Jamie Breiwick: Trumpet, flugelhorn;
Mike Pauers: Baritone and tenor saxes;
Brian Dietz: Guitar;
Dave Dinauer: Bass;
Tom Presser: Congas, percussion;
Jay Arpin: Drums, percussion;
Influences
Clamnation draws upon a variety of musicians for inspiration. Those common to all (or most) of the musicians in Clamnation include John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Cal Tjader, Dave Holland, Ben Allison, Woody Shaw, Chris Potter, and Dave Douglas.
Sounds Like
The modern approaches to jazz and composition taken by the recent Dave Holland and Ben Allison groups, with a healthy dash of the Latin jazz of the 1960's (e.g., Cal Tjader, Cachao, Mongo Santamaria).
Formed in 1989 by four of the current members, Clamnation began life as the blues/punk/Latin combo The Clams. As the members musical interests drifted further towards Latin jazz and also the post-bop explorations of artists like Charles Mingus, Sun Ra, and John Coltrane, The Clams folded but was expanded and retooled to form the first version of Clamnation, which performed around Milwaukee from 1990-1994. The current version of the band was assembled in February of 1996 and, with some minor changes in personnel, has been performing around southeast Wisconsin ever since.
Clamnation has performed at a number of festivals, including Summerfest, Jazz in the Park, Jean's Jazz Series, Harborfest, the Third Ward Summer Sizzle, RiverSplash, and Rainbow Summer, and has been a featured artist in UW-Madison's "Behind the Beat" jazz concert series. Clamnation is a mainstay at some of Milwaukee's top music venues, like The Jazz Estate and The Highbury Pub. Despite having performed extensively in Milwaukee and southeast Wisconsin throughout its existence, the band remains in demand as a featured group in many venues largely due to the endless musical explorations of its members.
2008 was a busy year for the band, which found them performing at new venues like the Isthmus Jazz Festival (Madison, WI), the Trout Springs Winery (Greenleaf, WI), and the Fox Note, a wonderful new club in Princeton, WI. Clamnation is currently finishing work on a new, LIVE recording, to be released in early 2009.
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