From Ear to the Earth:

100 x John
A Global Salute to John Cage in Sound and Image

As a salute to Cage for his leadership in what Joel Chadabe called “the great opening up of music to all sounds”, and in the spirit of the 100th anniversary year of his birth, the theme of our festival this year is 100 x John. In 1937, in a talk titled The Future of Music: Credo, John Cage said, “I believe that the use of noise to make music will continue and increase until we reach a music produced through the aid of electrical instruments which will make available for musical purposes any and all sounds that can be heard …”

PROGRAM

All events are taking place at White Box, located at 329 Broome Street, NYC. Suggested donation: $10 per event. For more information, visit: http://www.eartotheearth.org

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20

5 – 7 p.m.: Meet Phill Niblock
A reception for the launch of Working Title, a panoramic view of multimedia artist Phill Niblock’s activities since the 1960s. The bilingual book (French/English), edited by Yvan Etienne contains articles, reviews, interviews and four films on DVDs.

7 – 10 p.m.: Cagean Mix #1 & Six Solos
Cagean Mix #1
A multimedia mix of sounds and images from around the world, including locations as remote and diverse as Gorak Shep (Nepal), Yucatan (Mexico), Sogn og Fjordane, Aurland (Norway), and Horseshoe Bay (Texas). Images are by media artist Luke DuBois. Sound artists include Nate Aldrich, Rodolphe Alexis, Michael Austin, Walter Branchi, Warren Burt, Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Alessandro Cipriani, Philip Dadson, H. E. Cicada Brokaw Dennis, Luca Forcucci, Ricardo Garcia, Thomas Gerwin, Adam Gooderham, James Harley, Andrea Juan, Gregory Kramer, Bernie Krauss, Stephen Lilly, Julian Mock, Giorgio Magnanensi, David Monacchi, Katharine Norman, Inge Olmheim, Garth Paine, Maria Papadomanolaki, Robin Parmar, Amandine Pras, Hanns Holger Rutz, Giorgio Sancristoforo, Eleonor Sandresky, Alyse Santoro, and Robert Scott Thompson, among others.

Six Solos
Rodolphe Alexis: Altimira Station at Dawn
Recorded in a Costa Rican rangers station in La Amsitad International Park, one of the most preserved and wild lands of Central America.

Adam Gooderham: Dawn at Goongerah
Recorded in Goongerah, East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia.

Walter Bianchi: Silver Arrow
Recorded in Orvieto, Italy, during the classic automobile race called La Castellana.

Warren Burt: Wombat Hill
100 recordings (or 10-second sound snapshots) made in the Wombat Hill Botanical Gardens of Daylesford, Victoria, Australia.

Thomas Gerwin: 24 Stunden Viki 02
Segment 2 of a 24-hour audio portrait of the Viktoria-Luise-Platz, Berlin’s famed square.

Arsenije Jovanovic: Resava Variations
Stalactites recorded 700 hundreds meters underground in a cave in Eastern Serbia.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21

7 – 8 p.m.: Cagean Mix #2
A multimedia mix of sounds and images related to water, featuring locations such as Antarctica, Galgibaga Beach (Goa, India), Tomales Bay (California) and Hudson River (New York City). Images are by media artist Luke DuBois. Sound artists include Tom Beyer, David Dexler, Paul Geluso, Andrea Juan, Atle Pakusch Gundersen, Maggi Payne, and Stephen Saldanha.

8 – 10 p.m.: Performances
David Rothenberg: MagiCicada Unexpected Road
Joseph Kubera: Scenes from Staten Island
Garth Paine: Commentary Prelude
Guy Barash: For JC

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22

Noon – 8 p.m.: Sounds & Images
David de Gandarias: Psarocolius Montezuma
Part of Microcerculus, a musical composition dedicated to the struggles for the conservation of the natural environment.

Arsenije Jovanovic: Souvenirs du Marché Aux Puces
The sounds of many gadgets around us, hiding values different from those for which they were originally designed.

