Author: Steve Layton

Click Picks, Composers, Contemporary Classical, San Francisco

Steve’s click picks #31

Our regular listen to and look at living, breathing composers and performers that you may not know yet, but I know you should… And can, right here and now, since they’re nice enough to offer so much good listening online:

Beth Custer (b. 1958 — US)

Beth Custer EnsembleExtra, extra!… Fearless woman seizes her day!…

Beth was born in South Bend, Indiana, raised in western New York, but has lived in San Francisco for for the last twenty-five-and-some years.

As if she wasn’t busy enough being a composer, performer, bandleader, clarinet teacher, and running a record label, she’s also a founding member of the notorious silent film soundtrack purveyors the Club Foot Orchestra, 4th-world ambient ensemble Trance Mission, the quintet of esteemed clarinetists Clarinet Thing, the trip-hop duo Eighty Mile Beach, and the Latin-jazz-rock influenced Doña Luz 30 Besos. She now leads The Beth Custer Ensemble (including long time collaborator Jan Jackson on drums, guitarist David James, iconic pianist Graham Connah, and New Yorker transplant bassist Mark Calderon).

Beth composes for film, television, installations and the concert stage (hall or club are both fair game). Recent commissions include A Trip Down Market Street 1905/2005, a live outdoor cinema event by Melinda Stone produced by the Exploratorium; The Ballad of Pancho & Lucy musical for Campo Santo Theatre; and Bernal Heights Suite for the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble.

As the above might indicate, Beth’s music and monster clarinet chops are put in service of everything from the primal to the rarest air. Though seekers of the plain-and-pretty might have a hard time, the rest of us can enjoy a bit of all this at her extremely spiffy website, chockablock-full of MP3s, video, interviews and other info.

by Steve Layton
Click Picks, Contemporary Classical, Piano

Steve’s click picks #30

Our regular listen to and look at living, breathing composers and performers that you may not know yet, but I know you should… And can, right here and now, since they’re nice enough to offer so much good listening online:

Stephane Ginsburgh (b. 1969 — Belgium)

Stephane GinsburghI first ran across this fine pianist a few years ago, while searching the web for information about Marcel Duchamp’s prescient, chance-based 1913 “compositions”, Erratum Musical — In 2001, Stephane recorded a number of his own interpretations of Duchamp’s score for the Sub Rosa label. A little of Stephane’s official bio:

Born in Brussels, after graduating from the Royal Music Conservatories of Mons and Liège in piano and chamber music he studied with Paul Badura-Skoda, Vitaly Margulis, Pascal Sigrist and particularly Claude Helffer in Paris for contemporary music and Jerome Lowenthal in New York.

He has premiered many new pieces and been awarded the Pelemans Prize for his activity in promoting music by Belgian contemporary composers. He also plays with the Ictus Ensemble under George-Elie Octors. In 1998 he co-founded with composer Renaud De Putter “le Bureau des Arts”, an active group of artists dedicated to different types of expression and creation including music, dance and literature.

His two recent CD releases, Duchamp’s Erratum Musical and Morton Feldman Last Pieces were warmly reviewed by New York critics. As member of the le Bureau des Pianistes, he recorded three CDs with music by Jean-Luc Fafchamps and Morton Feldman. Upcoming CDs for Sub Rosa include For Bunita Marcus by Morton Feldman and John Adams’ China Gates and Phrygian Gates.

Ginsburgh studies philosophy at the Free University of Brussels.

Stephane’s website has always featured some generous online listening to some deeply committed performances, of music from everyone from Beethoven to Bartok all the way up through Ligeti and beyond. Browse the CD links and you’ll find that many offer MP3s of selected tracks; browse the “Live” link to find even more sound files.

by Steve Layton
Click Picks, Composers, Contemporary Classical

Steve’s click picks #29

Our regular (well, semi-regular, at least until our dust has settled in Houston) listen to and look at living, breathing composers and performers that you may not know yet, but I know you should… And can, right here and now, since they’re nice enough to offer so much good listening online:

Amos Elkana (b. 1967 — US / Israel)

Amos Elkana Born in Boston and a product of Berklee, the New England Conservatory and Bard, Amos now makes his home in Tel Aviv. He was one of the brave few “serious” composers that took the online plunge early; I first bumped into him and his music way back in 1999 or 2000 on the old MP3.com. His work has a touch of the modern Romantic, chromatic and sharp, though the lyrical is never too far away.

