On Friday, October 10th, Firehouse 12 will present a two-set performance by Shakers n’ Bakers, an improvising ensemble of New York jazz scene veterans created to reinterpret original 19th century music discovered in the archives of the Shaker religious community. The band, featuring vocalists Mary LaRose and Miles Griffith, multi-instrumentalist Jeff Lederer, keyboardist Jame Saft, bassist Chris Lightcap and drummer Allison Miller, is on tour this fall in support of its second CD, YFZ (Yearning for Zion), which adds contemporary repertoire by John Adams, Albert Ayler, Gyorgy Ligeti and Arvo Part to the mix.
“The most unlikely and unprecedented musical endeavor I’ve come across since hearing Uri Caine’s amazing adaptations of Mahler, Bach, and Schubert,” wrote JazzReview.com’s Dave Wayne, “Shakers n’ Bakers (the name of a group and their eponymous first CD) straddles several universes both stylistically and conceptually…a triumph of both Lederer’s and LaRose’s musical scholarship. More importantly it is a triumph of truly inspired collective music making—this is one of the best bands I have ever heard, and the whole CD literally sparkles with their energy, intuition, guts, brains, sweat, and love.”
The guiding inspiration for the group is a collection of so-called vision songs (also known as gift songs) received in an ecstatic trance state by young Shaker women in the years between 1830 and 1850. Discovered, researched and transcribed by Lederer, these songs are attributed to divine sources (ranging from African and Native American spirits to historical figures such as Christopher Columbus and George Washington) and often sung in unique languages of trance inspiration, such as moon language. The source material takes on a whole new life as it is filtered through the lens of creative improvisation and modern genres such as free jazz, pop, calypso, minimalism and rock. The band has performed this music in venues ranging from jazz clubs to historical Shaker sites to the World Festival of Sacred Music.
2008 Fall Jazz Series Schedule:
09/19: Steve Lantner Trio
09/26: Conference Call
10/03: Ned Rothenberg’s Sync
10/10: Shakers n’ Bakers
10/17: Josh Roseman’s Execution Quintet
10/24: Bad Touch
10/31: Magic (Joe McPhee/Dominic Duval/Jay Rosen/Mikolaj Trzaska)
11/07: George Schuller’s Circle Wide
11/14: Jamie Baum Septet
11/21: Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Strings
12/05: The Flatlands Collective
12/12: Donny McCaslin Trio
Tickets and more information available at:
http://firehouse12.com/performance_space_calendar.asp
This month’s issue of DownBeat includes a feature article about bassist/composer William Parker written by David French.
The article, titled “His Own ‘New Thing’”, explores Parker’s 30-year career, his musical philosophy and a number of his recordings, including his two most recent releases as a leader, Double Sunrise Over Neptune and Petit Oiseau on AUM Fidelity.
An excerpt from the beginning of the article is available on the DownBeat Web site.
On Friday, October 31st, the improvising quartet Magic will make its American debut at New Haven’s Firehouse 12. The group adds renowned Polish musician Mikolaj Trzaska to the well-documented rapport of the seminal free-jazz collective, Trio X, featuring multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee, bassist Dominic Duval and drummer Jay Rosen, creating a new quartet with its own distinctive identity. Magic is on tour this fall, with support from the Polish Cultural Institute, to celebrate its forthcoming self-titled live release on the Not Two label.
