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February 2015

January 2015

Prototype Festival: Toxic Psalms at St. Ann's Warehouse

by Robert Leeper

Members of Carmina Slovenica; Photo by Cory Weaver
All Photos by Cory Weaver/Prototype Opera
Slovenian vocal ensemble Carmina Slovenica came to St. Ann's Warehouse last week to present the U.S. Premiere of Toxic Psalms. The group of 30 young women - all between the ages of 14 and 21 - was brought to Brooklyn as part of the ongoing Prototype Festival, which in its third year has become a leader in the development new opera and a relentless advocate for the advocacy of contemporary issues.
 
Taking its musical cues from similarly virtuosic vocal groups that synthesize sounds and styles—think Roomful of TeethToxic Psalms strives to expose man's brutality in the name of an idea: “killing for the glory of his 'psalms,'" as Carmina Slovenica director Karmina Šilec writes in the program. Toxic Psalms is a work of fierce dichotomies: it begins in darkness, but as the music expands, so too does the light and space. At the back of the stage, several figures appear on their knees as prisoners might, wearing black dresses designed by Belinda Radulović. Combat boots lined the stage and hung ominously from the ceiling; lemons strewn accross the floor became a potent symbol of stolen purity.

The group makes oblique references to contemporary atrocities in Syria, Russia, Lebanon and the #yesallwomen campaign right here at home, but nothing explicit. Šilec calls the performance a “choregie,” an amalgam of vocalization and theater that together create a contrapuntal work encompassing multiple meanings and interpretations. The music - which includes a Syrian Orthodox hymn, Sarah Hopkins’s “Past Life Melodies,” and works by Slovenian composer Lojze Lebic and American Jacob Cooper, among others - is woven through the design, direction, and choreography, creating a unified whole. 

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NYC Winter Jazzfest 2015: Saturday Recap

by Dan Lehner and FoM

The Cookers, WJF 2015
 
(See our Friday recap here.)
 
It's a rare treat for jazz audiences to be able to hear a large work performed in its entirety, especially when the music on drummer Dan Weiss's "Fourteen" is a Herculean task to perform just on record. However, Weiss didn't assemble his particular large ensemble on Saturday night just for the hell of it: they all shone through, even if some had to pull double-duty (e.g. Matt Mitchell playing piano and glockenspiel; Jacob Garchik on trombone and tuba). Weiss's music is an amalgam of his influences, requires a working knowledge of everything from Indian classical music to metal, and each ensemble member shared in the amalgam, through both their own parts and occasional group action, such as intricate clapping. The most impressive moments were found in the impossibly tight, unreal sounding vocal harmonies of Judith Berkson, Maria Neckam and Lana Is, as well as outrageously different trombone solo trading between Garchik's sonority and Ben Gerstein's almost reversed-sounding idiosyncrasies. 
 
Following Weiss at The Players Theater, alto saxophonist Darius Jones was busy fleshing out his own diverse musical concept. Jones's group covered a free, textural, occasionally aggressive terrain, shaded with skittery drum n' bass hues from drummer Ches Smith - which could turn to R&B-submerged ballad jazz or hardcore Public Enemy-style boom-bap on a whim. Jones's unison duet with French vocalist Emily Lesbros was particularly poignant, the singer explaining the piece was about tolerance and unity (a sentiment sorely relevant in her home country right now). Jones's band also included the heavily used pianist Matt Mitchell (who had just played a set before and would play a set afterward), who soaked up Jones's concept singularly, creating dirhythmic concepts with just his two hands. 
 
Over at the Minetta Lane Theater, veteran band The Cookers proved once again that music is the ultimate Fountain of Youth. Between them, the seven members of this jazz supergroup (Donald Harrison (alto), Billy Harper (tenor), Cecil McBee (bass), George Cables (piano), Billy Hart (drums) Eddie Henderson and David Weiss (trumpets)) have more than 250 years of experience and have played on over 1,000 recordings. But, make no mistake: these septuagenarians still have serious chops, taking no prisoners with their ferocious blend of hard-bop. Harrison, the baby of the group at 54, was absolutely riveting, tossing out extended solos with power and finesse. Suffice to say: these guys know how to put on a clinic.

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NYC Winter Jazzfest 2015: Friday Recap

By Dan Lehner

 Winter jazzfest 2015 Improvised Round Robin
The Friday portion of the 2015 Winter Jazzfest, with a temperature of 17°F before windchill, was the coldest in WJF history since the inaugural festival (when it was -2°F). Not that this, in any way, impeded the festival's popularity. This year's festivities, which expanded to an unprecedented 10 venues, were so well-attended that the organizers instituted a live-update system of how crowded each venue was at any given time. (Running joke of the night: "You'll never get into Zinc Bar.") The surging popularity indicated that the goals of the festival - to have as many people as possible experience new and improvised music - were pretty much guaranteed to be met.
 
WJF is like the Comic Con of creative music, offering a chance to preview new groups from familiar artists that haven't released records and/or hit the clubs yet. Arturo O'Farill's "Boss Level Septet," which appeared at SubCulture, represents the leading edge in Latin-inspired creative music. The septet's music came from the same place as rhythm-oriented artists like Dafnis Prieto or Steve Coleman, but much of the music was knottier, more bombastic - almost zany in a controlled way. Much like Miles Davis adding Bill Evans's impressionism to 50's cool jazz, O'Farrill's sonic ace card came in the form of guitarist Travis Reuter, whose liquid, effects-drenched sound, plus his unique sense of harmony, propelled the music forward and sideways. The collective O'Farrills are no slouches either, with pianist Arturo taking a wide-ranging, Horace Silver "play everything" stance, and the marvelous trumpeter Adam O'Farrill finding himself somewhere between Freddie Hubbard and Peter Evans.
 
Trumpet sage  Ingrid Jensen performed alongside keyboardist Jason Miles at Judson Church for another yet-to-be recorded project, "Kind of New", which borrows directly from the Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis tradition. Jensen was more than prepared to take this role on - she had the same blistering upper register, used almost more as an effect rather than part of a melodic sequence. Of course, Jensen - as well as her tenor sax compatriot Jay Rodriguez - had more than enough door-breaking melodic chops to up the energy. Kind of New's music was like Woody Shaw and Bill Withers jamming in a desert - a meeting place of alternately breezy/serious 70's soul vibes existing alongside explorations of shapes and intensities.

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