31.7.07
Michelangelo Antonioni (1912-2007)
'Spontaneità nel procedimento narrativo - la scioltezza, la ricchezza delle immagini, l’improvvisazione, un film che si fa.' - M. Antonioni.
Marches of the New World, de David Maranha (Osso Exótico), na Grain of Sound. Maranha toca órgão Hammond, violino, dobro-resophonic guitar; João Milagre, baixo; António Forte, bateria; Tiago Miranda, percussão; e Helena Espvall, violoncelo. Ainda não ouvi, mas apetece.
'Marches of the New World, new record by legendary Portuguese underground figure David Maranha, who has also been putting out music with the mythical Osso Exótico unit for almost 20 years (his previous release was with Patrícia Machás and drone duo Minit as Organ Eye, who put out a self-titled album on the Staubgold label), is his more recent study & advancement in exploring, witnessing and generating new slices of blissful, savaged drone music. Coming from the higher education of minimalist pioneer Yves Klein, with his "Monotone Symphony" from the late forties, while also being informed by the Tony Conrad-Theatre of Eternal Music-Terry Riley axis, he mainly works with Hammond organ going through various tone & texture altering devices, until he reaches the raw keyboard sound put on tape here. In this record his continuous sound science is given wider possibilities, with the aid of a backing band and collaborators he's invited for the release. Besides the Hammond, Maranha also uses violin and his dobro-resophonic guitar. His rhythm section of João Milagre (bass) and António Forte (drums) is augmented by contributions from cello virtuoso Helena Espvall (free improviser of merit, member of Philadelphia's most celebrated folk troupe in the last few years, the Espers) and Tiago Miranda (member of Lisbon's own current free expression kings, the Loosers, and owner of the awesome Ruby Red Label) on various minimal percussions. The result is a grandiose sound ensemble, intermingled with more sparse numbers, yet another travel into the infinite oscillation trip of pure drone, the admiration of its sound and ritual. With the rhythmic components able to draw up some lyricism that is seldom found in these molds, metrics and dynamics are opened up with some wonderfully disjointed gravitational balance. The keys and strings keep you gliding around the eternal line of infinity with perfect equilibrium and freedom, in these "Marches" to which Mr. Maranha found the right pace for walking. Fists up, with a direct line to the cosmos, rooted below, forward as always'. - Pedro Gomes
![[ReidFront.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLbZJJYuvOGO5CgJyUCBmCkQZJslWGbRYRTSBuXVYdkVod4HmlS6KAp3rXDQ8INNWTuNS9w-nsk0huqIusB9EgIqonWYwEHdDvwBDyWUyhQ2w-iyNVEtdh1uS2KZssK7ScFN4l/s1600/ReidFront.jpg)
Steve Reid, Odyssey Of The Oblong Square
(Mustevic Sound, 1977)
Um dos melhores discos de sempre do baterista Steve Reid, dos tempos em que o Loft Jazz marcava a paisagem do jazz em Nova Iorque, estava-se a meio da década de 70. Soul e groove eram as cores dominantes à época. Steve Reid (bateria), Charles Tyler (saxofone alto), Arthur Blythe (saxofone alto), Ahmed Abdullah (trompete), David Wertman (baixo) e Mohommad Abdullah (percussão).
30.7.07
Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007)
'The basis for all improvisation must be preparation. If I haven't prepared, I can't improvise. If I've made careful preparations I can always improvise. Then I know I have something to fall back on. What I detest is formlessness. That terrifies me. It is seldom that mere formlessness in a work of art conveys anything vivid. More often it gives an impression of effort. But a combination of improvisation and planning — that's good'. - Ingmar Bergman
O funk venenoso de Mandrill é capa da edição nº 24, Agosto/Setembro, da Wax Poetics, a raínha das revistas de funk, jazz, soul, hip-hop e mais uns pozes. Lá dentro, Marcos Valle, Andy Smith, Leroy Burgess, Oh No, Larry Harlow, Eddie Cheba, Joe Sample, Herman Hitson e outros, recebem tratamento nas muitas páginas que a revista lhes dedica. Na edição nº 23, Junho/Julho, o rei da festa é Rick James, com as suas botas de cano altíssimo e guitarra de nível a condizer.
Os arquivos de Sun Ra parecem ilimitados, tantas são as descobertas que se têm vindo a suceder nos últimos anos. O mais recente resultado deste vasculhar nas arcas do mestre foi o encontro de uma série de bobines de fita magnética contendo gravações realizadas por Sun Ra & His Arkestra no início da década de 70, que a Transparency resolveu produzir e editar em vários volumes, a partir de um conjunto de 11 bobines registadas na primeira metade da década de 70. Trata-se de material inédito, até agora desconhecido mesmo entre o núcleo duro dos tape traders que habitualmente trocam entre si o que nem o diabo sabe que existe em matéria de gravações obscuras.
Creator Of The Universe - The Lost Reel Collection, Vol. 1 (CD duplo), abre a colecção das Bobines Perdidas. Reúne gravações de 1971 na Warehouse de S. Francisco. O disco 2 acrescenta uma conferência de Sun Ra na Universidade de Berkeley.
Intergalactic Research - The Lost Reel Collection. Vol. 2, reencontra Sun Ra e a Arkestra na Bay Area de S. Francisco e em Berkeley, em 1971 e 1972.
Shadows Took Shape - The Lost Reel Collection, Vol. 3 (CD duplo), organiza um conjunto de gravações realizadas em local não identificado e rotuladas 'Spacemaster Concert'. Sem data de registo precisa (sabe-se apenas que diz respeito ao início da década de 70), este terceiro volume encerra o primeiro ciclo das Lost Reel Series.
Creator Of The Universe - The Lost Reel Collection, Vol. 1 (CD duplo), abre a colecção das Bobines Perdidas. Reúne gravações de 1971 na Warehouse de S. Francisco. O disco 2 acrescenta uma conferência de Sun Ra na Universidade de Berkeley.
Intergalactic Research - The Lost Reel Collection. Vol. 2, reencontra Sun Ra e a Arkestra na Bay Area de S. Francisco e em Berkeley, em 1971 e 1972.
Shadows Took Shape - The Lost Reel Collection, Vol. 3 (CD duplo), organiza um conjunto de gravações realizadas em local não identificado e rotuladas 'Spacemaster Concert'. Sem data de registo precisa (sabe-se apenas que diz respeito ao início da década de 70), este terceiro volume encerra o primeiro ciclo das Lost Reel Series.
Há ainda muito para conhecer deste filão do acervo histórico de Sun Ra, de que estão previstos mais quatro volumes, já que o artista gravou inúmeros concertos, ensaios e demos para consumo interno, que neste último caso tinham por objectivo dar a conhecer aos músicos algumas das suas ideias e projectos, sem a preocupação de as vir a publicar.
O novo programa editorial da Transparency, The Lost Reel Collection, recolhe música típica da década mais wild de Sun Ra, com muito teclado electrónico (hum…), o canto da grande June Tyson, improvisação livre apontada em todas as direcções, arranjos orquestrais arrevesados, muito diferentes dos das peças de estúdio, e solos de John Gilmore, Marshall Allen e do resto de companhia, naquele que ficou para a história como o período áureo da Arkestra.
Onde encontrar? Na DMG, por exemplo.
posted by eduardo chagas
@ 30.7.07
27.7.07
Variable Geometry Orchestra, ao vivo na ZDB, Lisboa. Sexta, 27, 23h
Rejoice... Discaço enorme de Johnny Dyani gravado ao vivo no Museu de Arte Moderna de Estocolmo, Suécia, a 21 de Outubro de 1972. Com Johnny "Mbizo" Dyani, contrabaixo; Mongezi Feza, trompete; e Okay Temiz, bateria e percussão. Mad High / Makaya Makaya / Pukwana / Imbomgolo. Afro-free jazz do mais teso e excitante. O LP é uma raridade (Cadillac, 1972). Para a Cláudia B., a propósito de nomes grandes do jazz africano.
Johnny Dyani (1945-1986)
25.7.07
Inicia-se aqui a publicação em fascículos coleccionáveis de uma extensa e – devo dizer em antecipação – muito interessante entrevista que o trompetista norte-americano Dennis González deu a João Pedro Viegas. Como toda a gente que se interessa por esta música domina suficientemente o Inglês, edita-se na língua original. Quem não souber o significado de uma ou outra palavrinha, diga, que eu traduzo com gosto. Esta é também a melhor forma de preservar o alcance, a autenticidade e os múltiplos sentidos das palavras de González, artista completo. Aqui está: Dennis González, Fascículo I. Uma lição (grátis) de Vida e de Música, o que, como se sabe, são uma e a mesma coisa, só que a Música é quase sempre melhor. Felicitações e agradecimentos a JPV e a DG pelo excelente trabalho e pela oportunidade que me deram de publicar o escrito. Abraços.
I would like to know the secret of how it is possible to do and promote so many activities at the same time and keep doing them so successful with a high degree of exigency?
First of all, life is short, and with so much to share and so much beauty that I find that must be given away, it is important to take advantage of the time and the many gifts I have and not keep them for myself only…what is the use of that? Because in giving, I receive much more than I give, and this helps keep me alive. I am curious by nature, and life has many mysteries ready to be found and explored, and the way that I discover the meaning of these mysteries, these hidden treasures, is to try to play them as notes, to sing them as melodies, as well as to write about them and uncover them with a poetically-written phrase, a hint of the truth embedded in the word. As I teach, I learn these secrets, which are not really so well hidden because children readily know them, and as adults we forget them so quickly! They are found in the small mistakes I make in trying to draw and paint, in the details of a piece of art I have just created, which really only creates itself. It is just up to me to open and understand these hidden truths, and I do that the only way I know how - with all that I know and with as much of my spirit as I can raise up.
I cannot speak about doing something, some creation, without just sitting down and doing it. Sometimes, if I stopped and planned, it would never happen. I have to realize an opportunity when I see it the first time, and then I must do something about taking the opportunity and working with it.
I have many impediments to my work…lack of money, lack of time, a job that takes 8 hours of my day and sometimes more, not being as well-known in the world of art and music as I want to be known, being far from the main centers of culture, and having to support my family and staying close to home as much as possible while still trying to make myself heard and understood. But instead of seeing these things as barriers, I see them as challenges. Early in my music career, I played with some fabulous people…how it happened I don’t quite understand…but I knew then that I was not at the same level musically as they were. Instead of worrying that I was not even with them in experience and technique, I used everything I had learned up to that point to engage them and bring out the best in me and in them. The music spoke to me and said to me, “Listen, this is what you must do here. Do it this way, and surrender to the magic, and it will go well for you.” And so I have always trusted that I have very special, though small, gifts of which I must use every bit of in order to show the wonder of this, and other, worlds.
So, if I understood correctly, the creative process comes as a reaction of what you see and hear and as a consequence of a proactive approach to life itself. It is not a result of a well planned process. Can we talk about spontaneous creation?
It’s interesting to have my words perused and thought about so deeply in such a quick manner, but let me go back a bit here. What I am actually saying when I speak of an action that is not planned does not refer to the years I spent preparing for this moment. For years I studied and practiced and worked on a plan of action, actually laid it out in my head and projected into the future, starting in grade school. In those years I played sports on school teams, studied music and instrumental technique, and was very interested in language, studying English, Russian, French and German in collège and lycée, and in university, even working with Egyptian and Mayan hieroglyphics at a very early age. I tried to get my university diploma in languages, music, and plastic arts, but I was not allowed…I was too far ahead of my time. Every opportunity I got I would travel, and I would write while I was on the road to remember what I had experienced, stories I had heard, melodies that came to me, ways of living, so that when in the future I would be offered an opportunity, there was a form, a plan of action into which I would plug the opportunity, and away I would go with a project.
My only trouble that I had with this is that I always demanded excellence in all my projects, and many of the people I have worked with did not believe in this concept of giving one’s best always, possibly because they were tired, or because they were never convinced of the correct reason for working on a presentation.
Because of the way I have accepted the magic that comes into my life, I would not say that my creative process is a reaction, but instead a channeling of this magic, a re-ordering.
Let me explain as well how my days work. I get up every morning around 6 am and get myself ready to go to my daily job. Even as I am preparing, I check my correspondence (e-mails, letters, phone calls) and see what I wish to work on this day when I have those few moments between classes. It really does take a lot of planning, for example, to set up a tour, like the tour I was involved in this past August - 10 days of music, workshops, art exhibits, and travelling to Lisboa, Madeira, Guarda, and Frankfurt. The actual planning took 2 to 3 months of almost daily contact, negotiation, discussion, music writing, and even the visual art which was shown at Trem Azul was begun a year earlier, and I had to find a way to get this art to the people at Trem Azul, so I took the work with me to New York on an earlier tour with my sons and with Rodrigo Amado. I happened to play 2 concerts at Vision Festival this past summer in New York, and I took the works on paper to one of the concerts - a very small window of opportunity - and presented it to the Portuguese guys.
As my day unfolds, I use every available second to keep my planning going, and to make sure things work out for the future. At this moment, for example, I am doing 3 or 4 different projects at once - I am writing lesson plans for my classes tomorrow; I am talking to you for this interview; I am helping my son get his tour to Mexico together, as he leaves on Sunday to play punk and jazz concerts; I am helping my wife print some stickers and price lists, since she is starting a company of her handmade makeup, soaps, beauty products and bath powders - in order to do this, I had to design a logo and all the forms for ordering her creations; and I am working on getting two very important concerts in New York at John Zorn’s venue, The Stone, for December 8 and 9.
Where the spontaneity comes in is in the creative aspects of what I am doing. All images and sounds I have heard in the past few months are coming together to form the essence of the projects I am working on, and the resources I tap into are extremely fertile and rich and I am so happy that these things exist to help me create new from old, in a spontaneous fashion.
Your answer reminds me of the statement that says that “talent requires a lot of work”. I cannot agree more with that. What I mean by that is that your art (not just the music, or even better, especially not the music) comes to me in a very “impressionistic” way. Your poetry is, a lot of times, a consequence of the sensations you experience in your travels, your painting reflects, among many other things, your taste on frugal stuff (ex: brands of cigars) at the same level of your worries (ex: the word insulin in drawings), and knowing you a little bit (what a presumption!) I think that it’s your way of sharing life. And that you can not plan. It’s spontaneous. It comes to you and it goes straight from the same channel to your audience… Would you like to comment on this?
The world, even after all my intense planning, comes to me as it is, a total improvisation. I open myself to it and it imprints itself on my senses, on my soul, on my psyche, and then, if it changes, it is because of my own limits, and that is what it means to me to be human, to be limited, but to be able to use the limits and mistakes to show a piece of understanding, from this viewpoint that is me, to share the life force that allows us to live and feel and breathe.
The world is full of oppressed people, and many are oppressed by other human beings, and it is intolerable when this happens. But what is even more intolerable is the oppression felt by people who oppress themselves, who put the weight of existence to work against them, and are unhappy and unfulfilled, whose spirit is small and suffering, even in the midst of this miraculous world. Much of that comes from disbelief - not believing that the world is as it is, and that it can be shaped in this channelling of the sensations of the world through our bodies, minds, and spirits. And much of it comes from believing the wrong things, even when the evidence is overwhelming that that belief is totally wrong.
We are out of touch much of the time with ourselves, and we are led into believing things that are not true by others who make us believe that we are wrong in our senses, that we are wrong in our intuitions, that we are wrong in our magic. And the magic that we have comes to us from this miraculous life in this magical world.
My art and music and writing are an attempt to translate that intuition, that gift of life, into a beautiful phenomenon of positivity. I choose to see the poetic, spiritual, unseen part of this life, and it is the deepest expression of our own beautiful selves, something that we have grown away from in this, and the previous, century for whatever reasons we have chosen to disbelieve our own spark of life. It is often a sorrowful expression, but through that sorrow we are cleansed and purified, and our fire grows. And it is a lot of work to keep that fire burning day after day.
Words like “positivity“, “magical“, “miraculous” and “spirit” are very common in your speech. Which takes me to a strong characteristic of your art. More than spiritual, your art have a lot of mystic and ritual iconography. Where are the sources of that mysticisms? In your studies on Egyptology and Mayan civilizations? Or in the signals you receive everyday in your quest for humanity?
It’s a long story, but in 1989, I was playing in London with a New Orleans street band, and a strange man walked up to me and demanded to speak to me. How he knew that I spoke Spanish I am only now finding out. He claimed (and I have seen proof of this) that he was in the country of Jordan doing a street performance when he saw a vision of me playing in London, and he was told in this vision to go the next day and find me playing in the streets of London. He was also told that I had been making art that needed explanation, and that I was doing things I didn’t understand, and that I needed a guide to help me sort out this phase of magic in my life.
The past 18 years have been a search for the source of this magic that I began working some 20 or more years ago. And this man was my mentor and teacher in the world of spirit and the miraculous, the hidden aspects of creation. I now also realize that I was preparing since early childhood for this shamanism to appear, and my wounding in various ways - physically, mentally, spiritually - was the vehicle for opening myself up to these healing forces, which truly are not so hidden after all.
They are found everywhere I look, written on the wind and in someone’s eyes; in the spaces between someone’s words, where words exist silently; in the repetitions of numbers that we hear and read every day; in the way someone’s handwriting reveals the directions of that life; in the way love manifests itself between human beings.
As a boy, I studied the shapes left by fossils in rock. I studied the shapes of crystals and saw the magic that it took to make them that way. I ordered newspapers from many countries and would sit for hours trying to figure out what the words and pictures meant. I met a man who had just returned from Africa, and he had found a carved piece of wood with strange writing embedded in it somewhere in a market, and although he didn’t understand it, he knew that somewhere, someone would find the magical writing interesting, and I was the young child to whom he lent this carved wooden object for a year.
In 1990 I sat in a café in the centre of Dallas, and a man wearing African clothing walked out of a crowd of people, and in French addressed me and asked if I was the one that had “serpents in his life” - the very words this first man I mentioned earlier had uttered to me in London! How did he know I understood French, I asked him. According to him “they” had told him to come and find me. He had a python skin that he had to give me before he returned to Mali, and he had taken a bus from his home in Fort Worth, Texas, some 60 kilometres away, just because “they” (the ones who knew that I had serpents - pythons - in my life) had asked him to come to Dallas, to an obscure café, to find me on a nameless Friday noon in spring. I never claimed the python skin. I was too afraid.
So where does this magic come from, this ritualistic sense of imagery? Either I am totally crazy (I really don’t think so) or totally sane, and at times it is painful. As Jim Morrison said, “The days are bright and filled with pain; Enclose me in your gentle rain.” Maybe that sort of feeling in the air and in the spirit of a person is where some of the signals come from.
Another thing is your role as a teacher. You come from a family where teaching is almost a tradition. Your father was a teacher, your brothers and sister are teaching, you teach and your soon Aaron is teaching too. How do you face it? How do you find that experience of sharing with your students?
Teaching is a very difficult job, but the rewards are great, and I have stayed in teaching all these 32 years because I continue to learn. There are times that I have come close to ending my teaching career, but those discouraging times pass. Everything that I do, I feel, succeeds because I know how to teach. Even this past summer, when I led the Madeira New Jazz Workshop Orchestra in Funchal, I was acting not only as a musician, but also as a teacher. Teaching implies knowing what it is that I am teaching, so I have to prepare well every time I teach. But it also means that I cannot learn for the students, no matter how well I know the subject, so I have to know how to help the students open up and receive the information and place it in the place where it is understood, and where it is transformed (again, another form of magic!) into a learned and useful thing. This “thing” then has a life of its own, and begins to give life. Not only must I know the subject itself, I must also know a lot of information about many different things in order to find that piece of the puzzle that will link the knowledge with other bits of information, thereby making it learnable, connected, worthy of being taken time with.
But the most important subjects I teach do not compare with the knowledge I give that is not spoken - among other things, they are: listening, openness, awareness, being awake, as well as the ability to read the language that is not spoken in words, but in actions. The meaning of gesture; the language that the eyes truly speak; the meaning of being close and turning away; sincerity or the lack thereof; the power of the life force and of the emotions; the hidden spirit of life.
Teaching, up to a decade ago, was considered probably the highest and most important profession in the world, but with the way the world has become, it is not thought of in the same superlative light anymore. It was, and still is, an honourable profession, and in the lifetime of a teacher, that teacher will have reached, formed, and prepared thousands of students in the way to lead their lives and hopefully find fulfilment, a sense of peace, and a way of making one‘s way through this life. The problem now is that parents, communities, and governments no longer understand how to support educators because they themselves never learned what it is to learn and use the important things, the real things that can connect us to each other.
I must add, though, that if a teacher truly connects and loves his students, the students, as they leave the “nest” of education, will never forget what teachers mean to them. It is always a pleasant surprise to be in the community when a former student comes up and introduces himself or herself and says, “I appreciate what you did for me as a student. Thank you, Mr. Gonzalez!” And then I realize that frequently we are the only hope for these people who are about to go into the world. Frequently we are the only solace that these children have.
Lee Iacocca said, “In a completely rational society, the best of us would aspire to be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have.”
I think we now have an idea of the man behind the music. Now, let’s talk about your music. Would you tell us, please, what you are doing these days?
I am completely crazy busy with so many projects going on at one time, but I am enjoying it so very much! To begin with, we are in the middle of a very challenging school year. At my morning school, I am attempting to teach very intensely on a daily basis, and as I teach French, I am attempting to teach how language works as well, and the majority of students are enjoying it tremendously. In the afternoon, at North Dallas High School, I have two classes of an hour length each, and I am attempting to teach from the beginning, how to play the guitar while teaching my students a repertoire of Mexican music, from mariachi through Tejano, through more recent hits by groups like Maná and Jaguares. I am also attempting to teach a bit of Flamenco as well as teaching some of the Hispano=American musics such as that played by the guitarist singer José Feliciano. By May, my beginning students should be playing some great concerts all over the North Texas area.
In the field of music, I am working on several different tours and recordings. I produced, for Clean Feed, a recording in March of 2006 led by the legendary Chicago drummer Alvin Fielder, with Memphis pianist Chris Parker plus me on trumpet, as well as my sons Aaron (on contrabass) and Stefan (on drums). I am hoping that the CD, called A Measure of Vision, will be out in early winter of 2006. It took some doing because Alvin, who now lives in Mississippi, had to come with Chris parker to Dallas, and I had to fly Stefan in from Oklahoma City on the day of the recording. It is difficult to find good pianos to record in Dallas, so it took some work to arrange the session, but it worked well in the long run. Alvin Fielder does not “do” the internet and does not own a cell phone, so communicating with him has been through landline phone calls and letters, a more difficult condition these days of instantaneous communication. And Chris Parker has not owned any sort of vehicle for a long time, so that presents its own set of problems.
My sons and I, with our jazz trio Yells At Eels, presented a very important concert here in Dallas at Mountain View College at the end of October, which was supposed to be part of a tour that I had worked on for months, and which got cancelled. The tour was to start in Bryan, Texas, at Texas A & M University, the concert which was to feature not only our music, but also my words. The concert was rained out. And we were not informed until we got there, after a 3 hour drive from Dallas in the pouring rain. So we drove back to Dallas that night and presented the concert at Mountain View College the next night. Then we were to drive to New Orleans for 2 nights of concerts, our first planned in New Orleans since the Katrina Hurricane disaster, but that was also cancelled without explanation by the promoter.
We are working at this moment - while my son Stefan is on tour in Mexico - on two nights of concerts at John Zorn’s venue The Stone in New York on the weekend of the 8th and 9th of December, and I had been negotiating with London’s BBC 3 Radio network to record us on the 8th (me with my sons and clarinetist Patrick Holmes and well-known contrabassist Ken Filiano), but Zorn intervened and discouraged the crew of BBC from recording the concert, which was to have been broadcast on December 22nd!
The next night, December 9th, I will play a concert with British musicians from Keith Tippett’s quartet, Mujician, at The Stone, and I am really looking forward to collaborating as a leader of my own group with Paul Dunmall, Paul Rogers, and Tony Levin. While I am there I will pick up my artwork from Downtown Music Gallery which was left by Hernani Faustino of Trem Azul after it was shown in exhibition at Trem Azul this past summer of 2006, at which time I also toured Portugal with LIP and led a workshop orchestra in Madeira. I have been invited by Paulo Barbosa “Minhoca”, to come back for the Quinta Splendida Jazz Festival in Funchal in August of 2007, so I’m hoping that will work out…that is something I’m working on.
Also, my boys and I have been invited to play in June in Slovenia at the Cerkno Jazz Festival, as well as to do some playing in London. My accordion quartet, Banda de Brujos is also supposed to play in Madrid sometime in the spring, as well as do a tour of Michigan State Colleges, and then I am supposed to return to Madrid later in the year with my Inspiration Band (with Roy Campbell, Michael Thompson, Sabir Mateen, and possibly my son Aaron on bass or New York bassist Hill Greene). And I was just asked to provide trumpet music for an exhibit in Chicago by San Juan, Puerto Rico-based visual artist collaborative Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, along with trumpeters Franz Hautzinger, Ingrid Jensen, Wadada Leo Smith, Leonel Kaplan, Mazen Kerbaj, Natsuki Tamura, Stephen Burns, Birgit Ulher, and Ruth Barberan.
All in all a very busy and exciting time!
I would like to know the secret of how it is possible to do and promote so many activities at the same time and keep doing them so successful with a high degree of exigency?
First of all, life is short, and with so much to share and so much beauty that I find that must be given away, it is important to take advantage of the time and the many gifts I have and not keep them for myself only…what is the use of that? Because in giving, I receive much more than I give, and this helps keep me alive. I am curious by nature, and life has many mysteries ready to be found and explored, and the way that I discover the meaning of these mysteries, these hidden treasures, is to try to play them as notes, to sing them as melodies, as well as to write about them and uncover them with a poetically-written phrase, a hint of the truth embedded in the word. As I teach, I learn these secrets, which are not really so well hidden because children readily know them, and as adults we forget them so quickly! They are found in the small mistakes I make in trying to draw and paint, in the details of a piece of art I have just created, which really only creates itself. It is just up to me to open and understand these hidden truths, and I do that the only way I know how - with all that I know and with as much of my spirit as I can raise up.
I cannot speak about doing something, some creation, without just sitting down and doing it. Sometimes, if I stopped and planned, it would never happen. I have to realize an opportunity when I see it the first time, and then I must do something about taking the opportunity and working with it.
I have many impediments to my work…lack of money, lack of time, a job that takes 8 hours of my day and sometimes more, not being as well-known in the world of art and music as I want to be known, being far from the main centers of culture, and having to support my family and staying close to home as much as possible while still trying to make myself heard and understood. But instead of seeing these things as barriers, I see them as challenges. Early in my music career, I played with some fabulous people…how it happened I don’t quite understand…but I knew then that I was not at the same level musically as they were. Instead of worrying that I was not even with them in experience and technique, I used everything I had learned up to that point to engage them and bring out the best in me and in them. The music spoke to me and said to me, “Listen, this is what you must do here. Do it this way, and surrender to the magic, and it will go well for you.” And so I have always trusted that I have very special, though small, gifts of which I must use every bit of in order to show the wonder of this, and other, worlds.
So, if I understood correctly, the creative process comes as a reaction of what you see and hear and as a consequence of a proactive approach to life itself. It is not a result of a well planned process. Can we talk about spontaneous creation?
It’s interesting to have my words perused and thought about so deeply in such a quick manner, but let me go back a bit here. What I am actually saying when I speak of an action that is not planned does not refer to the years I spent preparing for this moment. For years I studied and practiced and worked on a plan of action, actually laid it out in my head and projected into the future, starting in grade school. In those years I played sports on school teams, studied music and instrumental technique, and was very interested in language, studying English, Russian, French and German in collège and lycée, and in university, even working with Egyptian and Mayan hieroglyphics at a very early age. I tried to get my university diploma in languages, music, and plastic arts, but I was not allowed…I was too far ahead of my time. Every opportunity I got I would travel, and I would write while I was on the road to remember what I had experienced, stories I had heard, melodies that came to me, ways of living, so that when in the future I would be offered an opportunity, there was a form, a plan of action into which I would plug the opportunity, and away I would go with a project.
My only trouble that I had with this is that I always demanded excellence in all my projects, and many of the people I have worked with did not believe in this concept of giving one’s best always, possibly because they were tired, or because they were never convinced of the correct reason for working on a presentation.
