The Kitchen Presents: Jam Sessions | ICE at the Kitchen
October 21, 2011 | 8:00pm
The Kitchen
512 West 19th Street
New York, NY
$15
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
Steve Schick, Guest Conductor
Fred Sherry, solo cello
This program is inspired by an historic jam session that could only have happened in the New York of the 1950's. After a planned recording project between Edgard Varèse and Charlie Parker was cut short by Parker's death, members of the New York's new music scene (spearheaded by Earle Brown) assembled a roster of jazz musicians including Teo Macero, Art Farmer and Charles Mingus to realize Varèse's graphic scores for jazz ensembles. Two of these scores are presented on this program in various improvised iterations and are surrounded by equally adventurous and notationally contrasting works for small ensembles from the 60's to the present day. Highlights include the New York premieres of recent works written for ICE by experimental trumpet virtuoso Peter Evans and master sound- sculptor Alvin Lucier. The program also includes guest cellist Fred Sherry's explosive performance of Jason Eckardt's A way [tracing] for solo cello, and Eckardt's powerful Aperture, a tightly knit instrumental poem from his song cycle, Undersong.
Program:
Edgard Varèse (1883-1965): Jam Sessions, version 1 for trumpet, tuba, piano, guitar, and drums (1957)
Peter Evans (b. 1981): Agents of Mechanization for trumpet, percussion, guitar and piano (2010) NEW YORK PREMIERE
Jason Eckardt (b. 1971): A way [tracing] for solo cello (2003), Fred Sherry, cello
Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001): Dmaathen for flute and percussion (1976)
Earle Brown (1916-2002): Novara for flute, clarinet, trumpet, piano, two violins, viola, cello (1962)
Alvin Lucier (b.1931): ICEcles, for flute, clarinet, tuba and piano (2010) NEW YORK PREMIERE
Jason Eckardt: Aperture for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, viola, cello (2007)
Edgard Varèse: Jam Sessions, version 2 for trumpet, tuba, piano, guitar, and drums (1957)
photo by Meerkat Media
Listen to a clip from Jason Eckardt's Aperture
From the Blog
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Varèse, Charlie Parker, and the New York Improv Sessions
October 14, 2011
Throughout his career, Charlie Parker publicly acknowledged his admiration for Varese, who was his Greenwich Village neighbor. “I had the pleasure of meeting Edgar Varese,” he once said on Boston radio, “The French composer. He was very nice to me. He’s willing to teach me. He wants to compose something for me.” Of these encounters, Varese remarked, “He stopped by my place a number of times. He was like a child, with the shrewdness of a child. He possessed a tremendous enthusiasm. He’d come in and exclaim, ‘take me in as you would a baby and teach me music. I only write one voice. I want to have structure. I want to write orchestral scores.’ I promised myself I would try to find some time to show him some of the things he wanted to know.”
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Tonight: Jam Sessions at The Kitchen + Peter Evans on “Agents of Mechanization” + 30 Second Solo!
October 21, 2011
Jam Sessions at The Kitchen is tonight! There are still 20% discount tickets available: use the code word ICICLE when you purchase online or by calling 212.255.5793 x11 -- I visited experimental trumpet virtuoso, composer extraordinaire, and ICE member Peter Evans at his home in Queens recently to talk about his piece, Agents of Mechanization, which we'll be performing tonight at The Kitchen. The title of the work was taken from the name of a chapter from Lewis Mumford's book Technics and Civilization. Peter had the following words to say about the Mumford's book and how it provided the inspiration for his piece:
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Guest Post: Jason Eckardt
October 17, 2011
We've had the great pleasure of working with composer Jason Eckardt quite a bit in recent years, including our work on his recent Mode Records release, Undersong. Below, Jason discusses his work in the context of the current political climate, as well as the role of the artist in inspiring social change:
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Dan Peck, Joshua Rubin, and Cory Smythe on Alvin Lucier’s “ICEicles”
October 12, 2011
We are thrilled to be working with the genius composer Alvin Lucier, who has written a mind-bending piece especially for us! ICE performers Dan Peck, Joshua Rubin, and Cory Smythe discuss ICEicles, Lucier's piece for ICE:
