ANFTD #40: Roswell Rudd
Trombonist and composer Roswell Rudd has been a force in American music for over 60 years. Emerging from the brass and Dixieland bands of New England colleges in the mid-1950s, Rudd went on to New York to join fellow-seekers Steve Lacy, Herbie Nichols, Archie Shepp, Milford Graves, Cecil Taylor, Carla Bley, Charlie Haden and many others. An important aspect of Rudd’s work came about in doing research for Alan Lomax, categorizing and analyzing hundreds of hours of musical field recordings from around the globe over a span of several decades. He credits this work with deepening his understanding of musical systems, giving him the ability to travel anywhere in the world and fit into disparate musical traditions and practices.
Rudd and his partner, producer Verna Gillis, have traveled the world since 2001, producing ground-breaking collaborations with musicians from Mali, Mongolia, China and Siberia. Roswell Rudd conducts master classes and workshops, as well as continuing to perform. His most recent recording is a collaboration with the vocalist Heather Masse entitled August Love Song.
THE OLDERS, Roswell Rudd and Verna Gillis, are ready to release their new song/video AWESOME & GRUESOME.
We’d like to give a special THANK YOU to Verna Gillis for her help in creating this episode. Podcast is edited by Geoff Countryman.
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A Year Ends, A Year Begins
Getting ready to close out a great year for creative music! A challenging year in some other ways, admittedly...
We are aiming to reach a new high in our community of subscribers. If you listen to the music we make -- my music, that of Rudy Royston, Ryan Keberle, Linda Oh, Greg Ward, podcasts, special releases, we would really like to hear from you. To make this sustainable, we are looking to gather just a few more subscribers before the year ends. That could be you!
In January, we will release the first tracks of our 2017 Subscription Series, Metamorphosis, featuring myself, Wadada Leo Smith, Oliver Lake, Fred Frith, Kris Davis, Matt Mitchell (on modular synth), Yasushi Nakamura, and Andrew Cyrille. It's a series you are not going to want to miss. The project will play live at Lincoln Center in New York on March 3 and 4.
To further entice you to join us as this year ends, subscribers at Levels 2 and 3 will get Paperback edition CDs of the 2015 Serial Sessions, and the 2016 New Sanctuary.
I hope you'll join us now -- we depend on your support as we move into what will be a very challenging new cycle. We will always keep producing great creative music in response!
Best wishes for the holiday season and beyond.
Dave
Trumpet Music Days and Nights
New Trumpet Music is something I've been involved in for a long time. Roy Campbell, Jr. and I decided, in 2002, to organize a group to support new music and musicians involved with the instrument. I've been president of this all volunteer, musician-run organization since that time.
This week, from September 24 through 29, FONT Music will present 6 days and nights of music in New York. Aside from all the normal great music in New York, this festival adds:
- A night of cross-genre new music with Asphalt Orchestra and yMusic at Rockwood on the 24th;
- Thomas Bergeron's arrangements of Messiaen in "Sacred Feast" 25th;
- Marquis Hill's "Signatures in Brass" with 5 other top players on the 26th;
- Two experimental nights at Downtown Music Gallery curated by Nate Wooley and Aaron Shragge, 27 & 28;
- Celebration of Dr. Eddie Henderson on September 29 at The New School.
All information and tickets can be found at FONTMusic.org
FONT Music is a group whose mission is dear to me. There's no stylistic boundary to the music. No boundary in terms of community, gender, age, ambition. It's all music, all varieties, supporting the players and composers.
Thank you for reading and listening. I hope to see you at some of these events. Please say hello, I will be there with open ears.
Dave Douglas
Present Joys
Order CD/LP/Digital
“An interesting format to hear jazz musicians perform in. Exposed, risky and with the potential to go in any number of directions.”
London Jazz News
“[A] beautiful new album of duets.”
Richard Scheinin
Pre-order "Present Joys" at the Greenleaf Music Store Today
Greenleaf Music is proud to announce that "Present Joys" is now available for pre-order at the Greenleaf Music store and iTunes. Out July 22, "Present Joys" is available on CD, download and a numbered limited-edition 180-gram vinyl (with free album download).
The Sacred Harp, Ye Olde New-England Psalm-Tunes, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion: these ancient "tunebooks" form the basic repertoire for countless musical groups that keep the tradition of "shape-note" singing alive. Longtime friends and collaborators, trumpeter Dave Douglas and pianist Uri Caine, reunite as a duo on this recording, exploring these 18th and 19th century American songs and their influence on jazz and popular music.