Because of the way I have accepted the magic that comes into my life, I would not say that my creative process is a reaction, but instead a channeling of this magic, a re-ordering.
Let me explain as well how my days work. I get up every morning around 6 am and get myself ready to go to my daily job. Even as I am preparing, I check my correspondence (e-mails, letters, phone calls) and see what I wish to work on this day when I have those few moments between classes. It really does take a lot of planning, for example, to set up a tour, like the tour I was involved in this past August - 10 days of music, workshops, art exhibits, and travelling to Lisboa, Madeira, Guarda, and Frankfurt. The actual planning took 2 to 3 months of almost daily contact, negotiation, discussion, music writing, and even the visual art which was shown at Trem Azul was begun a year earlier, and I had to find a way to get this art to the people at Trem Azul, so I took the work with me to New York on an earlier tour with my sons and with Rodrigo Amado. I happened to play 2 concerts at Vision Festival this past summer in New York, and I took the works on paper to one of the concerts - a very small window of opportunity - and presented it to the Portuguese guys.
As my day unfolds, I use every available second to keep my planning going, and to make sure things work out for the future. At this moment, for example, I am doing 3 or 4 different projects at once - I am writing lesson plans for my classes tomorrow; I am talking to you for this interview; I am helping my son get his tour to Mexico together, as he leaves on Sunday to play punk and jazz concerts; I am helping my wife print some stickers and price lists, since she is starting a company of her handmade makeup, soaps, beauty products and bath powders - in order to do this, I had to design a logo and all the forms for ordering her creations; and I am working on getting two very important concerts in New York at John Zorn’s venue, The Stone, for December 8 and 9.
Where the spontaneity comes in is in the creative aspects of what I am doing. All images and sounds I have heard in the past few months are coming together to form the essence of the projects I am working on, and the resources I tap into are extremely fertile and rich and I am so happy that these things exist to help me create new from old, in a spontaneous fashion.
Your answer reminds me of the statement that says that “talent requires a lot of work”. I cannot agree more with that. What I mean by that is that your art (not just the music, or even better, especially not the music) comes to me in a very “impressionistic” way. Your poetry is, a lot of times, a consequence of the sensations you experience in your travels, your painting reflects, among many other things, your taste on frugal stuff (ex: brands of cigars) at the same level of your worries (ex: the word insulin in drawings), and knowing you a little bit (what a presumption!) I think that it’s your way of sharing life. And that you can not plan. It’s spontaneous. It comes to you and it goes straight from the same channel to your audience… Would you like to comment on this?
The world, even after all my intense planning, comes to me as it is, a total improvisation. I open myself to it and it imprints itself on my senses, on my soul, on my psyche, and then, if it changes, it is because of my own limits, and that is what it means to me to be human, to be limited, but to be able to use the limits and mistakes to show a piece of understanding, from this viewpoint that is me, to share the life force that allows us to live and feel and breathe.
The world is full of oppressed people, and many are oppressed by other human beings, and it is intolerable when this happens. But what is even more intolerable is the oppression felt by people who oppress themselves, who put the weight of existence to work against them, and are unhappy and unfulfilled, whose spirit is small and suffering, even in the midst of this miraculous world. Much of that comes from disbelief - not believing that the world is as it is, and that it can be shaped in this channelling of the sensations of the world through our bodies, minds, and spirits. And much of it comes from believing the wrong things, even when the evidence is overwhelming that that belief is totally wrong.
We are out of touch much of the time with ourselves, and we are led into believing things that are not true by others who make us believe that we are wrong in our senses, that we are wrong in our intuitions, that we are wrong in our magic. And the magic that we have comes to us from this miraculous life in this magical world.
My art and music and writing are an attempt to translate that intuition, that gift of life, into a beautiful phenomenon of positivity. I choose to see the poetic, spiritual, unseen part of this life, and it is the deepest expression of our own beautiful selves, something that we have grown away from in this, and the previous, century for whatever reasons we have chosen to disbelieve our own spark of life. It is often a sorrowful expression, but through that sorrow we are cleansed and purified, and our fire grows. And it is a lot of work to keep that fire burning day after day.
Words like “positivity“, “magical“, “miraculous” and “spirit” are very common in your speech. Which takes me to a strong characteristic of your art. More than spiritual, your art have a lot of mystic and ritual iconography. Where are the sources of that mysticisms? In your studies on Egyptology and Mayan civilizations? Or in the signals you receive everyday in your quest for humanity?
It’s a long story, but in 1989, I was playing in London with a New Orleans street band, and a strange man walked up to me and demanded to speak to me. How he knew that I spoke Spanish I am only now finding out. He claimed (and I have seen proof of this) that he was in the country of Jordan doing a street performance when he saw a vision of me playing in London, and he was told in this vision to go the next day and find me playing in the streets of London. He was also told that I had been making art that needed explanation, and that I was doing things I didn’t understand, and that I needed a guide to help me sort out this phase of magic in my life.
The past 18 years have been a search for the source of this magic that I began working some 20 or more years ago. And this man was my mentor and teacher in the world of spirit and the miraculous, the hidden aspects of creation. I now also realize that I was preparing since early childhood for this shamanism to appear, and my wounding in various ways - physically, mentally, spiritually - was the vehicle for opening myself up to these healing forces, which truly are not so hidden after all.
They are found everywhere I look, written on the wind and in someone’s eyes; in the spaces between someone’s words, where words exist silently; in the repetitions of numbers that we hear and read every day; in the way someone’s handwriting reveals the directions of that life; in the way love manifests itself between human beings.
As a boy, I studied the shapes left by fossils in rock. I studied the shapes of crystals and saw the magic that it took to make them that way. I ordered newspapers from many countries and would sit for hours trying to figure out what the words and pictures meant. I met a man who had just returned from Africa, and he had found a carved piece of wood with strange writing embedded in it somewhere in a market, and although he didn’t understand it, he knew that somewhere, someone would find the magical writing interesting, and I was the young child to whom he lent this carved wooden object for a year.
In 1990 I sat in a café in the centre of Dallas, and a man wearing African clothing walked out of a crowd of people, and in French addressed me and asked if I was the one that had “serpents in his life” - the very words this first man I mentioned earlier had uttered to me in London! How did he know I understood French, I asked him. According to him “they” had told him to come and find me. He had a python skin that he had to give me before he returned to Mali, and he had taken a bus from his home in Fort Worth, Texas, some 60 kilometres away, just because “they” (the ones who knew that I had serpents - pythons - in my life) had asked him to come to Dallas, to an obscure café, to find me on a nameless Friday noon in spring. I never claimed the python skin. I was too afraid.
So where does this magic come from, this ritualistic sense of imagery? Either I am totally crazy (I really don’t think so) or totally sane, and at times it is painful. As Jim Morrison said, “The days are bright and filled with pain; Enclose me in your gentle rain.” Maybe that sort of feeling in the air and in the spirit of a person is where some of the signals come from.
Another thing is your role as a teacher. You come from a family where teaching is almost a tradition. Your father was a teacher, your brothers and sister are teaching, you teach and your soon Aaron is teaching too. How do you face it? How do you find that experience of sharing with your students?
Teaching is a very difficult job, but the rewards are great, and I have stayed in teaching all these 32 years because I continue to learn. There are times that I have come close to ending my teaching career, but those discouraging times pass. Everything that I do, I feel, succeeds because I know how to teach. Even this past summer, when I led the Madeira New Jazz Workshop Orchestra in Funchal, I was acting not only as a musician, but also as a teacher. Teaching implies knowing what it is that I am teaching, so I have to prepare well every time I teach. But it also means that I cannot learn for the students, no matter how well I know the subject, so I have to know how to help the students open up and receive the information and place it in the place where it is understood, and where it is transformed (again, another form of magic!) into a learned and useful thing. This “thing” then has a life of its own, and begins to give life. Not only must I know the subject itself, I must also know a lot of information about many different things in order to find that piece of the puzzle that will link the knowledge with other bits of information, thereby making it learnable, connected, worthy of being taken time with.
But the most important subjects I teach do not compare with the knowledge I give that is not spoken - among other things, they are: listening, openness, awareness, being awake, as well as the ability to read the language that is not spoken in words, but in actions. The meaning of gesture; the language that the eyes truly speak; the meaning of being close and turning away; sincerity or the lack thereof; the power of the life force and of the emotions; the hidden spirit of life.
Teaching, up to a decade ago, was considered probably the highest and most important profession in the world, but with the way the world has become, it is not thought of in the same superlative light anymore. It was, and still is, an honourable profession, and in the lifetime of a teacher, that teacher will have reached, formed, and prepared thousands of students in the way to lead their lives and hopefully find fulfilment, a sense of peace, and a way of making one‘s way through this life. The problem now is that parents, communities, and governments no longer understand how to support educators because they themselves never learned what it is to learn and use the important things, the real things that can connect us to each other.
I must add, though, that if a teacher truly connects and loves his students, the students, as they leave the “nest” of education, will never forget what teachers mean to them. It is always a pleasant surprise to be in the community when a former student comes up and introduces himself or herself and says, “I appreciate what you did for me as a student. Thank you, Mr. Gonzalez!” And then I realize that frequently we are the only hope for these people who are about to go into the world. Frequently we are the only solace that these children have.
Lee Iacocca said, “In a completely rational society, the best of us would aspire to be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have.”
I think we now have an idea of the man behind the music. Now, let’s talk about your music. Would you tell us, please, what you are doing these days?