“Anyone familiar with the legacy of Trio X,” writes the All Music Guide’s Steven Loewy, “knows the remarkable heights to which these musicians are capable. In truth, you could not ask for a more accomplished, in-sync set of musical partners. There is a near-perfect synergy among them, so much so that they seem to anticipate each other’s every move, almost like dancers who instinctively follow one another’s steps.” Trio X, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2008, has toured and recorded prolifically over the past decade, including a half-dozen releases for the CIMP and Cadence labels. Learn more at http://www.triox.org
Trzaska first officially joined forces with Trio X in November 2007 as a guest on the band’s tour of Poland, but he had already appeared a trio CD with McPhee and Rosen called Intimate Conversations (Not Two) a year earlier. Although mostly unknown here in America, Trzaska was an architect of the yass movement in Polish jazz as a founding member of the group Milosc, and has collaborated with musicians across Europe and beyond, including Lester Bowie, Peter Brötzmann, Peter Friis Nielsen, Peter Ole Jorgensen, Tomasz Stanko, John Tchicai and Peeter Uuskyla among many others. He is also a film and theater composer. Learn more at http://www.trzaska.art.pl
2008 Fall Jazz Series Schedule:
09/19: Steve Lantner Trio
09/26: Conference Call
10/03: Ned Rothenberg’s Sync
10/10: Shakers n’ Bakers
10/17: Josh Roseman’s Execution Quintet
10/24: Bad Touch
10/31: Magic (Joe McPhee/Dominic Duval/Jay Rosen/Mikolaj Trzaska)
11/07: George Schuller’s Circle Wide
11/14: Jamie Baum Septet
11/21: Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Strings
12/05: The Flatlands Collective
12/12: Donny McCaslin Trio
Tickets and more information available at:
http://firehouse12.com/performance_space_calendar.asp
Firehouse 12’s 2008 Fall Jazz Series continues on Friday, October 3rd with a two set performance by multi-instrumentalist Ned Rothenberg’s longstanding trio, Sync. The worldly group has been active for the past decade, performing a distinctive brand of improvised acoustic music defined by the combination of Rothenberg’s original compositions and the group’s unusual instrumentation, which each integrate a variety of musical traditions. Sync features Rothenberg on clarinets, alto saxophone and shakuhachi (a Japanese bamboo flute), Jerome Harris on acoustic guitar and bass guitar and Samir Chatterjee on tabla (a traditional percussion instrument from Indian classical music).
“Ned Rothenberg has long been one of the most inventive, consistently satisfying performer-composers on the New York scene,” wrote the Washington Post’s Stephen Brooks in his 2006 review of a Sync concert, “always exploring the edges (who else plays the shakuhachi in jazz?) and embarking on strange, evocative and ear-bending forays into the sonic unknown. But this is unusually thoughtful music, and the subtlety of the tabla, along with the Harris’s sinuous guitar work, beautifully complemented Rothenberg’s detailed, colorful and hyper-imaginative playing.” Critics have also noted the group “has found a most palatable merger of jazz and Asian music” (Bob Blumenthal, Boston Globe), creating a “strongly organic music that’s a cohesive mesh of different musical influences, flavors, and approaches” (Joslyn Layne, All Music Guide).
Rothenberg is known as “a strong, adventurous musician and conceptualist” (Ben Ratliff, New York Times), “an almost frighteningly talented musician and composer” (Kurt Gottschalk, AllAboutJazz.com) and “a fully matured multi-instrumentalist whose stock is strangely undervalued” (Bill Shoemaker, The Wire). A native of Boston, he has lived and worked in New York for the past 30 years, while also touring the world with a wide range of prominent collaborators as well as his own bands. Sync, his primary focus as a leader in recent years, released its third recording, Inner Diaspora, in early 2007 on John Zorn’s Tzadik label. The record, which received widespread critical acclaim, finds Rothenberg bringing his personal take on the music of his Jewish heritage to the existing multicultural foundation of the group, which is joined on the record by violinist Mark Feldman and cellist Erik Friedlander.
2008 Fall Jazz Series Schedule:
09/19: Steve Lantner Trio
09/26: Conference Call
10/03: Ned Rothenberg’s Sync
10/10: Shakers n’ Bakers
10/17: Josh Roseman’s Execution Quintet
10/24: Bad Touch
10/31: Magic (Joe McPhee/Dominic Duval/Jay Rosen/Mikolaj Trzaska)
11/07: George Schuller’s Circle Wide
11/14: Jamie Baum Septet
11/21: Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Strings
12/05: The Flatlands Collective
12/12: Donny McCaslin Trio
Tickets and more information available at:
http://firehouse12.com/performance_space_calendar.asp
Pianist/composer Eri Yamamoto is featured in the September 26th issue of the New York Sun.