ANFTD #22: Ingrid Laubrock
Ingrid's latest CD on Intakt is "The Zürich Concert” with Ted Reichman (accordion), Ben Davis (cello), Tom Arthurs (trumpet), Liam Noble (piano), Mary Halvorson (guitar), Ingrid Laubrock (tenor + soprano saxophones), Drew Gress (bass) and Tom Rainey (drums + xylophone). She will also be performing July 25, 2014 at The Jazz Gallery, NYC. See her website for details.
Music played in the podcast:
Ingrid Laubrock and Tom Rainey
And Other Desert Towns (Relative Pitch Records)
Vogelfrei (Unpublished)
played by the Tri-centric Orchestra
Commissioned by The Tri-centric Orchestra and performed at Roulette
Jason Hwang, Scott Tixier, Sarah Bernstein, Skye Steele, Gwen Laster,Curtis Stewart, Julianne Carney, Brenda Vincent, violinJessica Pavone, Erin Wright, Brian Thompson, violaTomas Ulrich, Marika Hughes, Chris Hoffman, celloCarl Testa, Ken Filiano, bassJosh Sinton, Mike McGinnis, Oscar Noriega, reedsKatie Scheele, Libby Van Cleve, oboe/English hornSara Schoenbeck, Dana Jessen, bassoonMichel Gentile, Yukari, fluteNate Wooley, Stephanie Richards, trumpetVincent Chancey, Rachel Drehmann, French hornCurtis Hasselbring, tromboneJay Rozen, tubaChris Dingman, David Shively, percussionsAmy Crawford, pianoKyoko Kitamura, Kamala Sankaram, Anne Rhodes, Yoon Sun Choi, K.Fung, Tomas Cruz, Nick Hallett, Roland Burks, Michael Douglas Jones,Peter Stewart, voicesTaylor Ho Bynum, conductor
Zauberberg
The Zürich Concert / Ingrid Laubrock Octet (INTAKT)
Ted Reichman (accordion), Ben Davis (cello), Tom Arthurs (tpt), Liam Noble (piano), Mary Halvorson (g), Ingrid Laubrock (tenor + soprano saxophones), Drew Gress (b), Tom Rainey (drums + xylophone)
#2 - #3 (Unpublished)
Ingrid Laubrock (ts,as), Tim Berne (as), Ben Gerstein (tbn), Dan Peck (tuba), Tom Rainey (d)
Prelude To A Kiss
Tom Rainey OBBLIGATO (INTAKT)
Tom Rainey (d), Ingrid Laubrock (tenor+soprano saxophones), Kris Davis (p), Ralph Alessi (tpt), Drew Gress (b)
Dave Douglas Keystone "Moonshine"
Dog Star
Dave Douglas (trumpet), Marcus Strickland (tenor sax), Adam Benjamin (Rhodes), Brad Jones (baby bass), Gene Lake (drums), DJ Olive (turntables)
Hard Choices and Non-American Football
The World Cup is such a kick every time it comes around. (Yes, that pun deserves a yellow card, I will be more careful). Wonderfully international and egalitarian as it is, watching the latest matches has me thinking through some tough choices. And noticing some of the madness around it.
Speaking of hard choices, by now you've most likely seen the recent meme about the trolley problem:
There's a runaway train barreling down the tracks. You see five people tied up ahead, unable to move. The train's headed straight for them. Miraculously, there's a lever next to you which will switch the train to a different track. Tragically, you notice there's also one person tied up on the other track. There's no intermediate switch, the train can only go on one track or another. Do nothing, and the train kills five people. Or do you pull the lever, saving five, but killing one? Tough choice. Most people quickly choose #2 -- doing less harm.
Here is "The Trolley Song" to listen to while you read the rest. Since we're talking about Brazil, thank you, Joao Gilberto.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zMSOgiumlk&feature=youtu.be
There's a variation on this enigma called The Fat Man:
As above, the train is hurtling down a track towards five people. This time you are on a bridge overhead, and you can stop the train by dropping a heavy weight in front of it! Also, there's a very fat man next to you. Your only way to stop the train is to push the fat man over the bridge and onto the track, killing him to save five. Should you proceed?
Yikes. Most people pause here because you actually have to actively cause harm this time to stop a worse outcome. What would you do? There is no right answer.
Luckily this is all hypothetical. This is not like having to choose between the Village Vanguard and The Stone, where there are two great bands you'd like to hear. Choosing one means missing the other. Or hearing one your all time heroes at an overseas jazz festival versus going back to the hotel to get a good night of sleep before tomorrow's early wake up call and travel to the next gig. This happens to me at least five times per summer.
