Kyle Motl is a bassist, composer, and improviser dedicated to the performance of creative music. His work is described as providing a “wide range of wonderful protean delights that promise to change us by revealing things we could never have imagined” (Free Jazz Collective). Kyle’s work across the fields of composed and improvised music has been documented across numerous records and tours in various configurations.
Treesearch, with violinist Keir GoGwilt, has been praised for its “clinical precision” and “highly imaginative investigation into seemingly limitless possibilities…” (The Wire). Panjandrums, his piano trio with Tobin Chodos and Kjell Nordeson, was praised both for its “speculative, many-layered evolution of imagination,” (Free Jazz Collective) and for “constantly confounding expectation” (Jazz da Gama). Recent collaborations include projects with Rhonda Taylor, Patrick Shiroishi, Niloufar Shiri, T.J. Borden, and Carlos Dominguez, and he continues years of work in trio and quartet with Abbey Rader.
As a soloist and ensemble member, Kyle works regularly with both emerging and established composers, including Caroline Louise Miller, Anqi Liu, Anthony Davis, and Celeste Oram.
Kyle holds a DMA from UC San Diego, where he studied with Mark Dresser and Anthony Davis, an MM from Florida International University, and a BM from Florida Atlantic University.
Aside from his playing as a core member of the Abbey Rader Trio, Kyle will also be performing during Subtropics 25, solo contrabass works by Anqi Liu (CHN), Carolina Louise Miller (OR), Jessie Cox (CA), Laura Brackney (NY), and a couple of compositions of his own.
— Gustavo Matamoros, artistic director, Subtropics