Bynum-Hébert-Cleaver Trio In Philly Tonight

Bynum-Hébert-Cleaver Trio

Tonight at The Rotunda in Philadelphia, the recently formed Taylor Ho Bynum-John Hébert-Gerald Cleaver Trio will finish its three-city tour before heading into the studio tomorrow to record its debut for the RogueArt label.

“These three are pacesetters in modern improvisation, so the very idea of their convergence as a trio is rich with promise,” writes Philadelphia Weekly’s David R. Adler. “Cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum has worked alongside Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton and other giants; his own bands include SpiderMonkey Strings and Positive Catastrophe. Bassist John Hébert played with the great Andrew Hill until the pianist’s death in 2007; he’s currently with Fred Hersch and leading his own Byzantine Monkey. Drummer Gerald Cleaver can wail with free-jazz icons like Roscoe Mitchell and Matthew Shipp, then turn around and offer swinging, melodic treasures with his own group Violet Hour. Together, they’ve got six wide-open ears and infinite musical options.”

Mary Halvorson + Jessica Pavone’s European Tour Begins Sunday

Photo by Peter Gannushkin

Guitarist Mary Halvorson and violist Jessica Pavone will kick-off their latest European tour on Sunday, October 25th in Brussels, Belgium.

The duo will perform seven dates in Belgium and Italy, with Ms. Halvorson taking a quick break on the 30th to perform with the Anthony Braxton Diamond Curtain Wall Trio in Frankfurt, Germany.

Here’s the itinerary:

10/25 :: Studio Odeon (Brussels, Belgium)
10/26 :: Cladestino (Faenza, Italy)
10/27 :: Auditorium Parco della Musica (Rome, Italy)
10/29 :: Voruuit (Gent, Belgium)
10/31 :: Botticino Jazz Festival (Botticino, Italy)*
11/01 :: PiM Spazio Scenico (Milan, Italy)
11/02 :: Museo (Catanzaro, Italy)

*with special guest Taylor Ho Bynum

Taylor Ho Bynum In October

Photo by Scott Friedlander

Hot on the heels of the mid-September release of his latest CD, Madeleine Dreams (Firehouse 12 Records), cornetist/composer Taylor Ho Bynum is gearing up for a busy month of performances in New York and abroad.

His upcoming sideman dates include performances with composer/conductor Laura Andel, pianist Lucian Ban, the Anthony Braxton Diamond Curtain Wall Trio and a special guest appearance with the Mary Halvorson/Jessica Pavone Duo in Botticino, Italy.

On October 25th in Boston, he’ll lead the first-ever performance of his new quintet featuring alto saxophonist Jim Hobbs, trombonist and tuba player Bill Lowe, bassist John Hébert and drummer Gerald Cleaver.

The next day in New York, a subset of that group, dubbed the Bynum-Hébert-Cleaver Trio, will perform as part of the RUCMA/Vision Performance Series to be followed by a second trio date in Philadelphia on November 2nd and a recording session for the RogueArt label on November 3rd.

Laura Andel: Premieres and New Works for Large Ensemble
10/17 :: Brecht Forum (New York, NY)

Enesco Reimagined
10/20 :: Merkin Hall (New York, NY)

Taylor Ho Bynum Quintet
10/25 :: Boston Center for the Arts (Boston, MA)

Bynum-Hébert-Cleaver Trio
10/26 :: RUCMA @ The Local 269 (New York, NY)
11/02 :: Ars Nova Workshop @ The Rotunda (Philadelphia, PA)

Mary Halvorson/Jessica Pavone Duo with special guest Taylor Ho Bynum
10/31 :: Botticino Jazz Festival (Botticino, Italy)

Mary Halvorson In October

Photo by Peter Gannushkin

Musically speaking, guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson’s month will be focused on her week-long European duo tour with violist and longtime collaborator Jessica Pavone, but she’ll also perform tomorrow night at Roulette with Myra Melford’s Happy Whistlings, on Thursday night with Ms. Pavone at Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn, and on October 30th with the Anthony Braxton Diamond Curtain Wall Trio at JazzFestival Frankfurt.