Rodolphe Alesis: Dry Wet Evergreen
Recorded on Costa Rica’s Mesoamerican Biological Corridor –a biodiversity hotspot and territorial refuge for many neo-tropical species in danger of extinction.

Leah Barclay: Confluence
Exploring Wolf Rock, one of Australia’s most distinctive and diverse aquatic landscapes and home to a large population of endangered Grey Nurse sharks. Featuring Richard Haynes on Bass Clarinet with processing site-specific hydrophone recordings.

8 – 10 p.m.: Performances
Don Bosley, Tom Beyer, and Susan Kaprov: Puzzle Variations
Richard Lainhart: Manhattan Sounds
Joel Chadabe and Orin Buck: Many Times Times Square

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 23

5 – 10pm: Cagean Mix #3
A multimedia mix of sounds and images related to New York City. Images are by media artist Luke DuBois. Sound artists include William Blakeney, Guy Barash, Alban Bassuet, Justin H Brierley, Joel Chadabe, Alexis Clements, Alvin Curran, Patrick Derivaz, Janeil Engelstad, Anne Guthrie, Hallvardur Asgeirsson Herzog, Joseph Kubera, Justin Mathew, and Ronan Shai, among others.

From the PORK PIE HAT JAZZ SERIES 2012:

PORK PIE HAT JAZZ SERIES 2012 proudly presents

Stephen Haynes POMEGRANATE: NEW MUSIC FOR BILL DIXON

Stephen Haynes: trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn
Joe Morris: contrabass violin, banjo
William Parker: contrabass violin, zintir
Warren Smith: drums, percussion, marimba

8:00 PM
Friday, December 7, 2012
Charter Oak Cultural Center
21 Charter Oak Ave.
Hartford, CT

The Pork Pie Hat Jazz Series 2012 comes to a close with a special concert dedicated to the singular composer / trumpeter Bill Dixon. Dixon was Haynes’ teacher, mentor, colleague and friend. This music was conceived as a tribute to Bill Dixon and is the premier performance of a new ensemble.

Related articles

• Bill Dixon, 1925-2010 (secretsocietymusic.org)

From NYTimes.com:

Bang on a Can All-Stars (Saturday) The expressive Rinpa movement in Japanese painting inspires a multimedia program by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, including new works by the jazz pianist Vijay Iyer and the Japanese post-minimalist composer Mamoru Fujieda. Somei Satoh’s “Shu” (Spells) is accompanied by a visual landscape designed by the motionographer Nobuyuki Hanabusa. At 7:30 p.m., Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, Manhattan, (212) 715-1258, japansociety.org; sold out. (da Fonseca-Wollheim)

Mantra Percussion (Thursday through Dec. 15) This ensemble, formed in 2007, takes on Michael Gordon, who has made a name with compositions that mix electronic and acoustic instruments. In “Timber,” scored for six amplified planks of wood, he creates subtle textures and patterns that seem to ricochet around space. At 7:30 p.m., Fishman Space, Fisher Building, Brooklyn Academy of Music, 321 Ashland Place, near Lafayette Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, (718) 636-4100, bam.org; $20. (da Fonseca-Wollheim)

Voices From Venezuela (Friday, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday) This mini-series within Carnegie Hall’s capacious, wonderful Voices From Latin America festival features Gustavo Dudamel and his youthful Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra. The repertory of the orchestra’s two-night stand on the hall’s main stage on Monday and Tuesday, including works by composers like Silvestre Revueltas, Esteban Benzecry and Heitor Villa-Lobos, is almost never done here, and it is sure to be galvanizing. On Friday the Venezuelan Brass Ensemble, drawn from the orchestra’s ranks, plays blazing works in the Stern Auditorium, while on Saturday in Zankel Hall members of the orchestra will present four recent chamber works. Friday, Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m., Isaac Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $15 to $80 on Friday; limited ticket availability on Monday and Tuesday. Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall; $38 to $44. (Woolfe)

