Sam Newsome : soprano saxophone & prepared soprano saxophone
Bret Sexton : alto saxophone & electronics
Farrell Lowe : guitar & effects pedals
Matt Smiley : upright bass
Ron Coulter : drum set, percussion, low-fi electronics & found objects
SeFa LoCo formed in May 2021, the context was the Creative Music Series (2019-2021) founded and curated by Ron Coulter in Casper, WY. The quartet, comprised of Bret Sexton (alto saxophone & electronics), Farrell Lowe (electric guitar), Mike Facey (bass), and Ron Coulter (drumset, percussion, electronics) has released several albums on Right Brain Records, Kreating SounD, and BretSextonMusic; including their album “Entanglements” with trumpeter, Hugh Ragin. Facey relocated to the East Coast in 2021 and the group has continued to perform and record with bassists Bill McCrossen, Dave Willey, and Matt Smiley.
Sam Newsome and SeFa LoCo share the musical languages of jazz, free jazz, free improvisation, and noise music. Their melding of acoustic and electronic sounds is fluid, and often confounding to the listener. Their playing complements, contrasts, and constantly pushes forward in new, unknown directions, generating complex, unexpected sound worlds.
SAM NEWSOME is a New York-based saxophonist and composer who works primarily in the medium of solo saxophone, an approach through which he gained world-wide critical acclaim with the release of his 2009 recording Blue Soliloquy: Solo Works for Soprano Saxophone, which received a five-star review in Downbeat magazine.
Many of the notes and sounds that comprise his compositions and improvisations are derived from his own personal sound palette of extended techniques: multi-phonics, flutter tonguing, percussive slap tonguing, soprano saxophone specific micro-tones, air sounds, key clicks, air hisses, acoustic sound manipulation, Tartini tones, and various forms of oral cavity manipulation. Newsome sees himself more along the lines of a visual artist who paints with notes and sounds rather than shapes and colors. “My music, “ says Newsome, “is a type of improvisatory art music in which jazz functions more as a resource than a musical genre to be interpreted with stylistic specificity.
Even though Newsome’s approach is unorthodox, it has proven to be very fruitful—musically and critically.
In 2018, received the New Music USA Project Grant; he received the Alpert/Ragdale Residency Prize in Composition. In 2017, he was nominated for the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. In 2016, he received the NYFA Artist’s Fellowship for the Music/Sound category. The 2016 Jazz Journalist Association (JJA) selected him as a nominee for Soprano Saxophonist of the Year, and he placed #4 in the Soprano Saxophone category in the 64th Annual Downbeat Critics Poll--just behind Wayne Shorter and Dave Liebman.
Newsome has also released six critically acclaimed solo saxophone CDs, including Sopranoville: Works for Prepared and Non-Prepared Saxophone (2017); The Straight Horn of Africa (2014); The Solo Concert: Sam Newsome Plays Monk and Ellington (2013); and The Art of the Soprano, Vol. 1 (2012). Jazz writer Ed Enright, from Downbeat Magazine, wrote that Mr. Newsome’s The Straight Horn of Africa cd was “a modern masterpiece.”
As a performer, Newsome is a frequent collaborator with drummer Andrew Cyrille, vocalist Fay Victor, saxophonist David Liebman, and pianist Ethan Iverson. He also plays in the bands of AfroHorn, and frequently performs solo saxophone concerts around New York and across the country. Lastly, Newsome is an associate professor of music at the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University, where he is the music program coordinator, and teaches courses in jazz improvisation, music theory, and directs the University’s jazz ensemble.
BRET SEXTON grew up in Riverton, WY and moved to Denver, CO in 1992 to attend the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music. After discovering a passion for music outside of the academic realm, he withdrew from school to pursue his musical vision, and led the bands Trio Fungus, Sanskrit, and many others. His group Sanskrit performed for Denver’s Creative Music Works through the mid 1990s. Their album, “Live at Seven South” was reviewed by Cadence Magazine, saying: “Sexton is a passionate pointillist-expressionist, his playing is full of the unfettered imagination, fervent arrogance and tonal unpredictability that makes for a distinctive improviser.” Bret has also played alongside musicians such as Joe Bonner, Hugh Ragin, Nate Wooley, Shane Endsley, Kaveh Rastagar of Kneebody, Rudy Royston, Farrell Lowe, and Ryan Seward. He studied briefly with local saxophone legend, Fred Hess, and his albums are available at
bretsexton.bandcamp.com and
bretsextonquartet.bandcamp.com.
FARRELL LOWE is a guitarist, and an extraordinary one at that. His work spans jazz, experimental, world fusion and free improvisation. But “guitarist” barely scratches the surface of a multi-faceted artist who has made creativity his life’s work. Prolific is another term well-placed in Farrell’s bio. He continues to challenge limits and publish music that defies categorization, at a mind-boggling rate. He’s also an accomplished stoneworker, painter, woodworker, and instrument maker.
MATT SMILEY is a bassist, composer, and educator from Staunton, VA, now residing in Denver, CO and completing his DMA in Jazz Studies at UC Boulder.
In his work as a performer and a composer, Smiley focuses on developing systems and modes of playing at the nexus of composition and improvisation that reference elements of established American and European vernacular and experimental music traditions, while simultaneously and idiosyncratically deviating from them. His multifaceted and studied approach to both the bass and composition enable an adroit facility in both idiomatic and non-idiomatic settings.
Since moving to Colorado, Smiley has worked with a number of diverse and prominent performers and composers including Alvin Lucier, Christian Wolff, Stephen Drury, Jean-Claude Risset, Terrell Stafford, and Greg Osby. In addition to his rigorous performance schedule, he teaches at both Denver School of the Arts Jazz Camp and The Gift of Jazz, a non-profit focusing on enriching the community through the creation, promotion, and preservation of the art of jazz in the Rocky Mountain Region.
RON COULTER is a percussionist, composer, and improviser. He has presented at 100+ universities and has toured internationally appearing in all 50 U.S. states, Europe, Canada, and Japan with artists such as the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Chicago Chamber Orchestra, David Murray, Vinny Golia, Tony Malaby, Linux Laptop Orchestra, Matthew Shipp, Nate Wooley, Sandy Duncan, Bolokada Condé, Music from China, Youngstown Symphony, Gino Robair, Michael Zerang, Eric Mandat, Chris Corsano, and Tone Road Ramblers, among others. Ron has presented at numerous conferences, including: ISIM, PASIC, NIME, BMC3, JEN, CMS, a.pe.ri.od.ic, Futurisms, Soundlines, RadiaLx, and the JVC and Montreal Jazz Festivals. He is co-founder of the Percussion Art Ensemble, duende entendre, Marble Hammer, Drm&Gtr, and founder of the Southern Illinois Improvisation Series and Creative Music Series. Additional interests include noise, intermedia, interdisciplinary collaboration, and organizing Fluxconcerts. As a composer, Ron has created more than 420 compositions for various media.
