PORTAL

Four masterful musicians conjure essential music out of thin air, transporting audiences to unexplored realms of sonic synergy. The molten gold of Jason Carder’s trumpet and flugelhorn flows over, around and through the scintillating architecture of Matt Mitchell’s guitar and the evocative timbres of Rob Paulus’ upright bass and violin, converging in a complex yet transparent current of melody and harmony. Underneath it all, the earthy polyrhythmic pulse of Will Clipman’s pan-global percussion grounds the sound in a deeply rooted yet spacious groove. You’ll swear you’re hearing composed arrangements of genre-transcending original music, so adept are these four magicians at spontaneously summoning cohesive and complementary soundscapes from silence and space. If you close your eyes and watch the movie playing on the insides of your eyelids, you’ll see and feel the artists listening to one another intently and responding intuitively in stimulating conversation. You’ll recognize familiar quotes from the classic jazz, pop and Americana songbooks, cleverly embedded in imaginative new contexts. And here’s the best part: it’s all just for you, in the present moment: never having been played exactly this way before and never to be played exactly this way again. The transformative ingredient in this alchemy is the unique energy that only you can bring to the Portal.

Jason Carder has performed all over the globe with a diverse lineup of artists including Yanni, Ray Charles, Maria Schneider, Arturo Sandoval, Maynard Ferguson, the Woody Herman Orchestra and Frank Sinatra Jr. Jason has contributed his talent to several award-winning albums including Arturo Sandoval’s 1998 GRAMMY® Award-winning Hot House, Latin GRAMMY® winners Made in Miami (2023) and Mamblue (2015) and Maria Schneider’s Sky Blue, which won Jazz Album of the Year in the Jazz Journalists Association and Downbeat Magazine’s Critics Poll (2007). Jason’s other recordings represent a wide range of music styles, from four live DVDs with Yanni and three Jaco Pastorius Word of Mouth Big Band recordings, to True Concord and Voices Far in the Heavens, which was nominated for two GRAMMY® Awards. Staying true to the eclectic nature of his creative output, Jason’s current projects include performances with Monsoon Brass and an upcoming release of music for two trumpets with Jacob Dalager. Jason currently performs as principal trumpet with the Tucson Pops Orchestra and lead trumpet with the Century Jazz Orchestra, and holds a faculty position at the University of Arizona as Assistant Professor of Trumpet.

Matt Mitchell is a native of Arizona, born and raised in Phoenix. He moved to Tucson in 1989 to go to the University of Arizona, where he received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Classical Guitar Performance in 1995. He has been making a living in Tucson playing guitar in every style imaginable ever since. He currently performs with the Hot Club of Tucson (gypsy jazz), the Tucsonics (western swing), Zona Libre (Latin jazz), the Naim Amor duo, the Century Jazz Orchestra (big band jazz) and the Pete Swan Trio (jazz). Matt is grateful to have played 300+ gigs a year for over 30 years in the Tucson area. He has done this by being professional, having a great attitude, and being able to play diverse styles. 

Rob Paulus grew up in a big family, his musical life starting early with family sing-alongs and playing and singing in church. His first real gig was in seventh grade, playing guitar in the First Friday mass at his school, where he realized the full potential of music to positively affect the human mind. This was followed up with numerous bands from punk to jazz: from opening up for Black Flag in high school to opening up for Chick Corea’s Electric Band in college. Rob has played numerous gigs from Los Angeles to Alaska to Europe, and always seeks connection with the audience on multiple levels. He creates multifaceted music that defines emotion through sound: a multi-instrumentalist with a keen jazz ear, he has an uncanny ability to add and subtract musical threads to weave together a thought-provoking and original sonic tapestry. A successful award-winning architect, Rob is constantly finding ways to meld composition and design: his approach to music expresses genuine feeling and limitless creativity, improvising with fearless inventiveness as well as precisely executing composed music. Throughout his decades of playing, the whole becomes greater than any of the individual parts to create transformative music. Rob’s happy space is playing with other like-minded musicians (such as Jason, Matt and Will) to transmute notes--and the silent spaces between the notes--into music that transports the listener to another world. 

Will Clipman began playing his father’s drums and his mother’s piano at the age of three. He played his first professional gig at the age of fourteen, and has since then mastered a pan-global palette of ethnic drums and percussion in addition to the traditional drum set. Will has received seven GRAMMY® Nominations, including one for his solo world music album Pathfinder. He is a three-time Native American Music Award Winner, a Canadian Aboriginal Music Award Winner, a New Age Reporter Music Award Winner, a Zone Music Reporter Award Winner, and a two-time TAMMIE Award Winner, and has been inducted into the Tucson Musicians Museum for his contributions to the musical community in his hometown. Will has recorded over seventy albums, including thirty-seven for the world’s foremost Native American music label Canyon Records. He has performed and recorded with the world’s premier Native American flutist R. Carlos Nakai for over thirty years, as well as with many other internationally acclaimed artists and ensembles, and has toured throughout the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii) as well as in Canada, Germany, Morocco and Russia. His solo Planet of Percussion™ presentation takes audiences of all ages on a world tour of rhythm and polyrhythm.