The Vision Festival is the world's premier festival of experimental music (typically free jazz

Free jazz

Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...

/avant-garde jazz

Avant-garde jazz

Avant-garde jazz is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. Avant-jazz often sounds very similar to free jazz, but differs in that, despite its distinct departure from traditional harmony, it has a predetermined structure over which ...

), art, film and dance. Inspired by the 1984 and '88 Sound Unity Festivals. It was a direct out growth of the Improvisors Collective 1994 and '95. In 1996, Dancer-choreographer Patricia Nicholson Parker, initiated the First Annual Vision Festival. This festival is held annually in Lower East Side

Lower East Side, Manhattan

The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....

 of New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, in June. Other members of the Board of Directors include: Lewis Barnes, Jo Wood Brown, Whit Dickey

Whit Dickey

Whit Dickey is a free jazz drummer. He has recorded albums as a bandleader, or with David S. Ware, Matthew Shipp and others.- Notes :...

, William Parker

William Parker (musician)

William Parker is an American free jazz double bassist, poet and composer.-Biography:Parker was not formally trained as a classical player, though he did study with Jimmy Garrison, Richard Davis, and Wilbur Ware and learned the tradition. Parker is one of few jazz bassists who regularly plays arco...

, John Schiek, and Bradford K. Smith. It usually consists of between thirty and sixty performances, spread out over a number of days.

The festival has taken place in numerous venues, including a church basement, a youth center, the Angel Orensanz Center

Angel Orensanz Center

The Angel Orensanz Center is located at 172 Norfolk Street on the Lower East Side of New York City, New York...

 for the Arts the Knitting Factory

Knitting Factory

The Knitting Factory is a music venue and concert house with locations in Brooklyn, Boise, Reno, and Spokane. The club originally specialized in jazz and experimental music and has expanded to showcasing all genres of music, performing arts and comedy....

 and CBGB

CBGB

CBGB was a music club at 315 Bowery at Bleecker Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.Founded by Hilly Kristal in 1973, it was originally intended to feature its namesake musical styles, but became a forum for American punk and New Wave bands like Ramones, Misfits, Television, the...

. Festival organizers sometimes encounter difficulty booking performance spaces, largely because of the Vision Festival's rejection of commercial sponsors. Booking difficulties are often alleviated by arts-foundation grants

Grant (money)

Grants are funds disbursed by one party , often a Government Department, Corporation, Foundation or Trust, to a recipient, often a nonprofit entity, educational institution, business or an individual. In order to receive a grant, some form of "Grant Writing" often referred to as either a proposal...

, however.

Music performers

The list of artists who have performed at the Vision Festival is long and varied, including David S. Ware

David S. Ware

David Spencer Ware , is an American jazz saxophonist.Ware grew up in Scotch Plains, New Jersey and graduated from Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School. He attended the Berklee College of Music and worked in New York City as a cab driver for 14 years, later returning to Scotch Plains to live...

, Sam Rivers

Sam Rivers

Samuel Carthorne Rivers , is an American jazz musician and composer. He performs on soprano and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet, flute, harmonica and piano....

, Frank Lowe

Frank Lowe

Frank Lowe was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and composer.Born and brought up in Memphis, Tennessee, Lowe took up the tenor saxophone and then moved to San Francisco...

, Daniel Carter

Daniel Carter (musician)

Daniel Carter is an American free jazz saxophone, flute, clarinet, and trumpet player active mainly in New York City since the early 1970s...

, William Parker

William Parker (musician)

William Parker is an American free jazz double bassist, poet and composer.-Biography:Parker was not formally trained as a classical player, though he did study with Jimmy Garrison, Richard Davis, and Wilbur Ware and learned the tradition. Parker is one of few jazz bassists who regularly plays arco...

, Roy Campbell, Jr.

Roy Campbell, Jr.

Roy Campbell, Jr. is versatile trumpeter frequently linked to free jazz, though he has also performed rhythm and blues, bebop and funk at times during his career. Born in Los Angeles, California in 1952, Campbell was raised in New York. At age fifteen Campbell began learning to play trumpet and...

, Hamid Drake

Hamid Drake

Hamid Drake is an American jazz drummer and percussionist. He lives in Chicago, IL but spends much of his time traveling around the world for concerts and studio dates....

, Nicole Mitchell

Nicole Mitchell (musician)

Nicole Mitchell is an American jazz flautist and former president of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians .-Biography:...

, Rob Brown

Rob Brown

Rob Brown may refer to:* Rob Brown , member of the UK electronic band, Autechre* Rob Brown , National Hockey League player* Rob Brown , Finding Forrester* Rob Brown , reporter and anchor for CTV News-See also:...

