In this Newsletter:
»Rova:Arts – New Website Launching»Upcoming Shows
»Rovaté 2010: Pandaemonium
»New Larry Ochs CD
»Favorite Street: Bruce Ackley
»RadiOM – Improv:21 series archives
»Rova:Arts
Image from the Home Page of Rova’s new website
Finishing touches are being completed in preparation for the launch of the new Rova:Arts website. The site will update the organization’s virtual presence, offering more to Rova fans and those interested in our corner of the music world. Visitors to the site will be able to access information more readily and have the opportunity to stream and purchase archival audio and video recordings. We eventually hope to provide a portal for related musics and music resources for interested musicians and listeners.
We plan to have the site up and running before our next newsletter, due out at the first of the year. John Lee, who maintains the Bay Improviser website and has been a Rova friend for years, is generously donating time as the architect to make this happen in the right way. Tania Kaç is the web designer. And, many of us are working feverishly to update the content. Keep your browsers dialed in for the new and improved Rova.org.
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Upcoming Shows
Monday, November 2, 11:00 pm
Steve Adams' Dark Forest Trio
The Make Out Room
22nd Street near Valencia
San Francisco
http://www.makeoutroom.com/
Steve Adams – Sax
John Hanes - Electronics
Vijay Anderson - Drums
Friday, November 6
ODE
Firehouse 12
New Haven, CT
Larry Ochs, Trevor Dunn (bass) and Lisle Ellis ( bass and circuitry) with special guest Michael Sarin (drums)
http://firehouse12.com/index.asp
The Bill Horvitz Expanded Band
THE LONG WALK: In Memory of Phillip Horvitz
THE LONG WALK is Sonoma County musician/composer Bill Horvitz’s moving and inspiring tribute to his late brother Philip, an inspired writer, director, actor, dancer, and choreographer. Composed after Philip passed away suddenly of heart failure on March 30, 2005, The Long Walk incorporates the same characteristics—playfulness, curiosity, generosity of spirit—that defined Philip during his short but extraordinary life.
Omid Zoufonoun (conductor)
Kyle Bruckman (oboe), Aram Shelton (clarinets), Steve Adams (flute, alto sax), Sheldon Brown (tenor sax), Jon Raskin (bari sax), Michael Cooke (bassoon), Hal Forman (trumpet), Darren Johnston (trumpet), George Hines (French horn), Liam Staskawicz (trombone), Kim Allen (tuba), Sarah Zahrako (violin), Wayne Horvitz (piano), TBD (cello), Dan Seamans (bass), Vijay Anderson (drums), Bill Horvitz (composer, guitar)
Friday, November 13, 8:00 pm
Community Music Center
544 Capp St.
San Francisco
$10 at the door (all ages)
(415) 647-6015
http://www.sfcmc.org/
Saturday, November 14th
The Glaser Center
547 Mendocino Avenue
Santa Rosa
Sliding Scale admission (all ages)
(707) 568-5381
http://www.glasercenter.com
More information, please contact:
Bill Horvitz (707) 887-1869
horvitz12@earthlink.net
Saturday, November 21, 9:30 and 11:00
Band of Zeros
Starry Plough
3101 Shattuck Avenue
(510) 841-2082
Berkeley
http://www.starryploughpub.com/
Scott Amendola – percussion (40)
Wil Blades – keyboards (30)
Matthias Bossi - percussion (30)
John Evans - bass (40)
Ben Goldberg – clarinets (50)
Larry Ochs - saxes (60)
Special guest: Poet Clark Coolidge (70)
LARRY OCHS SAX & DRUMMING CORE
Europe 2009
SCOTT AMENDOLA & DON ROBINSON (DRUMS)
SATOKO FUJII (PIANO, SYNTHESIZER) and NATSUKI TAMURA (TRUMPET)
The tour dates:
Nov 29: Dieselstrasse Kulturcentrum - Esslingen, Germany
Nov 30: Alchemia - Krakow, Poland
December 1: Divadlo 29 - Pardubice, Czech Republic
Dec 2: WIST - Graz, Austria
Dec 3: Porgy + Bess - Vienna
Dec 4: Carré Bleu - Poitiers, France
Dec. 5: Le BRASS – Forest, Belgium (near Brussels)
Dec 6: Festival “Total Meeting” @ Le Petit Fauchaux - Tours, France**
Dec 7: Festival JAZZ SIGÜENZA 2009, Ermita de San Roque - Sigüenza, Spain