The website linked above gives a great introduction to Amos and his music. You can read about some of his composing techniques, snag a CD or two, and the works page contains numerous full-length MP3s of all kinds of pieces (some with PDFs of the scores), including his award-winning Arabic Lessons for three sopranos and chamber ensemble (though you shouldn’t forget to catch the piano piece Eight Flowers as well).

by Steve Layton
Click Picks, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical

Steve’s click picks #28

Jerry’s recent semi-dismissal of our good friend Accordion prompts me to share a couple things, less well known than the usual Pauline Oliveros / Guy Klucevsek suspects:

Stefan Hussong (b. 1962 — Germany)

Stefan is one of the top contemporary accordionists working today, playing everything from Bach to the more than 80 new works specifically dedicated to him. His website is here, but the link on his name above is where I want to send you. It’s a recording of a March 2004 Other Minds concert, where Hussong essays wonderful performances of works by Cage, Harada and Höelszky, as well as a little traditional Japanese gagaku.

Aitana Kasulin (Argentina)

I don’t know very much about Aitana, except that she teaches composition at the Catholic University in Buenos Aires, and did some study in Europe with Walter Zimmermann.

I do know that I’ve long enjoyed her piece for bandoneón (the serpentine, button cousin of our keyed accordion, and essential instrument of the Tango), Sobre los pies del azar II, the recording of which you’ll find at the bottom of the page linked above. Ana Belgorodsky puts in the fine (live) performance. Note that the MP3 is a zip file, so you have to unzip or unstuff it after downloading. And be patient; the server is not fast at all. As a bonus, you can visit Aitana’s publisher, Música Al Margen, and in their catalog find the score for this piece as a free download.

by Steve Layton
Click Picks, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music

Steve’s Click Picks #27, take two

Houston, we have a problem… We’re sweating like pigs in your fair city! …OK, OK, it’s not nearly so bad (yet), though the humidity definitely hangs in the air most of the time. But the sky’s blue, the city’s BIG, the food’s good. Things are a’building everywhere; other things are falling apart everywhere, and usually right next to each other. In places it’s hard to tell whether what I’m looking at is renaissance or apocalypse. But if apocalypse, it’s a pretty friendly one.

Just a quick link to honor our new home:

Susan Alcorn (b.1953 — US)

Susan Alcorn Susan plays a quintessential Texas instrument, the pedal steel guitar. She spent a lot of years paying her dues and perfecting her technique in Country bands, but some part of her always hankered after things more adventurous. I’ll let her pick up the story:

I was expected to know the entire song book of American country music from the mid-1940s onward, and I was expected to know the kick-offs and rides for all these songs by heart – from the old Bob Wills songs to Ernest Tubb, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Ray Price, and countless others. Learning this music note for note was a discipline that I am grateful for. However, at the same time I was attracted to other music which appealed to my deeper sensibilities — John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and 20th Century classical composers such as Olivier Messiaen, Kzyrztof Penderecki, and Astor Piazzolla, and I sought out other musicians who shared similar sensibilities. By the late 1980s, after performing straight-ahead jazz for ten years, I took the advice of Paul Bley, with whom I had been corresponding. He told me to throw away the Real Book and play out of tune. I began to develop my own approach to the instrument and to music in general – one that would incorporate the music and the sounds – all music and whatever sound – that affected me. I began incorporating jazz, minimalism, Gamelan Music, Indian Classical music, the folk music of Latin America, birds, wind, clouds, colors, emotions – whatever struck me on a visceral level.

