WMV Music Web Log

So what do I think of the EVOLUTIONS concert #1? I loved it. I loved the freshness of the whole enterprise, the setting, the audience, the mix of musicians, and the content of the music. I had fun playing, as did most of the rest of the musicians, as far as I could tell. The stuffiness of a traditional chamber music venue and audience was entirely absent. The expectations were different, and challenging in a new way. Now, the next phase will be to collaborate more closely across styles. Interestingly, Rhonda, Jodi, and I think, Mark, have all played jazz; so they can comfortably move across the aisle. And Marty Knepp, the AJE drummer, will be playing from a written out part in the upcoming Bowles composition. I am talking with John Kamman about his participation in a Martinu composition next season. Maybe I need to develop my improvisational skills. I asked John to write in some free form into his piece. What's going to be really interesting is juxtaposing vocalists Armand and Grace with Karyn Friedman, the mezzo with the gorgeous voice who will be singing Libby Larsen's "Love after 1950." I heard a recording of those songs by another singer, and they were at the other end of what I have in mind - I think Karyn agrees. I mean that the pop and jazz features were downplayed, and the voice was serious and operatic - not what I want to hear! There is a temptation for all musicians (and artists) to hide behind their own "impeccability"; a kind of playing so that one's colleagues nod approval, and the critics can't complain about "unprofessional" conduct. It makes for a sometimes ridiculous and boring performance - I often think of "The King's New Clothes" when I listen to this kind of work. It is just fear, I think. Every musician is capable of singing and playing their heart out; we just get in our own way out of a multitude of anxieties and supposed to's. Music is a lot easier and more fun than we were ever taught - it's time to break out of our cages and really learn to play.

Oh, and one more thing: we didn't lose money on this concert.

I love Karren Alenier's review! First of all, I love that a poet is writing music criticism. "Buckley produced pure honey with her horn." And again, "The synergy between Musica Viva and Afro Jazz Explosion is more than good entertainment—it’s out there on the edge of what’s happening in contemporary music." Gosh, does that make me feel good! I love that Karren is writing about the context and the creative impetus behind the event. "Because audience feeds this kind of performance, particularly jazz performers, one should know that this audience was filled with composers, musicians, poets, visual artists, swing dancers, and at least one dance choreographer that this reviewer was aware of." I love that our idea to recombine chamber music and jazz is generating some excitement.

This is what we artists need much more of in Washington: intelligent, thoughtful, (and fun) critical dialogue with and about US! Things could be better here for all of us, or hadn't you noticed?

I recently discussed an idea along these lines that I have pondered for awhile with Jon Matis (President of the Washington Chapter of the American Composers Forum, composer and guitarist) and Rhonda Buckley (executive director of the Patricia M Sitar Center for the Arts, and our saxophonist). That is, to waive admission fees for composers and musicians at Musica Viva events, (and hope that this idea would catch on to other organizations). This would encourage composers to hear each other's works, and musicians to hear what other musicians are doing. There would be more mutual appreciation if we came to each other's performances, and I know that musicians hate to pay for tickets. As artists, we are oppressed enough, and we should not have to pay admission to one another's events. After all, there should be some percs in this crazy business!

Karren Alenier is hard at work on her opera about Gertrude Stein (with composer William Banfield; see www.steinopera.com), and yet still finds time to direct WordWorks (www.wordworksdc.com) and write about what is happening in the arts, most recently for scene4.com. Here is her review of Saturday night's EVOLUTIONS concert:

You won’t want to miss the hottest music scene in DC, call now for tickets to:

Evolutions: American Chamber Music meets Jazz
Presented by Washington Musica Viva and composer John Kamman

March 20 and May 8, at 7:30 PM

St. Columba's Church
4201 Albemarle St. NW
Washington, DC

Tickets: $15
202 265-7297
http://www.owlsong.com/events/evolutions.htm

The first Evolutions: American Chamber Music Meets Jazz program took place January 24 with Carl Banner & his Musica Viva guest ensemble playing four jazz-influenced classical music compositions followed by the Afro Jazz Explosion group who played seven pieces led by vocalist Armand Ntep.

