It is the duty of performers to infuse their performance with their nuances of interpretive skills until they (and, hopefully, composer and audience) are satisfied that they are doing justice to the music. When the music at hand challenges established norms and expectations that task becomes quite large. One need only look at the plethora of performances of Terry Riley’s seminal “In C” to realize that the nature and structure of this piece invites, by design as it were, experimentation with instrumentation and experimentation with the music itself which consists of 51 short notated cells.
This is the whole score
The original release in 1968 has been followed by at least 40 recordings reflecting choices made related to tempo, instrumentation, etc. In an earlier review of the “In C” version by Brooklyn Raga Massive, I addressed the inherently heretical nature of this music in light of the etymology of the term “heresy” (derived from “hairesis”, the Greek word for decision or choice). And this music demands intelligent choices.
This 1964 composition has been definitively analyzed in Robert Carl’s fine volume, “Terry Riley’s in C” so interested readers should seek out this book for definitive analytical detail. My main point here is that the musics elicits the making of choices much more so than the traditional western classical notated score. And the present release says nearly as much about the performer/producer, as it does about the composer. It is Maya Beiser’s expertise on her instrument, certainly. It is her experience performing at the center of the new music performance scene to have a definitive grasp of the pluralities that are the nature of new music. And, finally, it is her daring to make choices that threaten to make her not merely a performer but virtually a co-composer. All that with managing to flatter the composer and engage adventurous listeners. She did something similar in her Philip Glass album. She even did it with her recording of the Bach cello suites. Now that’s heresy at its best.
There can never be a definitive recording of this work. That is a huge part of this music’s charms as well as its importance as a challenge to the very nature of western classical music. The music itself is heretical.
Not all listeners may appreciate this significantly new, innovative, and very personal performance but the composer shared an appreciative blurb on the album’s back cover and the reviews this writer has seen have been unanimously positive.
Beiser’s use of harmonics and, indeed, quite a few of her instrument’s extended capabilities (pizzicati, harmonics, etc) all conspire to her revisioning of this music. On top of that she even uses her own voice and employs two percussionists to round out her orchestration of the work.
The percussion accentuates the ritual nature of the music. The harmonics and multiphonics place this version in the spectral realm of new music and even suggested to this listener the Phil Spector “wall of sound”, another hallmark of some ritual musics.
It is an album that invites repeated hearings to grasp the subtleties and insights of this interpretation. Beiser here, even at her most transgressive, is not seeking to supplant other interpretations, rather she simply shows the power of this landmark work to inspire another generation of talented performers (and enlightened listeners, for that matter) to experience the enduring cultural significance of this masterpiece. Brava, Maya! And sincere thanks, Terry.
There is an aptness that accompanies the publication of my first blog of the new year. Much as we aspire to review our past year and resolve improvements for the next, this book effectively plays a similar role.
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) was born into tumultuous times. His life intersected with political change, social changes, two world wars, and huge changes in the way music would be written and heard. His life and the above mentioned changes in the world are the subjects of Harvey Sachs’ relatively brief review of Schoenberg’s life and career. But the relative brevity does not sacrifice the apparent aim of presenting this composer’s work in the context of the times thereby providing the reader/listener with a perspective that aids an understanding of the man, his music, and his (arguably still evolving) place in history.
“You can see it isn’t easy to get on with me. But don’t lose heart because of that.”- Arnold Schoenberg
At 272 pages this book wisely focuses on the composer’s published work and the drama of its performance along with critical and audience responses. This is not a comprehensive review of all things Schoenberg. While Sachs makes references to the composer’s earlier works, he focuses primarily on the published music and the responses of musicians, critics, and audiences. More importantly he focuses on the massive socio-political changes that paralleled the music thereby providing a useful context for future listeners and performers to better understand Schoenberg and his place in musical history.
Sachs places less emphasis on the composer’s paintings and even his writings. What the author achieves is a very readable and understandable essay that listeners (your humble reviewer included) can use to take another look/listen and to come to a new reckoning of Schoenberg and his place in the world. To, as the subtitle suggests, better understand, “Why he matters.”
I must admit that I did not understand and appreciate the music of Arnold Schoenberg immediately, and even when I ventured to read this volume, I found that my familiarity with this composer was limited primarily to “Transfigured Night”, “Pierrot Lunaire”, the “Second String Quartet”, Moses und Aron” (the Solti recording), Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, the String Trio, and a fleeting listen or two to the piano music.
The joy of this book was in its chronological exposition of all of the composer’s major works and their historical and political contexts. As a result I found myself listening for the first time (or at least the first in many years) to the two chamber symphonies, the other string quartets, etc. It was an opportunity to reset my perceptions/misperceptions and acquire a better understanding and appreciation of his oeuvre.
As Sachs concludes:
“There are cycles in the arts. Perhaps we have reached the end of one great, centuries long cycle of individualistic European Art Music and its global offshoots. We cannot know. But, in the unlikely case that the subspecies Homo Sapiens Sapiens doesn’t destroy itself in the meantime, there is good reason to expect that sooner or later a new cycle will begin. And, for now, we have an enormous treasure of outstanding creations that continue to speak to anyone who is willing to listen to them.”
Just had to post this for all my readers and friends but especially those living near or able to get to Rome. Curran’s wife, Dr. Susan Levenstein, graciously sent this announcement to me. She is an American physician (and webmaster).Her very entertaining memoir, “Dottoresa” is her accounting of moving her practice to Italy.
Alvin Curran, (1938- ) is the co-founder of the seminal live electric music performance group, “Musica Elletronica Viva” along with his late colleagues Frederic Rzewski (1938-2021) and Richard Teitelbaum (1939-2020). The group formed in 1966 and later included kindred spirits including George Lewis and Garrett List among others. The group did its final tour in 2016.
Click on Curran’s name to look at his fascinating and well organized website which gives a fairly comprehensive accounting of the incredible range of musical styles and a very large bevy of collaborators.
Curran discussing some of his work with interviewer Charles Amirkhanian in Berkeley in 2016 (photo by Allan J. Cronin)
Curran, who taught at the venerable Mills College in Oakland, California is an always welcome visitor in the Bay Area. While he has made his home in Italy for many years now, he is truly an artistic citizen of the world. The warm and affable composer exudes an infectious enthusiasm which doubtless is why he has so many collaborators. His aesthetic which he documented in an article called, “The New Common Practice” in 1994 documents his all inclusive style, one that is very difficult to convey. His works include music for piano, chamber ensembles, orchestra, and even things most folk never thought of as musical.
He is a giant in late twentieth and early twenty first century music and this retrospective is most welcome.
“HEAR ALVIN HERE”
ALVIN CURRAN
…a retrospective
part of the #CHAMBERMUSIC series
The show consists in a listening room where a new sound work plays continuously—a mixtape comprising fragments from many different compositions, improvisations, and installations. It leads the audience on an autobiographical listening journey, freely mixing styles, periods, and languages, from free improvisation to Fluxus to Artificial Intelligence, from compositions for shiphorns to works for hundreds of musicians, from Sargentini’s L’Attico and the Beat 72 to MAXXI and the Tate, from Angelo Mai and The American Pavilion of Expo 58 to No Mans Land and the Théâtre de Chaillot.
The Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome (MACRO), Via Nizza, 138
inauguration September 20, 2023, from 6 pm to 9 pm
running until March 17, 2024
***************
Curran in performance at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley in 2014.
Roger Reynolds (1934- ) turns 90 next year. This prolific American artist’s work is being collected and preserved by the Library of Congress. The present recording is the most recent release documenting Reynolds’ music, now numbering about 30 CDs and DVDs. And this is but a fraction of his musical works.
I first encountered Reynolds’ music when I heard a broadcast of the first commercial recording of his music. The disc, released in 1969 on Nonesuch records documented performances of Frederic Myrow’s “Songs from the Japanese” (1964) paired with Reynolds’ “Quick are the Mouths of the Earth” (1965), a work that actually uses the text of the title to derive the music. I recall that the sound of this music sent chills up my spine and sent me to a record store to purchase a copy. This first encounter was a visceral experience, one of many I would encounter as I heard his subsequent music, and that of his contemporaries.
Reynolds has been a prolific composer, writer, and reader. His father was an architect, Roger would go on initially to study engineering and then also encountered some of the new interest in experimental music at the ONCE Festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the early 60s. His studies in music and literature continued to be wide ranging and the fine liner notes by Thomas May in “For a Reason” are extremely useful in grasping the range of inspirations that inform Reynolds’ music. This is one of those gorgeous new music releases that will likely become one of those odd but much sought after collectibles. The booklet jdesign by Karen Reynolds, Stacie Birky Greene, and producer Philip Blackburn is by itself, worth the price of this release.
While listeners can certainly appreciate Reynolds’ work without those details, they add a dimension of understanding and provide contexts as well. In some ways, Reynolds is unclassifiable but this writer finds him to be the consummate experimentalist and modernist, two aspects that appear to have been in his work from the very beginning. His work is rarely easy listening but, even if you don’t get it on first hearing, his compositions tend to reveal weight and substance with repeated listenings.
That said, Reynolds’ music produces sounds that might be heard as romantic, expressionist, and even classical at times. Much of his work, as is the case with most of this 2 CD set, is electroacoustic. It is not heavily dissonant or overly complex to the listener’s ear but his music presents unique challenges to performers. And, as mentioned, this beautifully designed set includes a decent set of liner notes to help navigate this voyage.
Three of the four works here are “electroacoustic”, meaning that some form of electronics interacts with the performer. The one work that does not fit that category pretty much needs it’s own category. Pieces for speaking pianist are getting more common in the last 20 years or so but pieces for speaking percussionist are far less common. Frederic Rzewski’s “To the Earth” for speaking percussionist playing on clay flower pots comes to mind. Of course John Cage also wrote in this genre but Reynolds’ essay is the longest, most complex work this listener has encountered for solo percussionist with speaking duties.
The first track is “Dream Mirror” (2010), the first of Reynolds’ “Sharespace” series of compositions in which an instrumental performer interacts in the shared performance space with a computer musician in a duet. This first sharespace work is for guitar and computer musician. It features the fine Mexican guitarist, Pablo Gomez Cano. The fact that Cano is not a familiar name is likely that his work has focused on challenging new music such as this. Dream Mirror is a big work, at over 20 minutes in performance, but it has a chamber music quality consistent with the composer’s focus on the interaction of this duet in their shared performance space.
The second track introduces listeners to the fourth in the Sharespace series, this time, for violin. “Shifting/Drifting” (2015) was written for Irvine Arditti, one of the finest working musicians of our time supporting new music via his solo efforts and his work with his esteemed “Arditti Quartet”. Like the preceding track, this big duet takes some 20+ minutes in performance.
On to CD 2 for the third offering, “Here and There” (2018), both the longest work and the most recent. This one is for solo percussionist with a substantial speaking part designed to be spoken by the percussionist (in this case, Steven Schick, one of Reynolds’ fellow faculty at UCSD). Solo percussion works are relatively uncommon, though readers will want to familiarize themselves with volume one of Mr. Schick’s ongoing series of the solo percussion repertoire Hard Rain.
This will likely become a showpiece but, at the time of this writing only Schick and the ubiquitous William Winant come to mind as being both willing and able to perform this work right now. And it is apparently a beast of a challenge for the performer but remarkably engaging for the listener. The texts, from Samuel Beckett, are referenced in the liner notes. Not surprisingly, Schick delivers a stunning performance, setting a bar for successive performers and performances. The texts are non-narrative and have a more musical than didactic or dramatic function.
Last but not least is the earliest work on the album, “Sketchbook”(1985), originally written for Joan LaBarbara but never performed. Here, singer, Liz Pearse effectively took a page from Irvine Arditti (whose doctoral studies resulted in research that culminated in John Cage being able to finish his partially completed solo violin work, “Freeman Etudes”). Pearse, also pursuing doctoral studies came upon this work and collaborated with Reynolds in creating a performance. His texts here come from Milan Kundera. The work, while dramatic and challenging, is not a species of opera or monodrama but, like the preceding works, a piece that, like Reynolds, thrives on collaboration. In addition to requiring some pianistic skills, the singer collaborates with interactive computer electronics.
These four works, despite their differences, clearly fit Reynolds’ interest in literature, collaboration, and in various technical aspects described in the well documented liner notes. Those notes provide technical detail and insights beyond the scope of your humble reviewer’s skills but what I can tell you is that this release is a marvelously engaging experience revealing fascinating aspects of this composer’s work.
The experience of listening and reading and the visual experience of the graphics was an immersive one and a delightful use of my time. Heads up to all my fellow new music aficionados. This is truly spectacular.
Every solo artist, regardless of what instrument they play seeks to define themselves. Generally that means setting limits. Some set limits by specializing in an era (baroque, classical, etc.). Some specialize in working with electronics, some with jazz, some with experimental music, some with standard recital repertoire, etc. Seth Parker Woods (1984- ) seems almost unaware of such limits. He plays what he chooses. And, oh, what choices. From standard classics to the leading edge of musical creativity woods is poised at the beginning of a very promising career.
Seth Parker Woods (photo from his faculty page at USC Thornton School of Music)
This album is in fact the musical portions of what was produced as a staged presentation with Woods playing, singing, talking. No doubt something is lost without the staging but Woods’ asserts himself with great clarity on the sonic aspect alone. Think of this as a sort of cast album, though it is more than just a souvenir. It is Woods’ second album and it has this writer enthralled at where he may go next. You will be too.
Parker’s first solo release “asinglewordisnotenough” available on bandcamp reveals his dedication to new and recent music.
I feel privileged to have known this artist via digital media and to have watched with increasing interest his development as a true rising star in the new music world. I only recently acquired his first album via bandcamp. It was released “across the pond” when he was completing his Ph.D. at the University of Huddersfield.
Born in Houston, his father, a jazz and gospel singer, Woods was exposed to a great deal of music. He rehearsed in a home studio and somehow came to a fascination and deep appreciation for a wide variety of repertory.
His affiliations continue to be wide ranging from Peter Gabriel to George Lewis. He has appeared on many recordings but this is only the second disc dedicated entirely to Woods as performer and the first such solo efforts on a US label. Woods is apparently able and willing to tackle music of all eras and genres including the wildly experimental, like his “Ice Cello” homage to Charlotte Moorman and the theatrical, which brings to the the album at hand.
Track listing.
Four of the seven works presented are world premieres. And, despite this being a sort of “cast album” which lacks the visuals, this is a major release that presents a characteristic variety of musical choices and is a fine calling card for the artist. This is one classy production.
Frederic Gifford (photo from composer’s website)
He begins with the title track, “Difficult Grace” by Chicago based composer Frederic Gifford (1972- ). It is a setting of poetry by Dudley Randall subjected to some Cageian mesostic like manipulation. This first track tells us we are dealing with modern music and sort of sets the tone of this project. This is a complex work in concept (lucidly described in the composer’s notes) and involves projections of the texts onto the performer as well as electronics which, by careful use of both the sounds and the spoken text (spoken by the cellist) which then contributes to the musical structure. Photographs in the booklet show some of the striking visual design for this project.
Coleridge Taylor Perkinson (photo from Wikipedia)
Woods follows with what is to this listener a stunningly beautiful piece, “Calvary Ostinato” (1973) by the late, sadly neglected Coleridge Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004), a black American composer (actually represented admirably in a fine earlier Cedille release CDR 90000 087). The Ostinato is one movement from Perkinson’s “Lamentations: Black/Folk Song Suite For Solo Cello” (1973). Woods’ performance is available on YouTube. It’s truly enthralling. One gets the feeling that Woods really gets inside the music he performs and that deep feel for the music is delightfully obvious in this track, the second oldest work on the disc and one that is for the solo cello sans electronics or vocals but using a dazzling variety of extended instrumental techniques, none involving a bow.
Monty Adkins (photo from electro cd website)
Then we hear Monty Adkins’ (y. 1972- ) “Winter Tendrils” (2019) written for cellist who, in addition to playing his instrument, is asked to use his voice and work with electronics, albeit in a different manner than the title track. Adkins worked closely with Woods on the creation of this work. The work essentially an impressionistic piece with clever use of counterpoint to depict fresh fallen snow on the branches of a tree.
Nathalie Joachim (1983- ), a Haitian-American vocalist, flautist, and composer, is represented by two works. The first, “The Race 1915” (2019), a work that contributes to the Chicago centered Cedille label by its use of historical quotations from The Defender, a major and influential black newspaper in Chicago. Woods is again asked to use his vocal skills in this work which celebrates efforts to undo social inequalities.
The multitalented Joachim lends her vocal skills to Woods’ performance in Joachim’s second piece on the album, “Dam Men Yo” (2017). The title is Haitian Creole for “they are my ladies”. It is a sort of black feminist peaen celebrating the strength of the women with whom the composer was raised in her native Haiti. (NB: Haiti is the site of the only successful slave revolt in history, a fact that continues to be reflected in their turbulent politics).
Alvin Singleton (photo from Schott website)
In between those two pieces we get to hear perhaps the best known composer in this mix, Alvin Singleton (1940- ). Singleton is represented by “Argoru II” (1970) for solo cello (the Argoru series is a set of pieces for solo instruments akin to Luciano Berio’s “Sequenza” series). The title is from the Twi language (spoken in Ghana) and translates as “to play”. It is a virtuosic piece employing extended instrumental techniques which Woods accomplishes with almost supernatural ease. He does honor to this living elder statesman of American music.
Ted Hearne (photo by Jen Rosenstein from composer’s website)
And here we are back in Chicago now with Maestro Woods’ performance of a work by Chicago born composer Ted Hearne (1982- ), a name which did make it to this writer’s musical radar but one whose work I have just begun to explore. But this is a fine example of one of the reasons for my admiration for Woods’ scope of musical interest. I think he is one of those artists to whom I will turn to look for good new music. His instincts for repertory choices are amazing.
This is perhaps the most unusual entry on this disc as well as one that, if any controversy is forthcoming, it will likely originate with this set of songs to poetry by Keri Alabi. A casual listen to some of Hearne’s music on YouTube suggests a sort of post minimalist ethic but this last work is not discernibly minimal. Like the music that preceded it, this cycle is overtly about politics and equality.
Hearne’s little 6 movement song cycle is a combination of poetry, electronics, cello (of course), and the voice of said cellist. Hearne’s expletive title, “free fucked”, is apparently very much in line with the composer’s assertive and playfully humorous style.
We return in these tracks to the avant garde and complex with which the album opened. Again we have a multitasking role for the cellist demanding his vocal participation and working in a distinctly electroacoustic genre. Hearne lends his voice to the final track of this unusual work.
While political themes and references abound in this release it is as much about black politics and civil rights as well as feminist, gender, and global equality issues. But ultimately this recording is a landmark in the career of this fine young musician who works fearlessly with a variety of composers, poets, designers, political activists, progressive ideas, and new music in general.
Cedille is one of my top favorite new music record labels and has been since they first started in 1987. Their releases (not limited to new music) are consistently well recorded and produced but producer James Ginsburg really pulls out all the stops on this one. From concept to recording, from lucid liner notes to gorgeous package design this has all the marks of a classic and collectible release. I mean, the music is great, but the whole package is something you’ll want to own. That’s right, I’m calling for “collector’s item” status here. Now is the time to get your copy.
Being asked to review this retrospective of the work of this virtually uncategorizable dancer, singer, composer, dramatist is the telling of my personal experience of growing up nurtured by this artist. Monk is not, of course the only artist whose presence has nurtured me and so many friends but her work is a case where I learned how to tune my curious radar to find more of the music that touched me deeply.
I first discovered her work when I purchased her album, “Key” (1971), self released and marketed via the late lamented New Music Distribution Center in New York. That album, later released on the Lovely Music label along with two releases on the great German avant garde label Wergo (Our Lady of Late, 1973 and Songs from the Hill/Tablet, 1979), constitute the minimalist, SOHO loft music which characterizes her style even now. But with her first ECM release she clearly hit her stride. Those early albums are definitely worth hearing but her mature style blossomed on ECM. It was, in retrospect, a sort of quantum leap, if you will.
LP album cover of “Key”“Our Lady of Late”“Songs from The Hill”
In that first album one can find Dick Higgins among the singers and Colin Walcott producing and playing percussion (as well as singing). Walcott, along with the yet to be known Julius Eastman would later participate in the Dolmen Music release. Monk, who studied dance at Sarah Lawrence College along with fellow student Alwyn Nikolais established “The House”, her flexible performing group in 1968 at a time which saw a great deal of artistic energy in and around Manhattan’s SOHO district where she encountered musicians like Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and performers sympathetic to new innovations and ideas. She also taught and continues to teach her characteristic extended vocal techniques. Monk, along with John Cage, Philip Glass, and Robert Ashley was featured in Peter Greenaway’s “Four American Composers (1983).
The release of her first ECM disc, “Dolmen Music” (1981) can now be seen as a sort of watershed event. It was followed by “Turtle Dreams” (1983) a work which was prominently featured at New Music America 1982 in Chicago along with Robert Ashley’s “Perfect Lives”. Monk’s appearance on ECM occurred at about the same time as Steve Reich’s masterful “Music for 18 Musicians”. Monk found her mature voice more or less at the same time that Steve Reich and Philip Glass had found theirs. And anyone following new music in those years will recall the flow of new musical ideas that established many now acknowledged masters as legitimate artists.
While the major masterpiece, “Dolmen Music” dominates the album, Monk’s quirky mix of humor and pathos in pieces like “Gotham Lullaby” and “Biography” remain signature pieces in her oeuvre. And Turtle Dreams was made into a performance film for public television by visual artist Ping Chong in 1983, now available on YouTube.
She followed with “Do You Be” (1987) and “Book of Days” (1990) which also exists in at least two film versions and the CD itself which has been described as a “film for the ears”.
Following “Facing North” (1992) Monk released her only opera (though she refers to much of her works as “operas” this is the only one that comes close to the more generic concept of western music operas) to date, “Atlas” (1993) which was commissioned and subsequently performed at the Houston Opera. This represented another phase in her artistic development as she utilized her structured improvisation techniques along with her now familiar extended vocal techniques with an expanded set of performers both vocal and instrumental. Atlas is arguably similarly creative (and transgressive) as Philip Glass’ 1976 “Einstein on the Beach”. Both were developed in an unconventional manner and uses a similar harmonic language with really none of the standard conventions of western music in opera. Would that we can some day see a filming of this work.
I was privileged to see Monk in person for the first time when she performed excerpts from “Volcano Songs” (1997) in Chicago. Those images involving, among other things, light sensitive areas where Monk lay down and left a ghostly shadow upon arising. In addition to her engaging minimalist inflected music, Monk is a master at creating compelling images.
“Mercy” (2002) was followed by “Impermanence” (2008) which I was thrilled to see at Stanford. “Songs of Ascension” (2011) was another landmark in this piece conceived and performed in conjunction with installation artist Ann Hamilton in her tower in Northern California. Attendees to this event were brought in by bus due to the lack of actual parking facilities in that tower. I wish I could have experienced this but hopefully a cohesive video release will be forthcoming. Excerpts are available for viewing on YouTube and on Monk’s website.
“Piano Songs” (2014) by the wonderful new music championing pianists Bruce Brubaker and Ursula Oppens filled an inexcusable gap in the documentation of Monk’s piano music. And following her receiving the National Medal for the Arts in 2015 she released “On Behalf of Nature”(2016).
Monk is a well documented artist largely due to her productive affiliation with Manfred Eicher and ECM and, while gaps remain these recordings represent a major artistic accomplishment and an enduring legacy for new music, for women composers, for western art music. This lovely box set is truly a joy to behold.
Meredith Monk performing an encore at the final concert of OM 21 (2016) in San Francisco
Anthony McGill’s star rises rapidly higher with the release of this new album. His previous Cedille release was music for woodwind soloists and orchestra and featured Anthony’s brother, flautist Demarre McGill as well. And this one is a real gem that introduces listeners to four composers whose work defines to significant degree the current state of American music. From the very well known work of Richard Danielpour to three less familiar names listeners will want to know better, this is one fine chamber music recording.
I was first introduced to the clarinet and string quartet genre via the 1957 RCA recording of Mozart’s A major Clarinet Quartet played by Benny Goodman with the Boston String Quartet (paired with Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto and this disc was my first hearing of both works). I later heard the Brahms Clarinet Quintet (McGill recorded both of these on a 2014 Cedille release) and other essays in this genre but the Mozart and Brahms are forever my reference point as I imagine they are for most listeners.
Anthony McGill (photo copyright 2014 by Chris Lee)
All of these works are essentially clarinet quintets though only one bears that specific title. All but one work are recorded premieres but all are fulfilling listening experiences beautifully performed by Mr. McGill and the fabulous Pacifica Quartet . This album is almost as much an homage to the clarinet quintet genre as it is to the people and historical events that provided inspiration for the music. This is music with messages for all who want to hear them.
Pacifica Quartet (photo from their website)
All four works here are inspired by “American Stories”, as Maestro McGill says in his introductory notes, “Through music we connect with our stories.” The music here is about pain, struggle, memorial, and hope. It is more elegy than lamentation and, ultimately more music than history. But, as music, it succeeds very well and one hopes that these works will help preserve the histories described. This is beautiful and lyrical music with immediate appeal and substance that demands repeated hearings.
Richard Danielpour
Richard Danielpour’s “Four Angels” (2020) is in one movement divided into four sections, each lamenting the death of four little girls (Addie May Collins, Carol Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Rosamond Robertson) who were killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963 by Ku Klux Klan members. Danielpour says in his notes, “This music also stands as a small testament to the choice for a better path, one consisting of the compassion and understanding that we must have for one another.”, a statement that could be applied to all the works herein.
