Podcast: A Noise From The Deep

A while back I was searching for interviews with John Zorn and I stumbled across Dave Douglas' Greenleaf Music podcast series entitled “A Noise From The Deep.”

There’s plenty of interesting musicians featured and the list is pretty heavy on saxophone players including, Henry Threadgill, Jon Irabagon, JD Allen, John O’Gallagher, Miguel Zenon, Greg Osby, Lenny Pickett [fun website], Ingrid Laubrock and Mark Turner.

"Other" Music Part One

Let me take a break from jazz for a brief moment and give mention to some of the "Other Music" I enjoy.

Bela Bartok - String Quartets. I started listening to these during my time at music school. Up to that point, I hadn't really listened to much classical music. Somewhere I read that Lee Konitz took these records on the road with Stan Kenton's band - he and Bill Russo would hang out listening to them. That was reason enough for me - saved up some busking money and I've been listening to them ever since courtesy of the Keller, Emerson & Tackas Quartets.

Glenn Gould 2 & 3 Part Inventions

J.S Bach - I have an on-again off-again playing relationship with the Two Part Inventions - we're back on at the moment (#2 C minor). I'm not sure why these were not part of my studies at music school? That comes to mind as one of the 3-b9 licks we had to learn for the improv class pops up in Invention #2. Anyway I'm glad to work on them now. I was probably initialy inspired to get into them after hearing the live recordings of Lee Konitz & Warne Marsh playing numbers 1 & 13 on the live recordings on Storyville. Lately I've been playing #2 along with Glenn Gould.

Back in my alto days I worked a little on the Cello Suites but haven't continued with them on the soprano. Recordings by Anner Byisma, Roel Dieltiens, and Pablo Casals (of course) have kept me in touch with them. Great to relax to and the first Bach I got into.

Stockhausen - Tirkreis

Stockhausen - "Tierkreis" For a while these 12 pieces were part of my regular practice. Hayden Chisholm had us perform our star sign during his workshop in Greece. I had never played any music like it before. Rhythmically and melodically they are quite different to what I am used to and improvising on them was a lot of fun and stretched me into other areas - I found it came easier on some than others. I plan to revisit them.  These recordings provided plenty of variety: Elisabeth Klein's solo piano (a straight version), The duo of Volker Hemken (bass clarinet) & Steffen Schleiermacher (piano),  The trio of Markus Stockhausen (trumpets/piano) Suzanne Stephens (clarinet) Kathinka Pasveer (flutes/piccolo) the trumpet and organ duo of Markus Stockhausen & Magareta Hurholz.

Morton Feldman

Morton Feldman - One problem I have with these works is that due to the length it's hard to get all the way through in a sitting! I enjoy the floating, endless quality they have. Sometimes I feel the pieces are quite hypnotic. Here are the works of his I have listened to the most - I plan to continue exploring.
"Violin & String Quartet" by Peter Rundel & Pellegrini Quartet. Probably the first Feldman work I heard - Intrigued I wanted to hear more.
"Piano & String Quartet" by Kronos Quartet & Aki Takahashi. My wife arrived home one evening while this was on and commented that it reminded her of a 70's horror soundtrack.

"Triadic Memories" by Marilyn Nonken.
I am interested in getting into improvised music that harnesses some of the qualities of Feldman's work.

Anton Von Webern - Of the works of Webern's I have the "String Quartets/Trio" by the Emerson Quartet have received the most play time. I'm not sure what led me here. Steve Lacy talked of working on vocal parts of Webern's - that may have sparked my interest once I took up the soprano. Opus 9 grabbed my attention. Saxophonist John O'Gallagher is way into 12-tone concepts. I can't see myself traveling that road but I am keen to check out his book on the topic. Next month O'Gallagher is releasing the "Anton Webern Project".

Arnold Schoenberg - "Pierrot Lunaire" Part of Deutsche Grammaphon's 20C series.

Quite a new addition (I got it in January) not sure what made me choose this one - I had planned on getting Schoenberg's solo piano stuff but they didn't have it - I couldn't leave empty handed! 

When I'm interested in a jazz artist I tend to seek out information about them - interviews, biographies, websites etc. For whatever reason, I don't seem to do this on the classical side. Aside from the Bach and Stockhausen pieces mentioned above, it's rare that I study the pieces the way I do with jazz. One day perhaps, but for now I'll enjoy listening to them with getting too involved. Classical music tends to come and go in phases - I'll spend a period of time listening to one piece a lot or mix it up with various pieces then take a break from it for a while.