Pianist Carl Banner and alto saxophonist Rhonda Buckley opened the program with "Hot Sonate" by Czech composer Ervin Schulhoff. This composer isn’t American, but the four movements that start with mostly lyric blues, move to a strident Dixieland, then a sultry nightclub sound, and finally something big, reminiscent of Gershwin’s "American In Paris" connected the listener to American jazz. Czechs love the saxophone and once, this reviewer was stood up in Prague by an American contact who was out chasing down a special saxophone he wanted to buy because Prague has an active market for this instrument. In "Hot Sonate," Buckley produced pure honey with her horn.

"San Antonio" by John Harbison, "Dance Suite" by Walter S. Hartley, and "Four on the Floor" by Libby Larsen provided the contemporary American music promised by the series title. "San Antonio" played by Banner and Buckley was a short musical tour of Latin dance music that included a tango conclusion. Banner’s rendering of the ostinato phrasing that opens this piece provided an interesting contrast to the more melodic second and third movements. Banner, Buckley, and violinist John Hughes played "Dance Suite" which was based on Polish folk tunes but has jazz inflection.

"Four on the Floor" was enough to make this reviewer who is also an ardent swing dancer swoon with the delicious boogie-woogie beat and pizzicato plucking strummed and drummed out on the wooden bodies of violin (played by John Hughes), cello (Jodi Beder), and bass (Mark Stephenson). Carl Banner who played piano in this piece got his workout on the keys. To introduce this composition, Banner said composer Libby Larsen quoted Jerry Lee Lewis, a wild man of rock ‘n roll, but Banner upped the ante by insisting Jodi Beder play her cello named Zizi. At intermission, this reviewer saw the whimsical face up close that was painted on Beder’s cello. Beder explained that Zizi, a rescued cello, works for "Four on the Floor" but not for a more demanding classical concert.

In the second half of the program, St Columba's Church became a nightclub of African influenced jazz sounds produced by John Kamman on guitar, Alan Lewine on bass, Paul Rosenberg on piano, Marty Knepp on drums, and Ernest bland on percussion. The vocalist and leader of the Afro Jazz Explosion, Armand Ntep weaves a rich embroidery of scat, English, French, and some unidentified language that one assumes is African in origin. (Ntep is from Cameroon.) The group performed at least seven distinct compositions including a rendition of "Autumn Leaves" and Dave Brubeck’s "Take Five." Because there were no program notes, the reviewer has no way of naming most of the individual pieces. Musical styles included pronounced syncopations, beboppish jazz progressions, and salsa with Brazilian touches. Standout performers include the vocalist Ntep who reminded this reviewer of Bobby McFerrin and the bass player Alan Lewine who played with a measured passion. One unfortunate lack was the piano was not miked and, given the crowd, this reviewer did not know anyone was playing piano until several compositions into their program.

Because audience feeds this kind of performance, particularly jazz performers, one should know that this audience was filled with composers, musicians, poets, visual artists, swing dancers, and at least one dance choreographer that this reviewer was aware of. The synergy between Musica Viva and Afro Jazz Explosion is more than good entertainment—it’s out there on the edge of what’s happening in contemporary music. Read the website listed above for more information on the next two concerts. Is it necessary to say, be there or be square?

On the eve of the first EVOLUTIONS concert, further thoughts about jazz and chamber music: borrowings are extremely common in the arts, and obviously in music. What you hear makes you want to know how it was done, what does it mean, how does it connect? A composer wants to write it down so someone else can appreciate its beauty, to demonstrate some wonderful discovery in the world of sound. I study Harbison's score and find that I am open to latin music in a new way; it seems less foreign and more interesting. Larry Moss studied the complex drumming of pygmy musicians until he was able to write these rhythms into one of his compositions. It could go the other way - a quote from L'Histoire in a jazz solo might interest someone in Stravinsky. I have heard that serious listeners go easily from atonal experimental jazz to atonal serial music. So what is it that excites me about this? A good composer can distill and concentrate some essential quality from another musical form (or even from noise) and intensify it for the purpose of expression.