James Lee III (photo from composer’s website)
James Lee III is represented by his four movement “Clarinet Quintet”(2019) here in its premiere recording. This rising star states in his liner notes that this quintet is inspired by his reading of the experiences of Native Americans. It is also, via quotation in the first movement, homage to Black American composers who preceded him. The scherzo movement is named “Awashoha”, a Choctaw word meaning, “play here”. The metaphors he attaches to his classical forms are gentle impressionistic clues to his compositional processes. It is a deeply felt work and listeners are advised to explore his well organized website.
Ben Shirley (Photo from composer’s website)
Ben Shirley’s “High Sierra Sonata” (2019) is in three movements and, according to the composer, is somewhat autobiographical, inspired by his fall into addiction and subsequent recovery. He specifically references his experience as a volunteer for an athletic event in the Eastern Sierra Mountains in eastern California where the unpredictable changes in weather provided him with a metaphor for life’s unpredictable nature, both in his life and others.
Valerie Coleman (Photo by Matthew Murphy from the composer’s website)
The recording concludes with “Shotgun Houses” (2000) by Valerie Coleman. This work, the only one on this release that is not a premiere recording, is an homage to fellow Louisville resident Muhammad Ali and references the architectural style known as “shotgun houses” known to both Ali and Coleman when they resided there. She states that the opening movement is a general homage to southern black culture, the second an homage to Ali’s mother, and the third a celebration of Ali’s triumph in the 1960 Olympics which essentially launched his fame.
Let me start with a positive image from a brief photography trip which I managed this year. It was one of the highlights of what has been a difficult year for many of us. Weather, politics, COVID, itinerant employment issues, financial, and personal difficulties were an encumbrance but now stand in relief to the many positive aspects of 2022.
First, let me say that nothing musical fell into the category of “worst of” so fear not, what follows is essentially my “best of” from 2022. In my head I blame the aforementioned encumbrances for delays and sheer lack of production on my part. Whether that is the ultimate truth does not matter really so here, for better or worse, is my celebration of the positive experiences enumerated in this music blog in 2022.
This is one of the albums that stoked my interest.
My first post for the year struck a sad note. It was my personal tribute to a composer, A Belated Fan Letter: Homage to George Crumb described George Crumb, who had been one of my “gateway drugs”, so to speak, which helped put me on the exciting roads of new music upon with I continue to travel with great joy. Recordings of his complete works are still being released on the visionary Bridge Records.
Hannah Collins debut on Sono Luminus was a compelling offering from this rising star.
Carolyn Shaw’s striking and much performed “In Manus Tuas” (on solo viola as well as solo cello) was originally written for Collins. Her selections on this album, including that Shaw work, suggest to this writer/listener that she has both vision and an encyclopedic knowledge of music, especially that written for her instrument. She will be among the major shapers of this repertoire via her vision as well as her interpretive talents. And Sono Luminus’ superb sonics certainly helps make this a great release.
The first volume of Sarah Cahill’s landmark trilogy of piano music by women composers.
I have followed the work of Sarah Cahill since her first solo CD (music of Ravel). Like Collins, she has been an artist who, by her intelligent selection of repertoire, serves as a guide to listeners (and musicians) as well. She has championed many composers as a pianist and as a broadcaster on her weekly KALW broadcasts. Her curation of concerts throughout the Bay Area, such as her solstice concerts at Oakland’s Chapel of the Chimes, have showcased a large variety of creative performers.
As she focuses her lens on women composers (neglected is implied) she embraces a stunning range of styles from the baroque era to the present and it seems as though she can play anything she chooses well. She is also collaborative with an amazing ability to discern the substance in the works she chooses to play. And she has discovered (or rescued?) much music from obscurity via scholarship and intelligent collaboration. Can’t wait for the next release. She is consistently interesting and relevant.
This release on Lars Hannibal’s OUR records was a brilliant new recording of some of Ligeti’s music and introduced me to Kodaly’s solo choral works.
This album was sent to me by a friend. I knew the Ligeti pieces but heard them with new ears in this release and I was amazed by the Kodaly works too. Marcus Creed may not be as well known in the U.S. as he is across the pond but he should be.
Another debut album by a cellist.
This album was kindly sent to me for review by John Schneider of Microfest records. Read the review. Listen to this album. And watch for more from Chris Votek, another rising star in 2022.
Dan Lippel’s virtual manifesto displaying his vision and skill as he furthers the mission of the guitarist in all their guises.
Dan Lippel is one of the founders of the fabulous new music label, New Focus Recordings. Here he is acoustic, electric, conventional, and experimental but always interesting. Keep his name on your radar.
Languishing no longer.
This is a gorgeously designed, very collectible art object. It is a beautiful hard cover, full color book which also contains a CD of a recording (from acetate masters) which had languished in the archives of the Eastman/Rochester Music School where Harry Partch gave this lucid lecture/performance in 1942. Mr. Schneider, who sent me the Votek release as well, fronts an ensemble called PARTCH which, in addition to performing Harry Partch ‘s work, is recording Partch’s complete works for David and Becky Starobin’s Bridge label. This one is both eye and ear candy to my ears.
Rescuing those acetate masters from obscurity is a major find that rises in significance (in the musical sense) almost to the level of the archeological discovery of Tut’s Tomb. Schneider is a musician, a composer, a radio broadcaster, and an archivist and now a sonic archeologist I suppose. He also sports a collection of authentic copies of Partch’s curious instruments which were built to play the microtonal scales required. Partch is a major American composer whose work is now gaining its rightful place among the best of American classical music.
Seminal work by an American post minimalist composer.
I first discovered Mr. Susman’s work when I was asked to review a performance of another composer’s work. I heard one of his works played by the remarkable San Jose Chamber Orchestra on that same concert. Here we have another multi volume release of these lovely and significant piano works. The remarkable pianist (mentioned often in these pages) has contracted to record all 4 books of this sort of “Well Tempered Clavier” type gesture which effectively provides much insight to this composer. Nicolas Horvath, known for marathon concerts performing (and subsequently recording) all of Philip Glass’ piano music, among others. (We’re talking 15 hours or so. There is also a 35 hour live rendition of Erik Satie’s “Vexations” on you tube.) Who better to record these? The remaining three volumes are due some time this year. Who better to take on this post minimalist set of pieces? Can’t wait for the next volume.
Kondonassis’ new music manifesto for the Harp (and the earth).
Yolanda Kondonassis is about as household a name that you can find among harpists. These five minute (more or less) pieces are a significant addition to the solo harp repertoire. They are forward looking works for her instrument. Very interesting work, excellently performed.
New piano music written for Jacob Greenberg
I remain in awe at the curatorial and historically aware work of this truly fine pianist. Greenberg helped me grasp the historical context of the Second Viennese School in a new way with his earlier release “Book of the Hanging Gardens”. In that release he played all the Debussy Preludes along with Schoenberg’s pre twelve tone song cycle, Webern’s Variations, and the Berg Sonata which helped this listener to better grasp the historical context of this music. This small collection of works written for him reflects a collaborative and visionary ethic akin to that of Sarah Cahill’s. Keep an ear out for this guy.
Lou Harrison’s brief Solo Violin Sonata
I have received some good natured teasing about the fact that this, one of my longer reviews, is of a 15 minute piece of music. But this act of musical archeology by the bay area’s Kate Stenberg (who is a regular collaborator with Sarah Cahill BTW) has made the first recording of this little work. It’s Webernian duration belies a style very much in character with this beloved composer’s other work. My review was as much about the music and the recording as it was about the dedication of Stenberg to new music. This release is from Other Minds, another shining example of advocacy of new music and collaboration among composers and performers. Get it. Listen to it. And don’t miss a chance to hear Stenberg live performances or to hear anything Harrison has written.
Music between the wars
The Chicago based Cedille label is one of my favorite classical music labels. Producer James Ginsburg has a golden ear and Cedille is the finest Chicago based classical label since the justly fabled Mercury records. All their releases deserve attention but this two disc set of little known works for String Trio written between the world wars is a feast of substantive, if slightly conservative, voices. This one is a great listen and, trust me, none of this music is in your collection.
Other Minds Executive and Artistic Director of Other Minds Charles Amirkhanian applauds a rare performance of his own music at OM 26.
While circumstances conspired to limit my attendance to only one of the three days of OM 26, I would be loathe to leave this world class music festival off my “best of” list. My first published blog of 2023 was of the 30th anniversary celebration which showcased Marc-Andre Hamelin’s stunning reading of Charles Ives’ massive Concord Sonata. Anything OM does deserves your attention but the roughly annual festival continues to present composers and performers from around the world. Not to be missed.
Volume two of three
Another exciting release of Cahill’s visionary series. Like the previous volume (and the aforementioned Cedille release) the consumer will suffer no unnecessary duplications if the music herein. Fascinating and expertly done. This set (the third volume due this year) is a testament to Cahill’s encyclopedic knowledge of piano music as well as her collaborative nature and, of course, her skills as a pianist.
A new voice in electroacoustic composition Kataro Suzuki.
I’m cheating a bit here since I wasn’t able to complete my review until 2023 but this Starkland disc was released in 2022 and definitely earns its place in my “best of” list. This rising star is another one to watch. Starkland, run by the dynamic Tom Steenland is one of those labels that reliably finds interesting and substantive new music. This one is no exception. It goes a long way to alleviating my skepticism of the electroacoustic genre.
DVD OM 4001
And, in order to be fair I must cheat equitably. Charles Amirkhanian kindly sent me this exciting and excellent DVD of his collaboration with his partner in life and in artistic crimes, Carol Law. My more extensive review will appear shortly but this was a major release in 2022. Amirkhanian spends far less time promoting and performing his own unique compositions so this is an especially welcome release.
Neuma
Last but not least of my best of 2022 is this wonderful Neuma release which, when I began my research to write a cogent and informed review, left me stunned at how little I actually knew about composer David Tudor and the astounding dimensions of this unusual piece that evolves with every performance. After gathering a whole ton of data I finally decided that I could not write a comprehensive review without more research so I settled on a tasteful (I hope) summary with the expectation that I will write a larger piece on Tudor and his work. The review will be out very shortly. This is an amazing and significant release.
Happy 2023 to all my readers and thanks to those who kept reading my blog during more fallow times. I have many blogs currently in preparation that I look forward to sharing in the months to come. Peace, health, and music to all.
On the back of the CD case, in the right upper hand corner, like a warning on the back of a medicine bottle, an entreaty:
“Binaural Recording: Please use headphones.”
Even those of you who think they know this masterpiece of experimental electronics by David Tudor (1926-1996) will find here a unique and important collaboration in this production initiated by Pauline Oliveros, then director of the Center for Music Experiment (CME) at UCSD. She invited a group called CIE (Composers Inside Electronics). And the resulting product of that collaboration documented here advances the understanding of this music and will henceforth be an influence on all future performances.
Unfortunately for this writer’s timing, the wealth of information gathered in the course of researching this review, the sheer volume of possibilities in performance and the wider scope of historical and technical elements embraced by this work required a deeper reading and contemplation on my part. In short, it has taken some time for this reviewer to get a grasp of how to express the significance of the deeply substantive work at hand. I simply didn’t know enough about the history of electronic music and the work of this seminal musician.
So now, after some serious study, this is my perspective on this landmark composition and, in particular, the deeper significance of this performance. In short, there will likely be many more performances of this work but this one will always be a standout. Not the ultimate version perhaps, but one of the most memorable.
David Tudor ca. 1950
David Tudor was a pianist who championed contemporary piano music and then began a career as a composer. But he was no ordinary composer. Taking inspiration from the composers whose work he championed, Tudor developed musical ideas with structures that contain indeterminate elements within a larger structure. Such is the case with Rainforest which was first developed in 1968 against a cultural backdrop of the height of the psychedelic sixties and the political “days of rage”, a time of artistic innovation like Allen Kaprow’s “happenings” which expanded the concepts of what constituted art, a time of wild experimentation. His work crossed paths with the San Francisco Tape Music Center (which later became the Mills College New Music Center). Tudor traversed some of the same territory as Donald Buchla, Pauline Oliveros, Maggie Payne, Morton Subotnick, Ramon Sender, as well as many others.
The first iteration of Tudor’s innovative and experimental “Rainforest” was in 1968. It is a testament to Tudor’s creativity to have created a structure that contains the indeterminate sonic events called for in the score (not a formal score but a set of performance instructions) in such a way that the piece evolves with each iteration, each performance. That, rather than the varying sonic content, is the heart of this major work of contemporary sonic art.
First, this is a binaural recording, meaning that it was recorded with a technology intended to deliver the sound directly to headphones of the listener hopefully producing an experience much as would have been experienced by sitting in the audience. Earlier versions of this technology involved, basically, microphones embedded in the ear canals of an anthropomorphic head which is placed in front of the performance as a listener would sit in their seat. However, the present recording recording involved another generation of this technology which is particularly well suited to this music. Here the microphones are worn in the ears of the recordist(s) as they meander through the space in which the piece is being performed. The result is the listener being able to (almost literally) get inside the head of the person wandering within the space and listening to the sounds created, sometimes at a distance, sometimes more closely.