The week in NYC

I’m back in Chicago after a week in New York City - great view of the city and its surrounds on the way home yesterday afternoon. In fact it was quite clear all the back to Chicago with wonderful views of the great lakes. Anyway.... Here’s a quick run down of the last week.

Got straight into things on my first night in town. The New York Jazz Workshop held an interview with saxophonist John O’Gallagher. The two hours served as an introduction to O’Gallagher’s workings with twelve tone techniques in jazz composition and improvisation and coincided with Advance Music’s publication of O’Gallagher’s book on the subject - available this month... It’s a thick volume accompanied with two CDs. An interesting talk but don’t expect this method to be a quick fix - it is very involved and I imagine would take many years to absorb and use these ideas spontaneously.

A number of my friends have been playing at the Friday evening jam session hosted by pianist Galen Pittman at Tender Trap in Williamsburg. It’s nice and low key without the ego you associate with some jam sessions around NYC. It was great hearing them play again but the evening was somewhat frustrating as the soreness in my arm (I had been playing a little in the afternoon and it didn’t agree with me) was stopping me joining in. The guys really enjoy playing there so hopefully it continues to develop.

Richard Tabnik Trio

A few of us left the session early to head out to ibeam for the Richard Tabnik Trio - RT (as) Ken Filiano (b) Roger Mancuso (d). I was stoked to be in town when Richard had a gig. The trio improvised on standards and played a couple tunes from Richard’s later album. These three are full of surprises - Mancuso & Filiano are great pairing and there is something about Richard’s tone that needs to be experienced in the flesh for its full spectrum to be revealed.

Tagged along with some friends to another Williamsburg jam session on Sunday night. This one is hosted by saxophonist Matt La Von at Ba-sik. There’s a little attitude on show here (mostly from just 1 or 2 players) but for the most part it’s pretty good. We arrived in time to hear Nick Lyons tearing it up. Nice to hear some flute too (hi David). Afterwards there was a fun hang over falafel sandwiches.

Ba-sik Jam Session

About nine of us got together for a session at Carol’s on Monday night. Over the span of the evening I played four pieces - three free improvisations (duo & trio) and “Out Of Nowhere” with a larger group. I was careful to pace myself leaving time between tunes to rest my arm - there was some aching towards the end of the night .... I would have loved to played more but I'm glad I didn’t over do it. Lorenzo was quick to sense the tiger balm. Considering the lack of playing of late I was pleasantly surprised - sure, my execution wasn’t always top shelf but I feel I contributed to the music. Great company too.

I was glad to be in town for Connie’s opening class at Jazz at Lincoln Center. This week the focus was on Billie Holiday (Lester Young got a bit of attention too). Many of my favourite tracks were played including.... "All of Me", "What a Little Moonlight Can Do", "Them There Eyes", "God Bless The Child", "Body & Soul", "Foolin' Myself", "Laughing At Life", "A Sailboat In The Moonlight" among others.

The message from the night - "Sing with these recordings!" - Tristano said that singing with records was his greatest teaching discovery and the key to transmitting jazz feeling to the student.

If you are a student of the music and want your playing to open up invest some time into singing with the great jazz soloists - it's a blast!

Played a duo session with Pianist/Vocalist Carol Liebowitz - a mix of standards and free improvising. Again, I took things pretty easy so as not to aggravate anything. Similar feeling to Monday night - while I wasn't at 100% we still made some nice music.

Roulette was the venue for my last night in NYC and then scene of a spellbinding set of solo piano improvisations from Connie Crothers. The next morning I made a few notes in the gig book - Mesmeric, Relaxed Intensity, Nuance, Sound Transformation, Clarity, Surprise, Dynamic. It really was a thrilling experience... I could go on and on.
This was my visit time at the new location - very nice space. Thankfully the roadworks out front didn’t bleed into the concert hall.

Lots on this weekend too. The ICP Orchestra is in town - they have gigs on Saturday & Sunday night and Ab Baars is playing a solo set on Sunday afternoon.

Off to NYC

Off to NYC for a week - I have a few concerts to get to:

Friday 29: Richard Tabnik Trio at Ibeam - with Ken Filiano (b) & Roger Mancuso (d)

Saturday 30: Pauline Oliveros at Roulette - with David Arner (p) Doug van Nort (electronics) & FILTER (computer)

Tuesday 2: Connie Crothers at Jazz at Lincoln Center's 'Swing University' or see my post.
Wednesday 3: Connie Crothers at Roulette - solo piano

Also, I would like to make it out to Louis Armstrong House if time allows and may go to John O'Gallagher's masterclass at New York Jazz Workshop tonight....

No doubt there will be some playing too - I wonder how the thumb will get on? (and the lip!!).