Music: Joe Sorbara
Joe Sorbara is a highly inventive drummer and percussionist with a penchant for coaxing music out of practically anything. Joe’s drum kit is regularly augmented with found and prepared materials which ensure that the sounds at his ready disposal are practically orchestral in scope. He combines these skills with an extraordinary time-feel that makes him one of the most swinging drummers in Canada when the music demands it of him. He is equally at home playing jazz standards, free improvised music, punk rock, and chamber music—but prefers to play them all at the same time. He leads The Imperative, a trio featuring Jay Hay and Karen Ng on tenor saxophones, and two large ensembles: the ten-piece Abakos and a ‘seven-or-more-tet’ known as Other Foot First. Each of these serve as uniquely challenging outlets for his inventive compositions. Elsewhere, Joe plays in Ken Aldcroft’s Convergence Ensemble, an improvising duo with Paul Dutton, the AIMToronto Orchestra, and Lullaby North, as well as in numerous ongoing and ad hoc collaborations with creative improvising musicians from all over. In addition to the above, he has recorded with Evan Parker, Anthony Braxton, Anna Siddall, the Remnants Trio, Ronda Rindone’s Quorum, Tom Arthurs and Bruce MacKinnon, Glen Hall, and Peter van Huffel. He can also be heard–alongside Tania Gill, Peter Lutek, and Scott Peterson–interpreting Mitchell Akiyama’s music for the score to David Hartt’s 2015 film, Interval. As an educator, Joe teaches at the University of Guelph where he works with young drummers in the applied music program as well as directing a large ensemble known as the CME. At home in Toronto, he teaches privately and through the Regent Park School of Music. He is also a stalwart creative music organizer, a founding Board member of AIMToronto, a member of the Somewhere There collective, and has been the director of the weekly Leftover Daylight Series since its inception in 2003.