Despite the entreaty that the listener wear headphones when listening to this recording (you really should try that at least once), one can play this recording as one would any other musical recording. It can also be appreciated by playing it on speakers in any space as a sort of sound installation. This piece challenges conventional concepts of music and its audience.
Were it not for the wishes of some of my valued readers I would not produce such a list. It has no more validity other than, “These are my personal choices”. But there is some joy to be had in contemplating these past 12 months as I have lived them on this blog. So here goes.
My home base is in California, about 90 miles north of Los Angeles though I sometimes travel for work
First I have to tell everyone that March, 2022 will mark the 10th anniversary of this blog, a venture which has been a rich and exciting one. Future blogs will soon include, in addition to album/concert reviews, some articles on subjects which I hope will be of interest to the select group of people who read this material and who share my interest in this music (which I know can be anywhere from difficult to repulsive to many ears). But I have deduced that my readers are my community, a community of kindred spirits freed from the boundaries of geography, a number rather larger than I had imagined was possible and one that I’ve come to cherish. Bravo to all of you out there.
Since February of 2021 I have worked periodically in Washington State, not in a cabin in Mt. Rainier National Park but in Tacoma, just south of Seattle.
COVID 19 has reduced the number of live performances worldwide and I have not attended a live performance since early 2020. But, happily, musicians have continued to produce some amazing work, some of which gets sent to me, and a portion of that gets to be subjected to the analytic scrutiny of my blog.
My lack of attention to any music should never be construed as deprecatory, rather it is simply a matter of limited time to listen. So if I have provided a modicum of understanding or even just alerted someone to something new I am pleased and if ever I have offended, I apologize. All this is my personal celebration of art which has enhanced my spirit and which I want to share with others. Look what Ive found!!!
So, to the task at hand (the “best of” part):
The formula I’ve developed to generate this “favorites retrospective” has been to utilize WordPress’ useful statistics and look at the top viewed posts. From these most visited (and presumably most read) articles I produce a list of ten or so of my greatest hits from there. Please note that there are posts which have had and continue to have a fairly large readership from previous years and they’re not necessarily the ones I might have expected but the stats demand their inclusion here.
Following that I then toss in a few which are my personal faves (please read them) to produce what I hope is a reasonably cogent and readable list. Following my own description of my guiding principles I endeavor to present the perspective of person whose day job and energies are spent in decidedly non-musical efforts but whose interest and passion for new music drives this blog where I share those interests.
As a largely self taught writer (and sometime composer) I qualify my opinions as being those of an educated listener whose allegiances are to what I perceive as pleasing and artistically ideal based on my personal perception of the composer’s/performer’s intent. I am not a voting member for the Grammys and I receive no compensation for favorable reviews. I have the hope/belief that my blogs will ultimately garner a few more listens or performances of art that I hope brings my readers at least some of the joy I feel.
New Music Buff’s Best of 2021
As of this writing I have published 37 blog posts in 2021. COVID, job and personal stressors have resulted in my failing to post at all in December, 2020, January, June, and July of 2021. And only one post in February, 2021. Surprisingly I have managed to get just over 9300 views so far this year (a little more views than last year actually) and it is my plan to publish 4-5 blogs per month going forward into my tenth year.
Me with my listening buddy, Clyde
Not surprisingly, most of my readers are from the United States but I’m pleased to say that I’ve had hits from 192 countries at last count. Thanks to all my readers, apologies to the many countries who didn’t make the cut this year (you’re all welcome to try again in 2022). So, following the United States here are the subsequent top 25 countries who have viewed the blog:
Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, China, France, Netherlands, Spain, Australia, Ireland, India, Italy, Turkey, Nigeria, Japan, Brazil, South Korea, Denmark, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Poland, Philippines, Ghana, Norway.
Top Ten Most Read of 2021
The following are the most seen articles of 2021. Some of these are articles whose popularity surprise me as they were written some time ago and are not necessarily, in my opinion, my best work. But readership is readership and I am grateful for that.
Top article, Linda Twine, a Musician You Should Know. Twine is a musician and composer who has worked for some years in New York theater. I chose to profile her and I guess she is well liked because this article from 2018 is one of my top performers. Kudos, Ms. Twine.
Next up is, The Three Black Countertenors, an article suggested by my friend Bill Doggett whose website is a must visit for anyone interested in black classical musicians. This one, from 2014, continues to find readers. It is about the first time three black countertenors appeared on the same stage. Countertenors are themselves a vocal minority when considered in the company of sopranos, baritones, tenors, contraltos, and basses. Being black adds another level of minority in the world of operatic voices so this was indeed historic.
Art and the Reclamation of History is the first of the articles written this year to make the top ten most read. It is about a fabulous album and I hope more people read about it. This Detroit based reed quintet is doing something truly innovative. You really need to hear this.
Centaur CRC 3836
Number four is another from this past year, Kinga Augustyn Tackles the Moderns. This album, kindly sent to me by the artist is worth your time if you like modern music. This young Polish/American violinist has both technique and vision. She is definitely an artist to watch.
Number five is a truly fabulous album from Cedille records, David Schrader Plays Sowerby and Ferko. This double CD just fires on all cylinders, a fine artist, excellent recording, interesting and engaging repertoire, amazing photography, excellent liner notes, and love for all things Chicago. This one is a major classic release.
The Jack Quartet Plays Cenk Ergun was a pleasant surprise to this blogger. The Jack Quartet has chosen wisely in deciding to release this recording of new string quartet music by this young Turkish composer of serious substance. I’m glad that many folks read it.
Number seven on this years hit list among my readers is another album sent directly to me by the artist, one whose work I had reviewed before.
Catherine’s Oboe: Catherine Lee’s New Solo Album, “Alone Together” is among the best of the COVID lockdown inspired releases that flooded the market this year. It is also one of the finest examples of the emerging latest generation of “west coast” composers. Dr. Lee is a master of the oboe and related instruments and she has been nurtured on the artistic ideas/styles that seem to be endemic among composers on the west coast of the United States. She deserves to be heard.
Number Eight is an article from 2014, Classical Protest Music: Hans Werner Henze’s “Essay on Pigs” (Versuch uber Schweine). This 1968 noisy modernist setting of leftist political poetry combines incredible extended vocal techniques with the dissonant modernism of Hans Werner Henze’s work of that era. Also of note is that his use of a Hammond Organ and electric bass guitar was allegedly inspired by his having heard the Rolling Stones. It’s a classic but warn anyone within earshot lest they be terrified.
“Dreams of a New Day”, a Landmark Recording Project from Cedille is a virtual manifesto/survey of art song by black composers. Liverman is an amazing singer and the recording by my favorite Chicago record company is pure beauty. This 2021 release ranks ninth among my most read blogs from the past 12 months.
As it happens there is a three way tie for the number ten spot:
Black Composers Since 1964: Primous Fountain is one of a short series of articles I wrote in 2014. I used the date 1964, 50 years prior to the date of the blog post, because it was the year of the passing of the (still controversial) voting rights act. As a result of this and a few related articles I have found myself on occasion categorized as a sort of de facto expert on black music and musicians. I am no expert there but I have personally discovered a lot of really amazing music by black composers which is way too little known and deserves an audience.
Primous Fountain arrives in Moldova to oversee the performances of his music.
I am pleased to tell you that this too little known composer (and fellow Chicagoan) is being recognized by no less than Michael Tilson Thomas who will conduct an entire program of his works in Miami next year. If my blog has helped in any way then I am pleased but the real honors go, of course, to Mr. Fountain and Mr. Thomas (who first conducted this composer’s music many years ago). Stay tuned.
My “comeback blog”, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Blogger was written to sort of reintroduce myself to the blogosphere and provide some background (excuses?) for my absence. I guess it was a decent read.
And the third contender for my tenth most read of 2021 is, Kenneth Gaburo, the Avant-Garde in the Summer of Love. This is among the first volley of releases on the revived Neuma label with Philip Blackburn at the helm. Blackburn’s instincts guided Innova records to release many wonderful recordings of music rarely on the radar of larger record companies and this first volley was a harbinger of even more wonderful releases to come. Just do a Neuma search and see what I mean.
The Ones That Didn’t Make the Top Ten
I would be negligent and boringly formulaic to simply report on these top ten. This is not a democratic blog after all, lol. So here are my choices for the ones that many of my dear readers may have missed and should definitely check out. It is anything but objective. They are, in no particular order:
Solo Artist Pamela Z releases “a secret code”. This is another Neuma release, one of a truly original and interesting artist who pretty much defies categories but the territory she explores will amaze you.
Lou Harrison: Concerto for Piano with Javanese Gamelan, a very special performance of an underappreciated masterpiece is just unabashedly excellent. It is a recording of a 2017 performance (in honor of the composer’s 100th birthday anniversary) in Cleveland by performers who have had a close relationship with this major American composer. I love the music. I love the performers. It’s a digital only release but you can get a download of the album and the fine liner notes from Bandcamp.
Fixing a Hole to Keep the Music Playing: Starkland brings back Guy Klucevsek’s “Citrus, My Love” is also a digital only release, also available on Bandcamp of an album long out of print but essential to the oeuvre of Guy Klucevsek. Like Philip Blackburn, Tom Steenland (who heads Starkland records) is a musical visionary who has released some of my personal favorite albums. If Tom (or Philip) likes it I will at least give it a listen.
Dennis Weijers: Skill and Nostalgia in an Auspicious Debut Album is a sort of personal discovery for me. This reworking of Philip Glass’ “Glassworks” and Steve Reich’s “Variations for Winds, Strings, and Keyboards” scored for solo accordion and electronics pretty much knocked me over as soon as I heard it. Read the blog to see why but you have to hear this. This is NOT your granddaddy’s accordion.
Vision, Virtuosity, and Interpretive Skill: Igor Levit’s “On DSCH” is an album I just can’t stop listening to. I raved about his earlier set of piano variations by Bach, Beethoven, and the late Frederic Rzewski and I look forward to this man’s musical vision as he expands the concert repertoire with works you probably haven’t heard or at least haven’t heard much. You owe it to yourself to watch this artist.
Black Artists Matter: The Resurrection of the Harlem Arts Festival, 1969 is one of the relatively few times when I write about so called “pop” music. It is wholly unconscionable that these filmed performances from 1969 (many of which predated Woodstock) languished for 50 years in the filmmaker’s basement and were nearly lost. One of the recurring themes in this blog is the lament over unjustly neglected music and this is a glaring example. I was delighted to see that the filmmaker Questlove received an award at the Sundance Festival for his work on this essential documentary of American music.
Less “flashy” but sublimely beautiful is Modern Tuning Scholarship, Authentic Bach Performance: Daniel Lippel’s “Aufs Lautenwerk”. This is a masterpiece of scholarship and a gorgeous recording on a specially made Well-Tempered Guitar played with serious passion and interpretive genius by a man who is essential to the productions of New Focus recordings as well as being a fine musician himself. Read the review or the liner notes for details but just listen. This is another one that I can’t stop listening to.
Unheard Hovhaness, this Sahan Arzruni album really rocked my geeky world. Arzruni, a frequent collaborator with Hovhaness turns in definitive performances of these previously unheard gems from the late American composer. A gorgeous physical production and a lucid recording make this another disc that lives on my “frequently played” shelf.
Only the Lonely, Frank Horvat’s “Music for Self Isolation” is yet another release from this emerging Canadian composer. This is one of my favorite COVID Isolation albums, a unique response to this pandemic from an eminently listenable and endlessly creative composer.
OUR 6.220674
New Music from Faroese Master Sunleif Rasmussen with soloist Michala Petri is an album of world premieres by this master composer from the Faroe Islands. It is also a tribute to the enduring artistry of Michala Petri. I had the honor and pleasure of meeting both of these artists some years ago in San Francisco and anything they do will demand my attention, they’re that good.
Last but not least, as they say, Robert Moran: Points of Departure is another triumph of Philip Blackburn’s curation on Neuma records. I have personally been a fan of Moran’s music since I first heard his work at the Chicago iteration of New Music America in 1982. Blackburn’s service to this composer’s work can be likened to similar service done by David Starobin at Bridge Records (who have embarked on complete works projects with several contemporary composers) and Tom Steenland’s work with Guy Klucevsek and Tod Dockstader at Starkland records. Blackburn had previously released the out of print Argo recordings of Moran’s work and now, at Neuma has released this and a few other new recordings of this major American composer’s work.
My apologies to the albums I’ve reviewed which didn’t make it to this year’s end blog but I have to draw a line somewhere. Peace, health, and music. And thank you for reading.
Ritorna vincitor! I paraphrase from Verdi’s Aida but Charles Amirkhanian introduced this concert telling us that Other Minds held its first concert here 25 years ago. Indeed this was a victorious return (though the first visit was also victorious) featuring, as Amirkhanian correctly emphasized, musicians with a decidedly west coast aesthetic. In fact Mr. Riley was on the board of the nascent Other Minds organization founded under the loving and watchful eyes of Jim Newman (now president emeritus) and Charles Amirkhanian, executive and artistic director.