, Kidd Jordan

Kidd Jordan

Edward "Kidd" Jordan is an American jazz saxophonist and music educator from New Orleans, Louisiana....

, Henry Grimes

Henry Grimes

Henry Grimes is a jazz double bassist, violinist, and poet.After more than a decade of activity and performance, notably as a leading bassist in free jazz, Grimes completely disappeared from the music scene by 1970...

, Marc Ribot

Marc Ribot

Marc Ribot born May 21, 1954) is an American guitarist and composer.His own work has touched on many styles, including no wave, free jazz, and Cuban music. Ribot is also known for collaborating with other musicians, most notably Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, and composer John Zorn.-Biography:Ribot was...

, Chad Taylor

Chad Taylor

Chad Taylor is a guitarist in the bands The Gracious Few and Live. Live have sold over 20 million records, including the 8x platinum album Throwing Copper.-Biography:...

, Rashied Ali

Rashied Ali

Rashied Ali, born Robert Patterson was an American free jazz and avant-garde jazz drummer best known for playing with John Coltrane in the last years of Coltrane's life.-Biography:...

, Joe McPhee

Joe McPhee

Joe McPhee is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist born in Miami, Florida, a player of tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, the trumpet, flugelhorn and valve trombone...

, Jason Kao Hwang

Jason Kao Hwang

Jason Kao Hwang is a Chinese American violinist and composer.A versatile performer, Hwang focuses primarily on jazz and improvised musics, and has a particular interest in cross-cultural projects...

, Jayne Cortez

Jayne Cortez

Jayne Cortez is an American poet, and performance artist.-Biography:She grew up in California. She is the author of ten books of poems and performer of her poetry with music on nine recordings. Her voice is celebrated for its political, surrealistic, dynamic innovations in lyricism, and visceral...

, Fred Anderson

Fred Anderson

Fred Anderson may refer to:*Fred Anderson , former National Football League defensive lineman*Fred Anderson , Major League Baseball player...

, Matthew Shipp

Matthew Shipp

Matthew Shipp is an American pianist, composer and bandleader.Shipp was raised in Wilmington, Delaware, and began playing piano at six years old. His mother was a friend of trumpeter Clifford Brown....

, Billy Bang

Billy Bang

Billy Bang was an American free jazz violinist and composer.-Biography:...

, Eddie Gale

Eddie Gale

Eddie Gale is an American trumpeter known for his work in free jazz, especially with the Sun Ra Arkestra.-Biography:Early in life, he studied trumpet with Kenny Dorham...

, Whit Dickey

Whit Dickey

Whit Dickey is a free jazz drummer. He has recorded albums as a bandleader, or with David S. Ware, Matthew Shipp and others.- Notes :...

, Amiri Baraka

Amiri Baraka

Amiri Baraka , formerly known as LeRoi Jones, is an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism...

, Roscoe Mitchell

Roscoe Mitchell

Roscoe Mitchell is an African American composer, jazz instrumentalist and educator, mostly known for being "a technically superb—if idiosyncratic—saxophonist." He has been called "one of the key figures" in avant-garde jazz who has been "at the forefront of modern music" for the past...

, Steve Lacy

Steve Lacy

Steve Lacy , born Steven Norman Lackritz in New York City, was a jazz saxophonist and composer recognized as one of the important players of soprano saxophone....

, DJ Spooky

DJ Spooky

Paul D. Miller , known by his stage name DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is a Washington DC-born electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics or his fans as "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntablist, a producer, a philosopher, and an author...

, Yo La Tengo

Yo La Tengo

Yo La Tengo, sometimes abbreviated as YLT, is an American alternative rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan , Georgia Hubley , and James McNew .Despite achieving limited mainstream success, Yo La Tengo has been called "the quintessential...

, Cat Power

Cat Power

Charlyn Marie Marshall , also known as Chan Marshall or by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer/songwriter and occasional actress and model. Cat Power was originally the name of Marshall's first band, but has come to refer to her musical projects with various backing bands...

 and Louis Moholo

Louis Moholo

Louis Tebugo Moholo , is a South African jazz drummer.He formed The Blue Notes with Chris McGregor, Johnny Dyani, Nikele Moyake, Mongezi Feza and Dudu Pukwana, and emigrated to Europe with them in 1964, eventually settling in London, where he formed part of a South African exile community that made...

, among others. The festival also often features special "event" performances, such as the 2004 reunion of the Revolutionary Ensemble

Revolutionary Ensemble

The Revolutionary Ensemble was a free jazz trio consisting of violinist Leroy Jenkins , bassist Sirone and percussionist/pianist Jerome Cooper ....

, who hadn't performed publicly together in almost thirty years.

Mission statement