James Falzone at Chicago Cultural Center

Monday lunchtime I was at the Chicago Cultural Centre for James Falzone's solo concert "Sighs Too Deep For Words." 

I only managed to snap one picture before the battery died and it doesn't do the room justice. It's a very cool space that's suited to solo woodwinds.

Falzone doesn't rely on pyrotechnic displays of virtuosity to carry the concert (that's not to say he isn't a fine instrumentalist) but he always keeps the listener engaged. One way he does that is by providing plenty of sonic variety. Falzone spent most of his time on Bb Clarinet, but he also played Eb sopranino clarinet as well as bells, singing bowls, shurti box, launeddas (a reed instrument from Sardinia) and another (unidentified) wooden flute/whistle.

I thought it was a well constructed program. He could have easily stretched out "Sighs" for the entire set but instead played four works that offered plenty of variety yet managed to hang together pretty well. Steve Reich's "New York Counterpoint" was performed along with Falzone's recording of the work (it's a piece for multiple clarinets). And, in addition to the solo pieces, Bassist/Vocalist Katie Ernst joined in for two pieces - "There Is No Such Thing As Nostalgia" (inspired by the work of Archibald Motley - currently on show at the Cultural Center) and Duke Ellington's "Come Sunday."

It was my second time hearing Falzone play solo and it was a very nice way to spend a Monday lunchtime. If you have the chance to hear him play (solo or otherwise) - take it.

Surround Sound: Prairie and Beyond

Well.... after a week away I have some catching up to do.  

A couple of weeks back Roscoe Mitchell was in town.  Having been introduced to his work a couple of years back via the Art Ensemble of Chicago - in recent months I have been listening to a few of his works as a leader - "Sound" (Delmark 1966)... his classic sextet recording as well as the solo albums "The Solo Concert" (AECO 1974) "Live at the Muhle Hunziken (Cecma 1986) and "Solo [3]" (Mutable 2003).

L-R: Roelstraete, Decker, Vandermark, Jennings, Mitchell

Mitchell was one of the panelists for a discussion titles "Surround Sound: Prairie and Beyond" held at the Chicago Cultural Center.  The rest of the panel were:
Dieter Roelstraete (Moderator) - Curator at Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.
Pamela L. Jennings - has the long-winded title of... "Program Director for the Human Centered Computing Cluster programs and Cyberlearning Transforming Education programs in the Information and Intelligent Systems Division of the Computer Information Science and Engineering Directorate at the National Science Foundation."
Shawn Decker - Sound Artist. His work is currently on display at the Cultural Center.
Ken Vandermark - reed player/improvisor/composer etc etc

I was quite keen to hear what Vandermark and Mitchell had to say on the topics of Improvisation, Sound, and Space.... here are some of the scribbles from my notebook.

Roscoe Mitchell:
*** Silence is already perfect - what are you going to do when you interrupt it?***

Study of opposites - how things work at one end vs the other to gain a better understanding of the middle.

We don't learn from each other if we are all the same.

Keep your mind open.

Take a small part of music and really study it and get underneath it.

Playing with nature - excellent practice for musicians.

AACM
- like minds with a shared vision
- more control over your own destiny
- control of your music
- training programs for young musicians
- exchange programs with other cities... Black Artists Group (BAG) in St. Louis
- taking music out of the clubs and into the concert hall

Ken Vandermark - on his relationship with his instruments
- It all starts there
- The struggle between myself and the horn. Finding out what I can & can't do leads to new things

 All in all there was some interesting discussion and I'm glad I got along. The notes above give me plenty to think about.

James Falzone's Renga Ensemble

L-R Vandermark, Stein, Rothenber, Goldberg, Jackson, Falzone

The Renga Ensemble made its debut last week. An all reed group conceived and led by clarinetist James Falzone. I got to two of the three performances - Wednesday night at The Hideout and Thursday at the Chicago Cultural Center (later that night they played at Elastic but as much as I wanted to go I thought it was better for me to stay at home and fight off the cold I had picked up).
All of the pieces were written by Falzone and each member had a feature piece. Alongside some of Chicago's finest, Falzone also drew on talents from San Francisco (Goldberg) & NYC (Rothenberg)...

James Falzone

Anyway, the full line up was:
James Falzone (Clarinet, Eb Clarinet)
Keefe Jackson (Tenor Sax, Bass Clarinet, Contrabass Clarinet)
Ben Goldberg (Clarinet, Contraalto clarinet)
Ned Rothenberg (Alto Sax, Clarinet)
Jason Stein (Bass Clarinet)
Ken Vandermark (Bari Sax, Bass Clarinet, Clarinet)

The instrumentation ranged from 6 clarinets through to 3 clarinets & 3 saxes with pretty much every combination in between. A very enjoyable couple of performances -  dynamic with sustained interest throughout. Hopefully it's not a one-off and they are able to get together and develop their group sound. Also, it would be interesting to hear compositions from the rest of the ensemble. The group spent Friday in the studio so keep your ears peeled for a future release.

Chicago Cultural Center April 11 2013