Today I interviewed saxophonist Tim Berne in Brooklyn for a feature article that will appear in the next issue of Signal to Noise Magazine, the journal for improvised and experimental music. In a beleaguered market for print publications, particular for music magazines, I’m so pleased that StN editor and publisher Pete Gershon is working hard to keep the publication alive. The hope is that there will be two issues this year.
Snake Oil, Tim’s first CD on ECM as a leader (he’s supported David Torn and Michael Formanek on other ECM releases) is out this week (2/7/12). A quartet date, the personnel includes Berne playing alto saxophone, Oscar Noriega playing clarinet and bass clarinet, Matt Mitchell playing piano, and Ches Smith playing drums and a number of other percussion instruments.
An enthusiastic collaborator who has been in many more bands than a blog post can contain, Berne brings a “chamber jazz” aesthetic to this project, with gig-tested charts that have rigorous compositional structures but leave plenty of room for improvisation and on-the-spot inspiration. A gracious interviewee, Tim spoke about this project and several other current endeavors. Pete has given us a generous word count (how often do writers get that these days), and I’m really looking forward to covering Snakeoil and a host of other subjects in the article.
Below, you can see another incarnation of this group, the Los Totopos band, playing live via YouTube. We’ve also included dates for the tour Berne is undertaking in support of Snakeoil on both sides of the Atlantic.
My interview with Dennis Russell Davies, who is conducting the ACO concert, is up on Musical America’swebsite (subscribers only).
If you’re looking for a terrific way to celebrate PG’s birthday, Brooklyn Rider’s latest CD on Orange Mountain Music includes Glass’s first five string quartets. The earthiness with which they play the music may surprise you at first, but it provides a persuasive foil for some of the more motoric, “high buffed sheen” toned performances of minimalism that are out there. In a 2011 video below, they give a performance of a more recent work, a suite of music from the film Bent.
“Seventy-five used to be a very old age for a composer. Of course, with Elliott Carter around, it makes me feel like a youngster!” – Philip Glass.
The American Composers Orchestra, led by Conductor Laureate Dennis Russell Davies, gives the American premiere of Glass’s Ninth Symphony tomorrow at Carnegie Hall.Also on the program: the NY premiere of Arvo Pärt’sLamentate for piano and orchestra with Maki Namekawa as soloist.
Tomorrow, Musical America will be running my interview with Davies.
Last weekend, mezzo-soprano Megan Ihnen and violinist Joseph Kneer premiered a new version of “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” (2011) on the Federal Hill Parlor Series. They are going to perform the piece again on Saturday in York, Pennsylvania. Below is a YouTube video of the 1/25 performance (the first I’m aware of that features one of my compositions).
The Federal Hill Parlor Series:the enormity of small things
Everyone’s favorite indie chanteuse and harpist Joanna Newsom performs on Austin City Limits this Saturday (1/21). Check your local PBS station’s listings for airing time. But in the meanwhile, you can enjoy a teaser video from Joanna’s performance below.
After finishing school, New England Conservatory of Music graduates find all sorts of ways to collaborate together: orchestras, recording sessions, chamber music, etc. Members of the indie band Cuddle Magicmet while studying at NEC. They’ve taken the classical chops they honed in Boston and brought them into a hybridized chamber pop scenario that owes as much of a debt to Steve Reich and Moondog as it does to Beirut and Animal Collective.
Now based in Brooklyn and Philadelphia, Cuddle Magic is preparing Info Nympho, its third CD, for release on FYO Records. It combines classical instrumentation with a penchant for 80s keyboards (including the vintage Casio seen in the video below), whimsical toy instruments, and honey-sweet vocal harmonies.
Much of this is captured in the close-miked immediacy of apartment recording. But the band has also been recording at Old Soul Studio in the Catskills, enlisting the help of toy pianist extraordinaire Phyllis Chen (video below). They also guested on Chen’s recent Uncaged Toy Piano Festival. Both Chen and Cuddle Magic are able to re-purpose unorthodox materials to create music that employs a light touch, but is never lightweight.
Courtesy of the band, here’s a free download of album track Moby Dickless.
We’re sad to learn of the passing of composer and virtuoso bassist Stefano Scodanibbio (1955-2012). He died in Mexico, a victim of motor neuron disease.
Scodanibbio premiered works by dozens of composers, pushing the boundaries of what double bassists could be expected to do. He was also a composer of a number of formidable works, often featuring his own instrument but for diverse forces.
Although his compositions frequently displayed hyper-virtuosity and a serious demeanor, below, we see him in a light-hearted musical mood, channeling Hendrix and other classic rock stars in his piece “& Roll.”
Bedroom Community is one of our favorite indie classical imprints. The Icelandic label has released CDs by Sam Amidon, Nico Muhly,Daniel Bjarnason, Ben Frost,
Valgeir Sigurðsson, and other artists. As they did last year, BC has released a Yule mix, filled with previously unreleased material. It’s free with any purchase from their online store.
To whet your appetite, we’ve included a piece by Valgeir, with stirring accompanying images, below.
David Leisner’s latest solo recital disc, Favorites, is a consistently enjoyable program of repertory favorites and lesser known short works for classical guitar. Most imposing is his arrangement of J.S. Bach’s Violin Chaconne in D-minor. Written in the wake of the passing of Bach’s first wife, it is a funeral ode, albeit a non-liturgical one, like few others. Leisner wrings considerable poignancy from its wrenching harmonic passages and its long-breathed melodies: the latter are often filled with descending minor seconds, an affect that in the rhetorical terms of the 18th century signified falling tears. However, the guitarist wisely avoids maudlin tempi or syrupy rubati, instead allowing the piece to unfold at a gradual but constant pace; making for a dignified rather than overly sentimental rendering. He takes a similar approach to Benjamin Britten’sNocturnal, a set of variations on a theme by John Dowland.
Leisner is also impressive in his transcription of Nicolo Paganini’s Grand Sonata, delivering a crisply fleet-fingered rendition that favors clarity and bright articulation to the flashily mercurial (but sloppy) showiness of some other interpreters. He also champions several pieces by composer-guitarist Alexander Ivanov-Kramskoi (1912-1973), a creator of conservative but idiomatic and often technically demanding pieces for classical guitar. Ivanov-Kramskoi isn’t nearly as well known to Western audiences as he should be, and pieces like “Melancholy Waltz” and “Song Without Words” are considerably charming. Overall, Favorites provides a new context for familiar pieces – “old friends” – and contains several pleasing surprises. Recommended.
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