Xylyn’s Congregation / Mike Lockwood’s Safe Travels/ Ryan Miller & Grant Pierce play at Turn, Turn Turn

“Xylyn Hathaway has become a conduit of vulgar-beauty-jazz music that sinks teeth into the space it fills. They paint canvas into composition and wield an upright bass like bazookas, exploding hearts open peeled backwards into one bouquet of manic laughter from the pit of your chest. Xylyn is a cherished figure and friend in our jazz community; born on Earth, one stone’s throw west from the palpitating heart of downtown Portland, Oregon. A forager for chanterelles, they were raised on the farm in Newberg with Grandma. When Grandma died, they lost the old farmhouse, red and white and alive in the decaying cherry walnut orchards. Grandma lives in Noble Pioneer Cemetery now, Xylyn in Northeast Portland. As a band leader, Xy’s musical visions unfold and sprout behemoth architecture dimly lit, oozing spirits from the gills as it gasps for its first breath beneath thumps quantized in fractals. They propel a soloist or a broken poet off cliffs into Jupiter’s hurricane eye. They play with cats like George Colligan, like Ron Steen, like anybody making big nasty music to be hurt and healed by in this wet-crow city. Xylyn Hathaway’s heart and music exude peace and play and oozing spirits, dancing between us, around us, below the violent ocean dismembered by big old stones.”

Ryan “Ry” Albert Miller is a forward-thinking guitarist, composer, and improviser with a captivating new sound. Ryan is an active member of Portland’s thriving creative music scene; uniquely fusing through-composition and improvisation. 

Grant Pierce is a drummer and songwriter living in Portland, Oregon. His music explores jazz, folk song, and heavier noise. He is a member of Halfbird, Young Hunter, June Rose, Stalwart Young, SPCJMRZ, and Not Bitter.