For almost 30 years, the volunteer-run, nonprofit Creative Music Guild has existed to expand our sensibilities by supporting local experimental artists while bringing exceptional out-of-towners to intimate spaces around town. Eight years in, its annual Improv Summit continues this tradition, and in 2019, it’ll pair visiting artist-in-residence Shahzad Ismaily (who’s recorded with icons Lou Reed and Tom Waits as well as hometown love Laura Veirs) and rising alto sax star Darius Jones—both visiting from NYC—with Portland innovators like poet and multimedia artist Jamondria Harris, Ryan Miller’s Embedded Star Ensemble, Noah Simpson, and Rich Halley’s wall-shunning Outside Music Ensemble. The program also features dance, film, workshops and panel presentations, but best of all, the fest will crawl all over the city at six different venues: No Fun, Turn! Turn! Turn!, Holocene, S1, Leaven Community’s Salt & Light Lutheran Church, and The 1905.
