John C. Savage and Lie Very Still perform Nova Pangaea

Lineup: John C. Savage, compositions, flute, alto saxophone; Michelle Medler, clarinet and tenor saxophone; Mike Gamble, electric guitar; Shao Way Wu, bass; Jasnam Daya Singh, piano; Ken Ollis, drums; Claudia Saleeby Savage, poetry.

John C. Savage has been compared to Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Herbie Mann, Noah Howard, Ian Anderson, and Colin Stetson. He has performed with musical luminaries including Andrew Hill, esperanza spalding, Vinny Golia, The Temptations, Kris Davis, David Ornette Cherry, Holland Andrews, Keith Underwood, Marty Ehrlich, Mark Dresser, Matana Roberts, Esther Lamneck, John Gross, Curtis Fowlkes, Mel Brown, Robert Dick, Darrell Grant, BlipVert, and NEA Jazz Masters Roscoe Mitchell and Reggie Workman. His chamber trio (with pianist Dana Reason and oboist Catherine Lee) collaborated with Roscoe Mitchell on a version of the composer’s classic composition Nonaah (Wide Hive Records 2020). Savage has also been featured on several releases with PJCE Records as a leader or co-leader, including Demolition Duo, Senses Sharpened, The Black Heron and the Spoonbill, and Nova Pangaea with his quartet Lie Very Still. He has also appeared on many PJCE large ensemble recordings, including From Maxville to Vanport, Ekta, and Oregon Stories. In 2023, PJCE performed his composition In The Dark Yor Anthem Comes America, a collaboration with performance poet Claudia Saleeby Savage, with whom he performs as Thick In The Throat Honey.

Claudia Saleeby Savage is an Arab American poet and essayist whose writing and performance explore displacement and the landscape of the body, and has been featured in print, on stage, and in galleries throughout the country. She is the author of first you must destroy the world (First Matter Press, fall 2025), metal used for beauty alone (from The Poetry Box for print + voice), Bruising Continents (Spuyten Duyvil), and The Last One Eaten, with recent print work in Poetry Northwest, Nimrod, About Place, and River Teeth.