Curriculum Vitae
Skills
Creative Arts: teaching & performance
Curation
Project Management
Participatory Research & Analysis
Grant Writing
Current Projects
Warrior Ethos: Duets with Organizations;
Warrior Ethos: Harm Free Zone Improvisation Workshop;
Warrior Ethos: In Defense of Memory (band);
Interiors of Opposition (participatory research);
Indexical Moment/um (series)
Publications
2017 - "Characteristics of Bone: a Memoir," AMERARCANA.
2016 - "Racial Overtones." Wire Magazine, UK.
2016 - "Music Research Strategies". Sound American, issue 15.
"Black Access/Black Axes" (forthcoming). Sige Records, Seattle, WA.
"Black Resonance." Sixty Hurts, Oakland, CA.
"Black Tape." Astral Spirits, Austin, TX.
"Black Interiors." Sixty Hurts, Oakland, CA.
"Black Listening." Sixty Hurts, Oakland, CA.
"Of Deconstruction." Sige Records, Seattle, WA.
Festivals
Warrior Ethos: Listening Sessions (LAIR residency) Eastside Cultural Center,
April 2018
No Idea Festival, Mexico City, 2017
Guelph Jazz Festival/ Improvisation and Social Practice Colloquium, Guelph, Ontario, Canada, 2017
Comparte: Zapatista Festival, Oakland, 2017
High Zero, Baltimore, 2016
Sonic Transmission, Austin, Texas
all ears, Oslo & Bergen, Norway, 2016
Marshall Ryan Trammell
475 Merritt Avenue, #2
Oakland, CA 94610
+1.505.221.0627
musicresearchstrategies.info
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Skills
Experimental practitioner of critical ethnography, participatory research & community-based archives; music composition, conduction, performance & electro-acoustic sound design; project management, arts administration & grant writing.
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Current Employment
Contemporary Jewish Museum / Resident Artist
MAY 2021- PRESENT, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Engagement includes community archive of renditions of Leonard Cohen works from the public; electro-acoustic, sound design performance and installation; Insurgent Learning Workshops with staff and youth, September 2021 - February 2022.
Borealis Festival / Current Resident Artist
MARCH 2020 - PRESENT, BERGEN, NORWAY
Engagement includes commissioned, world premiere of “The Moon Is Down,” a gestural conduction performance for percussionists sourced through Insurgent Learning Workshops with members of the Creators of Oi (Norway); and a remote, community archive performance at a public library. March 2021 saw the premiere of Eleven Postures, a performance film of visual score for experimental percussion sourced from the “Indexical Moment/um: Burn the Temples/Break Up the Bells” (Black Amnesia & Indigenous Justice) installation performance from Albuquerque, New Mexico (2018-19).
Pro Arts COMMONS / Resident Artist & Fellow
MONTH 2019 - PRESENT, OAKLAND, CA
Engagement includes the creation of Ebonics Native Land Acknowledge community archive, featuring the Creators of Oi (Norway) and the Native Land Acknowledgement community archive via separate recitations of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples from the Black Amnesia & Indigenous Justice series. These works are a score created and curated by Candace Hopkins and Raven Chacon.
Prelinger Library / Resident Artist
JUNE 2021 - PRESENT, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Engagement includes the production of an Insurgent Learning Workshop tutorial video towards the completion of residency and research threads begi 2016, that was interrupted for personal reasons.
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Education
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute / MFA, Electronic Arts
AUGUST 2004 - JUNE 2006, TROY, NY
Thesis completed under advisor Karen Thornton. No degree due to misunderstanding with the department.
New College of California / BA Liberal Arts
AUGUST 2002 - JUN 2003, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
BA Completion Program, emphasis in “Pedagogies of Improvisation.”
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Past Works
Wattis Institute / Contributor
APRIL 2021 - JUNE 2021, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
For the California College of Arts (CCA) Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, I was invited to submit a curriculum for Season 7: Cecilia Vicuña is on our mind is co-curated by Jeanne Gerrity and Anthony Huberman and is supported by an Innovation Grant from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation.
Innovu Records / Bay Area Pilot Curator
MAY 2021- MAY 2021 ST. PAUL, MN
American Composers Forums supports Innovu Records Bay Area Pilot Fellowship to foster an artist-centric cooperative model where both label and artist work closely to achieve the artist’s goals.
Bird and Beckett Books / Performer
MAY 23, 2021 - MAY 23, 2021, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Live trio performance featuring Thurston Moore (guitars), Bruce Ackley (saxophone) & Marshall Trammell (percussion).
University of Santa Cruz, Film and Digital Media/ Art Talk
MAY 18, 2021 - MAY 18, 2021, SANTA CRUZ, CA
Music Research Strategies art talk, hosted by Rick Prelinger, Chair and Professor, Film & Digital Media, UC Santa Cruz. Kenneth R. Corday Family Presidential Chair in Writing for Television & Film and proprietor of Prelinger Library, with Megan Prelinger, in San Francisco.