Susan’s pretty sneaky about secreting her MP3s away on her site. I’ll give you this hint: In the pages “biography”, “performance notes” and “links”, in the text of each you’ll find a single highlighted letter, that will lead you to one of three different recordings. Each of the recordings are radically different stylistically, but made kissin’ cousins by way of the glorious sound of the steel, and Susan’s own sensibilities.

And if that seems too hard, or you just want to hear even more tracks, you can take the easy way out and visit her Myspace page.

by Steve Layton
Chamber Music, Click Picks, Concerts, Contemporary Classical

NEW Mexico comes to NYC

In my Click Pick #16 I introduced you to the young Mexican contemporary scene. I just recived a note from one of the musicians profiled, flutist/composer Wilfrido Terrazas, that I’ll pass along:

Friday, May 4, 2007 at 7PM
Wilfrido Terrazas, flutist
New Mexican Works for Flute

Free Admission

Americas Society
680 Park Avenue
New York, NY

This concert, organized in collaboration with ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble), is part of a project during which the flutist has collaborated with some of Mexico’s most daring and original composers in pieces that explore novel ways of writing for his instrument. The concert will feature new works by Mauricio Rodríguez, Víctor Adán, Ignacio Baca Lobera, Hiram Navarrete and Juan José Bárcenas, and is made possible by a grant from Mexico’s FONCA.
Founded in 2001, the International Contemporary Ensemble is a uniquely structured chamber music ensemble comprised of thirty young performers who are dedicated to advancing the music of our time. This concert is part of ICE’s Young Composers Mini-Festival, which that will take place at different venues throughout New York from April 30th to May 4th.

See? It all comes together… You’re practically old friends now, so turn out and give Willy a warm welcome.

by Steve Layton
Click Picks, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Uncategorized

Steve’s click picks #27

…Will just have to wait… Since, in just a little over a week, this nearly-lifelong Northwesterner will have left Seattle and be stumbling around our new home:

Yep, Houston, Texas! My wife has an incredibly sweet job waiting at the Houston Chronicle, and I’m happy to play Mister tag-along. As to music, I’ve done the “virtual” scope-out of the big and small institutions, ensembles, and universities. You all know me, though; I’ll be poking around in the cracks, looking for the really interesting folk.

As to its out-of-the-way “podunkiness”, I might have to remind a few of you that while you were distracted elsewhere, Houston somehow sneaked up to become the country’s fourth-largest city. And it’s not finished growing by a long shot… Whether that means more nights at the opera, I seriously doubt — after all, already over 40% of those millions are Latino, over 20% African-American, and it’s home to one of the largest Vietnamese concentrations in the country. Whatever your stereotype of the city, the Bush-buddies and their poof-haired wives are the real minority now, and shrinking every day. Whatever form the musical scene takes, there’s a feeling that some very dynamic, 21st-century stuff can grow along with the city.

The wonder-that-is-the-web means I’ll still be hanging around through the whole move, and when I’m settled the click-picks will undoubtably pick up where they clicked off. Bien viaje to me! I’ve got to go run all my old coats to the Goodwill and buy a bunch of new light shirts…

by Steve Layton
Click Picks, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music

Steve’s click picks #26

Our regular listen to and look at living, breathing composers and performers that you may not know yet, but I know you should… And can, right here and now, since they’re nice enough to offer so much good listening online:

Gilbert Artman and Urban Sax (France)

Urban SaxUrban Sax is a long-running ensemble / musical extravaganza founded by the French musician Gilbert Artman. It was was formed in 1973, when Artman organized a concert by a group of eight saxophonists at a classical music festival in the south of France. In subsequent years, the number of players grew to 12, 20, 30, and by now consists of 52 musicians (with saxophones ranging from the soprano to bass registers). Artman frequently integrates local musicians and dancers into his performances, and thus the ensemble can encompass as many as 200 performers.

