GarDel at Spring Shakori '08; photo credit Jeff Fowler
I feel like my life has been on fast forward with no pause to breathe over these past three weeks. Upon returning from the Kennedy Center residency and concerts, I dove into rehearsals for Orquesta GarDel and The Beast, founded and performed with a dream project of mine, a live electronica quartet (great first show, guys! let’s do it again soon!), as well as helped Zenph Studios finish up our third album (Rachmaninoff), annnnnd filed the dreaded income taxes.
But it is all worth it because this weekend is the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance. Every time I come to this festival as a performer, I am energized by the positive, appreciative vibe of the attendees, campers, and volunteers. Being surrounded by woods with no internet is also invigorating, of course. This festival marks some firsts for me:
1. Orquesta GarDel will be unveiling an original song (one of many to come) as well as a re-vamped stage show (Thursday 10:45pm Dance Tent)
2. Not only will The Beast be playing (Saturday 5:20pm Meadow Stage), but also giving two workshops about harnessing the power of creativity through understanding the story of African-American music, as well as hosting a jam session for teenagers. I am really looking forward to seeing who shows up and contributes to these experiences.
3. This is the first Beast show to feature a live horn section (featuring my great friends, Andy Kleindienst and Tim Smith, both also in GarDel). I wrote the charts late last night, we rehearsed today, it really gives a new element to the show.
4. Lauren (my fiancée, I will do a separate post about how awesome and wonderful and amazing she is and how we are totally pumped that we’ve got a wedding date on the calendar) and I are camping overnight. So long taxes, hello vegan food, campfires, ponchos, and hula hoopers!
Day and weekend passes are still available at the Shakori website. Come find me and say hello!
Whew! I’ve been absent from blogging for two weeks because I come home absolutely exhausted and brain dead from eight-hour rehearsal days…what a treat! The Kennedy Center residency has brought me together with 28 peers, solid in their mastery of their instruments, strong in their improvisational and compositional voices. We’ve been making great music with each other under the tutelage of some true jazz veterans. This has also been a time to learn the good, the bad, and the ugly of arts administration and educational organization. I now have so many ideas for future workshops, performances, bands, collectives, and institutions that I would like to one day create. The program is named after underdog/profound jazz vocalist, Betty Carter, for whom I now have a deep appreciation (both for her artistry and her business philosophy) after watching a film and hearing a panel discuss her work.
As I mentioned in the original post, the residency is broken up into four ensembles which will give concerts each night at 6pm, Wednesday April 1st through Friday April 3rd, at the Kennedy Center Millenium Stage. Free, open to the public. Really cool. Each concert will also be broadcast live on the internet and then archived for you to view whenever you want. Here is the link to watch each concert: http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/millennium/. You will need to download and install the latest Real Player to view the video.
On Wednesday my own group hits around 6:45; Thursday and Friday we go on around 6:30. On Thursday we will be premiering my latest (and new favorite) composition entitled “somehow it seems to help.” Everyone here is really digging it, which makes me happy. You would too if the drummer in your combo was a 17 year old genius who could totally destroy your 7/8-time-signatured-craziness like it was a nursery rhyme.
After big success with our first two albums of Glenn Gould and Art Tatum re-performances, we here at Zenph are putting the finishing touches on our third major project, an album of originals and transcriptions by the Russian phenom, Sergei Rachmaninoff. He is the first artist which will be re-performed on our one-of-a-kind Steinway SE reproducing piano.
After doing a recording session with Sony BMG on Monday, we’ll be producing Rachmaninoff in recital (!!!) at a free concert event Tuesday, April 14th . You can come be the first public audience to hear this master play live in over 60 years. How cool is that?
I’m here in Washington DC having a blast at the 2009 Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead residency. On Monday night I saw Wynton Marsalis give a speech at Americans for the Arts’ 22nd Annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy. I was infuriated by what amounted to his condemnation of the artistry of hip hop so much so that I became a guest blogger at blackademics.org, which is moderated by Beast emcee, Pierce Freelon.
You can read my article and participate in the discussion here:
In a meeting this past Christmas, Andy and I decided to finally let loose from our high expectations and just start writing original tunes for Orquesta GarDel. We were intimidated by all of the Puerto Rican, Cuban, and American composers and bandleaders that have come before us, and worried if people would think our “podunk” North Carolina salsa was worthy. We realized that we should just try to write GarDel music, not other people’s salsa. We are a collection of 12 musicians of all ages and musical backgrounds; our influences are disparate but we have a common passion for the clave.
So far we have held two rehearsals on three (unfinished) pieces by Andy and one (unfinished) piece by me, and the process has been very fun. Andy and I bring in chunks of ideas and let the band play them through and make suggestions. Brevan comes up with great percussion breaks, Jamie starts to improvise possible coros. The collaborative spirit is right there.
