Avant Music News

Craig Taborn (Photo credit: _mattxb)

Taborn’s upcoming gigs is previewed, and he is profiled as well.

Twin Cities native Craig Taborn makes a rare Twin Cities appearance as bandleader on April 26th when he headlines a far-ranging evening the Walker Art Center under the title “Heroic Frenzies.” With his long-running ensembles, Junk Magic and the Craig Taborn Trio, as well as solo acoustic piano, Taborn will bring together, over four sets, a diversity of talents (e.g., Dave King, Mat Maneri, Erik Fratzke, Chris Speed, Thomas Morgan, Gerald Cleaver) and visions, not the least of which are his own. And it’s in part his American CD release celebration for Chants, the Craig Taborn Trio’s first recording after 8 years of collaboration, released this week on ECM.

John Zorn (cropped version) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From Herald Scotland:

This Saturday, to celebrate his 60th birthday, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and their principal guest conductor Ilan Volkov devote an entire evening to the comparatively classical side of Zorn. Though he began composing in the 1970s, the programme focuses on music from the last couple of decades: there are two pieces from 1996 – Kol Nidre and Orchestra Variations; there’s a song for soprano and orchestra, La machine et de l’être, written in 2000; there’s the sprawling Aporias (1994), originally a 40-minute studio album for piano, children’s choir (here voices from St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh) and orchestra; and there’s a new piece, suppôts et suppliciations, which has been specially commissioned by the BBC and receives its world premiere on Saturday.

The article also provides a nice profile of Zorn and his music.

Related articles

• Spinning On Air in The Greene Space with Yoko Ono, John Zorn, and others (wnyc.org)

From Bleader:

In the 90s fans of adventurous jazz and improvised music could hardly avoid bassist Michael Formanek even if they wanted to—he was a robust, driving, and empathetic presence on many records, especially those made by Bloodcount, Tim Berne‘s powerful quartet with fellow reedist Chris Speed and drummer Jim Black. The bassist was a crucial anchor in that band’s complex, interlocking music, whose sound has been carried on by a new generation in New York and London—in the latter city, Bloodcount sometimes seems like the Velvet Underground of the current avant-garde jazz scene.