I am completely crazy busy with so many projects going on at one time, but I am enjoying it so very much! To begin with, we are in the middle of a very challenging school year. At my morning school, I am attempting to teach very intensely on a daily basis, and as I teach French, I am attempting to teach how language works as well, and the majority of students are enjoying it tremendously. In the afternoon, at North Dallas High School, I have two classes of an hour length each, and I am attempting to teach from the beginning, how to play the guitar while teaching my students a repertoire of Mexican music, from mariachi through Tejano, through more recent hits by groups like Maná and Jaguares. I am also attempting to teach a bit of Flamenco as well as teaching some of the Hispano=American musics such as that played by the guitarist singer José Feliciano. By May, my beginning students should be playing some great concerts all over the North Texas area.
In the field of music, I am working on several different tours and recordings. I produced, for Clean Feed, a recording in March of 2006 led by the legendary Chicago drummer Alvin Fielder, with Memphis pianist Chris Parker plus me on trumpet, as well as my sons Aaron (on contrabass) and Stefan (on drums). I am hoping that the CD, called A Measure of Vision, will be out in early winter of 2006. It took some doing because Alvin, who now lives in Mississippi, had to come with Chris parker to Dallas, and I had to fly Stefan in from Oklahoma City on the day of the recording. It is difficult to find good pianos to record in Dallas, so it took some work to arrange the session, but it worked well in the long run. Alvin Fielder does not “do” the internet and does not own a cell phone, so communicating with him has been through landline phone calls and letters, a more difficult condition these days of instantaneous communication. And Chris Parker has not owned any sort of vehicle for a long time, so that presents its own set of problems.
My sons and I, with our jazz trio Yells At Eels, presented a very important concert here in Dallas at Mountain View College at the end of October, which was supposed to be part of a tour that I had worked on for months, and which got cancelled. The tour was to start in Bryan, Texas, at Texas A & M University, the concert which was to feature not only our music, but also my words. The concert was rained out. And we were not informed until we got there, after a 3 hour drive from Dallas in the pouring rain. So we drove back to Dallas that night and presented the concert at Mountain View College the next night. Then we were to drive to New Orleans for 2 nights of concerts, our first planned in New Orleans since the Katrina Hurricane disaster, but that was also cancelled without explanation by the promoter.
We are working at this moment - while my son Stefan is on tour in Mexico - on two nights of concerts at John Zorn’s venue The Stone in New York on the weekend of the 8th and 9th of December, and I had been negotiating with London’s BBC 3 Radio network to record us on the 8th (me with my sons and clarinetist Patrick Holmes and well-known contrabassist Ken Filiano), but Zorn intervened and discouraged the crew of BBC from recording the concert, which was to have been broadcast on December 22nd!
The next night, December 9th, I will play a concert with British musicians from Keith Tippett’s quartet, Mujician, at The Stone, and I am really looking forward to collaborating as a leader of my own group with Paul Dunmall, Paul Rogers, and Tony Levin. While I am there I will pick up my artwork from Downtown Music Gallery which was left by Hernani Faustino of Trem Azul after it was shown in exhibition at Trem Azul this past summer of 2006, at which time I also toured Portugal with LIP and led a workshop orchestra in Madeira. I have been invited by Paulo Barbosa “Minhoca”, to come back for the Quinta Splendida Jazz Festival in Funchal in August of 2007, so I’m hoping that will work out…that is something I’m working on.
Also, my boys and I have been invited to play in June in Slovenia at the Cerkno Jazz Festival, as well as to do some playing in London. My accordion quartet, Banda de Brujos is also supposed to play in Madrid sometime in the spring, as well as do a tour of Michigan State Colleges, and then I am supposed to return to Madrid later in the year with my Inspiration Band (with Roy Campbell, Michael Thompson, Sabir Mateen, and possibly my son Aaron on bass or New York bassist Hill Greene). And I was just asked to provide trumpet music for an exhibit in Chicago by San Juan, Puerto Rico-based visual artist collaborative Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, along with trumpeters Franz Hautzinger, Ingrid Jensen, Wadada Leo Smith, Leonel Kaplan, Mazen Kerbaj, Natsuki Tamura, Stephen Burns, Birgit Ulher, and Ruth Barberan.
All in all a very busy and exciting time!
(Fim do Fascículo I. Coleccione!)
posted by eduardo chagas
@ 25.7.07
Talhado na tradição saxofonista west coast, filiado numa linha de continuidade de marcas fortes como foram as de Konitz, Marsh ou Getz, Robert MacGregor (n. 1983), músico de Los Angeles com ascendência sino-europeia, mudou-se aos 20 anos para Nova Iorque, onde se tem vindo a afirmar discretamente como uma das vozes mais interessantes e personalizadas do saxofone tenor. De estilo soft bop tardio, sereno como o de Wayne Shorter, Robert MacGregor atreveu-se neste ano de 2007 e lançou um disco ao volante do seu próprio combo. Estreia auspiciosa a compor, tocar e a dirigir Miro Sprague, piano, Perry Wortman, contrabaixo, e Will Clark, bateria. O disco conta com a participação de Russell Moore, em trompete, e Christina Sjoquist, em flauta, no tema Zizhuyuan in the Summer. Refraction of Light, saído na Black-Tri Records, confirma o talento, a criatividade e a imaginação de McGregor, já conhecidos das participações no Joe Lovano Nonet e na Mingus BigBand, duas boas escolas para desemburrar e ganhar calo. Há que ficar de olho no puto.posted by eduardo chagas @ 25.7.07
Quem ouviu, sorriu de contentamento e satisfação; quem não ouviu nem sabe o que perdeu. Juntem-se os esforços da artista plástica e sonora norte-americana de Austin, Texas, Vanessa ‘Niwi’ Rossetto, criadora dos sons mais arrevesados, e de Valerio Cosi, multi-instrumentista tarantino (de Taranto, Itália), cada um deles com muito trabalho em nome próprio e espalhado por colaborações diversas ao longo dos anos – e temos o duo PULGA. Algures entre Austin e Lizanno, supõe-se que por troca de ficheiros via net ou por outro meio de troca à distância, a tele-dupla armou-se de um vasto arsenal de ferramentas produtoras e transformadoras de som. E foi com esses artefactos que resolveram ‘juntar os trapinhos’ musicais e experimentar processos vários de colagem, descolagem, adição, subtracção e sobreposição. O resultado é Pulga Loves You, um disco híbrido de tudo o que se pode ouvir na música actual. O que temos aqui é um vasto arraial de objectos sonoros não identificáveis, um turbilhão de psicadelismo extravagante com a duração breve de 43’, organizado sob a forma de canções instrumentais sem palavras. Por entre o denso nevoeiro dos drones, cortados pelos loops que sobre eles desenham círculos desconcêntricos, é possível distinguir sons de viola e guitarras processadas, balalaica, electrónica low-fi, saxofones, percussão e vozes, organizados de forma coerente e concentrada num mundo musical único, feito de noise e de melodias ingénuas, cruzadas e entrecortadas. Pulga Loves You evita a sobreexposição e as armadilhas em que caem outros projectos com idêntica manufactura, como encher demasiado a panorâmica ou saturar com excesso de cor e ingredientes. De modo diferente, PULGA, organismo vivo e inteligente, gere os recursos com parcimónia e funciona como um caleidoscópio multicolor que oscila entre as profundezas acentuadamente escuras e tenebrosas e as cores mais transparentes e luminosas. Edição de Alan Sondheim, na Fire Museum Records, de Filadélfia. Pulga Loves You. Não há como o amor recíproco e verdadeiro.posted by eduardo chagas @ 25.7.07
24.7.07
Drew Gress – Seven Black Butterflies, ao vivo no Bimhuis de Amsterdão, Holanda, em 22.01.2006 (foto: Izabela Lechowicz): Tim Berne (saxofone alto), Ralph Alessi (trompete), Craig Taborn (piano), Drew Gress (contrabaixo) e Tom Rainey (bateria). Primeira Parte: 1. Rhinoceros; 2. That Heavenly Hell; 3. New Leaf; 4. Bright Idea; 5. Wings and Prayers; 6. Fugue State; Segunda Parte: 1. Low Slung High Strung/Zaftig; 2. Blue In One Side; 3. Like It Never Was; 4. Chevelle.
posted by eduardo chagas @ 24.7.07
Casa cheia para uma noite de EST no CBB, em Lisboa, a 22 de Julho p.p. Apelidado por muita gente de trio “inovador”, só a ouvidos muito distraídos ou demasiado empolgados poderá soar assim. Importa não confundir o que os suecos Esbjörn Svensson, Dan Berglund e Magnus Öström fazem bem – a iconoclastia das tradições ligadas ao trio de piano no jazz, através da sua desconstrução e da importação de elementos até há algum tempo estranhos ao serviço do género – com aquilo que se poderia designar pela elevação do formato e do conteúdo do trio a patamares ainda não alcançados. Tarefa de dificuldade superior...
Praticantes desta modalidade de esbatimento de fronteiras do jazz relativamente a outros géneros, há cada vez mais (o mesmo se passa nas permutações do jazz com a new music, com o rock, a world, etc.) e o EST não é seguramente o primeiro nem será o último a fazê-lo. Neste segmento particular do jazz versus pop – um filão a explorar – há muito que Brad Mehldau ou Jason Moran, para citar os mais afamados, vêm calcorreando idênticos caminhos de fusão, com resultados bastante diferenciados. À vista do que se conhece em disco e se ouviu na noite lisboeta, o EST não é nome para se contar entre aqueles que podem dar "novos mundos ao mundo" do jazz. Nem é isso que parece interessar aos próprios e às audiências. Porventura, estará mais virado para captar o gosto e o interesse de um público do “centro”, homólogo do “centrão” político, flutuante por natureza. Nessa medida, consegue agradar às massas, alcançando bons lugares nas tabelas de vendas pop, beneficia de audiências planetárias via MTV, e, simultaneamente, seduz boa parte das atenções do público típico (e atípico) do jazz. Como? Através da capacidade de desmontar referências anteriores e remontá-las sobre outras plataformas, remisturando tudo num composto light de fácil digestão e assimilação. Na observação deste processo, o EST foi interessante de seguir, mesmo quando ocasionalmente entediante, em particular nos solos de contrabaixo preparado com electrónica, por vezes de gosto kitsch algo duvidoso.