And, as if the Salsa Muse was offering a guiding hand, NewMusicBox just published a fascinating interview with legendary arranger and trombonist, Willie Colón. He says something that speaks to what I love about music, and the understanding I have of salsa:
A lot of people like to characterize salsa as a pastiche of Cuban son. There’s no denying that there is a Cuban influence and a Cuban base to it, but it’s so much more. Salsa is not a rhythm, it’s a concept. It’s a way of making music. It’s an open concept and the reason that it became so popular is because it was able to evolve and accept all of these other musics. We put the bombas and plenas in it; we put calypso, samba, bossa, and cumbia in it. It’s definitely not even a Puerto Rican or a Cuban music. It’s a reconciliation of everything you can find. And I think it could have only happened here in New York, where you had so many different kinds of people living and playing together. We used to get a lot of the black jazz players. They wanted to come and play salsa so they can blow over the changes. Where are you going to find players like than other than in a big city like New York? This was not going to happen in Cuba or Puerto Rico; it had to be here.
I like that. “Salsa is an open concept.” It is exciting to watch GarDel’s interpretation of that concept finally start to blossom. You will be able to hear us unveil these new tunes Thursday night at the Shakori Hills Music Festival in April!
I just stumbled across this nifty video on the internets:
It feels so coincidentally tailored to my passions for a number of reasons:
1. I am generally interested in the wisdom that Kenny Werner offers to musicians.
2. Herein, Kenny tells a famous story about Art Tatum, whom I have made a deep study of through my work at Zenph Studios.
3. I had never connected the two together in such a telling way (Art Tatum as a good example of playing fearlessly, and as a bad example of something to think about before you give a solo piano recital…).
I am honored and excited to be chosen as a participant in the 2009 Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead residency which is presented by the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. I will get to attend two weeks of masterclasses and workshops in late March and give performances with other young jazz musicians from around the country.
Betty Carter founded Jazz Ahead as a vehicle to bring new life into jazz and teach the most promising fledgling artists what she knew. She originally developed the program in 1993 at 651, an arts center in Brooklyn, and the first concert was presented at the BAM Majestic Theater. In 1997, the Kennedy Center and Dr. Billy Taylor invited Carter to bring Jazz Ahead to Washington, D.C. On April 15, 1998, a delighted audience in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall heard the results of Carter’s intense week of work with a group of 20 young jazz artists. Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead had a new home and Carter was filled with hope for the future of the program. After Carter’s death in September 1998, Dr. Billy Taylor and the Kennedy Center decided to continue her legacy by making the Jazz Ahead program, with the principles Carter laid down as the foundation, an annual event. Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead alumni include Cyrus Chestnut, Jason Moran, Jacky Terrasson, Aaron Parks, Lage Lund, Andre Hayward, Marco Panascia, Ameen Saleem, Miri Ben-Ari, Daniela Schaechter, and more.
As the date of the residency approaches, I’ll post about my experiences there, as well as information about the concerts, which will be free, open to the public, and also broadcast live on the internet.
**UPDATE 03/23/09**
It seems this post is the fifth most popular result when you search for “betty carter jazz ahead 2009.” I’m here in DC on the first day of the residency and multiple participants have mentioned to me that they stumbled across this when looking for more information. Hi guys!
I mentioned in a previous post that I recently attended a winter workshop at the School for Improvisatory Music in Brooklyn. The overall experience was nothing short of eye-opening and soul-liberating. I worked with a wonderful group of musicians, peers, and teachers from all over the world. Because the nature of our exploration wasn’t focused on style or technique, but rather raw expression itself, the entire week had strong parallels to a spiritual retreat. Many of the truths being put forth pointed just as much to the human experience of the divine as much as they did to the human relationship with creativity.
The SIM philosophy in a nutshell is that beyond style, beyond tradition, beyond unexamined beliefs about what music is and is not, lies an approach where the emphasis is on creating and performing with openness and honesty, devoid of judgment. This “musical authenticity” is explored through the practice of improvisation. The faculty likes to say “spontaneous composition” because “free jazz” is a term that promotes misunderstanding. When dealing with music in such an abstract/transcendent way, I noticed how words can sometimes only vaguely point to a truth instead of embody it. That said, here are some of my favorite quotes from the faculty:
“Free improv isn’t a pre-conceived style, but rather a clean slate, a point of departure: it is ‘all-composed.’ ”
“People don’t want to accept, they want to own.”
“We are exploring the possibility of a universal ‘tonality,’ a place where traditions dissolve into pure sound.”
“Thinking is the deathknell of everything.”
“Don’t feel like you always have to go somewhere.”
“You can’t be aware of music if you aren’t aware of life.”
If these sounds like koans, well, they are. If a rational, dogmatic musician (or listener) were to walk into the room in which we were playing, they would have heard nothing but awful noise devoid of “meaningful” structure. This is what I heard as well until I could get into a deeper space and really Listen. Then it was beautiful.