Charles Amirkhanian, 25 years later and going strong with Other Minds.
Gloria Cheng is a California native and is now professor of contemporary performance at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music. She is a Grammy winning artist and has, for many years now, been a champion of Terry Riley’s music among many others.
Cheng deeply focused.
Terry Riley (1935- ) is also born and educated in the Golden State and is a world renowned composer and performer. His 1964 piece, “In C” pretty much represents the beginning of the “minimalist” style and remains his most performed work.
Terry Riley at 84 still going strong as both composer and performer.
This was your reviewer’s first time hearing Ms. Cheng live and it is an experience not to be missed. Cheng’s command of the piano and of the wide range of musical styles she demonstrated on this night was nothing short of stunning. In particular her command of the varying styles that are Terry Riley including ragtime, barrel house, jazz, classical, modernism, virtuosic romanticism, etc. In addition to that she demonstrated a truly profound command of the keyboard which left the audience so deeply enthralled that they (we) almost forgot to applaud.
The concert began with Ms. Cheng’s performance of Riley’s early Two Pieces for Piano (1958-59). Here she seemed to be channeling Pierre Boulez and that whole school of post-Darmstadt pointillism with an ever present sense of trying to maintain equality for each of the twelve tones used in these pieces.
The uninitiated might have been put off by these early pre-minimalist works that are not generally the sound image conjured by the composer’s name. Rather they represent Riley’s grasp of and subsequent working through of this material that preceded the compositional insights that characterize his mature style. As a serious fan of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, it is a useful source for a metaphor. On this 50th anniversary of that film’s debut it seems that Riley, like astronaut David Bowman, steps through the star gate and is transformed beyond even his own wild and creative imagination.
By all appearances this audience seemed to be well-prepared and, as the young man who won the little drawing at intermission stated (I’m paraphrasing), Terry Riley’s concerts are always a good bet. While there may have been people who knew less it is clear that no one was less than entertained and many, this writer included, were positively delighted.
The next work, “The Walrus In Memoriam” (1991 rev. 1994) was originally commissioned for Aki Takahashi, one of several pieces based on Beatles tunes, this one a sort of elegy for John Lennon (1940-1980). The CD is well worth seeking for its creative music and Takahashi is always worth hearing.
As if building to a climax, Cheng really put her performance into high gear with the next set of pieces from 1994 entitled, “The Heaven Ladder Book Seven”. Don’t get me wrong, she was focused and in fine form for those first three pieces but when she sat down to perform the Heaven Ladder pieces one could feel an intensity such that the audience seemed hypnotized, paying attention to Cheng’s every gesture. Despite a few stifled coughs (no doubt residue from our recent awful fires here) the audience was laser focused on this performer as she made Riley’s charming pieces come alive.
Intermission was an opportunity to stretch our legs and breathe again knowing that when we returned we would be hearing both Cheng and Riley. It was a gathering of like minds for the most part and many people validated some of my perceptions that Cheng had transfixed the audience.
During intermission there was more talk about the upcoming Other Minds 24 with programs scheduled on March 23rd and June 15 and 16. More on that in future blogs. And now on to the second half of the concert.
Terry Riley’s energy belies his age. Riley will turn 84 in June and continues to compose, perform and travel extensively. And when he sits down at the piano he is magical.
Riley opened with “Simply M” (2007) written in honor of the late Margaret Lyon, a longtime chair of the Mills College Music Department and one of the people who brought Terry Riley there to teach composition. She had previously presided over teaching tenures by Luciano Berio and Darius Milhaud.
The music had a quasi-improvisational feel (like much of Riley’s music) but channeled classical composers along with ragtime, jazz, ragas, and Riley’s usual eclectic mix of styles. It was a free flowing piece going through abrupt changes in character at different points but the piece seems to rely on some basic classical composition techniques which function as a sort of scaffolding or mold into which the composer pours his creative ideas. The piece was highly virtuosic but gave off a charming hypnotic flow.
He acknowledged the appreciative applause and moved right into the second piece on this half, “Requiem for Wally” (1997). This piece is written as a memorial for Riley’s ragtime piano mentor, Wally Rose. In the very useful notes, Riley states that he combines elements of ragtime with the Hindustani Raga Nat Bhairav. In this piece we got to hear Riley’s distinctive tenor trained in raga singing by the late Pandit Pran Nath. It is this ability to combine and synthesize various musics into a coherent style which this audience clearly knows well, Terry Riley.
Following these performances Riley left the stage and came back joined by Gloria Cheng again for the newest music of this evening, “Cheng Tiger Growl Roar” (2018). It is, by the composer’s description, a four movement suite. Like much of Riley’s music, it involves both notated and improvised material.
Riley’s musical training has always involved a great deal of improvisation and that is true in this work. Cheng, a classically trained pianist, mentions feeling challenged by Riley’s music as it asks her to move out of her comfort zone as an artist. Well, except for Cheng mentioning this in her notes, there was no evidence of discomfort on the part of either artist. They played as though they had always played together and their playing was ecstatic suggesting the depth of both artists’ grasp of the material and the affection they shared performing this piece for piano four hands.
Composer Terry Riley warmly greets fellow pianist Gloria Cheng at the end of a wonderful evening of Riley’s piano music from the last 50 years.
The audience, with their laser focus still intact, came out of their trance to share their warm applause. What a transcendent evening! What amazing artists!
Terry Riley (1935- ) turned 80 on June 24, 2015 and happily we are still celebrating this treasure of American music. His iconic work “In C” (1964) is one of the defining works of the minimalist movement and Riley’s trippy album, “Rainbow in Curved Air” (1969) has also endured well. But these works typify his early style and his work has evolved though his primary influences continue to be jazz and Hindustani music for the most part to a very personal style.
His discography boasts at least 30 albums and his compositions range from various chamber music pieces, solo and duo piano music, orchestral music, concertos and even music drama. His influence on musicians is wide ranging and even includes that familiar intro to Baba O’Riley by the The Who (the title is actually an homage to Meher Baba and Terry Riley and that intro derives from Riley’s first Keyboard Study). In recent years he has achieved much deserved success in collaboration with his son Gyan Riley who is a composer in his own right and an extraordinary guitarist. Their collaborations have been a true highlight in both musicians’ careers.
This disc is a production from the truly wonderful Sono Luminus label whose recordings continue to set a high bar for production and excellence in sound as well as in intelligent programming.
Three works are presented here. The first is Dark Queen Mantra (2015) for electric guitar and string quartet. It is obviously the centerpiece and it is a fine work commissioned in honor of Riley’s 80th and written for the forces who perform it here. The amazing and versatile Del Sol Quartet and Gyan Riley seem a natural pairing. These California based musicians seem to pour the whole of their artistic hearts and souls into this performance and Gyan Riley, a fine musician in his own right, always seems to be at his very best in his collaborations with his dad. (Indeed anyone who had the pleasure of seeing their live sets can testify as to their beautiful musical intimacy.)
So it is we have a definitive recording of yet another fine piece from this beloved composer. The choice to follow it with Mas Lugares (2003) by the late Stefano Scodanibbio (1956-2012) is an inspired and very appropriate choice (Riley was fond of this composer and helped promote his work). Scodanibbio collaborated with Riley and recorded two albums with him (Lazy Afternoon Among the Crocodiles, 1997 and Diamond Fiddle Language, 2005). This work for string quartet is dedicated to Luciano Berio and is a sort of deconstruction via the lens of the composer’s vision of madrigals by the early baroque master Claudio Monteverdi. It is truly a joy to hear more of this composer’s music and this serves as a loving homage by the Del Sol and, by association, with Riley.
The concluding music is again by Terry Riley and it comes from the rich period of his collaboration with another set of fine California based musicians, the Kronos Quartet. They Wheel and the Mythic Birds Waltz (1983) first appeared on a Gramavision disc and this is a welcome reprise. It is via his writing for the Kronos that Riley produced most of his string quartet writing and it is a fine repository for his compositional talents.
For its sound and its compositional and performance content this is one of the finest discs to come across this reviewer’s desk and it is a beautiful homage to Riley (father and son), the Del Sol Quartet, the Kronos Quartet and to the late Stefano Scodanibbio. This is a gorgeous and deeply satisfying album. Kudos to all.
The lovely cover photo for this album by San Francisco born pianist Lara Downes is reminiscent of any number of socially conscious folk/rock stars of the 60s and 70s. It would seem that this is no accident. This delightful album of short pieces by a wide variety of American composers takes its title from the Langston Hughes (1902-1967) poem, Let America Be America Again (1935). By so doing the pianist places this interesting selection of short piano pieces firmly in the context of black racial politics and the artistic expression of black America as well as those influenced by this vital vein of American culture (both musical and literary). It is a graceful and deeply felt effort and I hope that the metaphor of the title of my review is not too tortured a one to reflect that.
This is also a very personal album. Downes seems to share some deeply felt connections with her materials. This artist, born to a white mother and a black father, invokes a careful selection of short piano pieces steeped sometimes in jazz and blues but also the political directness (and optimism) which was characteristic of the inter-war years that brought forth the Hughes poem. There is both sadness and celebration in these virtuosic and technically demanding little gems (most apparently recorded for the first time or at least the first time in a while). The pianist’s comments on each individual piece are also critical to the understanding of this disc as she shares the impact and meaning that the music has had for her.
There are 21 tracks by 19 composers in all and the selections themselves are quite a feat. They range from the 19th to the 21st centuries and are composed by both men and women of a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds. All seem to share the sort of populist charm befitting the idealized America yearned for in the poem which is to say that they represent a kind of idealized or hopeful nationalism. Downes is well acquainted with a large variety of American music and recognizes no distinction between classical and so-called “vernacular” traditions.
In fact none of these things are atypical for this artist. Her previous albums Exiles Cafe (2013) featured music by composers exiled from their homelands, A Billie Holiday Songbook (2015) celebrated the life of this iconic black artist and her American Ballads (2001) demonstrated her deep mastery and affection for populist (but not jingoistic) nationalism. Her tastefully issue oriented albums define a very individual path and the present album appears to be a very logical and well executed next entry into her discography.
This disc shares a similar heritage to that of Alan Feinberg’s four discs on Argo/Decca entitled, The American Innovator, The American Virtuoso, The American Romantic and Fascinating Rhythm: American Syncopation. Another notable antecedent is Natalie Hinderas’ groundbreaking two disc set of music by African-American composers.
And now on to the music:
Morton Gould (1913-1996) was a Pulitzer Prize winning composer and conductor with a style informed by his study of jazz and blues in a vein similar to that of Bernstein and Copland. He is represented here by American Caprice (1940).
Lou Harrison (1917-2003) was a composer, conductor and teacher. He was a modernist and an innovator in the promotion of non-western musical cultures. His New York Waltzes (1944-1994) are three brief essays in that dance form.
The traditional folk song Shenandoah (apparently in the pianist’s transcription) is next. This tune will be familiar to most listeners as a popular selection by choral groups and the melody is a common metaphor for things American.
Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-1944) was one of the first successful female American composers. Her “From Blackbird Hills” Op. 83 (1922) is representative of her late romantic style and her incorporation of Native American (Omaha) elements in her music.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) is a English composer with Creole roots, a black composer, known as the “African Mahler” in his day. Deep River (1905) is his setting of this spiritual which also was one of Marian Anderson’s signature pieces.
Dan Visconti (1982- ) was commissioned by the International Beethoven Festival to write his Lonesome Roads Nocturne (2013) for Lara Downes. It receives its world premiere recording in this collection.
Swiss-American composer and teacher Ernest Bloch (1880-1959) is certainly deserving of more attention. His At Sea (1922) is used here to represent the sea voyages of the many immigrants (willing and unwilling) whose journey defined in part who they were.
George Gershwin (1898-1937) mastered both the vernacular tradition (as one of the finest song writers of the 20th Century) and the classical tradition in his too few compositions written in his sadly abbreviated life. His opera Porgy and Bess (1935) is contemporary with the Langston Hughes poem mentioned earlier. Downes most arrestingly chooses the arrangement of “I loves you, Porgy” by the classically trained iconic singer, musician and civil rights activist Nina Simone (1933-2003). Quoting from Downes’ notes (Nina Simone expresses what she knew) “…about being a woman, being black and about being strong and powerless all at the same time.” Indeed one of the most potent lines of the Hughes poem reads, “America was never America to me.”
Angelica Negrón (1981- ) was born in Puerto Rico and now lives and works in New York. Her Sueno Recurrente (Recurring Dream, 2002) is a lovely little nocturne which is here given its world premiere.
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) held credentials as composer, conductor, teacher and ardent civil rights supporter. His Anniversary for Stephen Sondheim (1988) is one of a series of Anniversary piano pieces he wrote. Bernstein did much to help modern audiences (including this reviewer) comprehend the vital musicality of jazz and blues. Like Downes, he drew little distinction between popular and classical and celebrated all the music he believed was good.
