Secret Society

Secret Society with Anti-Social Music @ Galapagos - 9 March 2012

2012-01-24T18:14:49-05:00

On March 9, 2012, my co-conspirators and I will be returning to Galapagos Art Space for a double-bill with the estimable Anti-Social Music. In addition to selections from Brooklyn Babylon, Secret Society will be playing music written especially for the band by Vijay Iyer and David T. Little. This is a rare opportunity to hear the band play compositions by someone else for a change. Also, Vijay and David have both written fantastic works that cut against the grain of what's expected from a large ("j-word") ensemble.

For their part, Anti-Social Music will be bringing their own Large Assemblage (though not quite so Large as ours... ) to Galapagos. They are reviving music from 11tet, a jazz composers’ workshop from the late 90′s (do you remember the '90s?), and new works written for ASM by Kamala Sankaram, Dan Lasaga and Pat Muchmore.

I'm a longtime fan of Anti-Social Music -- I think my favorite gig email from them was entitled "ASM presents 'The Glorified Rehearsal!'" -- and this double-bill has literally been years in the making. Tickets are $20 (less than $0.67 per musician! whee!) and may be procured here.

Secret Society @ The Jazz Gallery, Jan. 6-7, 2012

2012-01-03T13:10:15-05:00

[cross-posted to the new Jazz Gallery blog, Jazz Speaks]

My co-conspirators and I have, as they say, "a history" with The Jazz Gallery. They were the first legitimate jazz venue to host Secret Society -- by "legitmate jazz venue," I mean a venue with the word "jazz" in its name. (That was April 5, 2007, for those keeping track.) Two selections from Infernal Machines, "Jacobin Club" and "Obsidian Flow," were commissioned by and premiered at The Jazz Gallery immediately prior to us going into the studio. Those who have not seen a big band perform in the Gallery's intimate confines are often surprised that we are able to fit at all, but we've done it enough to develop a refined and intricate method of squeezing the band onto the stage. It's always a kick to perform with the audience so close to the band, and the sound in the room is vivid, clear, and natural.

For our performances next week -- Friday, January 6 and Saturday, January 7 -- we will be reprising selections from our recent multimedia production, Brooklyn Babylon, for the first time since premiering the work at the Next Wave Festival in November. (Incidentally, we've just added some live audio from our run at the BAM Harvey Theater to the Brooklyn Babylon website.)

Additionally, in tribute to the memory of my compositional menor, Bob Brookmeyer, we will also be performing pieces of mine that bear his unmistakable imprint.

For these shows, we're very pleased to announce the return of co-conspirator emeritus Tim Hagans, whom we first encountered four years ago, during our first Canadian incursion. He'll be joined by the usual band of miscreants and ne'er-do-wells:

WINDS
Erica von Kleist
Rob Wilkerson
Sam Sadigursky
John Ellis (Jan. 6)
Mark Small (Jan. 7)
Josh Sinton

TRUMPETS
Seneca Black
Tom Goehring
Nathan Eklund
Nadje Noordhuis
Tim Hagans

TROMBONES
Mike Fahie
Ryan Keberle
James Hirschfeld
George Flynn

RHYTHM
Sebastian Noelle, guitar
Adam Birnbaum, piano
Matt Clohesy, bass
Ted Poor, drums

Tickets are $20/$10 for members/FREE for APAP badge-holders (reservations required - email info@jazzgallery.org).

RIP Sam Rivers

2011-12-27T15:50:27-05:00

Another great gone...

Obviously Rivers leaves behind a vast and varied body of work, but don't sleep on his' '90s and '00s bigband recordings, now collected on a 3CD Mosaic Select box.

Celebration: Remembering - a tribute to Bob Brookmeyer

2011-12-23T18:58:43-05:00

My tribute to Bob Brookmeyer is up at NewMusicBox. As important as Bob is to me, I knew my own words would be inaquate to convey the full sweep of his career and the enormous influence he had on generations of musicians — so the piece also includes excerpts from interviews I conducted with Jim Hall, Bill Holman, Jim McNeely, Joe Lovano, Maria Schneider, and others.

RIP Bob Brookmeyer

2011-12-16T16:31:47-05:00

Bob Brookmeyer was the most extraordinary teacher -- more than a mentor, he was and is the most important shaping force in my musical life. He saw the spark of something in me and invited me to study with him at New England Conservatory, and any succes I've had since is directly attributable to his influence. I'm going to miss him something fierce.

A more extensive tribute is in the works [UPDATE: it's here], but in the menanwhile, here's my post in honor of Bob's 80th birthday celebration -- he would have turned 82 this Monday.

Elsewhere...

The official announcement on BobBrookmeyer.com
Terry Teachout, who broke the news on Twitter.
Ryan Truesdell, who has been Robert Craft to Bob's Stravinsky over the past decade or so.
Nicholas Urie, a fellow composer who also studied with Bob at NEC.
Peter Hum, Jazzblog.ca
Richard Kamins, Step Tempest
Pat Donaher, Brookmeyer alumnus, and friend and collegue from my NEC days.
Marc Myers, JazzWax
NPR
Washington Post
New York Times
The Guardian
Clark Terry, who co-led a quintet with Bob in the 1960's and is one of Bob's oldest, dearest friends.
Jazz Profiles
JazzTimes
Doug Ramsey, Rifftides
Carole Sloane - Bob shared arraigning duties with Bill Finegan on her classic record Out of the Blue. I did not know that it was Carol who first introduced Bob to the Fats Waller tune "Willow Tree," which he went on to arrange for the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis band. Good call.
Jazz at Lincoln Center - uncredited but I think this is by Phil Schaap?
BMI
John Hollenbeck - a sublime tribute from the great drummer-composer-bandleader, and one of Bob's closest collaborators.