Avant Music News

English: Taylor Ho Bynum, Moers Festival 2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

New Haven’s Firehouse 12 has a few more shows coming up to round out the year:

Friday, November 16th at 8:30 and 10:00 p.m.
Donny McCaslin Quartet
Firehouse 12
45 Crown Street New Haven, CT

Donny McCaslin (saxophone); Fima Ephron (bass); Kevin Hays (piano); Nate Wood (drums)

On Friday, November 16th, Firehouse 12 is pleased to present tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin and his quartet featuring bassist Fima Ephron, pianist and keyboardist Kevin Hays, and drummer Nate Wood as they celebrate the release of their new album Casting For Gravity (Greenleaf Music). McCaslin’s new album embraces electro-acoustic textures as he engages with the music of electronic musicians Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada.

McCaslin’s album Casting For Gravity has been heralded as “one of the smarter, most consistent contemporary jazz records of the last few years” (S Victor Aaron, Something Else!) and “a courageous, powerful musical statement that has moments of brilliance” (Ralph A. Miriello, Huffington Post). Nate Chinen of The New York Times wrote that Casting For Gravity is an “ambitious electro-acoustic venture – part gritty, part gleaming.”

McCaslin grew up in Santa Cruz, CA; inspired by his father, a pianist and vibraphonist, McCaslin started playing tenor saxophone at age 12. He attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston and toured with his mentor Gary Burton’s band for four years. He then went on to work with the Maria Schneider Orchestra and Dave Douglas Quintet in addition to leading his own projects. In 2006, McCaslin received a Doris Duke grant for new jazz composition. His previous album Perpetual Motion (Greenleaf Music) was released in 2011.

Friday, November 30th at 8:30 and 10:00 p.m.
Jason Robinson’s Janus Ensemble
Firehouse 12
45 Crown Street New Haven, CT

Jason Robinson (tenor saxophone); Marty Ehrlich (alto saxophone, bass clarinet); Liberty Ellman (guitar); Drew Gress (bass); George Schuller (drums)

On Friday, November 30th, Firehouse 12 is pleased to present tenor saxophonist Jason Robinson and the Janus Ensemble featuring saxophonist Marty Ehrlich, guitarist Liberty Ellman, bassist Drew Gress, and drummer George Schuller as they celebrate the release of Tiresian Symmetry (Cuneiform Records, 2012). Inspired by ancient Greek and Roman mythology, Robinson’s Janus Ensemble repertoire combines composition and virtuosic improvisation to create imaginative narratives in sound.

Robinson “has a warm expressive tone” (Richard Moule, Signal to Noise) and has been called “a potent improviser who occasionally steps in the Albert Ayler zone…[with] thoughtful writing and bold instincts” (Bill Milkowski, JazzTimes) and as someone who “brings some humor into the traditionally dour world of experimental music” (Stuart Kremsky, Cadence Magazine).

Robinson performs regularly as a soloist (with and without electronics), with his group the Janus Ensemble, and in a variety of collaborative contexts. He has performed at festivals and prominent venues in the US and internationally. He has performed and/or recorded with Peter Kowald, George Lewis, Anthony Davis, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Mark Dresser, the San Francisco Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, and the La Jolla Symphony. Robinson is currently an Assistant Professor of Music at Amherst College.

Friday, December 7th at 8:30 and 10:00 p.m.
Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet
Firehouse 12
45 Crown Street New Haven, CT

Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet); Jim Hobbs (alto saxophone); Bill Lowe (tuba, bass trombone); Mary Halvorson (guitar); Ken Filiano (bass); Tomas Fujiwara (drums)

On Friday, December 7th, Firehouse 12 is pleased to present cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum and his sextet for a performance that features his newest extended composition Navigation Abstract. The sextet will go into the recording studio at Firehouse 12 the next day to record this composition and others for future release on Firehouse 12 Records.

Critics have called Bynum “a young brass master and compelling composer” (Jon Garelick, Boston Phoenix), “one of the most exciting figures in jazz’s new power generation” (Steve Dollar, Time Out Chicago), and “one of his generation’s top avant-garde figures” (Phillip Lutz, The New York Times). In City Arts, David Adler writes “Bynum is a quick-witted and virtuosic player, steeped in the flutters, growls and extended techniques associated with the late Bill Dixon, the tunefulness of Don Cherry and bluesy humor of Lester Bowie.”