O grande mérito o EST, tanto quanto me parece, reside em ser um trio simpático, agradável de ouvir e competente na arte da miscigenação, ainda que demasiado previsível para estes ouvidos. Em disco e ao vivo (curiosamente, soa sempre como se de disco se tratasse) o trio pratica uma fórmula de sucesso garantido, muito dentro do estilo do Pat Matheny Group. No CCB só faltou a guitarra de Metheny para ser quase chapadinho. Mérito, demérito? Não importa. Soou bem enquanto não cansou, face à ausência de risco e à insistente repetição do mesmo tipo de soluções harmónicas, rítmicas e melódicas.
posted by eduardo chagas
@ 24.7.07 O grande mérito o EST, tanto quanto me parece, reside em ser um trio simpático, agradável de ouvir e competente na arte da miscigenação, ainda que demasiado previsível para estes ouvidos. Em disco e ao vivo (curiosamente, soa sempre como se de disco se tratasse) o trio pratica uma fórmula de sucesso garantido, muito dentro do estilo do Pat Matheny Group. No CCB só faltou a guitarra de Metheny para ser quase chapadinho. Mérito, demérito? Não importa. Soou bem enquanto não cansou, face à ausência de risco e à insistente repetição do mesmo tipo de soluções harmónicas, rítmicas e melódicas.
23.7.07
Saída (ainda) recente de Thelmo Cristovam na norueguesa Krakilsk. O cdr de trombone solo, gravado no seu v(g)erme home studio, dá pelo nome de Trombone. Thelmo, multi-instrumentista brasileiro de Olinda, Pernambuco (n.1975, Brasília), membro do Hrönir, pegou no velho válvulas "todo remendado" e soprou vida nova no instrumento. A atenção microscópica sobre os átomos de som, ruído em baixo volume e “actividade” sem exuberância, esconde mais do que revela. Próximo das estéticas euro-japonesas do lowercase, Trombone, dedicado a Derek Bailey, trabalha intensamente sobre o silêncio, esculpido com minúcia e desenvoltura. Muito diferente de anteriores trabalhos de Cristovam, muitos deles disponíveis em formato exclusivamente digital, que fazem uso de diferentes técnicas e instrumentos acústicos e electrónicos, Trombone é um estímulo para a imaginação. Deixa-nos ver sequências de imagens em movimento que têm como pano de fundo cenários micro-improv tão improváveis como paisagens lunares ou trechos da luxuriante floresta amazónica.
Da pfMENTUM, editora de Jeff Kaiser, sedeada em Ventura, Califórnia, chega o registo da colaboração de dois improvisadores da Costa Oeste dos EUA, Andrew Pask (saxofone soprano, clarinete baixo e processamento electrónico em tempo real) e Jonathan Besser (piano).
Nas palavras de Andrew Pask, Griffith Park, gravado em 2005, nasceu espontaneamente no momento em que ele e Jonathan Besser passeavam no Griffith Park, em Los Angeles. Foi nessa altura que o saxofonista recebeu uma chamada de Wayne Peet, músico e técnico de som, a dizer que tinha uma aberta no seu Newzone Studio, em Los Angeles, e se a queriam aproveitar. So off we went... .
Besser vive habitualmente na Nova Zelândia, onde prossegue uma carreira de pianista e compositor de música contemporânea. A feliz coincidência surgiu como uma oportunidade de rentabilizar musicalmente a visita a Los Angeles e o reencontro com Andrew Pask, reminiscente dos tempos em que ambos viviam e tocavam juntos em Wellington, Nova Zelândia, de onde Andrew Pask é natural. O multi-instrumentista vive na Cidade dos Anjos desde 1999 e faz parte da muito activa comunidade local de músicos improvisadores. Participa no Large Ensemble de Vinny Golia, e tem inúmeras colaborações com Steuart Liebig, os irmãos Cline (Nels e Alex), Jeff Gauthier e Jeff Kaiser.
Griffith Park é uma sessão tranquila, pontuada a espaços por intervenções de maior dramatismo, que não chegam a perturbar o tom dolente geral. O disco reúne uma dúzia de improvisações que dá gosto ouvir. Música carregada de pormenores, o passo sereno em que se desenvolve é a toada ideal para melhor apreender as subtilezas dos intrincados diálogos dos vários instrumentos de sopro com o piano acústico. A música desenrola-se naturalmente como uma conversa entre duas pessoas. A orientação é dada por simples sugestões no início de cada tema, frases melódicas em miniatura que depois são desenvolvidas mano-a-mano, sem direcção predefinida. Tudo é tocado em tempo real, com economia de meios, sem sobreposições nem pós-produção. Os efeitos de processamento sonoro via laptop (Andrew Pask é especialista em software) ajudam a colorir o ambiente, criando espaço adicional para a variada expressão sonora.
Notícia esta semana foi o regresso à actividade da Black Saint / Soul Note depois de prolongada letargia. A italiana Black Saint, fundada em 1975, dirigida e aumentada com a criação da Soul Note pelo produtor Giovanni Bonandrini, com os seus mais de 600 títulos em arquivo, é das mais importantes e influentes editoras do jazz moderno. Nas últimas três décadas definiu um gosto e um rumo, valorizando o presente e o passado recente. Nas palavras de Bill Shoemaker, o acervo da Black Saint/Soul Note é um tesouro, "em particular para as novas gerações de ouvintes, para quem a tradição do jazz reside não na veneração das suas cinzas, mas na passagem do fogo".
22.7.07
20.7.07
John Coltrane Tribute Session with Dave Liebman and Joe Lovano
Hoje à noite, no Jazz on 3, da BBC Radio 3, passa um programa especial dedicado à memória de John Coltrane, na altura (esta semana, a 17 de Julho) em se cumprem 40 anos sobre a sua morte. Além da conversa com especialistas na vida e obra do saxofonista, como Steve Shepherd e Lewis Porter, a BBC convidou Dave Liebman e Joe Lovano para gravarem um set de composições do mestre. Com eles, tocam o pianista Phil Markowitz, o contrabaixista Ron McClure e o baterista Billy Hart. A sessão foi gravada este ano em Nova Iorque, no Clinton Recording Studio.
posted by eduardo chagas
@ 20.7.07
Music of Idris Ackamoor, 1971-2004, com recolha e organização da EM Records, reeditora japonesa de mérito, colige três lps dos anos 70 do grupo de Ackamoor, The Pyramids: Lalibela, de 1973; King of Kings, de 1974; e Birth, Speed, Merging, de 1976. Na mesma edição figura material inédito do grupo anterior aos Pyramids, The Collective (1971), registos ao vivo, gravações antigas entre as quais se contam as primeiras takes que o grupo realizou na Holanda, e outras mais recentes, do Idris Ackamoor Ensemble. A música do multi-instrumentista Idris Ackamoor, solidamente ancorada no afro-free-jazz, na linha do que, de diferentes maneiras, faziam Pharoah Sanders, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Arkestra, Ethnic Heritage Ensemble ou The Human Arts Ensemble, mantém hoje intacta a frescura e o mistério que tinha há mais de 30 anos atrás. A festa do jazz afrocêntrico nunca mais acaba, com The Collective, The Pyramids ou com o Idris Ackamoor Ensemble.
Music of Idris Ackamoor, 1971-2004: [Part 1]; [Part 2]; [Part 3]; [Part 4].