The profile, written by Steve Dollar, examines the origins of her career as a jazz musician, her longstanding weekly gig at Arthur’s Tavern in Greenwich Village and her two latest recordings, Duologue and Redwoods, both on AUM Fidelity.
On Friday, October 24th, New Haven’s Firehouse 12 will present the New York-based quartet Bad Touch (formerly the Loren Stillman Quartet). Reconfigured as a collective ensemble in 2008, the group features alto saxophonist Loren Stillman, guitarist Nate Radley, organist Gary Versace and drummer Ted Poor. This two-set performance is part of the band’s eight-city fall tour in support of its self-released debut, Like A Magic Kiss.
Brought together by both friendship and a mutual commitment to exploring new musical adventures, the like-minded members of Bad Touch share a common music-making philosophy. Drawing on a wide variety of music experiences with other players and ensembles, these “resourceful improvisers” (Nate Chinen, New York Times) create a “quirkily soulful mix” (Time Out New York) defined by a fun yet mature sound that exists at the intersection of creative improvisation and original composition.
Collectively, the members of Bad Touch have appeared on more than 80 recordings and worked with many of the most respected names in jazz, including John Abercrombie, Bill Frisell, Charlie Haden, Lee Konitz, Paul Motian, Maria Schneider, Cuong Vu and Matt Wilson. They have also worked as bandleaders in their own right and earned honors such as the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award and strong showings in the annual DownBeat Critics Poll.
2008 Fall Jazz Series Schedule:
09/19: Steve Lantner Trio
09/26: Conference Call
10/03: Ned Rothenberg’s Sync
10/10: Shakers n’ Bakers
10/17: Josh Roseman’s Execution Quintet
10/24: Bad Touch
10/31: Magic (Joe McPhee/Dominic Duval/Jay Rosen/Mikolaj Trzaska)
11/07: George Schuller’s Circle Wide
11/14: Jamie Baum Septet
11/21: Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Strings
12/05: The Flatlands Collective
12/12: Donny McCaslin Trio
Tickets and more information available at:
http://firehouse12.com/performance_space_calendar.asp
This Friday, Firehouse 12’s 2008 Fall Jazz Series continues with a two-set performance by Conference Call, which is touring in celebration of both its 10th anniversary and its latest CD, Poetry in Motion (Clean Feed). The group’s all-star line-up of creative music scene veterans includes German multi-reedist Gebhard Ullmann, pianist Michael Jefry Stevens, bassist Joe Fonda and drummer George Schuller.
New Haven’s Firehouse 12 launches its fourth annual Fall Jazz Series tonight with a two set performance by the Steve Lantner Trio. Led by pianist/composer Steve Lantner, the longstanding group features New Haven native Joe Morris on bass and fellow Bostonian Luther Gray (Rob Brown, Taylor Ho Bynum, Joe Morris) on drums.
Its third CD, What You Can Throw (hatOLOGY 641), which includes reworkings of music by Anthony Braxton and Ornette Coleman as well as original material, was released earlier this year.
Click here for tickets and more information.
The series continues Friday nights through December 12th, with a one-week break on November 28th for Thanksgiving.
I’m very pleased to announce that we heard from our old friend, and current Houston resident, Pete Gershon, who reports that he, his family and the home base of Signal to Noise have survived Hurricane Ike in one piece.
We wish everyone in the area all the best during this time of recovery.
On Friday, October 17th, Firehouse 12 will present a two-set performance by renowned trombonist/composer Josh Roseman’s Execution Quintet. One of Roseman’s newest ensembles as a leader, this eclectic Brooklyn-based group creates music ranging from the intense to the theatrical, with elements of game theory thrown in for good measure. Its chord-less line-up features trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, Dutch saxophonist Ben Van Gelder, bassist Chris Lightcap and drummer Dave Treut.