Urban Sax has performed throughout Europe and Asia. The group’s performances are art happenings; players wear metallic space suit-like costumes together with masks, and each performance is a unique event that is planned for the particular architectural or natural space where it takes place. The music is strongly minimal and ritualistic, as much about space and spectacle as anything else. Later, larger incarnations have the look of some mad cross between Sun Ra, Blue Man Group, and Cirque du Soleil. Another way of thinking about it is as a kind of sax analog to what Glenn Branca and Rhys Chatham were doing with guitars around the same time. It also seems to me to be a strong progenitor to all things “Bang-On-A-Can”.

The link at the top of this post will take you to the official Urban Sax website. It’s mostly in French, but for non-speakers there’s still plenty of photos, a discography, four short Quicktime movies of performances (in Lebanon, Tokyo, Versailles, and Dubai), and even a score to peruse.

BUT: What I really want you to do is take a listen to an MP3 file kindly parked on the web by NY/NJ’s greatest radio asset, WFMU. It’s the complete side one of Urban Sax 2, released in Europe in 1978. (Urban Sax 1 came out in 1977, with sides one and two called “part 1” and “part 2” respectively; Urban Sax 2‘s two sides were labeled “part 3” and “part 4”.)

The ensemble used in this recording: 27 saxophones (11 altos, 13 tenors, 2 baritones and 1 bass sax), a chorus of eight voices, and one tam-tam (played by Artman himself).

In 1979 I was a poor Air Force newbie, stationed in Wichita Falls, Texas. Bereft of my collection of records, scores and books, with no musical instrument at hand, my only connection to art-music was a few cassettes and a small, single-speaker player. But fate smiled in the form of the manager of a local mall record store, who beyond any hope or expectation happened to be a fellow progressive-music geek. He dubbed cassettes for me, of all kinds of obscure and wonderful things — and one of them was this very piece. Those tapes were musical life-savers for me, and will always remain full of charged memory. Eternal thanks, Larry (who I’m happy to report reconnected with me via the web! More than twenty years on now, he’s currently driving a bus in Austin.)

by Steve Layton
Click Picks, Composers, Contemporary Classical

Steve’s click picks #25

Our regular listen to and look at living, breathing composers and performers that you may not know yet, but I know you should… And can, right here and now, since they’re nice enough to offer so much good listening online:

Two pals-in-a-pod:

Alex Temple (b. 1983 — US)

Alex TempleI started composing when I was 11, on a family trip to Italy. My earliest influence was Bach, and after that, Hindemith, Prokofiev and Bartók. When I was 15 I discovered rock (by means of “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “I Am The Walrus”), and when I was 17 I discovered the experimental rock underground (by means of The Olivia Tremor Control, Kukl, Mr. Bungle and Thinking Plague). Those two discoveries got me interested in combining ideas from the scored-music world and ideas from the rock world, and since then I’ve been exploring various ways of bringing disparate materials together — not just rock and scored music, but really anything. I got my BA at Yale in 2005, and am currently working towards my MA at the University of Michigan, where I’m studying with Erik Santos.

Alex’s work is bright and fun, even in the slightly darker moments. There’s a kind of stream-of-consciousness to his music, where every few phrases may call up another style or bit of the past. Like listening to an excellent after-hours lounge pianist wandering through whatever flits through their mind, it all hangs together; just go along for the ride you’ll do fine.

Lainie Fefferman (US)

Lainie FeffermanLainie and Alex were at Yale together, and they share a lot of the same anything-goes spirit. She received her BA in music from Yale in 2004, studying with John Halle, Matthew Suttor, and Kathryn Alexander. She also snagged a second BA in Near-Eastern languages and civilizations, specializing in the religious chant traditions of the middle east. She studied Torah cantillation with Rebecca Boggs and Quranic chanting with Dr. Abd al Hamid. If I’ve got it right, she’s currently teaching at St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn.

Lainie’s music has a bit more of the purely “classical” focus, though that can just as easily mean the chromatic line or a bit of minimalist burble. Like Alex, there’s no problem as well if electric guitar, drum kit or laptop drop by. The musical play comes with some high concepts as underpinning — not surprising when your dad (Charles Fefferman) is one of the country’s most renowned mathematicians — but those concepts get out of the way once the music starts.

by Steve Layton