Myra Melford’s Happy Whistlings
10/14 :: Roulette (New York, NY)

Mary Halvorson/Jessica Pavone Duo
10/15 :: Pete’s Candy Store (Brooklyn, NY)
10/25 :: Studio Odeon (Brussels, Belgium)
10/26 :: Cladestino (Faenza, Italy)
10/27 :: Auditorium Parco della Musica (Rome, Italy)
10/29 :: Voruuit (Gent, Belgium)
10/31 :: Botticino Jazz Festival (Botticino, Italy)*
11/01 :: PiM Spazio Scenico (Milan, Italy)
11/02 :: Museo (Catanzaro, Italy)

*with special guest Taylor Ho Bynum

Anthony Braxton Diamond Curtain Wall Trio
10/30 :: JazzFestival Frankfurt (Frankfurt, Germany)

Positive Catastrophe At New Languages Festival Tonight

Photo by Heather Conley

Positive Catastrophe will perform tonight at the ongoing New Languages Festival at McCarren Hall in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

The brainchild of cornetist/composer Taylor Ho Bynum and multi-instrumentalist/composer Abraham Gomez-Delgado, this self-described trans-idiomatic little big band connects the musical dots between intergalactic jazz legend Sun Ra and iconic Latin Jazz innovator Eddie Palmieri.

The group, which will be performing music from its acclaimed debut release, Garabatos Volume One (Cuneiform Records), also features Mark Taylor (French horn), Reut Regev (trombone), Jim Hobbs (alto sax), Matt Bauder (tenor and baritone sax), Pete Fitzpatrick (guitar), Alvaro Benavides (bass) and Tomas Fujiwara (drums).

Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Strings At Jazz Gallery Tomorrow

Photo by Scott Friedlander

Tomorrow night, cornetist/composer Taylor Ho Bynum and his improvising chamber ensemble, SpiderMonkey Strings, will celebrate the release of their second recording, Madeleine Dreams (Firehouse 12 Records), with a two-set performance at New York’s Jazz Gallery.

The centerpiece of the record is Bynum’s six-movement title suite—what he calls a secular oratorio—based on his sister’s novel, Madeleine is Sleeping (Harcourt). It also features his distinctive arrangements of music by Ornette Coleman, Duke Ellington and Sun Ra that corresponds with the recording’s central theme of “the logic of dreams.”

This is the most recent in a string of well-received recordings featuring Bynum as a leader/co-leader that includes Positive Catastrophe’s Garabatos Volume One (Cuneiform Records), The Thirteenth Assembly’s (un)sentimental (Important Records), and the Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet’s Asphalt Flowers Forking Paths (hatOLOGY).

Created seven years ago, Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Strings currently features Kyoko Kitamura (voice), Jason Kao Hwang (violin), Jessica Pavone (viola), Tomas Ulrich (cello), Pete Fitzpatrick (guitar), Joseph Daley (tuba) and Luther Gray (drums).

New Taylor Ho Bynum CD Released Today

Photo by Scott Friedlander

Cornetist/composer Taylor Ho Bynum’s latest recording as a leader, Madeleine Dreams (Firehouse 12 Records), officially hits the streets today.

The second release from his improvising chamber group, SpiderMonkey Strings, the record documents the title suite, a secular oratorio the group has been performing at concerts around the world since early 2008, as well as innovative arrangements of music by Ornette Coleman, Duke Ellington and Sun Ra.

This seven year-old ensemble features Kyoko Kitamura (voice), Jason Kao Hwang (violin), Jessica Pavone (viola), Tomas Ulrich (cello), Pete Fitzpatrick (guitar), Joseph Daley (tuba) and Luther Gray (drums).

Bynum and the group will celebrate with two sets at New York’s Jazz Gallery on Saturday, September 19th.

In his listing for the performance in the Village Voice, Jim Macnie writes, “Whether he’s making cinematic soundscapes for snippets of his sister’s surrealistic novel, or bringing a heavenly tone to such earthy fare as Ellington’s ‘The Mooche,’ the cornet player makes music that places nuance on the top of the priority list. The vocals are fetching and flighty; the repertory choices discerning and deft.”