“Josh Roseman has the quirky charisma necessary to turn the often sedate trombone into a leading instrument,” declared the All Music Guide’s Michael Gown. Critics have called him “an excellent trombonist” (Liz Spikol, Philadelphia Weekly), “a high-spirited musical provocateur” (Andrew Gilbert, San Jose Mercury News) and “a powerful and eccentric presence” (Mike Ross, Edmonton Sun). The BBC’s Peter Marsh adds, “music made with this much intelligence and passion is definitely worth your time.”
A perennial winner in the Rising Star Trombone category of DownBeat’s annual Critics Poll, Roseman has been an integral member of the New York jazz scene for nearly two decades. His diverse resume includes membership in a long list of notable groups, including Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy, Brooklyn Funk Essentials, Uri Caine’s Mahler Ensemble, the Dave Douglas Sextet, the Either/Orchestra, Groove Collective, the Dave Holland Big Band and the SFJAZZ Collective. He has also worked outside the jazz realm with artists such as Cibo Matto, Mike Gordon, Sean Lennon, Me’Shell NdegeOcello, The Roots and The Skatalites. His third and most recent recording as a leader is 2007’s New Constellations: Live in Vienna (Accurate Records).
2008 Fall Jazz Series Schedule:
09/19: Steve Lantner Trio
09/26: Conference Call
10/03: Ned Rothenberg’s Sync
10/10: Shakers n’ Bakers
10/17: Josh Roseman’s Execution Quintet
10/24: Bad Touch
10/31: Magic (Joe McPhee/Dominic Duval/Jay Rosen/Mikolaj Trzaska)
11/07: George Schuller’s Circle Wide
11/14: Jamie Baum Septet
11/21: Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Strings
12/05: The Flatlands Collective
12/12: Donny McCaslin Trio
Tickets and more information available at:
http://firehouse12.com/performance_space_calendar.asp
On Thursday, October 23rd, vocalist Yoon Sun Choi and pianist Jacob Sacks will celebrate the release of Imagination: The Music of Joe Raposo (Yeah Yeah Records), their second and most recent recording together, with a free performance (featuring special guests, bassist David Ambrosio and drummer Vinnie Sperrazza) at the Ida K. Lang Recital Hall at Manhattan’s Hunter College.
This innovative release finds the eight year-old jazz duo reinventing both the familiar and the more obscure music of the prolific theater, film and television composer, Joe Raposo (1937-1989). Nearly 30 years after first hearing his music as children, Choi and Sacks respectfully transform the inspiring lyrics and beautiful melodies of Raposo’s timeless songs into creative experiments in texture, form and improvisation.
Critics have called Imagination “one of the best jazz vocal CDs of the year” (Ted Gioia, Jazz.com) and “a sophisticated reworking of the memorable melodies and lyrics that many of us first heard on children’s shows like The Electric Company and Sesame Street…leaving us with grown-up versions of the songs that inspired our childhood dreams” (Suzanne Lorge, AllAboutJazz-New York).
“The most striking track on the album is ‘Bein’ Green’,” adds The Wire’s Philip Clark. “Choi’s deadpan delivery of the whimsical lyric is underpinned by a dense carpet of chromatic harmony, and the tune inhabits unexpectedly disturbing dimensions as the dislocation between voice and piano symbolises a profound sense of isolation.”
The Choi/Sacks Duo has been playing Raposo’s music in earnest since late 2003, including performances at clubs all around their home base of New York City and Ms. Choi’s home province of Ontario, Canada. “What Choi and Sacks give to his music,” explains the All Music Guide’s Michael G. Nastos, “is a challenging edge that harkens back to both the bop tradition and the exploratory nature of modern creative expressionism. Choi’s pretty voice is as flexible an instrument as you might hear in contemporary jazz…easily able to scat, contort phrases, or offer witty repartee. Sacks is a different kind of piano accompanist, part Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner and Misha Mengelberg.”