Related articles

• David Lang to Hold Carnegie Hall Composer’s Chair (wqxr.org)
• Classical Music and Opera Listings for Nov. 30-Dec. 6 (nytimes.com)

From NYTimes.com:

Grass Roots (Thursday) This rough-and-ready avant-garde cohort — the alto saxophonist Darius Jones, the baritone saxophonist Alex Harding, the bassist Sean Conly and the drummer Chad Taylor — has a searing new album on Aum Fidelity, its self-titled debut. A mix of loosely sketched compositions (by all four members) and collective free improvisation, it embraces the lineage of 1970s free jazz, without succumbing to fixed nostalgia. At 7 and 8:30 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (347) 422-0248, barbesbrooklyn.com; $10 cover for each set. (Chinen)

John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble (Monday) The drummer and composer John Hollenbeck uses his namesake orchestra as a panoramic canvas, blending color and texture with an eye toward the sweeping view. He has a gorgeous new album, “Songs I Like a Lot,” due out on Sunnyside next month, featuring his arrangements executed by the Frankfurt Radio Big Band; here he has the Large Ensemble at his disposal, along with the album’s two unerringly expressive singers, Theo Bleckmann and Kate McGarry. At 8 p.m., Roulette, 509 Atlantic Avenue, near Third Avenue, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, (917) 267-0363, roulette.org; $15, $10 for members, students and 65+. (Chinen)

Irabbagast Records Festival (Friday) The inexhaustibly creative young saxophonist Jon Irabagon has simultaneously released two albums on his new label, Irabbagast, including “Unhinged,” which he celebrates here. As on that album, he leads his band Outright!, a shrewdly caterwauling ensemble with Ralph Alessi on trumpet, Jacob Sacks on piano and Tom Rainey on drums. (Eivind Opsvik fills in here for John Hébert on bass.) At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village, (212) 989-9319, corneliastreetcafe.com; $10 cover for each set, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen)

Medeski Martin & Wood (Tuesday through Dec. 16) This peripatetic groove machine recently passed the 20-year mark, with strong evidence that it hasn’t grown complacent. Next week the band — John Medeski on keyboards, Chris Wood on bass and Billy Martin on drums — plays a residency with a different guest each night. On Tuesday their outside collaborator is the Senegalese hand drummer Aïyb Dieng; on Wednesday it’s the guitarist Nels Cline. On Thursday it will be another visionary guitarist, Marc Ribot. At 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 475-8592, bluenote.net; $40 cover at tables, $30 cover at the bar, with a $5 minimum. (Chinen)

New Languages Presents: Music Factory (Friday through Tuesday) Equal parts conceptual-art marathon, sociopolitical statement and free-improv happening, Music Factory can plainly be described as a continuous 96-hour performance, featuring some five dozen musicians. Beginning at midnight on Friday, it will feature many configurations of improvisers in a project conceived by the multi-instrumentalist Alan Sondheim and organized with the saxophonist Jackson Moore. The industrial connotations of the title are purposeful: admission is pay as you wish (though advance tickets, $10 to $100, are available), and the actual hourly “wage” (based on the amount of money collected at the time of purchase) will be displayed, both on site and at newlanguages.org, where the event will be streamed. Eyebeam Art & Technology Center, 540 West 21st Street at 11th Avenue, Chelsea, (212) 937-6580, eyebeam.org, musicfactory.brownpapertickets.com. (Chinen)

Weasel Walter, Mary Halvorson and Peter Evans (Sunday) Mr. Walter, a blunt-force, spasmodic drummer, joins with Ms. Halvorson, an engagingly spiky guitarist, and Mr. Evans, a scarily proficient trumpeter; the trio, previously devoted to spontaneous inventions, features some premeditated form on its second album, “Mechanical Malfunction” (Thirsty Ear). At 9:15 p.m., Death by Audio, 49 South Second Street, between Kent and Wythe Avenues, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, entertainment4every1.net; $7. (Chinen)