Schulhoff has gathered such things in "Hot Sonata", from dixieland and blues, and used them as thematic and structural elements in a masterfully composed 4 movement duo for sax and piano. My impression is that he regarded the use of jazz elements in composition to be a subversive anti-elitist gesture, but that does not really matter so much at this point. One structural element throughout the work is a rhythmic motif of dividing the 8 beat measure into 3+3+2, a typical jazzy rhythm. But there are innumerable other borrowings and cross-genre musical commentaries, as well as hilariously intelligent musical sarcasm. There are also moments of incredible intensity. I refuse to see Schulhoff as a tragic figure - this creative genius was pulsing with life.

Strictly speaking, what distinguishes written from improvised music is the ability to repeat a broad spectrum of complex patterns, and to disseminate these to others. However, several technological developments have changed this: in particular, recording and music software. The CD becomes documentation and a kind of score. Improvised performance can be directly entered into digital score programs. Jazz, folk, and rock musicians are often as sophisticated with musical scores and score software as any classical composer. Really what distinguishes the various musical genres is the training and traditions of the musicians, and the more sophisticated and experienced they are, the less this matters, and the more they can communicate.

I deeply love the music of Louie Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Thelonius Monk, Ray Charles, the Beatles, the Stones, Leadbelly, and a whole host of blues, rock, and jazz artists. In no way do I regard this music as lesser in value to me (or to the human species) than the works of Mozart or Beethoven. But why should the music which I play be any less powerful? It shouldn't, and to my mind at least, it isn't.

Technology can certainly be a musician's friend. I practise with CDs, mine or other people's, which is how I blew my speakers; apparently playing a piano quintet at a volume equivalent to having the ensemble in my living room is more than my stereo system was equipped for. So I need new speakers. But what I really need is the "amazing slowdowner" or something like it - it will slow down the performance without changing the pitch (or change the pitch, if you want to tune to your instrument or transpose to another key). With the remote, I go back over and over a passage until I get it. Another thing I do is use multiple recordings - it's amazing how much I can learn from other musicians just by playing along as exactly as possible. I usually develop a great respect for their skills, as well as an awareness of the places in which they struggle, which helps me to forgive my own shortcomings. It enables me to build further on work that has been done before, by me or by other people.

Another technological gimmick I am eager to exploit is Sibelius' ability to transpose parts (to fit Karyn's mezzo voice, for instance) or to reprint an oboe part into saxophone, so that Rhonda can play it. I look forward to scanning scores into Sibelius and changing them to suit my needs, without my whole toolkit. On my music rack I keep scissors, tweezers, gluestick, pencils, erasers, and post it correction tape, all of which I use daily. My scores are reduced and pasted up on cardboard so that I can always see 12 pages at once. It might be nice to do some or all of this digitally, to produce clean performance scores adapted precisely to my needs.

Some of the loyal musica vivans come from pretty far to attend our events. One of them is artist/poet Judi Tenhunen, who was featured on the November program. Judi has developed mail art into an exciting and sophisticated creative art form. over the years, we have acquired a large and diverse collection of her mail art! Here is a poem she sent us on a beautiful mixed media tossed cloud, about driving down from Baltimore to Kensington to attend one of our programs:

"Enroute to Washington Musica Viva, 9/13/03"

In fascination at day's end
the sky reworks itself
without pause; pale
backdrop tossed with wisps,

a buttery hue, to the south -
directing northward roiled
mounds of clouds with glowing
rims. Were I not out and about

navigating the mundane,
the gross of vehicles in beltway
circulation, I'd have likely
missed it all.