**The Drumming Core performance in Tours, France is supported by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation through USArtists International in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Larry Ochs with Alberto Braida and Fabrizio Spera
December 10 – Milano, Italy
PiM spazio scenico
via Tertulliano
Milano, Italy 68
December 11 - Lodi, Italy
Accademia di Musica F. Gaffurio
via Solferino 20
Lodi, Italy
Rova:Arts has commissioned a new work by Bay Area composer and musician Carla Kihlstedt, to be created specifically for Rova Saxophone Quartet. Ms. Kihlstedt’s composition is based on letters describing the impact of the Industrial Revolution from the book, Pandaemonium: The Coming of the Machine as Seen by Contemporary Observers, by Humphrey Jennings. It is a fragmented and impressionistic reflection on our changing relationship to technology and nature, and therefore, to each other. Each movement will be preceded by a live reading of the letter that inspired it, and will make use of structured improvisations and traditional notation, capitalizing on the vast vocabulary of improvisational and extended techniques that Rova has developed over decades. Visual artist Lisa Carroll is designing a subtle, but evocative projected backdrop for the stage that slowly shifts to follow the progression of the piece.
Look for an interview with the composer on the new website and more information in upcoming newsletters.
Save the Date!
Thursday, March 4 2010, 8:00 pmRova:Arts and Other Minds Presents
The World Premiere of Carla Kihlstedt’s
Pandaemonium
SF Jewish Community Center
Kanbar Hall
3200 California Street
San Francisco
New Larry Ochs CD
LARRY OCHS SAX & DRUMMING CORE
STONE SHIFT
Rog-0025
Larry Ochs: tenor and sopranino saxophones
Satoko Fujii: piano, synthesizer
Natsuki Tamura: trumpet
Donald Robinson: drums
Scott Amendola: drums
As all our previous releases, STONE SHIFT is available on our website
http://web.roguart.com/
Also available from CD Baby
http://cdbaby.com/cd/larryochs
This just in! Review of Stone Shift:
http://freejazz-stef.blogspot.com/
[This appears to be a very good blog covering improvised music. Check it out.]
Newly posted interview between Australian writer Luke Harley and Larry Ochs at Paris Transatlantic website: http://www.paristransatlantic.com/
[TOP]Favorite Street– Bruce Ackley
Rare early photo of composer Giacinto Scelsi
What a fantastic treat Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony provided us in early October: Mahler’s Fifth Symphony on the same evening as Giacinto Scelsi’s Hymnos! For my ears this was ideal programming, offering two completely unique sound worlds in a finely tuned acoustic setting. And the SF Symphony was on. What added to the performance was the Tilson Thomas’ introduction to the Scelsi. He told the story of spending an evening at the maestro’s house across from the Forum in Rome in the early 1970s. Dinner was served, and afterwards an improvising session was held (likely including folks like Alvin Curran, although he was not mentioned in the anecdote). His impression was that Scelsi was gathering material for composition. Regardless of the total veracity of the memoir, it was thrilling to me that the conductor of a major symphony was talking about free improvisation in a concert setting including a Mahler Symphony. The audience was completely taken in. His conducting of the Scelsi was unforgettable. He danced the orchestra through the performance. And, even though I know the piece well, and had just listened to it the night before, I never really heard it before.
The Mahler has been a favorite of mine since seeing Visconti’s film Death in Venice in the early 1970s. The opening Trauermarsch and Scherzo were revelations. And the Adagietto is always thrilling, but hearing it live was wrenching.
Schoenberg – Verklarte Nacht (Sextet Version)
The Hollywood String Quartet (plus cello and viola)
Testament CD
This recording was made in the early 1950s, shortly before the composer’s death. It is a fantastic reading of one of my favorites of the Viennese second school. Highly recommended for its intensity.