![[000-idris_ackamoor--music_of_idris_ackamoor_1971-2004-.em.-2cd-2006-booklet_inside_12.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_5nDdgdmDcxoFKWau4x7KNtfQDrW7mkf7ZMRYup1UfSmYHxxHvqsh6I_qhKFAcoqR7mm83NyCx9oybvfRmITVGvOhAX2Gu4BsPJ_1QqoTXY9a88Yf1yJAQjSzsIFlmqBJ2dECOg/s1600/000-idris_ackamoor--music_of_idris_ackamoor_1971-2004-.em.-2cd-2006-booklet_inside_12.jpg)
[The Pyramids, 1974]
Alan Sondheim, músico, escritor, investigador, musicólogo e curador da editora norte-americana Fire Museum Records, tem um gosto particular por música exótica, absolutamente fora do comum, e gosta de surpreender o público com peças musicais que espantam pela energia criativa, e que, noutras mãos, dificilmente teriam oportunidade de ser ouvidas. Da música experimental, ao folk e à world, passando pelo jazz e pela weird americana, Sondheim interessa-se tanto por projectos esteticamente inovadores, como pela investigação, descoberta e divulgação de trabalhos de recolha musicológica. É este último o caso de uma gravação realizada em 1974, pelo etno-musicólogo e antropólogo norte-americano Robert Garfias, em Madras (Chennai), capital da província Tamil Nadu, situada no Sudoeste da Índia. Durante a década de 70, Garfias percorreu vários países asiáticos. Foi numa dessas viagens que, ao deambular pelo Sul da Índia munido de um gravador portátil, se deparou com um grupo de músicos itinerantes, tocadores de rua. Os Nathamuni Brothers são uma brass band do genro da das muitas que circulam por aquele imenso território, executando um reportório clássico indiano da música carnática, característica do Sul e culturalmente diferente da hindustani, do Norte. O que chamou a atenção de Robert Garfias, em relação à música dos Nathamuni, além dos aspectos ligados aos estudos académicos e científicos e do gosto pessoal por brass bands em geral, foi o facto de este grupo executar um tipo de ragas que estão formalmente nos limites das convenções da música clássica do Sul da Índia, na medida em que incorporam uma variedade de elementos ‘estranhos’. Criado a partir do som característico do popular nagaswaram (próximo do shenai do Norte, instrumento de palheta dupla da família do clarinete), com a adição de outros instrumentos (tavil, talam, sopro barítono, trompete, saxofone alto e harmónio), o grupo evoluiu para um septeto de sopros e percussão, típico na formação e atípico no reportório. Alan Sondheim, num comentário alusivo à edição, menciona um aspecto muito interessante (e que certamente terá pesado na decisão de publicar o disco), relacionado com o facto de ter encontrado na música dos Nathamuni Brothers elementos que lhe fizeram lembrar o gospel de Albert Ayler, o Klezmer judaico (original ou reconstruído pela parentela zorniana, suponho) – que os Nathumuni jamais terão ouvido – e aquilo que também me parece reconhecível e culturalmente compreensível: elementos das bandas militares e cerimoniais inglesas, assimilados e incorporados nas ragas que se ouvem no disco Madras 1974, uma pequena amostra do imenso poder estético e espiritual da música indiana, rica em harmonias, ritmos, tons e intervalos muito diferentes dos praticados na música ocidental. Madras 1974, com edição limitada a 500 exemplares, tem o lançamento previsto para 30 de Julho próximo. Entretanto, a Fire Museum Records calendarizou para breve a edição de um disco do instalador sonoro português David Maranha (Osso Exótico). Outra bela surpresa anunciada.posted by eduardo chagas @ 20.7.07
19.7.07
LNGTCHÉ "Music for an untitled film by T.Zärkkof"
Coming soon on Etude Records.
posted by eduardo chagas
@ 19.7.07 Coming soon on Etude Records.
O ex-Arkestra Ahmed Abdullah na finlandêsa TUM Records, com TARA'S SONG, disco de estreia do quinteto Ebonic Tones: Ahmed Abdullah (trompete e voz), Alex Harding (saxofone barítono), Billy Bang (violino), Alex Blake (contrabaixo) e Andrei Strobert (bateria).
Tara’s Song presents a musical journey through a wide array of musical styles in order to help us understand what Abdullah himself calles 'Jazz: The Music of the Spirit'. In addition to Abdullah's own works, compositions by Ornette Coleman, Frank Lowe, Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra are also presented.
Tara’s Song presents a musical journey through a wide array of musical styles in order to help us understand what Abdullah himself calles 'Jazz: The Music of the Spirit'. In addition to Abdullah's own works, compositions by Ornette Coleman, Frank Lowe, Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra are also presented.
'Ebonic Tones (aka “colored sounds”) is in a sense a reincarnation of a band that I put together in 1986 known as The Group (with Marion Brown, Billy Bang, Sirone, Fred Hopkins and Andrew Cyrille). Significantly, The Group was together for two and a half years and made no commercial recordings whereas Ebonic Tones was able to record only a year and a half after coming together. The difference has everything to do with our mindset. In the 1980s, as conservatism replaced wisdom in America, we reacted to Reagan’s ascendancy to power and the resultant lack of support for the arts by banding together in cooperative music groups. In the 1990s, we saw that conservative politics were going to be a way of life and we, therefore, initiated organizations and institutions as a support base for cooperative music groups and for the survival of the music and the well-being of our people.This initial recording of Ebonic Tones is presented as a musical journey by taking you through a wide array of styles in order to help you understand what we call “Jazz: The Music of the Spirit”. This music comes from a vast history of people whom I have appreciated, respected and celebrated'. - Ahmed Abdullah
Momento histórico. Por incrível que possa parecer, foi apenas há dias que Cecil Taylor e Anthony Braxton tocaram juntos pela primeira vez. Cecil Taylor Quartet feat. Anthony Braxton, em concerto no Royal Festival Hall, Londres, domingo passado, 8 de Julho de 2007. Passou no Jazz on 3, da BBC Radio 3. Pensando em quem não pôde ouvir, e naqueles que, tendo ouvido, não possuem meios de captação e edição sonora, preparei o set completo (48'37).
Cecil Taylor - piano
William Parker - contrabaixo
Tony Oxley - bateria, percussão
Anthony Braxton - clarinete contrabaixo, saxofones alto, soprano e sopranino
1. Duet - Cecil Taylor / Tony Oxley (00'00-11'10)
2. Quartet - Cecil Taylor / William Parker / Tony Oxley / Anthony Braxton (11'50-48'17)
Agitated, contemplative, percussive and abstract scantily describe the improvising of Cecil Taylor. As a pianist who has been on the leading edge of the avant garde and experimental from the '50s, his performances are compelling for his energetic physical style as much as his inexplicable torrents of sound. He teamed up with William Parker (bass), renowned improv drummer Tony Oxley and (for the very first time) saxophonist Anthony Braxton. An intense and exhilarating evening.
posted by eduardo chagas
@ 19.7.07 Cecil Taylor - piano
William Parker - contrabaixo
Tony Oxley - bateria, percussão
Anthony Braxton - clarinete contrabaixo, saxofones alto, soprano e sopranino
1. Duet - Cecil Taylor / Tony Oxley (00'00-11'10)
2. Quartet - Cecil Taylor / William Parker / Tony Oxley / Anthony Braxton (11'50-48'17)
Agitated, contemplative, percussive and abstract scantily describe the improvising of Cecil Taylor. As a pianist who has been on the leading edge of the avant garde and experimental from the '50s, his performances are compelling for his energetic physical style as much as his inexplicable torrents of sound. He teamed up with William Parker (bass), renowned improv drummer Tony Oxley and (for the very first time) saxophonist Anthony Braxton. An intense and exhilarating evening.
![[Derek-bailey-improvisation.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSgbbPYgc9v75w0OAm7W3N3U2Kv3_Y8juH4N4TErfxh4ISwo6hO7Vcb1l7IF51XlyTcKvRb0j6BzBjVxex8m0H_M1Y6Uns9xnhMPsM2CZx8OfabUHPv3yv2Xr5sWD5lF64zjhfWw/s1600/Derek-bailey-improvisation.jpg)
18.7.07
Perfect_sound_forever_sessions
Werner Durand + David Maranha (DE/PT)
Alfredo Costa Monteiro (PT)
Werner Durand + David Maranha
Werner Durand, músico alemão indissociável da música minimal contemporânea, tem explorado ao longo das últimas décadas diferentes plataformas, compondo frequentemente para teatro, dança e rádio. A sua música revela uma obsessão pelo drone, trabalhando-o numa lógica de transversalidade cultural que explora o seu papel nas músicas tradicionais de países como a Índia ou o Japão. Por seu lado, David Maranha, fundador dos seminais Osso Exótico, tem vindo a produzir desde o início dos anos 90 uma discografia ímpar na área do minimalismo electroacústico, tanto a solo como nos mais diversos contextos colaborativos.
Alfredo Costa Monteiro
O improvisador portuense Alfredo Costa Monteiro vive e trabalha em Barcelona desde 1992, onde tem devotado o seu trabalho a múltiplas actividades que incluem as artes plásticas, poesia sonora/visual e som. Para além de uma intensa actividade a solo, Costa Monteiro faz parte de diversas formações, como Cremaster, Treni Inerti, Neumática e Mut. A sua actuação na ZDB explorará as potencialidades geradas pela manobra de pick-ups em gira-discos.
posted by eduardo chagas @ 18.7.07
Ornette Coleman Anthology - Aki Takase / Silke Eberhard (Intakt)
Die Enttäuschung - Rudi Mahall / Axel Dörner / Jan Roder / Uli Jennessen (Intakt)
David S. Ware Quartet - Aquarian Sound
(David S. Ware / Matthew Shipp / William Parker / Guillermo E. Brown)
17.7.07
O Ars Nova Workshop programou um concerto com a violinista Jenny Scheinman e o quarteto com que tem vindo a trabalhar. Inclui Nels Cline (guitarra), Todd Sickafoose (contrabaixo) e Jim Black (bateria), os dois primeiros, antigos colegas na Scott Amendola Band. Menina bonita do violino para a Downbeat (Rising Star Violinist entre 2003 e 2007), como resultado do trabalho que tem vindo a desenvolver desde que se mudou da Bay Area de S. Francisco para Nova Iorque, em 1999. Depois de 12 Songs, o quarto disco como líder, Jenny Scheinman tem outros dois prontos a sair no início de 2008, na Cryptogramophone, um com o quarteto, e outro com Bill Frisell, Jason Moran, Doug Weiselman, Ron Miles, Kenny Wollesen, Tim Luntzel e orquestra de cordas. De Nels Cline, na mesma Cryptogramophone, está aí Draw Breath, com os Nels Cline Singers (Cline, Devin Hoff e Scott Amendola). Uma bomba!
![[002.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAMiDWWYrMdDiyNb3Sq2VqhYg_6hkuuknTRVnVivSJdFESCK1WomHePdXUAaRPBsOPCBQDrxXe7SbsDodA003uika7j_KCEVKEkTMsRJz7sALpxRtT9l_cL_4m3EKuwZu11qgwQQ/s1600/002.jpg)
Mark O'Leary_guitarra
Rodrigo Amado_saxofone
Zé Eduardo_contrabaixo
Bruno Pedroso_bateria
Rodrigo Amado_saxofone
Zé Eduardo_contrabaixo
Bruno Pedroso_bateria
17 e 18 de Julho, 23h00
posted by eduardo chagas
@ 17.7.07
The special celestial journey of jazz master Sun Ra - Glenny Brock, do Birmingham Weekly, entrevista o baterista Rah Amen, membro da Arkestra a partir de 1985.