David Sanford (1963- ) is a trombonist, teacher and composer who works in both classical and jazz idioms. His work Promise (2009) was written for Downes and this is the world premiere recording.
Howard Hanson (1896-1981) was a conductor, teacher and Pulitzer Prize winning composer (though not at all an advocate of ragtime, jazz or blues). His brief but lovely piano piece Slumber Song (1915) is a nice discovery and one hopes that it will be taken up by more pianists.
Scott Joplin (1867/68-1917) was discovered largely due to the scholarship and recordings of musicologist Joshua Rifkin (who incidentally did some arrangements for folkie Judy Collins) whose three volumes of piano rags on Nonesuch records introduced this wonderful black composer’s work to a wider audience once again. Marvin Hamlisch famously incorporated Joplin’s music into his score for the motion picture The Sting (1973). Downes chooses the Gladiolus Rag (1907) to represent this composer.
Irving Berlin (born Israel Isidore Baline 1888-1989) is another of the greatest song composers this country has produced. In another characteristically clever choice Downes chooses the arrangement of this hugely optimistic song, “Blue Skies”(1926) by the great jazz pianist Art Tatum (1909-1956).
Florence Price (1887-1953) was a black female composer (the first to have one of her orchestral works programmed by a major symphony orchestra) whose work is only recently getting some much needed exposure. Her Fantasy Negre (1929) is based on a spiritual, “Sinner, Please Don’t Let This Harvest Pass”. Price was involved in the New Negro Arts Movement of the Harlem Renaissance and was professionally connected with Langston Hughes among others.
Aaron Copland (1900-1990) is perhaps the most iconic American composer. Dubbed the “Dean of American Composers” his earliest work has strong jazz influences and his later work created the American romantic/nationalist sound incorporating folk songs and rhythms. For this recording the artist chose the first of the composer’s Four Piano Blues (1926) which also appeared on her 2001 album of American Ballads.
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (1899-1974) was a composer and band leader whose sound virtually defined the Harlem Renaissance during his tenure at the famed Cotton Club. Melancholia (1959) is the piece chosen here, again a nice little discovery.
Roy Harris (1898-1979) was, like Copland, a populist but the Oklahoma born composer studied Native American music as well as American folk songs. His American Ballads (1946) was included on Downes’ American Ballads album. Here she includes an unpublished work from a projected (but never finished) American Ballads Volume II. This piece is a setting of the spiritual, “Lil Boy Named David”.
The album concludes with one of the ultimate hopeful dreamer songs, Harold Arlen’s (1905-1986) Over the Rainbow (1939) from his score for The Wizard of Oz (1939). The adolescent yearning of Dorothy for something better than her dust bowl farm life touched a chord in many over the years and it is a fitting conclusion to this beautiful and hopeful collection.
As mentioned earlier the insightful liner notes by Lara Downes complement this production and tactfully position its politics. She shares a personal journey that is as American as the proverbial apple pie. The album is dedicated to the artist’s ancestors in recognition of their struggles as well as to her children in hopes that dreams for a better future can become their reality.
This beautiful sound of this album is the result of work of Producer Dan Merceruio and Executive Producer Collin J. Rae along with Daniel Shores and David Angell. The lovely photography is by Rik Keller and as with the previous release Skylark: Crossing Over (reviewed here) the graphic design by Caleb Nei deserves special mention for its ability to truly complement this disc.
It is scheduled for release on October 28, 2016.
A shamanic effort to raise consciousness and further socially progressive ideas.
As someone who grew up attending Polish weddings and hearing more than his share of polka music I was fascinated at the unusual role of the accordion as I began to get interested in new music. People like Pauline Oliveros and Guy Klucevsek completely upended my notions of what this instrument is and what it can do. The accordion came into being in the early 19th century and was primarily associated with folk and popular musics until the early 20th century. It has been used by composers as diverse as Tchaikovsky and Paul Hindemith but the developments since the 1960s have taken this folk instrument into realms not even dreamed of by its creators.
Guy Klucevsek with some of his accordions
Guy Klucevsek (1947- ) brought the accordion to the burgeoning New York “downtown” new music scene in the 1970s. He began his accordion studies in 1955, holds a B.A. in theory and composition from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. (also in theory and composition) from the University of Pittsburgh. He also did post graduate work at the California Institute of the Arts. His composition teachers have included Morton Subotnick, Gerald Shapiro and Robert Bernat. He draws creatively on his instrument’s past even as he blazes new trails expanding its possibilities. The accordion will never be the same.
Klucevsek has worked with most all of the major innovators in new music over the years including Laurie Anderson, Bang on a Can, Brave Combo, Anthony Braxton, Dave Douglas, Bill Frisell, Rahim al Haj, Robin Holcomb, Kepa Junkera, the Kronos Quartet, Natalie Merchant, Present Music, Relâche, Zeitgeist, and John Zorn (who also recorded him on his wonderful Tzadik label). He has released over 20 albums and maintains an active touring schedule. He recently completed a residency (April, 2016) at Sausalito’s Headlands Center for the Arts.
Starkland ST-225
Starkland ST-209
Starkland has released no fewer than three previous albums by this unusual artist (all of which found their way into my personal collection over the years) including a re-release of his Polka from the Fringe recordings from the early 1990s. This landmark set of new music commissions from some 28 composers helped to redefine the polka (as well as the accordion) in much the same way as Michael Sahl’s 1981 Tango and Robert Moran’s 1976 Waltz projects did for those dance genres.
Starkland ST-218
The present recording, Teetering on the Edge of Normalcy (scheduled for release on September 30, 2016), continues this composer/performer’s saga. His familiar humor and his unique experimentalism remain present but there is also a bittersweet aspect in that most of these compositions are homages and many of the dedicatees have passed from this world. Klucevsek himself will turn 70 in February of 2017 and it is fitting that he has chosen to release this compilation honoring his colleagues.
On first hearing, many of Klucevsek’s compositions sound simple and straightforward but the complexities lie just beneath the surface. What sounds like a simple accordion tune is written in complex meters and sometimes maniacal speed. To be sure there are conservative elements melodically and harmonically but these belie the subversive nature of Klucevsek’s work which put this formerly lowly folk instrument in the forefront with the best of the “downtown” scene described by critics such as Tom Johnson and Kyle Gann. You might mistake yourself as hearing a traditional music only to find that you had in fact wandered into the universe next door.
Many favorite collaborators have been recruited for this recording. Most tracks feature the composer with other musicians. Four tracks feature solo accordion, two are for solo piano and the rest are little chamber groupings from duets to small combos with drum kit.
The first three tracks are duets with the fine violinist Todd Reynolds. Klucevsek’s playful titles are more evocative than indicative and suggest a framework with which to appreciate the music. There follows two solo piano tracks ably handled by Alan Bern. Bern (who has collaborated on several albums) and Klucevsek follow on the next track with a duet between them.
Song of Remembrance is one of the more extended pieces on the album featuring the beautiful voice of Kamala Sankaram along with Todd Reynolds and Peggy Kampmeier on piano. No accordion on this evocative song which had this listener wanting to hear more of Sankaram’s beautiful voice.
The brief but affecting post minimalist Shimmer (In Memory of William Duckworth) for solo accordion is then followed by the longer but equally touching Bob Flath Waltzes with the Angels. William Duckworth (1943-2012) is generally seen as the inventor of the post-minimalist ethic (with his 1977-8 Time Curve Preludes) and he was, by all reports, a wonderful teacher, writer and composer. Bob Flath (1928-2014) was philanthropist and supporter of new music who apparently worked closely with Klucevsek.
Tracks 10-12 feature small combos with drum kit. The first two include (in addition to Klucevsek) Michael Lowenstern on mellifluous bass clarinet with Peter Donovan on bass and Barbara Merjan on drums. Lowenstern who almost threatens to play klezmer tunes at times sits out on the last of these tracks. Little Big Top is in memory of film composer Nino Rota and Three Quarter Moon in memory of German theater composer Kurt Weill. These pieces would not be out of place in that bar in Star Wars with their pithy humor that swings. They also evoke a sort of nostalgia for the downtown music scene of the 70s and 80s and the likes of Peter Gordon and even the Lounge Lizards.
The impressionistic Ice Flowers for solo accordion, inspired by ice crystals outside the composer’s window during a particularly harsh winter, is then followed by four more wonderful duets with Todd Reynolds (The Asphalt Orchid is in memory of composer Astor Piazolla) and then the brief, touching For Lars, Again (in memory of Lars Hollmer) to bring this collection to a very satisfying end. Hollmer (1948-2008) was a Swedish accordionist and composer who died of cancer.
As somber as all of this may sound the recording is actually a pretty upbeat experience with some definitely danceable tracks and some beautiful impressionistic ones. Like Klucevsek’s previous albums this is a fairly eclectic mix of ideas imbued as much with humor and clever invention as with sorrow and nostalgia. This is not a retrospective, though that would be another good idea for a release, but it is a nice collection of pieces not previously heard which hold a special significance for the artists involved. Happily I think we can expect even more from this unique artist in the future.
Guy Klucevsek, looking back but also forward.
The informative gatefold notes by the great Bay Area pianist/producer/radio host Sarah Cahill also suggest the affinity of this east coast boy for the aesthetic of the west coast where he is gratefully embraced and which is never far from his heart (after all he did study at the California Institute of the Arts and has worked with various Bay Area artists). Booklet notes are by the composer and give some personal clues as to the meaning of some of the works herein. Recordings are by John Kilgore, George Wellington and Bryce Goggin. Mastering is by the wonderful Silas Brown. All of this, of course, overseen by Thomas Steenland, executive producer at Starkland.
Fans of new music, Guy Klucevsek, accordions, great sound…you will want this disc.
Philip Gelb performing at the June 21, 2015 Garden of Memory Concert at Oakland’s Chapel of the Chimes.
For a variety of reasons I have not been able to spend any time with this blog for the last month or two but recent events tell me that I must find the time to get back online and publish. My apologies to all who are awaiting reviews and such. They will now be forthcoming.
This past Saturday night June 27, 2015 is among the last of this East Bay series which has been with us for the last 10 years. Philip Gelb, vegan chef extraordinaire, shakuhachi player and teacher has announced that he will be relocating to New York in the next few months.
I personally discovered this series shortly after I moved to the bay area. In a nondescript West Oakland neighborhood in a modest loft live/work space I found a vegan dinner which also featured a performance by Bay Area composer/performer Pamela Z. One concert/dinner and I was hooked. The opportunity to meet and hear many wonderful musicians and enjoy the amazing culinary magic was just too much to resist. I have been a regular attendee at many of these concerts and they all are valued memories.
Philip Gelb with Joelle Leandre at one of his dinner/concerts.
Phil, who studied music, ethnomusicology and shakuhachi has been a familiar performer in the Bay Area. In addition to performing and teaching the Japanese bamboo flute, Phil has run a vegan catering business and began this series some ten years ago modeled on a creative music series founded in part by the late Sam Rivers. As a musician Phil has gotten to know many talented and creative musicians who performed on his series. Phil is a friendly, unpretentious man with great talents which he successfully combined here.
Phil and sous chef Cori preparing the evening’s feast.
The 20 seats were sold out for the annual Masumoto Peach dinner. At the peak of the harvest each year Phil has put together multiple course dinners featuring locally grown organic peaches from the now four generation Masumoto family orchard near Fresno . In fact a recent film (information on the Masumoto page linked above) has been made about them called, “Changing Seasons” and one of the filmmakers was in attendance. There was a short discussion with Q and A at one point.
Happy diners anticipating the next course.
No music this night but wonderful food and friendly conversations filled the evening. The meal began with, of course, a taste of the actual peaches.
sous chef Cori serving the peach halves that began the dinner.
The next course, a peach tomato gazpacho.
Followed by a grilled peach salad with cashew cheese balls, arugula radicchio,, pickled red onions, and a cherry balsamic dressing.
Oh, yes, a nice Chimay to quench the thirst.
And then tempeh char siu wontons (from the local Rhizocali Tempeh), flat tofu noodles, a really great hot peach mustard and peach sweet and sour sauce.
The main course: peach grilled seitan, peach barbecue sauce, roasted corn and peppers, and some crunchy fried okra.
And, for dessert, peach rosewater cake with peach walnut sorbet. As is his custom Phil went around offering more of that sorbet which most folks, present writer included, availed themselves.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.
But, as I said, this tradition is coming to an end. Not to fear, however. Phil is in the process of writing a cookbook sharing the secrets of his culinary mastery and the book will also document some of the many musicians whose talents graced many an evening here.
La Donna Smith and India Cooke playing an improvised duet.
Bassists Mark Dresser and Barre Phillips play together for the first time at In the Mood for Food.
The amazing Stuart Dempster at Phil’s loft a few years ago.
Gyan Riley, Terry Riley and Loren Rush attending the dinner/concert which featured Stuart Dempster.
Pauline Oliveros and her partner Ione performing at a recent dinner.