Judi Tenhunen

I have been exploring the Randy Hostetler website: www.livingroom.org. Many diverse paths to follow there! I ran across his friend Arthur Jarvinen - amazingly creative guy, and very funny. I want his CDs, especially Sgt Pekker. I feel somewhat outside the loop, all those years of solitude and second career; how come I didn't know about Randy or Arthur before? "But it's all right, now..."

Actually, I need to get back to vocals, I can feel the urge. You know, when I look back on the past season, I have to give myself credit for programming quite a number of Dylan songs, along with several significant solo piano works - on my little Yamaha! Jarvinen's freedom is inspiring, like a breath of fresh air; hey, that's what inspire means, isn't it? Maybe that's what good art does, it allows us to breathe. We take a breath, look around a little differently, and say, "Gee, I have a new idea." The sameness of things is so suffocating.

It's hard to tell what will happen with this jazz-chamber music collaboration; people express interest and enthusiasm, but we really need to see ticket sales. John says that jazz folks like to wait til the last minute. Some of my folks have bought tickets; others, people who don't like contemporary chamber music, are quite clear that they don't like the idea and don't want to try it out. I find the fear of contemporary music interesting to think about, and a challenge for us as American musicians. After all, almost everything we have is contemporary or neglected. (Among the neglected, I am thinking of Chadwick, Beach, Loeffler, Paine, Mason, and half a dozen other pre-1900 composers, who did outstanding work, but are little appreciated).

There really is a convergence of creativity in American music these days, and I find it very exciting. New language must be forged to talk about it, even among the artists. We each have our own versions of excellence and expectations, and all different kinds of baggage. Don't get me started on the conservatory crowd (or see my collected rants).

I love to play the old masterpieces, as long as it is not all that we do. The Ratner series seems to be leaning in the old masterpieces direction, and that is fine. Even within this literature there is plenty that is virtually unknown. And I am continually discovering new riches in familiar works, especially in the light of new music. It is very important to me to get into the intention of a composer, and living composers are the best keys we have - after all, they are the same species of creative types.

There are these wonderful transcriptions of recordings by Jelly Roll Morton, Willie the Lion Smith, and various other composers who didn't write scores - the recording is really the documentation that they left. This is really a different kind of road map for a performer - the transcriptions record "mistakes" and all. I pick them up and try them out, have even performed a few of them.

I bought "Sibelius" and "Photoscore" last week - I couldn't wait any longer, even though I don't yet have a computer that I can load them onto. So I have to buy a G4 to handle my new software. It's OK, I needed to stop talking about it and just do it - for the last few years I put it off saying if I had it it would take all my time and I would have to quit my day job. It wouldn't be so terrible if this pushed me a little forward in that direction! What am I going to use it for? It's a secret.

(Trumpet flourish, please, with snare drum): There is, as of yesterday, a Baldwin grand piano in The Dennis & Phillip Ratner Museum! Phil immediately put a sculpture of a ballerina on top - a good omen. I think I couldn't really plan anything until I saw the instrument there - didn't quite believe it was going to actually happen. The inaugural concert will be the trio program with David Teie and Mahoko Eguchi on March 2 - it was going to be piano quintets, but the NSO schedule made it impossible to rehearse with Betty Hauck (viola), who would be coming down from New Hampshire. I will certainly try to reschedule the quintet program. The trios will be the old favorites: Brahms Op.8, Schubert Op.99, Mozart E K.542. As David says, "I live for this music."

In the meantime, I plan to play, probably solo, every Sunday at 3:45 pm at the museum. No advertising (yet), free admission (maybe a donation jar), no expenses besides my time. Just a chance to consolidate the old repertoire and try out new stuff in a routine, non-pressured environment. And now to plan the remainder of the Ratner series for this season: the fact that the piano is there cuts our costs by more than one third! Getting people used to coming to the Ratner for music (and art) will become easier, the more events we produce there; and if we can produce them without losing money, it becomes easier to increase the number of events. We are certainly not repertoire limited! Between me and the folks I play with, we could probably do two or three programs a week without repeating anything for months. (Aren't blogs great for unchallenged bragging?).

