Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Willem Breuker, the Dutch composer sadly passed away last week in Amsterdam. The Willem Breuker Kollektief’s music has been described as “throwing Kurt Weill into the blender with ragtag circus music” which does a good job of telling some of the story but for me, this music somehow goes beyond any kind of written expression.
As a young musician, I was lucky to hear/see this group along with many other musicians who were a part of the Dutch improvised music community. There was an important era in the late 80’s and 90’s where a variety of groups like the Kollektief, the Clusone Trio and ICP orchestra would come and perform at the Vancouver jazz festival. As nerdy jazz fan, I was doing my best to see as much music as I could and just happened to stumble across a WBK concert. I had no idea what I was witnessing. It was just…wild…and ridiculous…and utterly amazing. Click here for more about Mr. Breuker’s passing.
We were saddened to read…
Chicago jazz sax legend Fred Anderson dead at 81
June 24, 2010
BY JOHN LITWEILER
Tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson, a father figure to Chicago free-jazz musicians and audiences, bandleader, musician, founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and owner of a leading Chicago jazz club, the Velvet Lounge, died Thursday at 81 after suffering a heart attack on June 14.Anderson, nominated for prizes in several Down Beat and Jazz Journalists Association polls, was widely praised for his big, bold tenor saxophone sound and his flair for melodic improvisation. Since the 1960s, when he was one of Chicago’s earliest free-jazz artists, he began nurturing younger musicians. Drummer Hamid Drake, saxophonists Joseph Jarman and Douglas Ewart and trombonist George Lewis are among the leading musicians who grew to musical maturity as members of Anderson’s combos.
In 1981 he began operating the Velvet Lounge, a neighborhood tavern at Indiana Avenue and 21st Street. Gradually Anderson transformed it into a full-time music venue where young musicians and veterans, from the black free-jazz scene and the white, north-side free-jazz players, joined in cross-cultural adventures. As a world-famous jazz venue, it now also frequently presents major American and European improvisers and composers.
Family and friends of critically ill Fred Anderson ask for patience and prayers
via Chicago Jazz Music Examiner
John Zorn, Ner Tamid, from the Masada songbook.
Monday, May 10, 7PM – 10PM:
Stone Seminar 19 – Dave Douglas on the Music of Masada.
At The Stone in NYC.
When John asked me to present a seminar, I thought: why not take a handful of Masada tunes, old and new, and play them with people? We’ll have the charts in Zorn’s incredibly-expressive handwriting… Bring your instrument as the goal will be to play as many tunes as we can get through. I learned a lot playing these tunes, and I think people may enjoy coming to get a closer look at how the tunes look and how performances of them work. Word is the composer may even come by and answer some of the many remaining questions I have for him.
Playing this music has always been fun, challenging, and thought-provoking for me. I can’t say that I have any answers, but Monday we will open up the book and see where the charts take us. Each of these tunes points in a unique and inspiring direction.
More info and specifics at The Stone website.
In this line of work you fly around the globe so much you start to figure you can just get up and jump from continent to continent. That’s changed. I’ve been stuck in Amsterdam for several days now, and the earth feels much bigger than it has in a long time.
As regular readers know, I am supposed to be in Stanford, California right now putting the finishing touches on Spark of Being, film and music event to have its premiere on Saturday, April 24. I’ve been in Amsterdam since last Thursday, and thanks to the volcanic ash of the incredibly photogenic Eyjafjallajokull my departure has been a little bit, well, up in the air.
The show must go on! The band is in California, bless them. I have a flight on Thursday and just today there was a break in the clouds and flights started leaving Schiphol for the States. However, there are several other highly scientific and intriguing ways of playing that show that are under investigation. Just in case the eruption continues and airports are forced to close back down.
We’ll update travel progress at this site. It has been a while since I’ve blogged as well, mostly because of the work to finish this piece. The recording is now complete, the piece is ready to be played and I’ll update with a few brief bloggable thoughts over the coming few days.
By the way, I was heartened to see so many witty and creative responses to the Keystone trivia quiz. You will be rewarded.
For obvious reasons, I try to keep this blog about music as much as I can, but something about these greyed-out black-and-white photos from Nouadhibou Bay made it so I couldn’t resist posting them. Hope you enjoy.
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by Jan Smith
From GOOD blog:
“Nouadhibou means ‘where the jackals get fat.’ It is also where ships go to die.” So writes the photographer Jan Smith, who captured haunting images of abandoned shipwrecks in Mauritania’s Nouadhibou Bay, which is perhaps the world’s largest ship cemetery. When Smith attempted to venture into Mauritania in 2008, he encountered no shortage of struggle. “I was turned away at the border, slept in a mine field, and was accused of espionage. No one believed I would travel to the remoteness of Nouadhibou to simply take pictures of rotting ships.”
Man, it’s been a blast playing with these guys every night. Doesn’t leave too much time for blogging. But tonight is off in Rome, we’ll play Casa de Jazz tomorrow and then continue to the last dates in Hungary and France. I’ll be home for a day and then playing Zorn’s Masada music in Milan with Chris Potter, Uri Caine, Greg Cohen, and Joey Baron. Then going to play with Jim McNeely in Portugal. Leads right up to Thanksgiving, and I’m thankful for this great season of music.
If you’ve seen any of the shows on this tour you know that it’s a bit of a new sound for the Quintet. Switching from fender rhodes to acoustic piano changes the dynamic of the group. But also the new music was written with a new approach in mind — somewhat freer but also more intricate rhythmically. We have also been playing quintet arrangements of the music on the new Big Band record, A Single Sky. Those tend to bring out another side of us, a sort of epic, long form music that forces all of us to think as a section. I can’t thank these guys enough for putting in 100% dedication and perseverance. And being hilarious travel mates.
When I started the Quintet around 2000 I felt the rhodes had been written out of the music somewhat, that there was a missing (and hence available) step in the music of the late sixties into the mid seventies. The music I was writing was starting from there as a jumping off point into our own thing. As I sat down to begin working on new music for the band in the wake of the complete live recordings at the Jazz Standard, I felt like the lay of the land was considerably different. The rhodes is everywhere now and it also feels like the music I’m hearing people play incorporates all of that post-sixties language and more. I’m inspired by a lot of the musicians I hear, and my hero, Wayne Shorter, continues to set an extremely high standard. The dynamics in that quartet are out of this world.
A lot of people ask me why I switched to acoustic piano in the band. To the extent that I even know, that’s some of what it’s about. We’re discovering the rest as we go.
The beauty of David S. Ware’s kidney transplant is one of them. Admiration and healing thoughts to all involved.
Photo: Joshua Bright for The New York Times
