Scott R. Looney has been making noises on various instruments since he was about 3 years old, and comes from a long list of Cal Arts alumns, joining fellow improvisers Adam Lane and Aaron Bennett whom he regularly plays with. He first studied jazz and improvisation in the unlikely cultural atmosphere of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at Coe College under avant trumpeter Paul Smoker, also obtaining his BM in Music Composition. Afterwards, he attended the California Institute of the Arts, where he studied improvisation under Roscoe Mitchell and Wadada Leo Smith, as well as composition and interactive electronics under David Rosenboom and Morton Subotnick. After graduating with an MFA, Scott moved to New York, where he honed his composition and improvisation skills in sessions with nationally and internationally known improvisers. In the summer of 1996, he moved back to the Left Coast, this time to Oakland, and since then he has been gradually emerging from his shell and becoming more well known as a player, promoter, presenter and supporter of creative music, most notably with his activities involving the Transbay Music Calendar, as well as his house concerts at 1502 Performance Space. Scott has had the pleasure of playing with a large amount of Bay Area improvisers, including Damon Smith, Ernesto Diaz-Infante, Bob Marsh, Jim Ryan, Adam Lane, Tom Djll, John Shiurba, Gino Robair, Rent Romus, and of course, Moe!. Recently, he has also played with other visiting national and internationally known improvisers, notably Tony Bevan (UK) (in a trio w/ Damon Smith and a 4tet featuring Jerome Bryerton from Chicago), David Tucker (UK), Jack Wright (Boulder CO), and Boris Hauf (Vienna). In addition to all of these activities, Scott also does studio recording at his home studio in Oakland and elsewhere, and is now currently in the process of becoming even more well known as both an improviser/composer and an engineer.


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