jazz

CDs, Contemporary Classical, Downtown, Electro-Acoustic, Festivals, File Under?, Interviews, jazz, New York, Performers, Video

Interview with Mimi Goese and Ben Neill

Songs for Persephone: Mimi Goese & Ben Neill Take a seductive voiced art-pop singer and a post-jazz/alt-classical trumpeter. Add fragments of nineteenth century classical melodies, electronics elicited by a “mutantrumpet” controller. Then add influences ranging from ancient Greek mythology to the Hudson River Valley. What you have are the intricate yet intimate sounds on an evocatively beautiful new CD: Songs for Persephone.   The Persephone legend is one of the oldest in Greek mythology, with many variants that provide twists and turns to the narrative and subtext of the story.  In the myth, Persephone, daughter of Zeus and the harvest

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by Christian Carey
Concerts, Events, File Under?, jazz, New York

Trygve Seim makes NYC debut on 9/11

Last year, saxophonist Trygve Seim and pianist Andreas Utnem collaborated on Purcor, a recording for the ECM imprint (Seim’s sixth as leader). Drawing on material from a wide range of sources, including settings of the Mass, folk music, and Seim’s own compositions, it was among the recordings in frequent rotation when I got home from the hospital this past November. Needing a calm environment in which to regenerate and reflect, I found Purcor to be the perfect listening to accompany a healing respite. Meditative yet soulful, earnest yet elegant, gently articulated yet substantively thoughtful, Seim and Utnem craft a series

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by Christian Carey
Chamber Music, Contemporary Classical, ETHEL, jazz, San Francisco, Saxophone

In Convergence Liberation: A Performer’s Perspective

“The composer’s job is to create a context for music-making to reflect the emerging consciousness.”  Hafez Modirzadeh ETHEL performs music of Hafez Modirzadeh By Cornelius Dufallo Also published on Urban Modes Hafez Modirzadeh, a visionary saxophonist, theorist and composer, has been developing his own style of inter-cultural improvisation for three decades. His mentors and collaborators have included Ornette Coleman, some of the founding members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and the great Iranian violinist, Mahmoud Zoufonoun.  ETHEL first encountered Modirzadeh in 2007, and the two parties felt an immediate artistic sympathy. Since that time, Modirzadeh has

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by Cornelius Dufallo
Books, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Houston, Improv, jazz

Punky Cagey Party

Shh! We’re improvising! The Lepers of Melancholy, Houston TX (photo by Jonathan Jindra) While reading Conversing With Cage at a bus stop today, I stumbled across this funny yet in the end profound exchange (circa 1980) between John Cage and John Robert with Silvey Panet Raymond: How do you consider new popular music – punk, New Wave? What is the New Wave? I don’t really know what it is. If you could point it out to me, I might have some reaction. It’s very simple, three – , four-chord stuff, aggressive, fast. There’s a good deal of dancing on the

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by Chris Becker
Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Houston, Improv, jazz, Mexico, Music Events

Houston Mixtape #7: Skeleton At The Feast

Skeletons! Witches! Vampires! No, I’m not talking about candidates in Houston’s midterm elections. I’m talking about Halloween and the two days that follow known as Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead. Like many other places in the Southern U.S., Houston culture is a healthy mix of the supernatural and the spiritual. In the Mexican tradition of Dia de los Meurtos, food, beverages, and sweets are placed on homemade alters as gifts for the spiritual manifestations of those who have passed who will, over the course of the 48 hours that is All Saints Day and All Soul’s

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by Chris Becker
Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Interviews, jazz, Saxophone

Ornette Coleman in Austin, TX

Fort Worth-born Ornette Coleman will perform November 18th, 2010 8pm at Austin’s Bass Concert Hall with his son Denardo Coleman on drums, Tony Falanga on acoustic bass, and Al MacDowell on electric bass. I can’t think of a genre of music that hasn’t been influenced by Coleman and his recorded legacy. He had a profound impact on musicians as diverse as Leonard Bernstein, John Zorn, and Jerry Garcia and at the age of 80, Coleman continues to disregard geographical, political and cultural boundaries in a relentless search to build upon his palette of sound. A recent interview with Ornette Coleman

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by Chris Becker
CDs, Contemporary Classical, Interviews, jazz

VooDoo in the Arkipelago

Besides helping out here at S21, composer Chris Becker has been racking up some excellent interviews at his own blog. One I wanted to share with you is his recent chat with brilliant, hard-to-classify musician Lawrence Sieberth. For the full interview just head to Chris’s blog (where you’ll also find a link to buy the Arkipelago CD, and a list of upcoming Sieberth concerts), but here’s the introduction and a sample: ……………………………………………………….. After moving from New Orleans to New York City, I managed to stay connected to keyboardist/composer Lawrence Sieberth thanks to the Internet and email, keeping him posted on

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by Steve Layton
Composers, File Under?, jazz, Music Instruments

Pat Metheny goes steampunk?

The orchestrion is a fairly old instrument, going back to the mid-19th-century.  Pat Metheny and the mad scientists at the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots have teamed up to create a 21st century version of an orchestrion. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VymAn8QJNQ[/youtube] I’ve spent the past few days listening to Metheny’s new CD, Orchestrion.  If you’ve been following his work for the past few years, it’s no big surprise musically or harmonically: lush diatonic harmonies and sweetly melodic improvisations. What makes this disc so special, though, is his interaction with a robot ensemble, one which is completely controlled or programmed by Metheny.  There

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by Christian Hertzog
Composers, Contemporary Classical, jazz

When Two Worlds Collide

…Collide in a good way, that is… The world of “avant” classical and “avant” jazz (I know I know, half of you will cringe at the labels, but it’s as good as we’re going to get here) share so much in common: a long and staid tradition and preconception to fight past and against, to push and trespass beyond; interest in new sounds, new forms, new aesthetics; an intensity of commitment to their vision, even when it might mean a long spell of creating and performing in the shadow of those taking the safe path. But for all their similarities,

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by Steve Layton
Concerts, jazz

Wolfgang Digs Newport

Wolfgang Grajonca that is, who is better-known to us old hippies as Bill Graham, the late impressario of the Fillmores East and West and the man who brought the music to a thousand purple-hazed nights of our misspent youths. Graham taped and saved everything and you can stream hundreds of full concerts free (downloading costs a little money) at a site called Wolfgang’s Vault. Want to hear that dead band’s song before they were dead? You got it. Catch Steppenwolf doing “God Damn, the Pusher Man?” Stevie Ray demonstrating why no one else should ever be allowed to touch a

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by Jerry Bowles