxiliary instruments along with their primary axes. These shows were billed as Leap of Faith Orchestra and Sub-Units: The first hour was short pieces by smaller groups and the second hour was everyone together. For several years we did a 5 shows a year (one every other month taking off Jan/Feb).

Yuri and I formed the short lived space-rock trio Chixculub, bringing in electric bassist Jason Adams who played with Yuri in a rock band called Axemunkee. Our first set was Creation Event. The music was interesting and successful, but Jason was very busy and hard to schedule, so this unit ended up only performing 3 sets.

My friend Mike Grialou (AKA Space), who I played with for 5 years in the 80s before moving to Boston to attend Berklee, visited for a week and we did 2 albums by a special Metal Chaos Ensemble which we called Space Metal Chaos Ensemble (Electropositivity, ElectroNegativity).

There were more sessions by the active ensembles of that year at Evil Clown Headquarters and Outpost 186: PEK Solo, Turbulence, Turbulence Doom Choir, String Theory, Metal Chaos Ensemble.

2019

2019 was a huge year for Evil Clown. There was a single performance of a graphic score by the Leap of Faith Orchestra, The Photon Epoch, at the best room we have ever had, Pickman Hall at the Longy School of Music. This is a state of the art venue with an amazing room sound and a large stage. Pianist Peter Cassino who played with Glynis quite a bit and was the pianist on the first Score The Expanding Universe, was a faculty chair and was able to give us one of his yearly performances in the space.

The final 3 performances of Leap of Faith Orchestra & Sub-Units took place at Third Life. Susan’s lease was up and due to the gentrification in Union Square her rent was going to increase so much she couldn’t keep the room. At the end of the run I compiled all of the performances into a massive 25 CD box set called The Complete Leap of Faith Orchestra & Sub-Units Performances at Third Life Studios (2017-2019).

Yuri and I were invited to a rock show at a nice venue in Delaware. We decided to bring a Power Trio Edition of Metal Chaos Ensemble which we thought would appeal the the Grateful Dead oriented rock audience that would be there (Basilisk). Albey was going to be the bass player, but he and Jane moved to New Orleans and we replaced him with Mike Gruen who played electric bass with a much more rock leaning style.

2020

2020 was a very eventful year for Evil Clown. After two shows in the beginning of the year, Outpost 186 got into a beef with the City of Cambridge and the shows stopped. We thought for a minute that it would get resolved but the pandemic hit right after and the room is still not back 4 years later.

I was really bummed about the interruption since we had tremendous momentum and were pumping out a huge amount of high quality music. We did about 10 great sessions in the first few months of the year including Principles of an Open Future, which we recorded for Kevin Reilly’s label Relative Pitch.

Yuri decided that he was not going to continue playing with Leap of Faith, but I convinced him to go on with Metal Chaos Ensemble. His last set with the sextet edition of MCE was The Riddle of Steel took place right before the pandemic got bad. I cancelled 5 or 6 really exciting sessions that were in the calendar and took a few weeks off. Then I spent a minute compiling the second huge Evil Clown Bos set (25 CDs) Best of MCE 2015 to 2020. Yuri came back for one more MCE session, Don Quixote, where we used overdubbing to make a thick mix with just the two of us performing. Then he decided to withdraw from Evil Clown altogether.

Most of 2020 and a chunk of 2021 was spent on solo projects and comprise the bulk of the work by the PEK Solo ensemble. The solo albums fall into a few categories with a bunch of them being either PEK Solo – A Quartet of PEKs or PEK Solo – An Orchestra of PEKs. These albums were constructed with overdubbing and studio techniques. Notable in this group is a massive 3 CD major work entitled PEK Solo – An Orchestra of PEKs – Some Truths Are Known.

Oddly enough, I think I spent more time actually playing my instruments to create the 25 albums from 2020 than I do in a year where there are ensemble albums and we usually record around 35 albums.

Metal Chaos Ensemble resumed in the fixed rock-leaning sextet edition with Steve Niemitz taking over the drum chair from the retired Yuri. The first new set was called Tinier Even than Science. Steve lives in western Mass about an hour and a half drive away, so MCE sets are less frequent due to the difficulty of scheduling them and Steve’s travel.

I formed a new MCE Spin-off ensemble called Simulacrum around the trio of me, Eric Woods and Bob Moores. The intent of this unit is to increase the electronics and loose the drum set from the MCE configuration. The first set was called Hyperreality.

Over the years since 2015 I had accumulated so much equipment that setting up for a session was a major exercise every time since the studio room was between my housemate Raffi’s space and the kitchen and theater room in the back of the house which meant that much of the gear needed to be stored away after every set. We started planning a major renovation of the house which would improve the situation for both me and Raffi. This project would take place in Fall 2022 and the first bit of 2023.

Also new for the year was the growth in size of Turbulence, the band formed around horn players. Once an ensemble reaches 8 players, I tack “Orchestra” on to the end of the band name. I’ve got lots of horn players in the roster and the Turbulence sets for 2022 were mostly credited to Turbulence Orchestra. This band has a drummer and a bass player and is the most Free-Jazz oriented of any of the active ensembles which are more on the Free Improvisation end of the spectrum.

Almost all the performances of the year were YouTube Livestreams from Evil Clown Headquarters, but there was one excellent Leap of Faith performance at the Lilypad in Cambridge (Spectral Sequences) and one excellent Leap of Faith performance (The Symbolic Method) at Bonnie Kane’s Friday Experiment in Holyoake MA.

Active ensembles for the year are Leap of Faith, Axioms, Perturbations, Simulacrum, Metal Chaos Ensemble, Expanse, Expanse Meets the JMDE Quartet, and the Leap of Faith Chinese Orchestra featuring Jimmy Zhao and other Chinese musician guests.