Avant Music News

From Dither Quartet, a mini-festival in New York:

Dither’s Invisible Dog Extravaganza!
Celebrating the release of their debut album on Henceforth Records.

Performances by:
Dither
Kathleen Supové
Nick Didkovsky
Elliott Sharp
Matthew Welch
Loud Objects
Mantra Percussion
Redhooker
Love Like Deloreans
The Deprivation Orchestra of NYC

Saturday, June 12, 2010
@ The Invisible Dog Art Center
51 Bergen St. in Brooklyn, NY
Immediately off of the Bergen F/G, a short walk from the 2/3/4/5/A/C/R

Doors at 7:00, Concert until 11:00, reception to follow
$6 admission
Beer Lovingly Provided by Brooklyn Brewery!

Dither Electric Guitar Quartet, New York’s rising force in contemporary guitar music, announces Dither’s Invisible Dog Extravaganza! in celebration of the release of their debut album on Henceforth Records. On Saturday, June 12, Dither will be joined by an eclectic community of collaborators to perform music that spans minimalism, noise, free improvisation, Celtic music, psychedelic synth-pop and the avant garde. $6 will earn you admission to the gallery, curious musical offerings throughout the evening, inexpensive drinks provided by Brooklyn Brewery, and a special reduced album price!

Highlights will include Elliott Sharp performing selections from Octal for eight-string guitarbass, a solo bagpipe performance from progressive piper Matthew Welch, a collaboration between pianist Kathleen Supové and composer/guitarist Nick Didkovsky, and the Deprivation Orchestra of NY’s rendition of Eric km Clark’s “Deprivation Music #1″ for a large ensemble of hearing-deprived musicians! Dither will perform selections from their album, as well as the the world premiere of Eve Beglarian’s “The Garden of Cyrus”, Fred Frith‘s “Stick Figures” performed by two players on six table-top guitars, and James Tenney’s rarely heard “Septet” for six guitars and electric bass.

The Invisible Dog Art Center is a beautiful new space in downtown Brooklyn. This historic building was once a manufacturing plant for invisible dogs in the 70′s, and is now converted into a spacious industrial gallery. The Invisible Dog is adjacent to the Bergen F/G line, and a short walk from the 2/3/4/5/A/C/R lines.

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This Weekend at Philly’s Ars Nova Workshop:

Sunday, May 9, 8pm
KARL BERGER’S IN THE SPIRIT OF DON CHERRY
Karl Berger, vibraphone + piano; Dave Ballou, trumpet; Peter Apfelbaum,
tenor saxophone; Kenny Wessel, guitar; Ingrid Sertso, vocals; Mark Helias,
bass; and Tani Tabbal, drums

International House Philadelphia, 3701 Chestnut Street
$12 General Admission

Please join Ars Nova Workshop as we conclude our season-long “Composer
Portrait: Don Cherry” series with a very rare appearance from Karl Berger’s
In the Spirit of Don Cherry. A long-time associate of Cherry’s and founder
of the Creative Music Studio where Cherry developed many of his musical
treasures, Berger presents an all-star ensemble featuring musicians who
performed and studied with the late innovator. Berger’s septet will carry
the exuberant quality of Cherry’s music while performing early Cherry
compositions including “Symphony for Improvisers”, the seminal 1966
recording in which Berger participated.

Pianist, vibraphonist, composer and arranger Karl Berger (b.1935) is a six
time winner of the Downbeat Critics Poll as a jazz soloist, and recipient of
numerous composition awards including commissions by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation. Together with Ornette Coleman and Ingrid Sertso he founded the legendary Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, New York. Berger is known for his collaborations with Carla Bley, Lee Konitz, John McLaughlin, Dave Holland, Sam Rivers, Pharoah Sanders and the Globe Unity Orchestra. His ensemble includes Peter Apfelbaum, Don Cherry’s music director and associate for years and member of the Trey Anastasio Band, Jazz Mandolin Project and Levon Helm Band; Mark Helias, who started his career performing with Cherry, Anthony Braxton and Dewey Redman, and continues to lead his own trio Open Loose with Tony Malaby and Tom Rainey; and Ingrid Sertso, a captivating, adventurous vocalist, capable of blending jazz, African, South American and other world-beat influences into a distinctive, hypnotic sound was Cherry’s favorite singer/poet. He asked her to write the lyrics to his famed Art Deco, which is part of the ensemble’s repertoire.