Columbia CD
This LP (though it’s around as a very cheap CD) is a recent re-discovery, and ‘Shoes of the Fisherman’s Wife Must Have Been Some Jive-ass Slippers’ is worth the price of admission.
Cy Twombly: The Natural World, Selected Works 2000-2007
The Art Institute of Chicago
Shostakovich – Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 67
Beuax Arts Trio
Philips
This is a stunning piece of music that came out as a record with Charles Ives Trio (1911) on the other side. The Shostakovich piece’s opening is unreal, mostly for the high wire playing of cellist Bernard Greenhouse. He’s way up in the violin range with the most haunting timbre, as the high sounds are produced on the usual tenor ranged cello.
Bartók – Concerto for Orchestra, Op. 116Fritz Reiner conducing the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
RCA Living Stereo SACD Hybrid Series
This is a piece I overlooked for years, avoiding orchestral music like the plague. It’s wonderful to finally get to it. Some colors explored remind me of Gil Evans, indicating that Evans was likely hip to this piece when it first happened in the mid-1940’s. It’s one of Bartok’s last pieces. The disc comes with his Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Op. 106 as well. The sound is fantastic.
Kuroi Kawa and Black River
Tzadik
I’ve had the pleasure to share the stage with both Carla and Satoko for several years, and was witness to their first collaboration together as part of Rovaté 2003. This new double CD (one studio, one live) shows how far their initial chemistry has taken them over time. Both are so assured and well equipped in their pursuits that it’s with seeming ease that they find mutual territory to mine. It’s a thrilling set of collaborative works.
Review of the Electric Ascension CD– Paul Bennett’s HEDGESANDSHAMBLES Blog
http://hedgesandshambles.blogspot.com/
Paul’s an old pal living in Brooklyn who has great ears and insights for music, and is a marvelous writer. He’s a dedicated and compelling saxophonist into the bargain. Paul was the winner (of 40 entrants) of a blog contest conducted by The Bad Plus through their website, Do the Math: http://thebadplus.typepad.com/dothemath/
Check out Bennett’s take on the recording.
It’s fantastic to witness the cross-pollination of forms and ideas that’s taking place in the cyber world, as exemplified here. Congratulations Paul! And thanks to the Bad Plus for the props.
Alvin Stillman Turns 75!
Happy 75th Birthday to Alvin Stillman, a long time Rova supporter and all around booster of the arts. I credit Alvin with turning me on to Bird. What more can I say!
Want to sample some of the earlier Improv:21 informances?
We will be uploading one show every two months to RadiOM (the archive website of Other Minds) until the entire series is online. There is a lot of stimulating information in each show.
Here’s what’s available at the moment:
Wadada Leo SmithLawrence “Butch” Morris
Rova
John Zorn
Cheryl Leonard
Nels Cline
Fred Frith
Carla Kihlstedt
Gino Robair
Miya Masaoka
Ned Rothenberg
Oliver Lake
Ben Goldberg
To get news from Other Minds click here .
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We want to express our deepest gratitude to all the generous private and public donors who contribute to Rova:Arts. Your support has been essential to the successful presentation and documentation of our projects over the year.
Formed in 1977, Rova’s been in a state of continual artistic renewal for over 3 decades. Rova:Arts, formed in 1986 to support the activities of Rova, has been instrumental in producing local projects and advancing an ongoing cultural exchange between local Bay Area artists and the international scene through its Rovaté concert series. These events, made possible by funding to Rova:Arts, have engaged Bay Area musicians and composers—as well as musicians from around the world. Rova:Arts projects are often reproduced in other parts of the world, thereby bringing the work to a broader audience. Also, many Rova:Arts events have been recorded, resulting in releases which have been enthusiastically celebrated.
Rova:Arts has produced the Improv:21 series, providing a forum for innovative musicians like Henry Kaiser, Wayne Horvitz, Mark Dresser, Ellen Fullman, Roscoe Mitchell, Zeena Parkins and others to share their artistic visions and unique paths to creativity, with you the audience, in an intimate setting. With your support this fascinating and informative series can continue.
Click here to find out more and to Join Rova:Arts. Thanks for being part of the art.
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