About This Event

Paul Riola Paul Riola is a saxophonist, producer, and composer whose work resides at the intersection of free improvisation, electronic sound design, and original composition. A central figure in Colorado’s creative music community, Riola draws from decades of experience in avant-garde performance, live looping, and electroacoustic experimentation to craft immersive, highly dynamic sonic environments. Working with extended saxophone techniques, custom signal chains, and modular-style effects processing, Riola blurs the lines between instrumental performance, live sampling, and real-time arrangement. His approach reflects a deep commitment to improvisation as a devotional practice—one that prioritizes listening, presence, and transformation. Riola’s early years in Denver were shaped by formative experiences with Ron Miles, Andrew Cyrille, Joseph Jarman, and The Boulder Creative Music Ensemble. In the early 1990s, he relocated to Portland, Oregon, where he became a contributor to the city’s experimental music scene. After returning to Denver, he served as Program Director for Creative Music Works, producing concerts by John Zorn, Fred Frith, Mike Patton, Ken Vandermark, Nels Cline, Elliott Sharp, and Ravi Coltrane. In 2006, he founded The Bottesini Project, a collaborative ensemble devoted to spontaneous composition and genre-fluid improvisation. The group earned national attention with performances in LA, Chicago, and San Francisco and was nominated multiple times in Westword’s Best Jazz category. Riola and the Creative Music Works Board of Directors received the Westword Mastermind Award in 2008 for their contributions to the Denver arts community. Over the course of his career, Riola has performed and recorded with a wide range of forward- thinking artists including Jeff Parker, Ron Miles, Vinny Golia, DJ Olive, Nels Cline, Carla Kihlstedt, Fred Frith, Scott Amendola, Art Lande, Shahzad Ismaily, Shane Endsley, Janet Feder, Hugh Ragin, Dave Devine, Glen Whitehead, Michael Vlatkovich, Rob Blakeslee, Josh Berman, and Joshua Abrams. Currently, Riola continues to lead and collaborate on projects that explore the evolving boundaries between acoustic improvisation and electronic manipulation, most recently in a duo with guitarist Jeff Parker. Joshua Trinidad Joshua Trinidad is a Indigenous, Chicano American trumpet player, composer and producer from Denver Colorado, who takes multiple styles of music such as jazz, ambient, rock, electronic and lo-fi, as well as elements from hip hop and effortlessly reshapes them into his unique soundscape. His remarkable ease in handling the often-contrary conventions of "jazz" ensured a strong interest in both acoustic and electric music. This chameleon-like ability soon established him as a much sought-after musician in the southwest region of the United States as well as in Europe and Central Asia, ultimately led to his colorful and diverse resume as a sideman. During his time recording and performing in Scandinavia, Joshua Trinidad was introduced to Giacomo Bruzzo, who welcomed him into his prestigious and much-lauded roster RareNoise Records in London, England. Alongside recording Joshua's own material, he has recorded many studio sessions with artists such as Sage Francis, Chicano Batman, Nathaniel Rateliff, Kid Frost, DJ Lethal, Ken Burns, Riatsu, Umlaut and many artists and bands in the Denver Metro Area. Joshua Trinidad is a thriving artist on the EchoTonic Records label in Mumbai, India. Trinidad has his own individual sound, influenced as much by the poetry of the Rocky Mountain nature as by electronic piston reverb. Listening to him play, it’s easy to forget that his instrument is a trumpet. -JazzTimes Magazine