Saturday, May 8, 8pm
RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA + BOBBY ZANKEL’S WARRIORS OF THE WONDERFUL SOUND

Montgomery County Community College, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell
$25 Admission

Guggenheim fellow and 2009 Downbeat International Critics Poll Winner
Rudresh Mahanthappa is one of the most innovative young musicians and
composers in jazz today. He has incorporated the culture of his Indian
ancestry and has fused myriad influences to create a truly groundbreaking
artistic vision. The Brooklyn-born saxophonist Bobby Zankel first began
attracting attention in the early 1970’s for his work with Cecil Taylor’s
“Unit Core Ensemble”. His underground reputation grew on the New York Loft
Scene, where he performed with the likes of Ray Anderson, William Parker,
and Sunny Murray. Commissioned specifically for Zankel’s big band Warriors
of the Wonderful Sound, featuring many of the best improvisers living in
Philadelphia today, Mahanthappa has composed a new work entitled DASHA.

From NY’s Roulette:

Noa Guy: Drops of Consciousness Part Three
Tue Jun 1 – 8:30 PM
Drops of Conciseness is a series of concerts documenting composer/performer Noa Guy’s recovery from a severe brain injury 17 years ago. In part I and II I she explored the long journey back from a world of darkness and pain, and the birth into a new reality. Part III is not a linear continuation of the last two chapters. “This performance is a celebration of acceptance, love of life and the realization that I am not my injury. With the support of my friends I explore the hidden possibilities that are embedded in the impossibilities imposed on me by my injury. I can not walk without crutches, but I can move without them. The piano revealed to me a whole new and mysterious sound world.” Tonight’s performers include Noa Guy, Thomas Buckner, and Antonio Pio Fini with sound environment design by Saul Macwillians.

Brenda Hutchinson: Speaking with the Dead and Tiny Offerings
Thu Jun 3 – 8:30 PM
Brenda Hutchinson is a composer and sound artist whose work is based on the cultivation and encouragement of openness in her own life and in those she works with. Hutchinson encourages participants to experiment with sound, share stories, and make music. Using ultrasonic microphones and voicemail, Speaking with the Dead will search the ether for the unhearable present while invoking voices from the past. Tiny Offerings is a collaborative performance event where each person who attends is invited to make an offering to everyone else. Artists are encouraged to bring or do something other than what they usually do- i.e. some other medium or type of performance. The offerings are often, but not exclusively in the form of a performance. An offering can be anything people like to do (tell jokes, stories, sing, draw, things we often think of a “talents”, etc.) or something they know how to do (a weird trick or genetic tic for instance) or want to “show and tell” (a drawing, photo, sculpture, found object of interesting or sentimental value, etc.) There’s a time limit of 3 minutes (less is more).

Brooke Gillespie (Jerome Foundation Commission)
Fri Jun 4 – 8:30 PM
The Holy Experiment is the solo performance of Brooke Hamre Gillespie, who was born in Ely, Minnesota in 1979. She plays bells, Tibetan singing bowls, suling flutes, recorders, electric violin, electric guitar, and uses her voice to navigate the new worlds created through the sounds. Gillespie writes. “My work is intended to reach not only those in the immediate area who listen, but consciousness is given to the sounds and vibrations produced with insight into the idea that all vibration is interactive and that every sound created eventually makes its way through the cosmos…”

