EVENTS
Photo by David Gilbert
Bearduo at Comfort Station
Bearduo is back from our post-album hibernation! Come check us out at Comfort Station!
Bearduo is:
Aaron Kaufman-Levine and Garrett Frees on Saxophones.
Treyf at the Whistler
Hitting it hard with Erez Dessel’s Groove/Dance Band TREYF.
Come hang and dance with us. Sure to be not Kosher!
BananaAcid at Stola Contemporary
BananaAcid back for your monthly Potassium needs.
Now we read from the Book of Peel Proverb 16:168 34-38
Bananas are hot and bananas are cold but of course Bananas are quite cool.
When you freeze a banana, do not expect a transformation because no matter the temperature, a Banana keeps its structural integrity.
Bananas can be a surface for a number of sweet coatings like Chocolate, Caramel, Ice Cream and more. Importantly though, even if life blends or slices or coats a Banana, it is still a Banana! We must remember this when we feel the blades of life come for our mushy insides.
BananaAcid is a Chicago based music collective consisting of Aaron Kaufman-Levine, Caroline Jesalva, Erez Dessel, Garrett Frees, Tyler Wagner
Andys w Alejandro Salazar Quintet
We are back at Andy’s Jazz Club! Come get some food, some drinks, and hang out to watch us! Sets at 6pm and 8:15pm both nights!
Andys w Alejandro Salazar Quintet
We are back at Andy’s Jazz Club! Come get some food, some drinks, and hang out to watch us! Sets at 6pm and 8:15pm both nights!
Music in the Garden Season 4 (Night 1)
Join us at the Music in the Garden Festival Season 4 at Elastic Arts Foundation!
Music in the Garden presents a 2-day music festival with Chicago-based improvisers and creative musicians, featuring a light and projection installation by Ruby Que.
Come enjoy a night or two of music, art and community.
November 1st
7pm Emily Rach Beisel
8pm Microplastique
Artist: Adam Shead, Ben Zucker, Molly Jones, Josh Harlow
9pm Purikoko
Artist: Ariel Vera, Alex Yoo
Music in the Garden Season 4 (Night 2)
Join us at the Music in the Garden Festival Season 4 at Elastic Arts Foundation!
Music in the Garden presents a 2-day music festival with Chicago-based improvisers and creative musicians, featuring a light and projection installation by Ruby Que.
Come enjoy a night or two of music, art and community.
November 2nd
7pm Sandpusher
Artist: Nick Meryhew, Sam Scranton, Andrew Tham
8pm Mabel Kwan
9pm BananaAcid
Artist: Aaron Kaufman-Levine, Caroline Jesalva, Erez Dessel, Garrett Frees, Tyler Wagner
BananaAcid Halloween Live Film Scoring (A Page of Madness)
Join us for a screening of the 1926 Japanese silent experimental horror film A Page of Madness, featuring a live original score by Chicago-based group BananaAcid. You won’t want to miss BananaAcid, featuring piano, electronics, saxophones, toy whistles, strings, and voice, live alongside the silent, surreal and visually arresting film that descends into madness.
BananaAcid is Aaron Kaufman-Levine, Caroline Jesalva, Erez Dessel, Garrett Frees, and Tyler Wagner.
BananaAcid is an improvising ensemble made up of Aaron Kaufman-Levine, Caroline Jesalva, Erez Dessel, Garrett Frees, and Tyler Wagner. Banana Acid is committed to the practice of spontaneous composition, influenced and shaped by their studies at New England Conservatory of Music. Their unique sonic language synthesizes deep individual studies of various music traditions, including early jazz, free jazz, classical, electro-acoustic, and folk music. Their recording and performance techniques draw on modernist and postmodernist cultural movements, including surrealism and deconstructivism. A creative and adventurous force in the world of the avant-garde, their sound is uncompromising, and their musical approach pushes at the boundaries of free jazz.
AKL Quartet at The 2025 Chicago Jazz Festival
AKL Quartet is back! This time at the Chicago Jazz Fest. Tell your friends, your enemies, your neighbors, go shout it from the rooftops and the basements and everywhere in between!
Aaron Kaufman-Levine Quartet (AKL Quartet) features pianist Erez Dessel, Bassist Leo Buczkowski and Drummer Frank Morrison.
The group plays all original music by Aaron that uses his compositional language alongside improvisational elements to create dense, exploratory music often featuring many different grooves and styles. The group will often jump between forms or sections and sometimes play multiple songs or sections at a time. The impetus of the group is freedom, clarity, decisiveness, trust and malleability.
BananaAcid at Narloch Studios
BananaAcid re-emerges to the public eye at Narloch Studios.
BananaAcid is:
Aaron Kaufman-Levine, Caroline Jesalva, Erez Dessel, Garrett Frees, Tyler Wagner
Now your monthly scripture:
Proverb 28:18-5-33
Splits can be scary and Knives can be deadly and Peels can expose your soft, sweet insides but…
Splits can be yummy and sweet and feature nuts and cherries and fudge and Knives can be beautiful and reflective and precise and are essential to lining up your slices to make an instagram worthy celebration and Peels are stringent and fibrous and not always needed to get the nutrients you desire…
Fitzgeralds with Julian Pujols Quall and Mamey.
I will be joining Julian and their wonderful Dominico-Hatian project Mamey. Nothing quite like playing at the hometown venue with one of my favorite musicians and bandleaders! Where my Oak Park people at???