Learn more at http://www.yeahyeahrecords.com
In this week’s episode of Jazz on 3, host Jez Nelson plays “Bumpy Trail,” the third track from the new Eri Yamamoto Trio record, Redwoods (AUM Fidelity AUM049), as part of the show’s coveted CD Round Up segment.
An archived version of the entire show, which also features a live set from Serbian pianist Bojan Z’s trio and guest commentators Ferran Esteve and John Fordham, is available on the Web until Friday the 19th.
After months of searching for a new location in which to relocate their beloved store, Downtown Music Gallery has thankfully succeeded and announced their plans in this week’s newsletter.
This November, cornetist/composer Taylor Ho Bynum will hit the road to perform with three of his own groups in four different cities over the course of five dates. Bynum will perform with his sextet in New York and Chicago (with his trio opening the New York show) in the first half of the month to celebrate the release of his latest recording, Asphalt Flowers Forking Paths (hatOLOGY 675).
His chamber jazz group, Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Strings, will then perform three dates (New York, Boston and New Haven) with special guest vocalist Kyoko Kitamura in the second half of the month, before heading into the studio on November 22nd to document his secular oratorio, Madeleine Dreams, for Firehouse 12 Records.
Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet:
Sunday, November 9th (Time TBA)
The 3rd Annual Umbrella Music Festival @ The Hungry Brain (Chicago, IL)
Friday, November 14th at 10:30 p.m.
CD release concert @ The Jazz Gallery (New York, NY)
Taylor Ho Bynum Trio:
Friday, November 14th at 9:00 p.m.
Opening for the Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet @ The Jazz Gallery (New York, NY)
Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Strings:
Saturday, November 15th at 9:00 and 10:30 p.m.
Performance of Madeleine Dreams @ The Jazz Gallery (New York, NY)
Sunday, November 16th at 4:00 p.m.
Boston premiere of Madeleine Dreams
Hammond Performing Arts Series @ The Boston Center for the Arts (Boston, MA)
Friday, November 21st at 8:30 and 10:00 p.m.
New Haven premiere of Madeleine Dreams
2008 Fall Jazz Series @ Firehouse 12 (New Haven, CT)
Further details about each performance are forthcoming.
On Wednesday, November 12th, the Mary Halvorson Trio will perform two sets at Brooklyn’s Barbès in celebration of its highly anticipated debut, Dragon’s Head, coming October 28th on Firehouse 12 Records. This recording, acclaimed Brooklyn-based guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson’s first leading her own ensemble, features ten new original compositions written for this two year-old group with bassist John Hebert and drummer Ches Smith.
“I have wanted to write for this instrumentation for years,” wrote Ms. Halvorson in the Dragon’s Head liner notes, “but this project is the first time I have actually attempted it. This trio is also a great excuse to work with two of my favorite musicians; I wrote all of these songs with Ches and John’s playing in mind. I also took it as an opportunity to experiment with different compositional forms, as well as varying harmonic, melodic and rhythmic components.”
Regarded as one of the most versatile and innovative young musicians on the New York scene today, Ms. Halvorson has been called “a stunning talent on the rise” (Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz.com), “truly amazing” (Thom Jurek, All Music Guide), “consistently one of the most fascinating and satisfying guitarists in town” (Time Out New York) and “a thoughtful and increasingly prominent presence on the avant-garde landscape” (Nate Chinen, New York Times). “She plays guitar in a way that fractures conventions,” declared Steve Dollar in the New York Sun, “restlessly inventing her own paradigms.”