If you've been watching the World Cup, like it or not you've had to make some difficult choices. This has nothing to do with the chauvinism of Ann Coulter (or with Hillary Clinton's memoir, "Hard Choices."). Coulter said, "I promise you: No American whose great-grandfather was born here is watching soccer." My family's been here a long, long time and we're all freaking out over the Brazil games. My friend Marc Ribot responded by saying:
Most of the Americans I know whose great grandfathers were born here are Black. Most of my African American friends certainly seem interested in soccer. But somehow I don’t think they were who Coulter had in mind. I don’t know many whites whose great grandfathers were born here. Of the ones I do know know, some seem to like watching soccer. Are my friends representative? I don’t know. But that begs the questions: Why exactly would anyone care what a dwindling minority of politically marginal white American non-soccer watchers does or thinks? And who still believes Ann Coulter’s 'promises'?
No, the choice is whether to simply appreciate the awesome skills and brilliant teamwork of the sport, as opposed to honoring the suffering and displacement caused by the games (by boycotting and protesting them).
Billions of dollars are spent on stadiums that may never get used again. These billions get spent in a country of rampant poverty and inequality--in the favelas people could really use the money. In addition, there are preferential contracts for FIFA that eliminate any leverage for workers and displaced families. Yikes indeed.
And yet, it's a remarkable year for the sport. The USA has a viable team this time around and has joined the group of 16. It's hard not to be enthusiastic for Tim Howard and the squad. There have been thrilling matches. South and Central America have been dominant this year. Epic battles have eliminated big traditional giants. It's like a hundred degrees and 95% humidity and these guys run for ninety minutes straight. Amazing.
So, what to do? (If you're England, go home, apparently. Sorry, Nick).
It's one of those moments where you have to hold two competing thoughts in your mind. The matches are good, the message is good. The management is exploitative, the money corrupts, inequality abounds. How much is my decision to patronize the games complicit in the problems? Who knows? Maybe not at all.
I'm a musician, lucky with the kinds of choices I get to make. If you could keep the trolley from hitting anybody, that'd be good, right? You could catch the first set at The Stone and the second set at the Vanguard. Hear Sonny Rollins and then hope to take a nap tomorrow afternoon before the gig.
Tuesday we'll find out whether our team can vanquish Belgium. I'll be rooting for USA, but I also love Belgium, and I am grateful our team has come even this far.
And we can all hope some good comes out of this for Brazil and Brazilians.
Hear a Preview of "Present Joys"
Hear a preview of "Present Joys," the new release from Dave Douglas and Uri Caine, on France Musique radio.
"Present Joys" is out July 22 via Greenleaf Music, and available for pre-order via iTunes now.
Riverside European Tour Dates
Here are the tour dates for Riverside in Europe. Super excited to be reunited with the bass man from this video from a few years back: Jim Hall, Steve Swallow and Bob Moses, Berlin 1968: "The Touch of Your Lips."
Like.
Chet Doxas, saxophone and clarinet, Chet's brother Jim on drums, myself, and Steve Swallow on bass will be playing music from the Greenleaf release "Riverside" at festivals throughout Europe.
We honor Jimmy Giuffre, about whom there have been some recent new releases and an interesting piece by Nate Chinen in the New York Times.
Here's a clip of the Jimmy Giuffre Trio with Jim Hall and Buddy Clark in 1959. And here's a clip, "Thrush," from the Riverside album.
Hope to see you out there!
Dave
"Present Joys" Available for Pre-Order Today
Greenleaf Music is proud to announce that "Present Joys" is now available for pre-order at iTunes. Out July 22, "Present Joys" is available on CD, download and a numbered limited-edition 180-gram vinyl (with free album download).
The Sacred Harp, Ye Olde New-England Psalm-Tunes, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion: these ancient "tunebooks" form the basic repertoire for countless musical groups that keep the tradition of "shape-note" singing alive. Longtime friends and collaborators, trumpeter Dave Douglas and pianist Uri Caine, reunite as a duo on this recording, exploring these 18th and 19th century American songs and their influence on jazz and popular music.
Jazz in June: 15% off all Dave Douglas Titles
Hi Friends,
We ask you to please enjoy the Greenleaf store during the month of June: 15% off all Dave Douglas titles with discount code DDjune. That includes 20+ different records! It also includes sheet music, of which you will find much... Catch up now on your Dave Douglas catalog.
Best wishes,
Dave
Cuong Vu to Perform Dave Douglas Pieces
Photo Credit: Artist's Facebook page
Very excited to report that trumpeter Cuong Vu will be playing Dave Douglas's music in Monmouth, Oregon with Western Oregon University. Keller Coker made arrangements of several Dave Douglas pieces for big band, and in Dave's absence Cuong will appear as soloist with the band. We would love to hear this!
Here's a link to the orchestra and Professor Coker.