Counter Spectacle #3 with Joe Morris
Joe Morris comes to Chicago to lead one of his groups “Counter Spectacle.” He has made 3 different sets of music (1 per night) that we will be playing at various spots around Chicago with slightly different personnel each night. Night 3 is at The Hungry Brain!
Joe was one of my main teachers and mentors at NEC and we have stayed in touch post grad. I am so excited that Garrett and I could bring him out here to make music together in the real world YAY!
Counter Spectacle #2 with Joe Morris
Joe Morris comes to Chicago to lead one of his groups “Counter Spectacle.” He has made 3 different sets of music (1 per night) that we will be playing at various spots around Chicago with slightly different personnel each night. Night 2 is at Marmalade!
Joe was one of my main teachers and mentors at NEC and we have stayed in touch post grad. I am so excited that Garrett and I could bring him out here to make music together in the real world YAY!
Counter Spectacle #1 with Joe Morris
Joe Morris comes to Chicago to lead one of his groups “Counter Spectacle.” He has made 3 different sets of music (1 per night) that we will be playing at various spots around Chicago with slightly different personnel each night. Night 1 is at Elastic Arts!
Joe was one of my main teachers and mentors at NEC and we have stayed in touch post grad. I am so excited that Garrett and I could bring him out here to make music together in the real world YAY!
Bearduo Album Release at BimBom
The Long Awaited debut album of Bearduo titled “Bearduo” is HERE! Come party with us at BimBom Studios and be ready to make some NOISE.
Duo with Ben Zucker at Tangible Books
Enjoy an improvised show with the legendary Ben Zucker!
BananaAcid Fruit Stand 2nd edition
Us Bananas will be putting on our 2nd ever variety show with all sorts of fun from all over the food pyramid.
You will see all of us in different configurations and altogether at the end in addition to all sorts of fun art of different kinds.
Come take a bite out of life :O
BananaAcid is:
Aaron Kaufman-Levine - Many Woodwinds/Wind Instruments
Garrett Frees - Many Woodwinds/Wind Instruments
Caroline Jesalva - Violin, Voice, Electronics
Tyler Wagner - Bass, Electronics, Various Flutes, Assorted Percussion
Erez Dessel - Piano, Assorted Wind Instruments, Assorted Percussion
Duo with Erez Dessel at Elastic Arts
Duo project again yay! We play a mix of simple songs (on the surface) and intricate through composed pieces with a heavy dose of improvisation throughout. Come hear our compositions and concept and general demeanor!
Elkhart Jazz Fest with Alejandro Salazar's Afro-Cuban Exchange
Back with Alejandro Salazar as we gear up to release our first record. A fearless leader indeed!
Blind Glass at the Hideout
Blind Glass is back. Blind Glass is inevitable. The sun is out, the weather is warm, the glass is blind. Caroline Jesalva leads the fun filled, legendary band that perhaps can be considered pop/rock I suppose but genres are silly and we play all sorts of fun and unique stuff.
Treyf at Burlington Bar
More fun with Treyf. Groove and sax quartet happenings led by the fearless Erez Dessel. Come dance and vibe with us. Guaranteed to not be Kosher.
Bearduo at the Growing Place
Come listen to Bearduo play folk melodies and marches in a beautiful garden center!
Duo w Erez Dessel @ Jazz Gallery MKE
Erez and I take a drive up North to Jazz Gallery in Milwaukee.
AKL Quartet @ Clara
AKL Quartet traverses the compositional world of me in Quartet Form!
AKL Quartet is:
Aaron Kaufman-Levine - alto sax and compositions
Erez Dessel - Piano
Leo Buczkowski - Bass
Frank Morrison - Drums
Bearduo @ ProMusica
Bearduo wakes from our winter hibernation. Come see us play for the LAST TIME before our debut album releases this summer!!!!!
Bearduo is:
Aaron Kaufman-Levine-alto sax
Garrett Frees-tenor sax
BananaAcid @ Comfort Station
BananaAcid surfaces at Comfort Station! Come get your Potassium.
Enjoy a Banana Proverbs:
Proverb 18-11 : Sometime it feels like you have been squished or squashed but actually the time has come to enter the refrigerator or maybe the freezer. If you are lucky, you might become a delectable baked item for all the children to feast on!
Andys w Alejandro Salazar Quintet
We are back at Andy’s Jazz Club after a 1 month hiatus! Come get some food, some drinks, and hang out to watch us! Sets at 6pm and 8:15pm both nights!
Andys w Alejandro Salazar Quintet
We are back at Andy’s Jazz Club after a 1 month hiatus! Come get some food, some drinks, and hang out to watch us! Sets at 6pm and 8:15pm both nights!
Twilight Choir (BananaAcid) at May Chapel
BananaAcid takes on a new name for one night only… TWILIGHT CHOIR!
Join us at the May Chapel in the Rosehill Cemetery for a set you will never forget YAY!
BananaAcid/Twilight Choir is
Aaron Kaufman-Levine, Garrett Frees, Caroline Jesalva, Tyler Wagner, Erez Dessel
Duo with Erez Dessel
Erez and I have been cooking up some compositions and methods to be unearthed at this duo show! Come see what we have in store.
Trio with Julian Pujols Quall and Dorothy Carlos
Come check out an improvised trio set with the amazing Julian Pujols Quall on piano and Dorothy Carlos on Cello.
Andys w Alejandro Salazar Quintet
Our residency at Andy’s continues with bi-weekly appearances in January and February.
Andys w Alejandro Salazar Quintet
Our residency at Andy’s continues with bi-weekly appearances in January and February.