Firehouse 12 Records To Release Bill Dixon’s New Three-Disc Set November 17th

Photo by Nick Ruechel

On November 17th, Firehouse 12 Records will release eminent trumpeter/composer Bill Dixon’s Tapestries for Small Orchestra (FH12-04-03-008), a three-disc set that includes two audio CDs of new original music plus a DVD featuring video footage of the session and a documentary film. Made possible in part by a grant from the LEF Foundation’s Contemporary Work Fund, and the support of the Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT Music), this project documents the three-day recording process at Firehouse 12’s state of the art recording studio from start to finish, offering unprecedented access into Dixon’s creative process.

The session, which produced eight new tracks, features Dixon (trumpet and electronics), Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet, flugelhorn, bass and piccolo trumpets), Graham Haynes (cornet, flugelhorn and electronics), Stephen Haynes (trumpet, cornet and flugelhorn), Rob Mazurek (cornet and electronics), Glynis Lomon (violincello), Michel Côté (contrabass clarinet and bass clarinet), Ken Filiano (double bass and electronics) and Warren Smith (vibraphone, marimba, drums, tympani and gongs).

In his liner notes for this recording, Stephen Haynes writes, “Dixon’s work as an instrumentalist and composer is informed and infused by an extended view of narrative—both the sense of the long line (extensions of playing ‘across the bar lines’) and in the broader arena of orchestration and arrangement. Listen closely to the work in this new recording and you will hear melodies that move by so slowly that they begin to transmute from the horizontal into the vertical. We are not simply talking about a minimalist approach, but one that profoundly embraces and inhabits the notion that less is indeed more: a single note as a symphony.”

He adds, “Few practitioners (even amongst the ‘influenced generation’) have understood and/or evidenced this core aspect of Dixon’s music: his singular sense of time (as an individual voice and in the ensemble context) and his way of organizing the music (composition). This is not a soloist’s music: there is no emphasis on the individual as being separate or distinct from the sonic whole. Indeed a Tapestry, the listener will discover a weaving of the individual as orchestra into a suite for multiple improvising orchestras. It is a layered creative world made up of nine carefully chosen musicians, offering a new window into the wonderful vision of one uniquely American artist: Bill Dixon.”

The release of Tapestries for Small Orchestra comes at a time of renewed interest in Dixon and his music, thanks to a celebration of his lifetime of achievement by the Vision Festival in 2007 and notable recordings on the AUM Fidelity and Thrill Jockey labels in 2008. Although he will be 84 years old when this new set is released, he is still actively composing and performing, as well as continuing to inspire musicians with his distinctive style and innovative approach to his instrument.

“Dixon’s influence on the subsequent generations of brass improvisers is profound,” writes Bynum in his liner notes for the project. “The trumpet and cornet players on this album (Graham Haynes, Stephen Haynes, Rob Mazurek and myself) are but a few examples of his musical progeny, and even among the four of us, his influence manifests itself in strikingly diverse ways. None of us sound alike, nor do we sound like Dixon, but all of us clearly draw upon Dixon’s legacy in how we approach our horns.”

In addition to his impact as a musician and composer, Dixon has been a driving force in the advancement of contemporary American Black Music for more than 45 years. His pioneering work as an organizer in the early 60’s, with such groups as the Jazz Composers’ Guild, helped lay the foundation for New York’s current creative improvised music scene, and his nearly 30-year career in academia included the founding of Bennington College’s historic Black Music Division in 1973. He is also an accomplished visual artist, whose work has been exhibited around the world and graced many of his recordings, including this one. Learn more at http://www.bill-dixon.com

Tzadik To Release Jessica Pavone’s New CD In October

Photo by Erica Magrey

On October 27th, Tzadik will release violist/composer Jessica Pavone’s Songs of Synastry and Solitude (TZ 7719) as part of the Oracles series, which celebrates “the diversity and creativity of women in experimental music making.” Inspired by the simple beauty of American folk songs, and singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen’s Songs of Love and Hate (Columbia), this recording features 11 of Ms. Pavone’s original compositions for string quartet (violin, viola, cello and double bass) being performed by members of the Toomai String Quintet. The group will celebrate the release of the record on Tuesday, November 10th with a live performance at Roulette in New York.