To pick up on the jazz/chamber music thread - by the way, I don't like the term chamber music, we need a new name without the old stuffy connotations. I don't like "classical" "serious" or "chamber": we need to come up with new names, names that don't splinter the genres so much into serious/pop, acoustic/electric, contemporary/classical, etc. "Art music" is also an awkward term, like "art song". We need some language to get out of the boxes we are stuck in, and then we can market to a new audience.

The elements I associate with jazz: improvisation; syncopation; swing; dance rhythms. None of these is entirely foreign to chamber music; the role of improvisation is worth looking into more carefully - historically, there was considerable improvisation in classical music, which came to an abrupt end with the advent of recording. We are going to have to recover a little of this looser approach if we are going to remain a living art.

The composers can really help us out here: we need more ambiguous genre music! Complex forms which masquerade as pop, for example; perhaps writing in a PA and sound mixer as part an ensemble. Music which is fun for the ensemble and can still find its way onto underground campus radio. Libby Larsen is someone who seems to be working in this direction - her "Four on the Floor" has direct quotations from Jerry Lee Lewis embedded in an atonal, acerbic, quirky musical language. Jodi said yesterday at the first rehearsal, "Oh, this is the stretto section!", which sounded funny because it's so thoroughly boogie-woogie.

Just what is the difference between jazz and classical chamber music? Some interesting and surprising ideas about this are appearing. We went to HR 57 the other night for the first time, and heard some great stuff there - that is a place by the way that closely resembles my vision of the "chamber music cafe"! (We ate at a great Ethiopian place, Dukem on U St). Also, I have been getting to know John Kamman's Afro Jazz Explosion and Trio CDs better, since my new van has a CD player (it's really just a CD player on wheels, that hauls Marilyn's art around sometimes). I really love Armand's vocals, and the way the songs "cook". John challenged me with the assertion that a major difference between jazz and classical chamber music is that a jazz group really has to listen and respond to each other - touche! That's really what my groups aspire to, but I understand his dig.

The rehearsals are going well, everybody is excited, and my feeling is that the whole idea has "legs". More on the ideas later, but here is John's description of the new piece he is writing for EVOLUTIONS:

"Five Tones" was written with the two vocalists, Armand Ntep and Grace Chung, in mind. It is basically a suite of five mini-movements, which I think of as "tone poems," each emphasizing a different element of the relationship between jazz and various African Styles.

The concept behind the piece comes from a group Armand and I put together, The Afro Jazz Explosion (performing at the January 24th concert), which blends jazz musicians and instrumentation with African stylings. As the sound of the group evolved I was surprised to find many subtle intersections between the African styles I know well, especially Kenyan Benga, and jazz.

For "Five Tones," I have abstracted five of these surprising intersections to build a five part exploration into what I see as some of the most essential, elemental, relations between African traditions and jazz. An example: there is a Cameroonian way of using the voice in a percussive manner that fits very well with a certain style of ostinato (repeated figures) bass in jazz. This becomes a starting point for creating contrapuntal vocal melodies, one voice in the Cameroonian style, and one in a jazz style, with an instrumental landscape providing the frame.

As another example, Armand's style of singing a very sweet, contemplative introduction to an AJE piece of ours, which comes from a blend of Ghanaian kora playing and Kenyan Benga, fits very well with the gospel influenced piano style of "soul jazz' from the 60's. Again, this becomes the framework for creating themes for the two voices, the complementary instrumental background, and a framework for improvising.

Another important commonality is improvisation - both styles place a great deal of emphasis on improvising within the structure of a piece. Armand and Grace are fantastic improvisers, and so I have used the aforementioned "essential structures" both for explicitly composed melodic devices and to provide a unique, framework for improvisation.