The Al Biles Virtual Quintet will present a jazz improvisation on Thursday, Nov. 16, at 4:15 p.m. in the Red Pit. This quintet is comprised of a single performer, Al Biles on trumpet, and his computer program, GenJam, which handles the bass, drum kit, and other instruments. GenJam (short for "Genetic Jammer") doesn't simply provide a musical backdrop - it is a computer program that implements an evolutionary computation technique that enables it to learn how to improvise jazz solos. GenJam trades fours or eights by listening to the notes and chord progressions on Biles's trumpet and constructs its own solo based on the tunes played by Biles. The program will include a brief discussion of the technology behind GenJam. This performance is free and open to the public.
Biles developed GenJam to produce smart echoes from his improvisations, and the results are hardly distinguishable from an actual jazz quintet. A professor of information technology at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Biles developed the original version of GenJam during a sabbatical leave 13 years ago and has steadily improved the program ever since. GenJam currently encompasses more than 250 tunes in a wide variety of jazz-influenced styles.
Biles has performed all across the world in cities such as London, Milan, Toronto, San Diego, Seattle, Washington D.C., San Francisco and Las Vegas. His work has appeared in Time Magazine, The Economist, Business Week, and the Generation 5 Web site as well as on the BBC. He has also performed at coffee houses, bookstores, recording studios, colleges and universities across the United States.
While on campus, Al Biles and GenJam will visit Brian Rosmaita's "Creative Evolutionary Computation." This class is an offering of the computer science department's new innovative course, "Explorations in Computer Science." In spring 2007, the department will offer course sections on robotics, virtual reality, web design and simulation and modeling.
This performance is sponsored by the Hamilton Department of Computer Science. For additional information, call Brian Rosmaita at 859-4816. For information on Al Biles and GenJam, click on www.it.rit.edu/~jab/GenJam.html.