The music on Songs of Synastry and Solitude grew out of the composing process for her 2007 release, Quotidian (Peacock Recordings), which documents a four-part suite that examines the temporal landmarks within each day. “I was most satisfied with the results of ‘Post Meridiem’, the afternoon piece,” Ms. Pavone remembers, “which explored informal music for one’s self in the middle of the day, in contrast to formal evening concerts. I wanted to continue writing string music based on the ideas in that piece, but for a quartet with double bass, which gives the music more flexibility and allows me to more easily draw from my folk music influence—the idea being I am writing ’songs’ for a ‘classical’ ensemble.”

“I don’t feel like my music has something grandiose to portray,” she continues. “I just want it to sound real. I’m a songwriter that just happens to write instrumental songs—I hear music for small and intimate ensembles—and that was my approach to these string quartets. There is a lot of arpeggiation of chords throughout the ensemble emulating a finger picked guitar as well as a chorus/verse structure and an emphasis on simplicity. As I was composing these songs, I would check out older European composers’ string quartet scores and recordings, and every time said to myself, ‘I would never write music like this.’ Then there’d be times I’d hear a song by the Soul Stirrers or Leonard Cohen and think, ‘Ah, I would write music like this. I am going to borrow forms from this.’”

The influence of Cohen, and his dichotomous 1970 recording, are felt throughout this project, both in name and the underlying intent of the composer. “There’s a deep, unexplainable feeling I get from listening to his music,” says Ms. Pavone. “I feel like he encourages me to live outside this world and to explore what I call ‘the ghosts of all things lost’, reminders of past moments in my life that are still oddly familiar, but no longer part of my present existence. I want my music to have a heaviness—a weight that people feel and not just hear—as I try to recreate the feeling of his music, as well as my experience feeling his music.”

“Jessica Pavone is one of the busiest young performers on the city’s creative music scene,” declared Steve Dollar in a 2008 feature in the New York Sun, “lending her strings and a direct, personal style of playing them to all kinds of settings.” Jazz Review’s Philip Clark writes, “We learn things from her music that we didn’t already know. [Her] harmonic openness turns the microscope on herself and she responds with lines of honest clarity, an oblique perspective on the familiar.” AllMusic.com’s Charlie Wilmouth adds, “Her work possesses an uncommon amount of elegance…each piece is perfectly formed, expiring just as its tiny collection of melodic materials cycles through to its logical conclusion.”

Active in New York for the past decade, Ms. Pavone is best known for her work with the iconic Anthony Braxton, and a cadre of his former students that includes guitarist Mary Halvorson and cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum. In addition to leading her own bands, such as The Pavones, she has also performed in improvising ensembles led by Jeremiah Cymerman, Laurence “Butch” Morris, Matana Roberts and Eliot Sharp, as well as such collective groups as the Mary Halvorson/Jessica Pavone Duo and The Thirteenth Assembly.

As a composer, she has earned grants and commissions from the Aaron Copland Recording Fund, the American Music Center, The Kitchen, MATA and the group, Till By Turning, which recently presented the European premiere of “Quotidian” at Faust’s Klangbad Festival 2009 in Germany. Her discography features more than 30 recordings, including recent releases from the Anthony Braxton 12+1tet, Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Strings and William Parker.

Learn more at http://www.jessicapavone.com

Taylor Ho Bynum In August

Photo by Hilary McHone

Cornetist/composer Taylor Ho Bynum won’t be leading any of his own groups during the month of August per se, but he will play three dates in NYC with three different bands that feature him as a co-leader.

Those bands include The Throes (formerly the Nate Wooley/Taylor Ho Bynum Quartet) with special guest Soo-Jung Kae, a collective trio with Joe Morris (on bass) and Abraham Gomez-Delgado, and The Thirteenth Assembly with Mary Halvorson, Jessica Pavone and Tomas Fujiwara.

The Throes with special guest Soo-Jung Kae
Tuesday, August 11th at Douglas Street Music Collective (Brooklyn, NY)

Taylor Ho Bynum/Joe Morris/Abraham Gomez-Delgado
Monday, August 24th at The Local 269 (New York, NY)

The Thirteenth Assembly
Sunday, August 25th at Freddie’s Bar & Backroom (Brooklyn, NY)

Please stay tuned for more news about Taylor’s forthcoming record, Madeleine Dreams (Firehouse 12 Records), and the September 19th CD release event at The Jazz Gallery.