Foundation for Contemporary Arts / Music/Sound Award
JANUARY 2020 - DECEMBER 2021, NEW YORK CITY, NY
Music/Sound Artist Awardee.
Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / Resident Artist
DECEMBER 2019 - JANUARY 2021, CAPTIVA ISLAND, FL
One-month residency.
Toronto Biennial of Art / Performing Artist
OCTOBER 2019 - OCTOBER 2019, TORONTO, CA
Engagement included solo percussion performances at 259 Lake Shore Blvd East and Small Arms Inspection Building.
Western Front Society / Resident Artist
AUGUST 2019- SEPTEMBER 2019, VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA
Engagement included a four-week, Insurgent Learning Workshop series with AfroVan Connect, curated by John Brennan, independent composer, with support of Western Front curator Pablo Ocampo.
Coppermas Residency / Resident Artist
NOVEMBER 2019 - NOVEMBER 2019, SECHELT, BRITISH COLUMBIA
Collaborative research on the lower Sunshine Coast of British Columbia with Japanese Canadian taiko artist Kage (Eileen).
Charlotte Street Foundation / Residency Artist
JULY 2019 - AUGUST 2019 KANSAS CITY, MO
Music Research Strategies’ Insurgent Learning Workshop and experimental performance series with local community members.
Museum Of Human Achievement/ Unlisted Projects / Resident Artist
MAY 2019 - JUNE 2019 AUSTIN, TX
Music Research Strategies’ Insurgent Learning Workshop and experimental performance series with local community members.
Off Lomas / Resident Artist
AUGUST 2018 - SEPTEMBER 2019, ALBUQUERQUE, NM
Engagement included a “Indexical Moment/um: Burn the Temples/Break Up the Bells,” (Black Amnesia & Indigenous Justice) performance intervention sourced from the resistance technologies of the 1680 Pueblo Indian Revolt and musical performance by In Defense of Memory, featuring violinist Laura Ortman and bassist Carlos Santistevan. Off Lomas is operated and curated by Candace Hopkins and Raven Chacon.
Intercultural Leadership Institute /Fellow
JUNE 2018- JUNE 2019, SOUTH DAKOTA, HAWAI’I & TEXAS
Engagement included Year II of cultural immersion of 28 fellows gathered by the First Peoples Fund, Pa’i Foundation, NALAC and Alternative Roots; and, sponsored by the Ford Foundation.
Adobe Books / Resident Artist
APRIL 2019- APRIL 2019, SOUTH DAKOTA, HAWAI’I & TEXAS
Performance series with poet Tongo Eisen-Martin
Southern Exposure / Resident Artist
APRIL 6, 2019 - APRIL 28, 2019, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Engagement included a four-week, Insurgent Learning Workshop series featuring violinist Laura Ortman, THE Deaf Dancer Antoine Hunter, guitarist Tracy Hui, saxophonist Nick Obando, Archivist Tanya Hollis, and poet Arnoldo Garcia. The installation was supported by Critical Resistance Oakland, and curated by Jose Garcia and Valerie Imus.
Eastside Arts Alliance / Resident Artist
MONTH 20XX - MONTH 20XX, OAKLAND, CA
Live Arts in Resistance (LAIR) Residency featuring Mutual Aid Project in performance consisting of Nick Obando and Tracy Hui.
Prelinger Library / Resident Researcher
MARCH 2017 - MARCH 2018, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Independent research; participatory research and experimental performance series.
Black Spirituals / Co-Creative Director & Performer
SPRING 2011 - SUMMER 2017, OAKLAND, CA
Featuring Zachary James Watkins, the electro-acoustic duo performed in numerous venues on national and international tours and produced a number of recordings for SIGE Records (Seattle, WA) and independent labels, including Of Deconstruction and the double LP, Black Axes/Black Axis.
Heavy Discipline / Curator
SPRING 2010 - SUMMER 2011, OAKLAND, CA
Located at Good Bellies Cafe, in the Temescal District of Oakland, CA. Heavy Disciplined featured performances from soloists
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Recordings
Eleven Postures (for Burn the Temples/Break Up the Bells) / Film Premiere
BOREALIS FESTIVAL, BERGEN, NORWAY, 2021
For this new film, commissioned by Borealis, Trammell performs 11 new codes, devised by a community living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the legacy of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, a bloody uprising of indigenous people against Spanish colonists, still resonates today. Formulating new drumming postures for each code, the film concludes with a new performance, reading the 11 codes as graphic score, which will be followed by an audience feedback session, giving space for reflection by a Bergen audience on the ideas and sounds performed. Matt Volla, director.
Eleven Postures / Digital Album Release
SIGE RECORDS, SEATTLE, WA, 2021
Audio tracks of filmed performance engineered by Jacob Felix Heule.