Active in New York since 2000, she is a veteran of the ensembles of esteemed saxophonist/composer Anthony Braxton, as well as groups led by Taylor Ho Bynum, Jason Cady, Brian Chase, Trevor Dunn, Curtis Hasselbring, Tatsuya Nakatani, Ted Reichman and Matthew Welch. Her work as a co-leader includes a chamber music duo with violist Jessica Pavone and the avant-rock duo, People, with drummer Kevin Shea. She has performed all over the world with a wide array of prominent collaborators and appears on nearly two dozen recordings. Learn more at http://www.maryhalvorson.com
On Friday, October 10th, Firehouse 12 will present a two-set performance by Shakers n’ Bakers, an improvising ensemble of New York jazz scene veterans created to reinterpret original 19th century music discovered in the archives of the Shaker religious community. The band, featuring vocalists Mary LaRose and Miles Griffith, multi-instrumentalist Jeff Lederer, keyboardist Jame Saft, bassist Chris Lightcap and drummer Allison Miller, is on tour this fall in support of its second CD, Yearning for Zion (Little (i) Music), which adds contemporary repertoire by John Adams, Albert Ayler, Gyorgy Ligeti and Arvo Part to the mix.
“The most unlikely and unprecedented musical endeavor I’ve come across since hearing Uri Caine’s amazing adaptations of Mahler, Bach, and Schubert,” wrote JazzReview.com’s Dave Wayne, “Shakers n’ Bakers (the name of a group and their eponymous first CD) straddles several universes both stylistically and conceptually…a triumph of both Lederer’s and LaRose’s musical scholarship. More importantly it is a triumph of truly inspired collective music making—this is one of the best bands I have ever heard, and the whole CD literally sparkles with their energy, intuition, guts, brains, sweat, and love.”
The guiding inspiration for the group is a collection of so-called vision songs (also known as gift songs) received in an ecstatic trance state by young Shaker women in the years between 1830 and 1850. Discovered, researched and transcribed by Lederer, these songs are attributed to divine sources (ranging from African and Native American spirits to historical figures such as Christopher Columbus and George Washington) and often sung in unique languages of trance inspiration, such as moon language. The source material takes on a whole new life as it is filtered through the lens of creative improvisation and modern genres such as free jazz, pop, calypso, minimalism and rock. The band has performed this music in venues ranging from jazz clubs to historical Shaker sites to the World Festival of Sacred Music.
2008 Fall Jazz Series Schedule:
09/19: Steve Lantner Trio
09/26: Conference Call
10/03: Ned Rothenberg’s Sync
10/10: Shakers n’ Bakers
10/17: Josh Roseman’s Execution Quintet
10/24: Bad Touch
10/31: Magic (Joe McPhee/Dominic Duval/Jay Rosen/Mikolaj Trzaska)
11/07: George Schuller’s Circle Wide
11/14: Jamie Baum Septet
11/21: Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Strings
12/05: The Flatlands Collective
12/12: Donny McCaslin Trio
Tickets and more information available at:
http://firehouse12.com/performance_space_calendar.asp
Today is the official street date for the new Eri Yamamoto Trio CD, Redwoods, on AUM Fidelity.
This is Ms. Yamamoto’s second disc on the label this year and the follow-up to her well-received June 24th release, Duologue (AUM048), which features specially composed duets with frequent collaborators Daniel Carter, Hamid Drake, William Parker and Federico Ughi.
Redwoods find Ms. Yamamoto picking up where she left off before that release, leading her longstanding trio. This is her fifth release with that group, currently featuring bassist David Ambrosio and drummer Ikuo Takeuchi, which has toured the U.K., Japan and Spain, but is perhaps best known as a fixture on New York’s jazz scene thanks to its weekly performances at Arthur’s Tavern in Greenwich Village.
Here’s a sample of the early reviews:
From the rolling locomotion of the opener, “This Is An Apple,” to the celebratory joy of the concluding “Dear Friends,” the trio cook up a confection of blossoming dialogue and rhythmic intrigue…they are consistently alert to each other and yet still at the service of Yamamoto’s pictorial ambitions. With such vibrant portrayals, this disc affirms Yamamoto’s place as a rising talent in the pianistic pantheon.
