(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) –  “Waking the Sleeping Giant,” a 1972 work by Herbie Hancock crafted for structured improvisation for solo piano and electronics, will form the basis for “You Can Say That Again!,” an evening concert of electronic music and jazz by pianist/composer Bob Gluck, avant-garde keyboard and computer composer Neil Rolnick, and bassist Christopher Dean Sullivan, joined by faculty member John Myers on guitar, in the Kellogg Music Center at Simon’s Rock College on Saturday, January 31, 2015, at 8pm.

The Hancock piece was performed in the 1970s by Hancock’s pioneering Mwandishi band, exploring the integration of free yet rhythmically dynamic improvisation within the jazz idiom with electronic sounds. Bob Gluck’s sonic commentary on the original work in 2008 was expanded by Gluck and Rolnick in 2012 to become a quasi-concerto for piano and computer.

Other works to be performed include “Dynamic RAM & Concert Grand,” a virtuoso romp for piano and laptop computer, composed by Neil Rolnick in 2014. The title also suggests a focus on the computer (“Random Access Memory”) and the piano playing together. Much of the computer’s material comes from processing the piano in real time, creating rhythmic delays or granulated clouds of sound surrounding the piano. Rolnick pioneered the use of computers in musical performance beginning in the late 1970s, and his music has been receiving increasingly wide recognition and numerous performances both in the US and abroad. This piece was made possible by a grant from the Fromm Music Foundation.

Bassist Christopher Dean Sullivan is a player of many musical languages: Jazz, Funk, Reggae, Latin, Fusion, Caribbean, Indian, African and more. He has shared the stage with Stanley Jordan, Pete Seeger, Archie Shepp, Charli Persip, Yusef Lateef, to name a few, as well as touring the U.S. and abroad with his own ensembles.

John E. Myers is a guitarist, composer, musicologist, and interactive media developer, whose work has been included in numerous recordings, multimedia productions, and printed publications. Myers is a faculty member at Bard Collegse at Simon’s Rock and appears regularly as a guitar soloist, in both jazz and classical venues.

Bard College at Simon’s Rock is the only four-year residential college of the liberal arts and sciences specifically designed for bright, highly motivated students ready to begin college after the tenth or eleventh grade. Students are taught exclusively in small seminars by a supportive, highly-trained faculty. Degrees are granted in over 40 areas of study. Most graduates proceed to earn graduate and professional degrees at highly selective universities. Simon’s Rock was founded in 1966 and joined the Bard College network in 1979. For more information, including a complete list of events, directions, or parking instructions, visit www.simons-rock.edu.