White People Killed Them White People Killed Them/ Digital Album Release
SIGE RECORDS, SEATTLE, WA, 2021
Endlings Human Form / Album Release
WHITED SEPULCHRE RECORDS, CINCINNATI, OHIO 2021
Endlings is a duo comprised of John Dieterich of Deerhoof and legendary Diné composer Raven Chacon. Featuring percussion by Marshall Trammell and artwork by Babak Shahsiah. The music cuts a broad swath of improvised and carefully constructed experimentations of guitar, electronics, percussion and field recordings.
Rob Magill & Marshall Trammell /
WEIRD CRY RECORD, OJAI, CA 2021
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Press
Follow The Sound / Blog Interview with Tomasz Mądry
POLAND 2021
Going beyond the bandstand, simultaneous multidimensionality, searching for fire. The music research strategist and insurgent learning workshop coordinator discusses three important albums.
The “Wire Tapper”/ Review of White People Killed Them
UNITED KINGDOM 2021
White People Killed Them debut on SIGE Records.
African Paper / Review of White People Killed Them
GERMANY 2021
At the end of June, SIGE Records made the debut of a combo consisting of drummer Marshall Trammell (Music Research Strategies, Black Spirituals, etc.), sound artist Raven Chacon and guitarist John Dieterich called White People Killed Them. The album of the same name contains two expansive soundscapes in the cement area between noise rock and hot dry Americana. Personally, the three musicians cover a wide range of US population groups, which opens up a great deal of scope for the band name's potential for association. The album appears on 300 LPs and digitally.
ATTN Magazine “Crucial Listening #77” / Interview with Jack Chuter
NEW YORK 2021
Pulling on the historic quilt codes of the Underground Railroad, participants were asked to create codes that could be used to send messages to fugitives in their own area of Albuquerque, New Mexico, utilising narratives of fugitivity within the region. This audio document is Trammell’s improvised response for bass drum, snare drum and cowbell – a further transposition of the code, out of the visual fixity of iron-branded wooden squares and into the ever-evaporating domain of reflexive percussive transmission.
Darmstadt On Air #17 / Podcast with Peter Meanwell
DARMSTADT, GERMANY 2021
Darmstadt On Air audio podcast is about political activism in music. It is hosted by Peter Meanwell, music journalist and artistic director of Borealis, a festival for experimental music that takes place every year in Bergen, Norway. This year, you can experience the festival online from March 17 to March 21. Peter talks to Marshall Trammell who is invited as Borealis’ artist in residence.
ListnUP: I CARE IF YOU LISTEN / Podcast
MINNEAPOLIS JANUARY 2021
ListN Up is a series of weekly artist-curated playlists. Born from a desire to keep artists sharing and connected during times of isolation, ListN Up offers an intimate sonic portrait of contemporary artists by showcasing the diverse and stylistically varied music that influences their creative practice.
Resonance Series / Video interview with Wayne Grim
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 2020
"Warrior Ethos/Warrior Ecologies" performance and interview, conducted by Streaming Media Manager and composer Wayne Grim and produced by Phoebe Tooke, for the Exploratorium's "Resonance Series on August 17, 2020.
The Wire Magazine / Interview (in print)
UNITED KINGDOM 2018
“Black Spirituals: The Oakland duo fire up free music.” By Stewart Smith
Black Spirituals / DownBeat Magazine
NEW YORK 2018
“Black Spirituals: The Oakland duo fire up free music.” By Jordannah Elizabeth
Black Spirituals / interview, KQED online
San Francisco Bay Area, CA
“The Time-Traversing Sound of Oakland's Black Spirituals”
Black Spirituals / The Wire Magazine (UK)
UNITED KINGDOM 2018
“Black Breathing” review for Below the Radar. By
Education
2002 - 2003 Bachelor of Liberal Arts
New College of California
San Francisco, CA
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Experience
2018-2019 - Studio Residency, Charlotte Street Foundation, Kansas City, MO
2018-2019 - Fellowship, Intercultural Leadership Institute, USA
April 2018 - Residency, Living Arts in Resistance (LAIR), Oakland, CA
2017 - Researcher-in-Residence, Prelinger Library, San Francisco, CA
2016 - Co-founder, project manager & teaching artist. Merced Youth Drum Corps, Merced, CA.
2013 - Present. Primary caregiver. Family members: Merced, CA & Kansas City, MO.
2011 - Self-employed artist, teaching artist, grant writer, recording & touring musician, researcher/analyst. San Francisco Bay Area.
2008/09 - Information Activist. DataCenter, Oakland, CA.
Grants & Awards
2016 - Building Healthy Communities Grant. Merced Youth Drum Corps, Merced, CA.
2014 - Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant. Black Spirituals tour.
2010 - EDD Apprenticeship. Final Cut Pro I & II, Bay Area Video Coalition
2005 - Estacion Libre Delegation. Chiapas, MX.
2005 - RPI Travel grant. Troy, NY
2004 - MetLIfe Fellowship. Troy, NY.