—John Sharpe, AllAboutJazz.com
After some 13 years living in the U.S. (New York City) after moving from Kyoto, Japan, acoustic pianist Eri Yamamoto’s contemporary jazz style has not only come of age, but has fully blossomed, flowered, and is as beautiful as any mature rose. This trio recording — with veteran bassist David Ambrosio and longtime drummer Ikuo Takeuchi — shows Yamamoto’s fluid melodic elements, sprawling vistas of color, and her innate common sense in stringing together lines of passion and cleanliness. While remaining in a modern vein, her piano style reflects classical training, post-bop sensibilities, and progressive ideals…Redwoods deserves a close listen for every smart jazz piano fan.
—Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide
Yamamoto and her cohorts seem to instinctively know the value of understatement. There isn’t a surplus note here and that fact makes for a compelling program of music.
—Nic Jones, AllAboutJazz.com
Further coverage is on the way soon.
The New York Times‘ Phillip Lutz profiles a resurgent jazz scene in New Haven, Connecticut, including the efforts of Firehouse 12.
Firehouse 12’s 2008 Fall Jazz Series continues on Friday, October 3rd with a two set performance by multi-instrumentalist Ned Rothenberg’s longstanding cosmopolitan trio, Sync. The worldly group has been active for the past decade, performing a distinctive brand of improvised acoustic music defined by the combination of Rothenberg’s original compositions and the group’s unusual instrumentation, which each integrate a variety of musical traditions. Sync features Rothenberg on clarinets, alto saxophone and shakuhachi, Jerome Harris on acoustic guitar and bass guitar and Samir Chatterjee on tabla.
“Ned Rothenberg has long been one of the most inventive, consistently satisfying performer-composers on the New York scene,” wrote the Washington Post’s Stephen Brooks in his 2006 review of a Sync concert, “always exploring the edges (who else plays the shakuhachi in jazz?) and embarking on strange, evocative and ear-bending forays into the sonic unknown. But this is unusually thoughtful music, and the subtlety of the tabla, along with the Harris’s sinuous guitar work, beautifully complemented Rothenberg’s detailed, colorful and hyper-imaginative playing.” Critics have also noted the group “has found a most palatable merger of jazz and Asian music” (Bob Blumenthal, Boston Globe), creating a “strongly organic music that’s a cohesive mesh of different musical influences, flavors, and approaches” (Joslyn Layne, All Music Guide).
Rothenberg is known as “a strong, adventurous musician and conceptualist” (Ben Ratliff, New York Times), “an almost frighteningly talented musician and composer” (Kurt Gottschalk, AllAboutJazz.com) and “a fully matured multi-instrumentalist whose stock is strangely undervalued” (Bill Shoemaker, The Wire). A native of Boston, he has lived and worked in New York for the past 30 years, while also touring the world with a wide range of prominent collaborators as well as his own bands. Sync, his primary focus as a leader in recent years, released its third recording, Inner Diaspora, in early 2007 on John Zorn’s Tzadik label. The record, which received widespread critical acclaim, finds Rothenberg bringing his personal take on the music of his Jewish heritage to the existing multicultural foundation of the group, which is joined on the record by violinist Mark Feldman and cellist Erik Friedlander. Learn more at http://www.nedrothenberg.com
2008 Fall Jazz Series Schedule:
09/19: Steve Lantner Trio
09/26: Conference Call
10/03: Ned Rothenberg’s Sync
10/10: Shakers n’ Bakers
10/17: Josh Roseman’s Execution Quintet
10/24: Bad Touch
10/31: Magic (Joe McPhee/Dominic Duval/Jay Rosen/Mikolaj Trzaska)
11/07: George Schuller’s Circle Wide
11/14: Jamie Baum Septet
11/21: Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Strings
12/05: The Flatlands Collective
12/12: Donny McCaslin Trio
Tickets and more information available at:
http://firehouse12.com/performance_space_calendar.asp
Jazz journalist James Hale writes about the Mary Halvorson Trio’s forthcoming debut, Dragon’s Head (Firehouse 12 Records), on his blog, Jazz Chronicles. The disc officially hits the streets October 28th.