Cornell 1964: Charles Mingus Sextet with Eric Dolphy. Sai amanhã (17/7) na Blue Note. DISC 1: 1. ATFW You; 2. Sophisticated Lady; 3. Fables Of Faubus; 4. Orange Was The Color Of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk; 5. Take The "A" Train - DISC 2: 1. Meditations; 2. So Long Eric; 3. When Irish Eyes Are Smiling; 4. Jitterbug Waltz.
15.7.07
Prossegue a bom ritmo o projecto de desencantamento dos tesouros que constituem o imenso acervo do The Avant Garde Project, empreendimento dedicado à divulgação da música de compositores do Séc. XX nas áreas da música contemporânea, experimental e electroacústica. A maior parte da música que se tem vindo a tornar disponível era geralmente de acesso reservado a coleccionadores. Raros foram os casos de edição em CD, e os LPs há muito que se encontravam esgotados e sem reedição à vista.
As peças mais recentes do AGP pertencem ao catálogo do compositor britânico de origem alemã, Alexander Goehr, aluno de Richard Hall, Olivier Messiaen e Pierre Boulez. Estão acessíveis através de descarga gratuita via The Pirate Bay ou Mininova, em formato flac convertível em mp3 com o software adequado.
posted by eduardo chagas
@ 15.7.07
13.7.07
Acabou o David S. Ware Quartet, é sabido. Umas das raras formações estabilizadas do free jazz actual, com 20 anos (!) de vida e obra, e escassas mudanças na equipa base (apenas o baterista mudou por quatro vezes, desde Marc Edwards, passando por Whit Dickey, Susie Ibarra, até fechar com Guillermo E. Brown). Imutáveis, permaneceram William Parker (contrabaixo) e Matthew Shipp (piano). Honra e glória ao grande DSQ, uma das marcas mais importantes na história do Jazz do último meio século. Encerrado o longo capítulo de grande criatividade musical, 20 anos e 20 discos depois, David Spencer Ware está pronto para novas aventuras. Para já, com outro quarteto, ainda sem assumir qualquer designação formal, além de David S. Ware & Friends. Pode ser o embrião de um novo DSQ, ou apenas quatro improvisadores avulso que pretendem tocar juntos por uns tempos e depois ir cada um à sua vida: David S. Ware (saxofone tenor), Guillermo E. Brown (bateria), Joe Morris (guitarra) e Keith Witty (contrabaixo). Actuam hoje (13) e amanhã (14) no Iridium Jazz Club, na Broadway, Nova Iorque.
posted by eduardo chagas
@ 13.7.07
SECONDA PRATTICA
Marcello Maggi_trompete
Pedro Roxo_contrabaixo
José Oliveira_percussão
14 de Julho, sábado, 22h
Bacalhoeiro, Associação Cultural
Rua dos Bacalhoeiros, 125 - 2º andar - Lisboa
Bacalhoeiro, Associação Cultural
Rua dos Bacalhoeiros, 125 - 2º andar - Lisboa
Patrocínio espiritual: http://freemusic.podomatic.com/
posted by eduardo chagas
@ 13.7.07
Foi um prazer ter participado ontem à noite num concerto de música improvisada, com António Chaparreiro, Abdul Moimême, Marcello Maggi, João Pedro Viegas, Jorge Lampreia, Hernâni Faustino, e, num número extra, com Ernesto Rodrigues ao piano. Na Fábrica de Braço de Prata. As antigas instalações de produção de armas e munições da zona oriental de Lisboa foram transformadas num centro cultural com excelentes condições. A Eterno Retorno, livraria de Filosofia e Teatro, e a Ler Devagar uniram esforços e estão juntas na FBP. Salas de livraria, espaços de galeria, café/concerto, um cine-teatro, esplanada ao ar livre, jardim de Inverno, espaços para conferências, debates, etc. Aqui está como a cultura pode vencer a guerra.
Depois duma comunhão como aquela de ontem, só mesmo outra hoje: a de Cecil Taylor com Anthony Braxton ;-). Falando sério, hoje e durante toda a semana, o Jazz on 3, da BBC Radio 3, passa o concerto em que os dois grandes mestres se juntaram para improvisar em quarteto, com William Parker e Tony Oxley. Uma reunião mágica, inédita e histórica, ocorrida a 8 de Junho passado, no Royal Festival Hall, em Londres.
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...anzi, direi di +: che se mi permettete d'esprimerminella mia lingua madre, tanto so che mi capite, inqualche maniera mi capite, mi capireste, etc, vorrei dirvi che si potrebbe immaginare di farne di piú, dicose del genere..non so se avete notato, ma ieri losguardo attento della gente, persone che probabilmente per la prima volta si affacciavano all'ambito della libera improvvisazione, uno sguardo, direi, curioso, incuriosito e incuriosente, e poi tutto quel vibrare sull'abisso, quel sentirsi precipitare, assieme ai musicisti, nel pericoloso vuoto del silenzio..e poi la vertigine della risalita, ecc, ecc...e il tempo, ragazzi! il tempo giusto: 43 minuti, m'ha detto Jorge, 43 minuti di libera improvvisazione. che altro dirvi,,, ecco: vorrei stancarvi ancora nellalettura (chi ce la fará?) di questa mia e-mail daleggersi tutta d'un fiato e adesso abolisco addirittura le virgole i punti e le parentesi ogni punteggiatura va a farsi fottere perche d'un sol fiat opossiate respirare il mio respiro ecc ecc ma basta chié arrivato sin qui con me significa che mi vuol bene epoi che altro dirvi senza virgole o punti interrogativi nullapiu nulla basta ciao
marcello
posted by eduardo chagas
@ 13.7.07
Estava-se no princípio dos 80, quando Louis Moholo (percussão), Larry Stabbins (saxofones tenor e soprano) e Keith Tippett (piano) gravaram duas sessões em Berlim, no Total Music Meeting, originalmente publicadas na editora SAJ, do percussionista sueco Sven-Åke Johansson. Antes disso, Tippett permanecera algum tempo com os King Krimson, na década de 70, antes de fazer agulha para o jazz/free improv. A propósito, o episódio King Krimson, que em tempos mencionei num escrito que resumia a carreira do pianista, valeu-me uma acesa troca de palavras com o Sr. Tippett durante uma das edições do Jazz ao Centro, o festival de Coimbra. Fiquei a saber que, sem enjeitar o que fez, detesta ser conhecido pelo período prog-rock. Seja como for, é aquele outro lado de Tippett, de improvisação informal, que se ouve em TERN. As peças, quatro ao todo (Tern, First Part; Tern, Second Part; Mania/Dance; The Greatest Service), são longas maratonas de criação musical on the spot. Larry Stabbins, um saxofonista que sempre me impressionou pelo melhor, encontrava-se num pico de forma por esta altura. O seu som de saxofone, tanto tenor como soprano, é potente e nunca mais se esquece. A velha edição SAJ, em duplo LP, mereceu o olhar e a recuperação de John Corbett, que a incluiu no programa de reedições e descobertas de discos perdidos que a Atavistic tem vindo a acarinhar sob a designação de Unheard Music Series. Excelente oportunidade de conhecer um momento representativo do estado do Brit Jazz de inícios de 80.
posted by eduardo chagas
@ 13.7.07
12.7.07
Laurie Anderson na Culturgest, Lisboa, a 15 de Julho, já!
'Laurie Anderson é artista visual, compositora, poeta, fotógrafa, realizadora de cinema, vocalista, instrumentista. No domingo, fará uma viagem à sua terra-mãe. “Homeland” é um espectáculo de Laurie, baseado no seu mais recente album homónimo, uma combinação de poema e de concerto que olha e analisa a cultura e a forma de ser da América dos nossos dias. “Homeland” fala da cultura dos Hummers, dos bloggers, da solidão e da vigilância através de circuitos de televisão. Usará as linguagens sintéticas da tecnologia e a linguagem sensual da escrita de canções e da poesia para olhar para os reality shows, o totalitarismo de estilo americano, o sentimentalismo, as imagens fugazes do império'. / Artur Soares da Silva, Le Cool
posted by eduardo chagas
@ 12.7.07 'Laurie Anderson é artista visual, compositora, poeta, fotógrafa, realizadora de cinema, vocalista, instrumentista. No domingo, fará uma viagem à sua terra-mãe. “Homeland” é um espectáculo de Laurie, baseado no seu mais recente album homónimo, uma combinação de poema e de concerto que olha e analisa a cultura e a forma de ser da América dos nossos dias. “Homeland” fala da cultura dos Hummers, dos bloggers, da solidão e da vigilância através de circuitos de televisão. Usará as linguagens sintéticas da tecnologia e a linguagem sensual da escrita de canções e da poesia para olhar para os reality shows, o totalitarismo de estilo americano, o sentimentalismo, as imagens fugazes do império'. / Artur Soares da Silva, Le Cool
António Chaparreiro_guitarra
Jorge Lampreia_saxofone soprano
Abdul Moimême_saxofone tenor
João Pedro Viegas_clarinete baixo
Marcello Maggi_trompete
Eduardo Chagas_trombone
Hernâni Faustino_contrabaixo
+ Ernesto Rodrigues_piano
Fábrica Braço de Prata, Lisboa
12.07.2007_23h00
posted by eduardo chagas
@ 12.7.07
