Nick Millevoi
Nick Millevoi is a monster, a dexterous improvisational guitarist who shreds like he’s auditioning for James Hetfield’s seat in Metallica. He can also perform with the soft, aural scrawl of a Gary Lucas or a demonic, airy blues akin to James Blood Ulmer. More often than not, those noises and nuances of his come out in a single song or a rubbery elongated lick. Yet, if Millevoi – a professional musician since graduating from Temple in 2005 – chose, he could save up each dramatic, avant-garde turn of his six-string for use throughout his numerous projects and parse them out individually. There’re plenty of gigs at his fingertips. He’s got a solo career that finds him fingering a 12-string electric, and that yielded fruit last year when he released Black Figure of a Bird. Millevoi’s been part of the oddly-rocking Make A Rising (his most conventional teaming), putting out New I Fealing in 2011, in which he plays the Nels Cline role in Rising’s Wilco-like patter. Circles and Mea’l are two of Millevoi’s oldest inventions, bleak bands whose distant howling sounds are the stuff of local noise lore. He also plays in Electric Simcha, a Hassidic punk band, and the Johnny DeBlase Quartet, an avant-garde jazz group. Bailly/Millevoi/Moffett, an improv trio with trumpeter Joe Moffett and guitarist Alban Bailly, released its debut Strange Falls just weeks ago. As an improv giant, Millevoi is good for the chance meeting and the immediate encounter. He’ll ply that skill when he and Philly trombonist Dan Blacksberg, the duo that make up the noir-toned band Archer Spade, head to Oakland to play with legendary Art Ensemble of Chicago saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell.