Thankfully, the practice of spontaneous composition isn’t a dark art with no easily definable path of mastery. Bassist J. Granelli pointed out that the quantifiable skillset has to do with fostering two things: listening and intent. Whenever we create music, either in a straight-ahead rock band or an avant-garde collective, we are called to be aware of our musical surroundings: what we are playing, what others are playing, the aggregate sound and what it is asking of the players. This involves getting out of the way of our thoughts and taking on an observer role. Meditation, anyone? Intent is to really “mean what you play”: although you can be open to your surroundings, you don’t necessarily have to be swayed by them. There is great power in truly “believing in yourself,” an idea that jazz-spiritualist Kenny Werner also promotes in his text, Effortless Mastery.
It is difficult for me to be succinct in this blog post; many of these discussions and ideas can be so paradoxical. If anything, the SIM workshop helped me understand that (in a way) no one can teach you anything, you have to learn and know for yourself. I am starting to realize that growing up (as an artist and a person) has a lot to do with becoming your own teacher, accepting and enacting your journey through life. I came away from the workshop totally energized to have an amazing year of art and connection with community. I also came away with an utter sense of gratitude, knowing that there is a community of humble, open artists exploring the unknown and sharing the results with each other. This year I hope to be more open to my music-writing process instead of immediately critical of what comes out. I have also planted the seed of an idea for a dream ensemble that weaves together umpteen musicians and dancers, improvisation, latin rhythms, theatrics, moody lighting, spirituality, and joyousness. I know it will come together one day, I can already hear faint strains of the music we would play.
Here’s to a fulfilling, creatively rewarding 2009 for everyone. May you know the path you walk along is the right one.
It pleases me to announce that I have reformatted the music page on my website and uploaded tons of new music for your listening pleasure. Well, maybe not tons, but something from each of my major projects in 2008. It feels good to have an up-to-date representation of my artistic journey, and I look forward to sharing the results with you. I suppose I should re-code with a really interesting Flash player, but I kind of like the old-school html links and that you can download hi-res mp3s if you wish.
Of all of the new things you will find on the music page (jazz compositions, an electronica piece, tracks from The Beast and Orquesta GarDel), I am most proud of “Reach Me.” It is the most involved classical piece I have written to date: an 8-movement song cycle for soprano and tenor. While I spent many hours in my room developing motives, dealing with a notated piano accompaniment (I’m a jazz guy! we just make it up!), the creative essence of the piece came from collaborating with some of my great friends from the UNC Music Department. We had dinners together – composer, lyricist, pianist, and vocalists – and talked about what piqued our curiosity, what troubled us about the human condition. Katherine Lloyd came back with an unexpected set of lyrics about love, fear, and cell phones. Initial musical ideas where developed through improvisation, aided by wine and Tootsie rolls. We ended up with something resembling more of a musical theatre piece: my job was more to give life to two characters than to use post-tonal harmonies and abstract structural ideas to assign meaning. Patrick Massey, Rachel FitzSimons, and Katie Cole premiered “Reach Me” at Patrick’s senior recital in April of 2008, and we recorded it at Zenph a few weeks later. Collaboration, friendship, open participation, improvisation, musical exploration, music as healing, these are things I love about being a musician.
I invite you to find some time to listen to the whole 15-minute piece if you can. Close your eyes if you wish, you can almost see the two lovers running around the city. And of course, let me know what you think of any of this music, criticism is most welcome.
Speaking of songwriting, The Beast is currently rehearsing before we go into the studio to start tracking our first full length album next Thursday! This will be the first time I get to work at a professional studio (as opposed to self- or home- recording), and I will write about that process as the date nears.
I am currently in Brooklyn attending the School for Improvisatory Music’s Winter Intensive. It has been an eye-opening week of masterclasses, philosophical/spiritual discussions, great playing, and wonderful people from all around the world. I will write a post about my experience as soon as I get back to North Carolina.
In the meantime, I was surprised (and giddy) to find out that the Independent Weekly has written an article about the Top 10 things to listen for in the Triangle in the upcoming year, and The Beast is number three! Thanks for the words of encouragement, Grayson; we strive to challenge ourselves in rehearsal and performance to combine our influences in unexpected ways that are meaningful for us and exciting for the audience. I think this is the first time there has been press describing what The Beast seems to be all about. See what you think:
One of the Triangle’s new bright lights, Durham’s The Beast subverts a half-dozen stereotypes, and that’s just staring at the surface: The Beast, for instance, isn’t a metal band, and the name’s not a reference to malt liquor. Instead, the multi-racial quartet makes live band hip-hop that opens its doors to history—Bob Marley covers, Gil Scott-Heron references, soul vocals, jazz style and taste—as emcee Pierce Freelon (yes, he has a mom) implodes preconceptions about being black in Durham. Listen to his “More2Me,” and relish in the possibilities for them and, well, for us.
