A percussionist, composer/improvisor, filmmaker, photographer, and designer of modern pedal and electronic instruments, artist Mikel Patrick Avery considers this multiplicity as one practice: creative problem solving. Gifted in various musical genres, his rigorous work of performance, improvisation, composition, and experimentation spans jazz, experimental, and electronic music. With his deep understanding of the historical and contemporary significance of various genres, he explores the uses of improvisation to navigate uncertainty, imagine alternative futures, and inspire social cohesion. Avery has collaborated and performed with numerous ensembles including Natural Information Society, Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra, the Jeff Parker Quartet, and Theaster Gates’ ensemble, The Black Monks of Mississippi.

As an incubator for creative process, committed to exploring, bending and expanding preexisting structures and assumptions, he opens his own and others’ awareness of the actual malleability of things: as in the possible sounds a trumpet might make or how music is notated, or rethinking the instrumentation of a big band. Viewing neither “talent” nor “ability” as the driving principles that propel musical and artistic ideas, he is enlarging and democratizing creative space for a wider group of participants. In both his own practice and collaborating with other artists, exploration and inclusion is the focus of his life's work.

photo by Ike Day