Music

Byron Asher is a saxophonist and clarinetist and composer based in New Orleans and working at the intersection of broadly experimental composition and jazz and improvised music. Raised in Maryland, he has become an integral member of New Orleans’ creative music community since arriving there in 2011, working as a bandleader, collaborator, improviser, composer, and curator. In spring 2024, he released two new LPs on Sinking City Records: Lord, when you send the rain, the second release from his celebrated large ensemble project Skrontch Music, and May Day, from his “free jazz party band” Basher. Basher’s 2021 release Doubles received 4 stars from Downbeat and was called “unbearably beautiful” by Pitchfork. The debut Skrontch Music recording was named was named a top 20 jazz release of 2019 by textura.org. In 2021, his duo recording with drummer Brad Webb, Little Bigby, was nominated for Best Contemporary Jazz Recording by New Orleans’ Offbeat Magazine. Byron teaches in the music department at the University of New Orleans and has performed and collaborated with a diverse array of musicians from New Orleans and beyond, including Aurora Nealand, Helen Gillet, James Singleton, Johnny Vidocovich, Gordon Grdina, Jeb Bishop, Brian Haas, Luke Stewart, Jeff Albert, and Brian Seeger, among many others.