ArtistInfo

Gregg Skloff

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Musician of Electronic, Jazz and Rock

Gregg Skloff has played contrabass since 1990. From 1990 to ‘95 he took lessons from George Wellington Sr., and also spent three years in Punahou School’s esteemed Symphony Orchestra. Meanwhile, having begun on bass guitar in 1991, Gregg listened obsessively to music ranging from jazz to punk, metal to pop, prog to reggae, and beyond. This perhaps contributed to his abiding view of music as a totality, and his intolerance of genre-based jingoism. Since his move to the Pacific Northwest in 1997, Gregg has played in various improvisational settings with a multitude of musicians, including Nick Bindeman, Gust Burns, Arrington de Dionyso, Kevin Doria, Brad Gibson, Michael Griffen, Paul Hoskin, Jean-Paul Jenkins, Nathan Levine, Evan Miller, Tatsuya Nakatani, Adrian Orange, Kelvin Pittman, Matana Roberts, Ben L. Robertson, Jacob Wick, Bert Wilson, McCloud Zicmuse, and many others. He has also devoted his efforts to several rock bands, including Counterfeit Monsters, Thunder!Thunder!Thunder! (a pre-Explode Into Colors project with Claudia Meza and Lisa Schonberg), and Captain’s Daughter; occasionally, he has accompanied B’eirth in the “Symbolist folk” project Birch Book. In 2009, ESP-Disk released the album Gigantomachia by The Naked Future (featuring de Dionyso, Skloff, pianist Thollem McDonas and drummer John Niekrasz) to international acclaim. Gregg has been a regular participant with the Creative Music Guild’s large ensembles (for guest artists such as John Gruntfest, Urs Leimgruber, and Bhob Rainey) and with the Creative Composers Collective of Portland. He has been the featured bassist in the Portland performances of Moe! Staiano’s “End Of An Error” and Gino Robair’s “I, Norton.” Existence Habit, his group with Roger Hayes and sometimes Derek Ecklund, began activity in 2013. Gregg’s work on his own, meanwhile, conjures a uniquely intense and enigmatic mood, whether in the form of his fractured lo-fi (now-defunct) hermit-pop outfit Cloaca Clock or in the swirling storms and sweeping vistas of his solo instrumental performances.

Instruments

• Double bass
• Bass guitar
• Bass

Genres

• Electronic
• Jazz
• Rock

Plays With