Carl Maguire: That Truly Happens (Jerome Foundation Commission)
Sun Jun 6 – 8:30 PM
That Truly Happens is an extended work composed by Carl Maguire for his new strings and percussion band with Stephanie Griffin, Alex Waterman, and Dan Weis. Funding for That Truly Happens has been generously provided by the Jerome Foundation. Moving to New York in 1995, Carl engaged in a curriculum of liberal arts at Hunter College, Schenkerian analysis at Mannes, and post-tonal theory at CUNY Graduate Center. He studied piano with Fred Hersch, Marilyn Crispell, and Ursula Oppens, and of particular importance, composition with Mark Dresser. Acclaimed by Downtown Music Gallery as “one of the best pianists and composers to emerge from the downtown network over the past few years,” Carl Maguire is active as a performer and collaborator with a variety of New York creative artists. Since 2001, Carl has led Floriculture. The band plays exclusively Maguire’s compositions, which call on the musicians to integrate extended sections of exact notation with improvisational passages to create a vivid and compelling aural landscape. Donald Elfman says “These are exceptional players, but each man’s every note is at the service of making brilliant, involving music.” In 2006, Floriculture released its first album on Between The Lines, to critical acclaim. In 2009, Floriculture released its second album, Sided Silver Solid, on Firehouse 12 Records.

SKELETONS Big Band 2 Nights!
Tues/Wed Jun 8 & 9 – 8:30 PM
SKELETONS’ usual quartet is expanded here for three nights of new compositions, ideas, and improvisations. A rare opportunity to hear the band explore the outer limits of their work! Featuring excerpts and new arrangements from a collection of songs in progress “PEOPLE” , “To Slow the Pathsweepers” a long form piece based around conversations in Greyhound busses and stations, and beyond… MORE INFO TBA
Inspiraling: Telematic Jazz Explorations @ NYU – UCSD
Sun Jun 13 – 7:00 PM NYC (4:00 PM PDT San Diego)
An unprecedented concert of new jazz works with renowned composers and performers for the telematic music medium. Telematic music is real-time performance via the internet by musicians in different geographic locations. Performers will be located in New York and San Diego, playing together as one trans-continental ensemble in real-time and “real-space”. There will be local audiences as well as a world-wide webcast. The music explores elements of jazz fused with artistic properties of telematic technology including multiplicity, heterophony, swing, polyphony, synchronicity, and nodality. The transparent densities and intensities are manifested to create this new music reality of telematic jazz. Tonights concert is free. PLEASE NOTE: the New York concert takes place at NYU – 35 W. 4th Street, 6th Floor, New York NY, 10012. Music Technology Program, Steinhardt School, New York University. 7:00pmEDT

Composers – Mark Dresser, Gerry Hemingway, Oliver Lake, Sarah Weaver
San Diego Performers – Hafez Modirzadeh, saxophone, Michael Dessen, trombone, Alex Cline, percussion, Mark Dresser, contrabass
New York Performers – Amir ElSaffar, trumpet, Oliver Lake, saxophone, Min Xiao-Fen, pipa, Gerry Hemingway, percussion, Sarah Weaver, conductor
Coordinators – Mark Dresser and Sarah Weaver

Co-Presented by Roulette Intermedia, Inc.

Ned Rothenberg and the Mivos String Quartet : Tzadik CD Release Event
Mon Jun 14 – 8:30 PM
Other kinds of music might entertain you, cheer you up or pump the blood, but his (Rothenberg’s) clarifies the mind and throws your soul wide open”. Manfred Pabst, Neue Züricher Zeitung
Ned Rothenberg and the Mivos String Quartet celebrate the release of Rothenberg’s Quintet for Clarinet and Strings originally commissioned by Roulette through NYSCA and out now on John Zorn‘s Tzadik Composer’s series. In addition Ned Rothenberg will perform 2 selections from Ryu Nashi, new music for shakuhachi from Tzadik’s New Japan series. He will be joined here by Ralph Samuelson, shakuhachi. The Mivos Quintet is Olivia de Prato and Joshua Modney, violins, Victor Lowrie, viola and Isabel Castelvi, cello. Composer/Performer Ned Rothenberg has been internationally acclaimed for both his solo and ensemble music, presented for the past 30 years in North and South America, Europe and Asia. He performs primarily on the alto saxophone, clarinet , bass clarinet, and the shakuhachi – an endblown Japanese bamboo flute.

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