Bynum is the leader and co-leader of a number of ensembles in addition to his sextet including his chamber ensemble SpiderMonkey Strings, “little” big band Positive Catastrophe, and collaborations with Tomas Fujiwara, The Thirteenth Assembly, Book of Three and many more. Bynum has a longstanding association with composer Anthony Braxton and has worked with other avant-garde figures like Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, and Wadada Leo Smith. Bynum is also a founding partner of Firehouse 12 Records, and the president of Braxton’s Tri-Centric Foundation.

Charles Wuorinen, 1990′s (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From NYTimes.com:

Da Capo Chamber Players (Thursday) This distinguished new-music ensemble recently celebrated its 40th anniversary. In a concert titled “RhythmNation,” the group offers a lineup of works by aesthetically diverse composers: Steve Reich’s “Double Sextet,” Anna Clyne’s “Steelworks,” Christopher Theofanidis’s “Summer Verses” and Charles Wuorinen’s “Bearbeitungen über Das Glogauer Liederbuch.” At 8 p.m., Merkin Concert Hall, 129 West 67th Street, Manhattan, (212) 501-3330, kaufman-center.org; $20. (Schweitzer)

‘I Went to the House but Did Not Enter’ (Tuesday and Wednesday) Heiner Goebbels’ moody, stylized pieces, half-installations and half-performances, have become stalwarts in New York in recent years: his “Eraritjaritjaka” came in 2006 and “Stifters Dinge” in 2009. Still abstract and contemplative, this newer work, presented under the auspices of Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival, takes the form of melancholy, elegant tableaus that use texts by T.S. Eliot, Maurice Blanchot, Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett and music by Mr. Goebbels, performed by the excellent Hilliard Ensemble. At 7:30 p.m., Rose Theater, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th Street and Broadway, (212) 721-6500, whitelightfestival.org; $25 to $75. (Woolfe)

From NYTimes.com:

Karl Berger’s Improvisers Orchestra (Thursday) Mr. Berger, the composer, conductor and former guiding spirit of the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, N.Y., has set up a new residency for this loosely defined large ensemble, which features astute improvisers like the trumpeter Herb Robertson and the multireedist Peter Apfelbaum. The group, which also features Mr. Berger’s wife and longtime collaborator, the poet and vocalist Ingrid Sertso, will play an open rehearsal at 7:30 p.m., followed by a performance at 9 p.m. At El Taller, 2710 Broadway at 104th Street, third floor, Manhattan, (212) 665-9460, creativemusicfoundation.org, tallerlatino.org; $25, $10 for students; reservations are recommended. (Chinen)

Ben Holmes Quartet (Monday and Tuesday) The trumpeter Ben Holmes, whose areas of specialty include klezmer and Gypsy music, features this alert working band — with the trombonist Curtis Hasselbring, the bassist Matt Pavolka and the drummer Vinnie Sperrazza — on his appealing second album, “Anvil of the Lord” (Skirl). The same group celebrates that album’s release next week, first on a Monday-night double bill that also includes the pianist and singer Akiko Pavolka with her ensemble House of Illusion; and then in the first edition of a new residency at Barbès, the second Tuesday of every month. Monday at 8 p.m., Shapeshifter Lab, 18 Whitwell Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn, shapeshifterlab.com; $15. Tuesday at 7 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (347) 422-0248, barbesbrooklyn.com; $10 cover. (Chinen)

Guillermo Klein (Friday through Sunday) The intensely thoughtful pianist-composer-bandleader Guillermo Klein recently released “Carrera” (Sunnyside), his first album since moving back to his native Buenos Aires from Barcelona. It’s a song-oriented body of work, rich with melody, often featuring his affectingly unstudied singing voice. Mr. Klein seems likely to reach further in that direction next week, with a smaller-than-usual ensemble featuring the uncompromising Argentine vocalist Liliana Herrero. At 9 and 11 p.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037, villagevanguard.com; $25 cover, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen)

Reggie Nicholson Duo / Craig Harris Music for 4 Trombones (Friday) The New York chapter of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians presents its final concert of the season, with one half devoted to a duo performance by Reggie Nicholson, a forceful drummer, and Marty Ehrlich, a versatile saxophonist and clarinetist. The other half will feature a trombone quartet led by Craig Harris, with Ray Anderson, Art Baron and Aaron Johnson. At 8 p.m., Community Church of New York, 40 East 35th Street, Manhattan, (212) 683-4988, aacm-newyork.com; $30, $15 for students. (Chinen)