CODYARTS Midwestern Mythologies
	work by Steve Nelson-Raney
Steve Nelson-Raney has been performing his own music since the late sixties. Since then he has given numerous concerts throughout the country and appeared with such musicians as Malcolm Goldstein, Peter Kowald, Ernie Watts, Michael Zerang, Tom Hamilton, Ken Vandermark and the traditional players of Greek Macedonia. Solo performances have included two in New York City. Nelson-Raney’s current work includes continuation of ongoing improvisations for saxophone and piano, composition in various mediums and collaborations with other musicians, writers and visual artists (two notable collaborative performances have been with writers Anne Waldman and Tom Raworth). Saxophonist/pianist Steve Nelson-Raney performs regularly in the free improvisation trio Audiotrope, in duos with guitarist Jack Grassel, laptop improvisor Christopher Burns, and drummer Terry Smirl, and in MiLO (the Milwaukee Laptop Orchestra). Nelson-Raney’s writing has been published in two Midwestern anthologies, Poetry Is For People and Poetry Out Of Wisconsin, in Intervals, an anthology of writings by musicians, and in various magazines, such as traverse, Gam and Fell Swoop. His selected poems are available each year in small editions of handmade chapbooks which he designs and constructs. Active in bookarts since 1986, Nelson-Raney has utilized the book form in hundreds of works that have included text, photography, drawing, painting and collage. Currently he is producing specifically designed ‘packets’ that contain a series of mounted thematically related photographs. Nelson-Raney’s visual work has been exhibited in numerous shows throughout the Midwest; he has had a one person show at Milwaukee’s Woodland Pattern Book Center, as well as a joint show there with instrument maker Hal Rammel with whom Nelson-Raney collaborates musically. *** Steve Nelson-Raney holds a graduate degree in music from Bradley University. He has taught public school instrumental music in Illinois and jazz studies courses at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. He is active as a composer and performer throughout the country, working in both jazz and contemporary music idioms. In 1979 Nelson-Raney founded Cody Books/Records (later to become CODYARTS) as a vehicle for documenting and distributing his work. In 1997 Nelson-Raney co-founded, with Hal Rammel, The Great Lakes Improvisation Project which continues to present performances of new music in the Milwaukee area. Nelson-Raney is a senior lecturer in the Music Department of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, teaching theory/composition and jazz courses; he directs the Contemporary Music Ensemble and co-directs the Jazz Studies program. A selection of Nelson-Raney's recordings is reviewed in The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (8th Edition). Steve Nelson-Raney is a Conn-Selmer artist, endorsing Yanagisawa saxophones.
CATALOG	MANIFESTOS, ETC.

CONTACT:

Steve Nelson-Raney
3065 N. Bartlett
Milwaukee , WI 53211
USA
(414)332-0769
codyarts@execpc.com