So this little sampling of photos provides some idea of the scope and significance of this series. Happily it is being documented in a book for which an Indiegogo campaign is presently in process. You can donate and receive any or many of a variety of perks ranging from a copy of the book for $40 and perks including an invitation to celebratory dinners planned in both New York and Oakland. My copy and my dinner invite are reserved.
There are 34 days left in the campaign at the time of this writing and the project is now at 106% of its funding goal. This is a piece of Bay Area music and culinary history that will please music enthusiasts and those who appreciate creative vegan cuisine.
Here is a list of musicians taken from the campaign site to give you an idea of the scope of the series:
Tim Berne – alto saxophone (Brooklyn)
Shay Black – voice, guitar (Berkeley via Ireland)
Cornelius Boots shakuhachi/bass clarinet
Monique Buzzarte – trombone, electronics (NYC)
Chris Caswell (2) – harp (Berkeley)
Stuart Dempster – trombone (Seattle)
Robert Dick (flute) NYC
Mark Dresser (2) – bass (Los Angeles)
Mark Dresser/Jen Shyu duet – bass, voice/dance
Sinan Erdemsel – oud (Istanbul)
Sinan Erdemsel/ Sami Shumay duet – oud, violin
Gianni Gebbia – saxophones (Palermo, Italy)
Vinny Golia- winds (Los Angeles)
Lori Goldston – cello (Seattle)
Frank Gratkowski (2) – clarinets, alto sax (Berlin)
Daniel Hoffman/Jeanette Lewicki duet violin, voice/accordion (Berkeley, Tel Aviv)
Shoko Hikage – koto (Japan-San Francisco)
Yang Jing – pipa (Beijing)
Kaoru Kakizakai (4) – shakuhachi (Tokyo)
Marco Lienhard shakuhachi (Zurich-NYC)
Mari Kimura – violin, electronics (Tokyo-NYC)
Yoshio Kurahashi (5) – shakuhachi (Kyoto)
Joelle Leandre – contrabass (Paris)
Oliver Lake – alto sax (NYC)
Riley Lee (2) shakuhachi (Australia)
Jie Ma – pipa (China, LA)
Thollem Mcdonas Jon Raskin duet piano/sax (wanderer/Berkeley)
This is one of those operas whose title evokes irony right at the start. Like Ruggero Leoncavallo‘s “Cavalleria Rusticana” (Rustic Chivalry) and Virgil Thomson‘s “Four Saints in Three Acts” the title Certitude and Joy hardly seems to evoke the right emotions in this harrowing story taken right from the headlines of a case in 2005 in which a mother kills her children and dumps their bodies in San Francisco Bay. This is contrasted with the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac in which God tells Abraham to slay his son. Of course God stopped Abraham in the bible story but that was not the case with the more recent story.
English: portrait of composer Erling Wold, painted by Lynne Rutter. oil on panel, 2002 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Erling Wold (1958- ) is a composer of whom I had been only distantly aware. He is a California native and has studied with Andrew Imbrie, Gerard Grisey and John Chowning. That right there gives you a clue to this man’s compositional range and skills. He completed a Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley in 1987 and has worked for Yamaha creating new synthesizer programs in addition to pursuing his musical interests.
The San Francisco Bay Area has such a rich and varied musical culture that it is not all that surprising to me that I hadn’t come to know this fascinating composer. And it’s taken me a while to absorb enough about Mr. Wold to feel that I could write something intelligent about this CD.
The composer’s web site (click here) contains a plethora of scores and sound recordings of this prolific and interesting composer. And there are numerous offerings on You Tube and there is a blog linked on his web site in which he discusses a variety of topics not the least of which is his own music. It seems that he has created several operas including one based on William S. Burroughs’ early but long suppressed novel, Queer. His chamber operas, A Little Girl Contemplates Taking the Veil and his opera on Pontius Pilate illustrate his interest in both religious and political themes.
I won’t even try to get into his orchestral, chamber and solo piano works. That is the job of a future blog which I can assure you will happen. But the main point of this blog is to look at this most recent offering of his chamber opera Certitude and Joy.
As best as I can describe in words, Wold’s accompaniment figures remind me of Philip Glass or John Adams at times but he is not a simple derivative of these composers. His vocal lines, almost all sung as opposed to spoken, are more like recitatives than arias and suggest a more ensemble feel as opposed to the grand opera style of arias, duets, etc.
Aldous Huxley, Famous Last Words (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
His libretto, ripped from the headlines so to speak, is a combination of philosophical musings, imagined dialogue and commentary from texts as diverse as Aldous Huxley’s writings on psychedelics and the more pedestrian musings of newspaper columns. I think there is some affinity for Robert Ashley’s mysterious texts but again nothing derivative. The work is perhaps political as social commentary but not as social protest.
What is important is that this work, thinly scored (though hardly thin in sound) for two pianos and a cast of singers, speaks directly and affectingly to the audience. He manages to tell this tale in a fairly straightforward manner with occasional digressions for philosophical commentary. But he never loses control of the narrative which flows on drawing you in to this sad story and leaves you with the questions he raises, albeit rhetorically, about the nature of religious revelation, mental illness and the current state of our society and our world. This is a tall order but Wold manages to fill it with just the right amount of drama and music that leaves the listener (and viewer if you see it live in person or on You Tube) seemingly with exactly the emotions I think the composer wrestled with in writing it.
Like the aforementioned Four Saints and Cavalleria, Certitude and Joy is a listener friendly opera with messages that are disturbing and go to the core of what it means to be human. The performances by the fine duo piano team of Keisuke Nakagoshi and Eva-Maria Zimmerman (ZOFO) and singers Laura Bohn, Talya Patrick, Jo Vincent Parks, Kerry Mehling, Tranvis Santell Rowland with Bob Ernst, speaker and a cameo by the composer (I’ll leave that for listeners to find). The beautiful recording on Paul Dresher’s MinMax label is distributed by Starkland and is available on Amazon and other outlets. A worthwhile experience for all lovers of contemporary opera and drama.
Two years ago, when I was just at the start of my blogging adventures, I decided it would be a good idea to do a few articles in honor of Black History Month. I am not black and I have no expertise in the area of black music but, in keeping with the personal perspective of this blog, I decided that my interest in these subjects is sufficient reason to express some opinions and ideas. I chose Carl van Vechten’s portrait of William Grant Still, considered by many to the first major black composer to receive recognition in the 20th Century as my symbol for this article. Much of his music remains unknown and little performed though there have been some significant recordings released in the last few years.
I called that first set of articles “Black Classical”. Curiously my brief article on black conductors has been one of my most read pieces (947 views as of the time I write these words). So I continued to write on this subject in the following year. For my second set of articles I took the opportunity to look at the 50 year anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, by all measures a landmark piece of legislation. I asked a question, in part rhetorical because I had a basic idea of the answers I expected, but also to elicit opinions and to discuss issues of race and music.
I sent queries to a random set of composers and conductors and received a few very gracious replies. Comments ranged from carefully worded egalitarian musings on how black music and music by other racial minorities should be integrated and heard throughout the concert seasons to seemingly careful statements suggesting that this might not even be the right question or that it shouldn’t be asked. Not all comments were published but I am grateful to all who replied. And I have been able to continue this discussion in the various groups on Facebook.
I learned in a (yet to be published) interview with Anthony Davis some fascinating perspectives. Professor Davis did not address my question as I originally asked but he provided some valuable food for thought. It is worth noting that Davis is a composer whose politics are frequently very much in evidence in his music. In a discussion of the current state of music he commented regarding John Cage‘s apolitical stance by saying that, “John Cage’s silence is the silence of white privilege.” One could argue that taking an apolitical stance may have contributed to Cage’s ability to get grants and commissions. Politically charged music generally does not fare as well.
In general I found more or less what I expected. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 has had little, if any, benefit for black musicians and composers. And given the ongoing killing of unarmed black men by police one must wonder if we have been going backwards as a society. But I don’t want to do a grand social critique here. That is a subject for another blog and is a bit outside of my scope at least for now.
I found some musicians who did not want to address racial and discriminatory issues. It seems the issue is too “hot” and that one could face consequences for even asking the question. And some did not feel sufficiently well-versed in Civil Rights history to make a truly informed assessment of this issues. Perhaps it is a form of white privilege that allows me to ask such a question. We shall see if any reactions result in verbal attacks or (not likely I think) in a reduction in my readership.
What I have learned is that black classical musicians (who are not in short supply) occupy very few prominent positions in academia, in the public sphere of conductors and performers and in the representation in recorded performances of what is a rich but virtually untapped repertoire. The inequality remains with perhaps some progress but not enough to pronounce the issues here as resolved to a truly significant degree. But there is a vibrant community of black musicians who are working as did their predecessors to contribute to our collective culture and the discussions are both lively and stimulating.
In 2014 there was a performance by the Cincinnati Symphony of an Oratorio, “The Ordering of Moses” (1937) by R. Nathaniel Dett. The premiere performance of the piece (a beautiful and listener friendly piece of music) was broadcast live. But that broadcast was truncated, leaving out the finale when white listeners complained about music by a black composer getting so much airtime. Happily the entire piece was broadcast uninterrupted and made available in streaming format. However there is no commercial recording of this grand biblical choral work.
I was pleased to be able to review the fully staged performance in May, 2014 of Zenobia Powell Perry‘s opera Tawawa House (1984) in the unlikely venue of Modesto, California by Townsend Opera. It was a heartfelt and beautiful production and was reviewed here.
Another interesting event in 2014 was the first appearance of three black counter tenors in a performance of a Purcell Opera in Los Angeles. My blog on this subject can be found here. I was pleased to make the acquaintance of Mr. Bill Doggett who has been very helpful in keeping me up on the latest developments with black musicians and composers and was the person who alerted me to this historic event.
Coming up in March at the Other Minds festival there will be performances by Errollyn Wallen and Don Byron.
Some recent films have done much to tell the very unpretty history of black people in the United States including: 12 Years a Slave (2013), after Solomon Northrup‘s harrowing memoir, Fruitvale Station (2013), a retelling of the execution style shooting of Oscar Grant at the hands of police in Oakland, California, Selma (2014), a dramatization of the 1965 march in support of voting rights (musical direction by Jason Moran). And this trend, happily, seems to be on the rise providing artistic historical narratives to aid in the processing of the complex, shameful and painful histories depicted. The lack of recognition by the motion picture industry supports my arguments for the poor representation and acknowledgement of black artists in general.
I have to mention that the wonderful set of recordings by Paul Freeman originally released on Columbia records remains available as a boxed set of 9 vinyl records with notes from the College Music Society now being offered at only $17.50 (that is not a typo either) via mail order. I’m going to buy a couple of extra copies to give away as gifts. It’s a really nice set.
Perhaps the most useful thing I learned is the egalitarian approach by conductor Michael Morgan who stated his desire that music by ethnic groups be integrated into programming on a regular basis rather than being highlighted in a given month. (I am pleased to report that maestro Morgan will be receiving an award for his service to new music from the American Composers Forum.) I am now using that approach with this blog in which I will continue to highlight the work of musicians and other artists whose work I find interesting and worth promoting. So please stay tuned.
Howard Hersh (1940- ) studied music and earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Stanford University. He is a California native and he succeeded Charles Amirkhanian as music director at KPFA. His Pony Concerto (2005), Braided River Nights (2004) and Sonata for Violin and Percussion with String Bass obligato (2000) were released on Albany Records in 2007 and his Dancing at the Pink House (2006) is available as a free download on Bandcamp.
I had not been familiar with Mr. Hersh’s music when I agreed to review this disc but I found that liked it immediately and it made my list of favorite releases for 2014. The featured piece here is the Concerto for Piano and Ten Instruments (2008) and it is a tour de force. Hersh writes in a tonal idiom that sounds to this reviewer’s ears like a mix of Conlon Nancarrow and Francis Poulenc. This concerto is virtuosic in the extreme but not the empty virtuosity of the romantic composer pianists (Anton Rubinstein bores me to tears). This work in three movements sounds very difficult to play but manages to remain playful and entertaining, never taking itself too seriously. Pianist Brenda Tom does a fantastic job (she must have fingers of steel) and is very ably supported by the small ensemble conducted by Barbara Day Turner. Rapid attacks, scales and arpeggios keep the soloist very busy and the ensemble clearly listens and collaborates in what is an electrifying performance.
The other pieces on the disc are a sort of strange contrast to the concerto. First is a suite for harpsichord, Angels and Watermarks (2004) was composed during Hersh’s residency at the Djerassi Arts Center. The piece is in five movements and is a significant contribution to the contemporary literature for that instrument. Cast in the manner of a baroque suite, each movement plays on familiar forms. The first movement is a ponderous prelude which is followed by a playful moto perpetuo, a gentle lullaby, then a spectacular jazz inflected toccata and finally a sort of non-literal recapitulation of the prelude. Again we are treated to the dynamic keyboard work of Brenda Tom who executes each movement flawlessly and with great expressiveness.
