This project was brewed by NoBusiness Records, a Vilnius-based record label. The recording of exceptional projects of Vilnius Jazz has become an excellent tradition – this concert will be documented as well.

Andrew Lamb has collaborated with NoBusiness Records in the past. In 2012, it released Lamb’s Rhapsody in Black to a great international critical acclaim.

American jazz luminaries Andrew Lamb and Warren Smith have been teaming up for 20 years, while Arkady Gotesman will jump in on the spot.

According to Gotesman, the three musicians were working on this project via Internet. It is becoming common to communicate this way when meeting is too complicated. Gotesman says, that the main thing was to learn the themes for improvisations and agree on creative means. And that does not necessarily require meeting.

The Trio will perform Lamb’s compositions.

Saxophonist, flutist, clarinettist, oboist and expert of various ethnic woodwinds Andrew Lamb came into New York City’s avant-garde community during the 1970s and has frequently performed at the annual Vision Festival since 1996.

The improviser works with his own Quartet, Trio and The Dogon Duo, is a member of Cecil Taylor and Alan Silva big bands, as well as Sound Visions Orchestra. In addition, he has formed interdisciplinary ensemble Circadian Spheres Of Light, music of which attempts to create brain stimulation for those with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Lamb believes, that the arts and music in particular are essential to the healing and balance of humanity and the universe at large. His music is based on traditions of Afro-American jazz, blues and church music. According to critics, Lamb is capable of screaming like a full-blooded free jazzer, but more often than not he prefers to work a high-energy middle ground between bop and the avant-garde, in terms of both tone and harmony.

Lamb’s music is deeply spiritual, profoundly emotional, and readily accessible to all who hear him. He admits, that he relies on his experience rather than sophisticated ideas and concepts. He has a university education, and regularly receives grants enabling him to concentrate on composing.

Lamb and Warren Smith started collaborating in 1994 while recording Lamb’s first album as a leader Portrait in the Mist, featuring exclusively his compositions. Later they both recorded several albums as a duo.

Double bassist and poet Henry Grimes is his yet another Lamb’s stage partner. With his formations Lamb toured in the USA, Europe, Israel, and recorded albums. Grimes’ Sublime Communication Trio was voted the best album in Manhattan, New York.

“My mission is to bring new and innovative music to the world stage and share beauty with all walks of life”, says Lamb.

There are just a few figures in jazz world as percussionist Warren Smith. In the ‘50s, he graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign and Manhattan School of Music. He recorded with Miles Davis, accompanied for Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Lloyd Price, Nat King Cole and Janis Joplin, worked with Sam Rivers and Gil Evans.

Smith has also been a long-time member of one of the great percussion projects, the Max Roach M’Boom Ensemble of drummers. During his sixty-year long career he performed and collaborated with myriads of prominent artists of all musical styles including Andrew White, Julius Hemphill, Muhal Richard Abrams, Quincy Jones, Count Basie, Anthony Braxton, Charles Mingus, Van Morrison, and Joe Zawinul.

Virtuoso on melodic and percussion instruments he appeared in a few dozens of Broadway productions, served as a Staff Musician for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). For those favouring work with no arguing, dedicated and diligent person as Smith would be the best choice.

He has a reputation of patron of jazz scene tyros. During the late-‘70s/early-‘80s “loft jazz” scene in New York City, Smith gave generously his personal studio space Studio Wis so that talented newcomers to the New York City scene such as Oliver Lake and Wadada Leo Smith could present concerts without having to worry about outrageous rental fees.

Smith remains young in his spirits and open to new jazz trends. He is still actively involved with his own experimental Composers Workshop Ensemble, formed in 1961. Since the ‘90s he has collaborated with multi-instrumentalist Bill Cole’s Untempered Ensemble, which involves Cooper Moore, a unique musician already known to Vilnius Jazz audiences.

For three decades Arkady Gotesman, one of the most resourceful and versatile Lithuanian percussionists and composers, has been captivating the audiences with his fresh ideas and collaborations with artists of various other medias.

He composes, records and performs music for theatre, writes scenarios for musical performances and installations, organises projects with dancers, writers, actors and visual artists, appears in personal shows. Poet Rolandas Rastauskas is one of Gotesman’s stage partners. Both artists have recorded album J. Brodsky in memoriam.

Gotesman has a gift to discover new venues for jazz in periphery and enrich his projects with the participation of the world’s jazz luminaries. He has collaborated with exponents of various trends including Roland Dahinden, Vladimir Volkov, Vyacheslav Gaivoronsky, Arkady Shilkloper, Julian Joseph, John Zorn, Jack Siron, Frank London, Anthony Coleman, Charles Gayle, Tim Daisy, Joey Baron, Barry Guy, Dominic Duval, Dave Douglas and Albert Beger.

In Lithuania the percussionist has regularly been working with Vyacheslav Ganelin, Petras Vyšniauskas, Vladimir Tarasov, Liudas Mockūnas, Dainius Pulauskas, Tomas Kutavičius, Juozas Kuraitis, Eugenijus Kanevičius and many other Lithuanian jazz masters. He also collaborates with Vilnius Jazz Orchestra and ACCOsax Freeminded trio, and other formations. Gotesman’s latest experimental laboratory is Infiltrators trio with keyboardist Dmitry Golovanov and saxophonist Jan Maksimovic.

Gotesman is an enthusiast of silent movies, as a taper with various international musicians he promulgates the genre in Lithuania. The percussionist plays not only jazz, but also contemporary academic music. He has performed world premieres of works by Osvaldas Balakauskas and Anatolijus Šenderovas among others. Moreover, he is the founder and member of Vilnius Klezmer Orchestra and organiser of the Klezmer Music Festival in Vilnius.

Last year Gotesman was presented with Vilnius Jazz Award for contributions to Lithuanian jazz.