Dragons 1976 is the Chicago based horn-bass-drum trio of Aram Shelton on alto saxophone, Jason Ajemian double bass, and Tim Daisy drums & percussion. Rooted in jazz, their music is strongly melodic; with no set chord progressions the music is allowed to freely find its own space. They focus on playing as a group, making songs that follow a path from start to finish, and getting to emotional points with subtlety.
Since meeting in Chicago at the end of the last century, Shelton, Ajemian and Daisy have played in many groups together, including Ken Vandermark’s Crisis Ensemble, which performed at the 2003 Chicago Jazz Festival. In the summer of 2002 Dragons 1976 was formed, the name coming from the year in which all three were born. In January of 2004 their debut album, On Cortez, was released by Locust Music. In the past few years, Dragons 1976 have toured in the southeast and northeast part of the United States and Canada.
The three members of the group are highly active musicians. Independently they make music with a wide range of other artists:
Aram Shelton is a performer on saxophone, clarinet and computer. In the groups 2nd Citizens and Rolldown, he plays the acoustic instruments with a freely improvised mentality. He uses max/msp for real time sampling and manipulation in many collaborative setting, mainly in the duo Grey Ghost (482 Music), and the electro-acoustic ensemble Flockterkit, with Ernst Karel and Fred Lonberg-holm. In the past Aram has performed with the likes of Rob Mazurek, Steve Bernstein, Mark Denardo, Koutaro Fukui, & Josh Abrams. In the fall of 2005 he moved to the Bay Area to study at Mills College.
Jason Ajemian is a Virginia native whose musical pursuits have led him through Arizona State University, William Paterson University, and the city of New York, studying and playing with Rufus Ried, Kevin Norton, Tony Malaby and Michael Formanek. He currently is active playing with Jeff Parker in the trio Cushicle; Born Heller with folk artist Josephine Foster; and Mandarin Movie with Rob Mazurek & Alan Licht.
Tim Daisy has been actively playing music in Chicago since 1997. In 2001 he was asked to join the Vandermark 5 and has kept very busy since, playing with the Sound in Action Trio, Joe McPhee, Danniel D’Agaro, Scott Rosenberg & many others. He is being well documented on recordings, appearing on releases by the labels Atavistic, Okka, 482 Music, CIMP, and Lucky Kitchen. He has toured widely in the states and Europe, playing such festivals as the North Sea Jazz Festival, NL; Enjoy Jazz, Manhiem; Banlieus Blues, Paris; Festival Jazz A Mulhouse, FR; Europa Jazz Festival, Le mans; Wels Jazz Festival, Austria.