The final work on the disc is Dream (2012) which the composer (who wrote the liner notes) says is his exploration of how to incorporate tonal harmony in his work. It is a soft, slow meandering piece in which he manages to make his explorations into a beautiful and restful work. Brenda Tom is the dedicatee of both this and the harpsichord suite and she demonstrates her ability to work with soft expressive textures.
All in all a great CD which will delight any new music fan. It is available from CD Baby and Amazon. Highly recommended.
OM 19, the final bow. Left to right: Charles Amirkhanian, Charles Celeste Hutchins, Joseph Byrd, Wendy Reid, Myra Melford, Roscoe Mitchell, John Schott, Mark Applebaum, John Bischoff, Don Buchla
This past Friday and Saturday the San Francisco Jazz Center hosted the 19th annual Other Minds Festival concerts. This is the first year not to feature an international roster. Instead the focus was on composers from northern California. (Strictly speaking these composers’ creative years and present residence is northern California.) It was not a shift in policy but a focus on a less generally well known group of artists who have not enjoyed the exposure of east coast composers but have produced a formidable body of work that deserves at least a fair assessment. In fact these concerts presented a fascinating roster of composers from essentially three generations.
The first generation represented was one which came of age in the fabled 1960s and included electronic music pioneer Don Buchla, AACM founding member Roscoe Mitchell and proto-minimalist Joseph Byrd. The second was represented by Wendy Reid, Myra Melford and John Bischoff. And the youngest generation by Mark Applebaum and Charles Celeste Hutchins.
The program opened on Friday night with a sort of pantomime work by Stanford associate professor of music Mark Applebaum. The piece, called Aphasia (2010) consists of an electronic score to which the composer, seated in a chair, responds with a variety of carefully choreographed gestures. The result was both strange and humorous. The audience was both amused and appreciative.
Applebaum’s Metaphysics of Notation (2008) performed by the Other Minds Ensemble. Left to right: Myra Melford, John Bischoff, Wendy Reid, John Schott, Joseph Byrd, Charles Amirkhanian and Charles Celeste Hutchins
Applebaum’s graphic score Metaphysics of Notation (2008) was projected overhead while the ensemble played their interpretations of that score. The ensemble, dubbed the Other Minds Ensemble, consisted of most of the composers who participated in the festival including Mr. Amirkhanian displaying his facility with a percussion battery among other things. (Presumably Roscoe Mitchell, who was reportedly not feeling well, would have joined the ensemble as well.) Mr. Applebaum was conspicuously absent perhaps so as to not unduly influence the proceedings.
Ribbons strewn across the stage, a part of the Other Minds Ensemble’s interpretation of the Metaphysics of Notation
The piece was full of minimal musical gestures, humorous events like ribbons strewn across the stage and the popping of little party favors that emitted streamers. The ensemble appeared to have a great deal of fun with this essentially indeterminate score which they are instructed to interpret in their own individual ways. It was a rare opportunity to see and hear Mr. Amirkhanian (who is a percussionist by training) as well as an opportunity for the other composer/performers to demonstrate their skills and their apparent affinity for this type of musical performance. Again the audience was both amused and appreciative.
Mark Applebaum performing on his invented instrument.
Projection of Applebaum performing with view of the composer/performer stage right as well.
The third piece by Applebaum featured the composer with his invented instrument and electronics playing on a balcony stage right with a projection of himself on the big screen. He produced a wide variety of sounds from his fanciful computer controlled contraption that seemed to please the audience. This is the kind of unusual genre-breaking events which tend to characterize an Other Minds concert.
The second composer of the night was the elusive Joseph Byrd who is perhaps best known for his cult classic album The American Metaphysical Circus by Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies from 1969. A previous band, The United States of America released a self-titled album which received critical acclaim in 1968. Both are apparently out of print but available through Amazon.
Joe Byrd studied music with Barney Childs and worked with La Monte Young, cellist Charlotte Moorman, Yoko Ono and Jackson Mac Low. Byrd went on to produce a great deal of music by others and also wrote music for films and television but his own compositions have only come to light again recently with the release of a New World CD released in 2013 which presents his work from 1960-63. Mr. Amirkhanian said that it was this disc that got him interested in inviting Byrd to Other Minds (Byrd also taught at the College of the Redwoods in Eureka, California.).
This is the sort of musical archeology for which Other Minds has become known. Amirkhanian is known for his ability to find and bring to performance and recordings music which has been unjustly neglected. Hopefully this appearance will be followed by more releases of Byrd’s other music as well.
Byrd was represented here by performances of Water Music (1963) for percussionist and tape with Alan Zimmerman (who was one of the producers of the New World album) played the spare percussion part which integrated well with the analog electronic tape.
Alan Zimmerman performing Joe Byrd’s Water Music.
A second piece, Animals (1961) was performed by the brilliant and eclectic bay area pianist Sarah Cahill with Alan Zimmerman and Robert Lopez on percussion and the fiercely talented Del Sol String Quartet (Kate Stenberg and Richard Shinozaki, violins, Charlton Lee, viola and Kathryn Bates Williams, cello). This was another piece with soft, mostly gentle musical gestures involving a prepared piano and predominantly percussive use of the string players. It was interesting to contemplate how this long unheard music must have sounded in 1961 but it was clear that it communicated well with the audience on this night.
Animals (1961)
John Bischoff performing his work Audio Combine (2009)
Following intermission we heard two pieces by Mills composer/performer John Bischoff. The first was Audio Combine (2009) which featured Bischoff on this laptop producing a variety of digitally manipulated sounds. It was followed by Surface Effect (2011) with creative lighting effects/animations that nicely complemented the laptop controlled analog circuitry. Bischoff’s music is generally gentle and clear. It belies the complexity of its genesis in state of the art computer composition and performance for which he is so well known.
John Bischoff performing Surace Effect (2011)
All this led to the final performance of the evening by Don Buchla whose modular synthesizers were developed in the early 1960s with input from Ramon Sender, Morton Subotnick, Pauline Oliveros and Terry Riley at the legendary San Francisco Tape Music Center (which later became the Mills Center for Contemporary Music). Buchla also designed the sound system for Ken Kesey’s bus “Furthur” which featured in the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
Don Buchla on the Buchla Bos and Nannick Buchla on the piano with film projection performing Drop by Drop (2012) in its American premiere.
The conclusion of Friday’s program consisted of the American premiere of a Drop by drop by Don Buchla for Buchla 200e, electronically controlled “piano bar” (another Buchla invention) and film projection. The film was made in collaboration with bay area film maker Sylvia Matheus. The sequence of images began with a dripping faucet and proceeded to a waterfall and then to emerging pictures of birds all the while accompanied by the various sounds from the synthesizer and the piano.
Nannick and Donald Buchla receiving warm applause from the audience.
The Saturday night performances began with Charles Celeste Hutchins and his laptop improvising system. Hutchins, a San Jose native, describes his system as related to Iannis Xenakis’ UPIC system and utilizes a live graphic interface which the computer uses to trigger sound events.
Charles Celeste Hutchins at his laptop performing Cloud Drawings (2006-9)
The drawings were projected onto the overhead screen. There seemed to be a somewhat indirect correlation between the drawings and the resultant sounds and much of the tension of this performance derived from wondering what sounds would result when the cursor reached that particular drawing object. The audience is basically watching the score as it is being written, a rather unique experience and the Other Minds audience clearly appreciated the uniqueness.
The projected graphic score for Cloud Drawings.
The Actual Trio: John Schott, guitar, Dan Seamans, bass, John Hanes, drums.
John Schott and his Actual Trio then took the stage to perform his own brand of jazz which seemed to be a combination of free jazz, Larry Coryell and perhaps even Jerry Garcia. But these descriptions are merely fleeting impressions and are not intended to detract from some really solid and inspired music making. After the conclusion of the set this listener half expected an encore.
But the program moved on toWendy Reid’s performance as we watched the stage being set up with music stands, some electronic equipment and a parrot in a cage.
Tree Piece #55 “lulu variations” with Tom Dambly, trumpet, Wendy Reid, violin and electronics and Lulu Reid on vocals.
Reid’s Tree Pieces are an ongoing set of compositions incorporating nature sounds with live performance. This is not unlike some of Pauline Oliveros’ work in that it involves careful listening by the musicians who react within defined parameters to these sounds.
Lulu the parrot appeared nervous and did a lot of preening but did appear to respond at times. The musicians responded with spare notes on violin and muted trumpet. It was a whimsical experience which stood in stark contrast to the more declarative music of the previous trio but at least some of the audience, apparently prepared for such contrasts, was appreciative.
Myra Melford performing selections from Life Carries Me This Way (2013)
The diminutive figure of Myra Melford took command of the piano and the hearts of the audience in her rendition of several pieces from her recent CD. She played sometimes forcefully with thunderous forearm cluster chords and sometimes with extreme delicacy but always with rapt attention to her music. Her set received a spontaneous standing ovation from a clearly roused audience. She is a powerful but unpretentious musician who clearly communicates well with her audience.
Roscoe Mitchell, Vinny Golia, Scott Robinson and J.D. Parran following their performance of Noonah (2013)
The finale of OM 19 was the world premiere of an Other Minds commission, the version for four bass saxophones of Roscoe Mitchell’s Noonah (pronounced no nay ah). It is the latest incarnation of a piece of music that Mitchell describes as having taken on a life of its own. It exists now in several different versions from chamber groups to orchestra.
The piece is vintage Roscoe Mitchell, a combination of free jazz and sometimes inscrutable compositional techniques which clearly enthralled the very focused performers. What the piece seemed to lack in immediate emotional impact it made up in mysterious invention which was brought out grandly by the very experienced and committed players.
Mitchell, who was not able to attend on the previous night, appeared rather tired but played with a focus and enthusiasm that matched his fellow musicians. Like all of Mitchell’s music there is a depth and complexity that is not always immediately evident but does come with repeated listenings and performances.
Thus concluded another very successful edition of Other Minds. Now we look forward to the gala 20th anniversary coming up in March, 2015.
The practice of “covers” in pop music is part of the long tradition in music of making arrangements, variations, homages, etc. in response to a given composition. To be sure the majority of these efforts are, though well-meaning, mediocre or worse. But on the whole they can be quite fascinating and even revelatory. Ravel’s masterful orchestration of Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ is so well done that few people are even aware that the original is a piano solo work. The orchestration so enhances the original as to immortalize it and upstage the original version. Similarly The Byrds’ cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ has become the most recognized version of that song.
‘Undercover Presents’ is a concert organization which has been producing a very unusual set of concerts. Taking an album by a given artist and recruiting a different band/musician to cover each of the songs and then presenting both a studio recording and a live concert of the results. So far they have done Velvet Underground and Nico, Pixies’ Doolittle, Nick Drake’s Pink Moon, Black Sabbath’s Paranoid and, most recently, Joni Mitchell’s Blue. The musicians are all from the San Francisco Bay Area and that comprises a huge trove of talented and innovative artists. Their albums are available on bandcamp.com
I saw the production of Blue this past September and I will be there again this coming Monday having recruited some additional friends, “You gotta come see this!”
The first band, ‘Killbossa’ is inspired by the Brazilian art/music/political movement of the late 1960s known as ‘tropicalismo’ and is a combination of a variety of different musical styles including bossa nova, psychedelic rock, avant-garde and Brazilian popular music. They covered the first song on the album, ‘All I Want’.
Next up Bharathi Palivela, a singer with traditional Hindustani vocal training teamed up with San Francisco bassist and teacher Daniel Fabricant covering ‘My Old Man’.
Georgia native, now San Francisco based bluegrass singer with her banjo and band put their spin on ‘Little Green’.
‘Carey’ was given a reading by clarinetist, vocalist Beth Custer with her strongly jazz inflected ensemble.
Kitka is an all female a capella group specializing in eastern european style folk singing. Their a capella cover of ‘Blue’ was alone worth the price of admission.
Amy X Neuberg is an Oakland based singer, performer and tech wizard. With her voice and electronics she created a unique version of ‘California’.
Jazz/funk/hip-hop/R and B Jazz Mafia with Aima the Dreamer and Erica Dee did a raucous version of ‘This Flight Tonight’.
Cajun/blues/southern fiddler and singer with her band did a country blues version of ‘River’.
The Seshen is an electro-pop ensemble that, like the other musicians in this show, is hard to categorize. They did an ecstatic cover of ‘A Case of You’.
Katy Stephan and her group Classical Revolution ended the evening with ‘The Last Time I Saw Richard’.
All the musicians barely crowded on to the stage to acknowledge the standing ovation from the very appreciative crowd.
Whether you know the original Joni Mitchell album or not you can’t fail to find something exciting, eye-opening and enjoyable in these performances. The range of creativity and talent is staggering. The bands played with a subtle but effective visual display that unified their efforts and added another aspect to both the music and the performance. I’m sure Joni would be pleased.
Did I say that the ticket price includes a free download of the studio album? Well it does and it serves as a great reminder of a truly unique bay area experience. Maybe I’ll see you there.
New Music Buff 