The Fay Victor Ensemble

Fay Victor – voice, compositions
Anders Nilsson – guitar, effects
Ken Filiano – bass, effects
Michael ‘TA’ Thompson – drums

Started in 2005, The Fay Victor Ensemble is a voice-guitar-bass-drum unit that performs original material written for the group by Fay Victor and Jochem van Dijk. The music is a sly combination of jazz, rock, free improvisation and modern classical music.The Ensemble’s first recording entitled Cartwheels through the Cosmos was released in January 2007. It was an ambitious and adventurous project that overstepped and redefined the boundaries of what a jazz-singer is. It combined the thoughtfulness of observant lyric-writing, the excitement of improvising, and the structure of solid composing, captivating the listener with cinematic, story-driven pieces. Starting out with the song as the focal point for improvisational excursions , moving now toward suite-like shapes where blurred lines distinguish song forms, free improvisation and musical genres – where melodies pop up and go away again, maybe to return. Maybe not. So 2009 saw the release of The FreeSong Suite, the sophomore release of the FVE incorporating these elements and longer forms. The album went on to receive incredible critical acclaim including Best-of-Year Kudos from The Jazz Session, All About Jazz-NY and a 4th place slot in the prestigious Village Voice Jazz Critic’s Poll for Best Jazz Vocal Record of 2009, the only all original vocal project to do so. You can read reviews here on the DISCOGRAPHY page.

The Jazz Vault Project

Fay Victor-voice
Michael Attias-alto & baritone sax
Anders Nilsson-guitar
Jose Davila-tuba

The Jazz Vault Group is a chamber/Dixieland combo with guitar, reeds, tuba and voice for the instrumentation.  The mostly jazz repertory material is focused on  modern jazz masters such as Jackie McLean, Eric Dolphy, Herbie Nichols, Charles Mingus and Thelonious Monk and of course, Duke Ellington. This group fuses fun, swing and absurdity into the musical mix and you’ve never heard jazz sound like this! The Jazz Vault is includes Michael Attias (reeds), Anders Nilsson(guitar) and Jose Davila (tuba). The Jazz Vault Project has performed at venues such as the Downtown Music Gallery,  the 55 Bar, the Stone and Cornelia Street Cafe in New York City. Recently, the Jazz Vault project has been focused on the works of Herbie Nichols, performing somewhat regularly at the 55BAR in New York City and digging into the genius of Herbie Nichols infectious melodies and harmonies coupled with the lyrics Fay Victor has set to them.

The ExPosed Blues Duo

Fay Victor-voice
Anders Nilsson-guitar

Check out  a recent clip from the ExPosed Blues DUO with special guest Tim Dahl on bass guitar from December 2011:

The Exposed Blues Duo is collaboration between guitarist Anders Nilsson and Fay Victor that has become an improvising blues duo using true blues, blues based material and all the wails and flails they can muster. With pieces ranging from the Rev. Gary Davis, Leroy Carr, Elmer Snowden, Herbie Nichols and Memphis Slim alongside free improvisation and original tunes. In December 2007 the duo was invited to perform at the Winter Nights festival in Marseille, France run by an improvising collective based there. THE BLUES was the theme that year and this was where the ExPosed Blues Duo was born. The electrifying set the duo performed was thrilling – the packed house wouldn’t go home after four encores! Since then the duo has been performing around New York at venues such as the 55 Bar, The Cake Shop, the Brecht Forum, The Stone, The Local 269 and Barbes.  The duo performed in Chicago at the Elastic and the Velvet Lounge in April 2010, turns out not too long before the passing of Chicago stalwart and tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson which in turn has caused the club t close late in 2010. The Exposed Blues Duo’s long awaited debut recording BARE was released in August of 2010 and received rave reviews in the New York Times, Time Out New York and more.  The EBD CD release in September of 2010 was a resounding success as well!

Special Projects:

Other Dimensions in Music – The Instant Composer’s Pool Orchestra – The Tri-Centric Orchestra

photo by Jim Clouse

In the last couple years, Fay Victor has collaborated with two highly esteemed long running ensembles and as a  member of Anthony Braxton’s Tri-Centric Orchestra, formed in 201o.

Other Dimensions in Music (drummer Charles Downs, trumpeter Roy Campbell, reedist Daniel Carter and bassist William Parker) have been together since the late ’70′s. Fay Victor produced a project for Silkheart with (ODIM) called KAISO STORIES, a project combining free improvisation alongside traditional calypso lyrics of artists such as Lord Kitchener, Lord Executor, the Mighty Sparrow and more. The project has received rave reviews in JazzTimes, Signal to Noise, the Montreal Mirror(9/10), and the New York City Jazz Record. Fay has performed with the group around NYC and there are plans in the works for touring in the future.  Read excerpts of press reviews for the project on the DISCOGRAPHY page.

Fay Victor performed with ICP (The Instant Composer’s Pool Orchestra) for the 3 concert European tour in 2010.  Since then, Fay has performed with the 44 year old ensemble in the Fall of 2010 in the Netherlands as well as appearing with them in Philadelphia in April 2011 on their US tour.  Performing pieces of Misha Mengelberg (one of the groups founders), Thelonious Monk, Herbie Nichols alongside free improvisation.

The Tri-Centric Orchestra was founded by Anthony Braxton for the recording of the opera Trillium E in the spring of 2010. The project brought together an extraordinary community of creative artists: a family of artists 60-musicians strong, equally comfortable improvising and interpreting the most rigorous notation, wholly committed to pursuing a new American music. The positive energy of the ensemble inspired the Tri-Centric Foundation to recognize the group needs to be a permanent entity, dedicated to performing the large ensemble works of Braxton and similarly forward-thinking composers, as well as developing the composers and conceptualists within its own ranks. Fay Victor is one of 12 vocalists on Trillum E, released in 2011 on New Braxton Records as well as one of the vocalists for the premiere of Trillium J and in October 2011, partof the 4-day Braxton Festival - Energies, Ideas, Intuitions: The Tri-Centric Music of Anthony Braxton.