Celebrating the release of two new CDs – Gravity on Lisbon-based Clean Feed Records and Take Care of Floating on the French label Rude Awakening Présente, the Empty Cage Quartet takes the stage next Saturday, April 17 at the world headquarters for creative and improvisational music, The Stone in New York City.
This event (and all of April at the Stone) is curated by the eminent Seattle-based pianist and composer Wayne Horvitz and his wife, pianist Robin Holcomb. We’re grateful to both of them for their gracious support.
We hit at 10pm, admission is $10 at the door, students age 13-19 are $5.
On February 18-19 I teamed up with two tremendously creative West Coast trumpeters (Dan Clucas and Jeff Kaiser) to welcome the great East Coast cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum to town for, believe it or not, his Los Angeles debut. Our first meeting was for a set on Hans Fjellestad‘s ResBox series at the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood, and the following day we were invited to CalArts to do a performance and discussion for Wadada Leo Smith‘s graduate program in African-American Improvisational Music. This was the program I graduated from back in 2003, and so it was a great honor to be invited back.
Both performances were overwhelmingly positive experiences and everyone is talking about putting this together again at some point. Thanks to Jeff Kaiser, Keith McMullen, and Louis Lopez for the photos above; unfortunately there was no audio or video documentation, but you can imagine what kind of sounds were swirling…
tptflm is an ongoing collaboration between film artist Allen D. Glass and trumpeter Kris Tiner. The project is rooted in an aesthetic that embraces the exclusive use of analog technology (16mm celluloid film and acoustic brass instruments) and improvisation as the fundamental creative principle. Although the procedural parameters are clearly defined, the logics that govern the interaction between music and film are subject to an emergent dialogue that manifests in a unique way during each performance. Glass deploys completed works on a variety of subjects as well as in-progress or “scrap” footage on up to three projectors simultaneously, speeding up and slowing down or reversing the film, and covering or uncovering the lenses to create a continuously changing field of visual activity. Tiner (whose performance background comprises jazz and experimental musics to various classical, popular, and world music styles) improvises extensions of melody, timbre, sound and space on trumpet and flugelhorn, synthesizing, enhancing and interpreting the film narrative in a kind of shamanistic way. The result is a collision of autonomous aural and visual elements, triggering a complex and fascinating web of possible connections and meanings.
Allen D. Glass II is an international film artist, psychologist, musicologist, archivist, chemical dependency specialist, hallucinaturalist and member of the Photo Archive Group which preserves the American history of genocide in Southeast Asia. His films and photographs have been exhibited by The British Film Institute, The Museum of Modern Art, Anthology Film Archives, Festival International Nouveau Cinéma Nouveau Medias Montréal, The International Experimental Cinema Exposition, Black Maria Film Festival and the international film festivals of London, Melbourne, Tehran, Toronto, Tokyo and Luxembourg among others. He has collaborated extensively with Wadada Leo Smith, Revolutionary Ensemble and Empty Cage Quartet. Poet Dorothea Grossman once wrote this text about his films: “Humankind in the unfamiliar landscape, composing itself rhythmically and even lovingly into poetry. Nature as mammal music. The Life Dance. Foreign smells. And silences that are, of course, their own music.” Allen D. Glass II was born in Indiana and currently lives in Elysian Park.
Kris Tiner is a California-based trumpet player, composer, and improviser. His music has been described as “extraordinarily inventive” (Signal to Noise Magazine), and capable of turning “barbed wire to beauty” (LA Weekly), with a “folksy sort of lyricism that one does not usually find in avant-jazz.” (JazzReview.com). Kris has performed at concert venues and festivals throughout North America and abroad, and he appears on over 40 recordings for Clean Feed, pfMENTUM, Nine Winds, and other labels. Kris has received awards from ASCAP, the American Composers Forum, Chamber Music America, the International Association for Jazz Education, and the John F. Kennedy Center’s Jazz Ahead program. His primary musical projects include the Empty Cage Quartet and Tin/Bag with NYC guitarist Mike Baggetta. Kris is a regular member of the Industrial Jazz Group and a founding member of the Los Angeles Trumpet Quartet, and he has collaborated with Vinny Golia, Wadada Leo Smith, Leroy Jenkins, Donald Robinson, Gerry Hemingway, Nels Cline, Mary Oliver, Ken Filiano, Kraig Grady, Tatsuya Nakatani, Jeff Kaiser, G.E. Stinson, Alicia Mangan, Lukas Ligeti and many others. Kris holds an MFA in African-American Improvisational Music from California Institute of the Arts and a BA in Music from CSU Bakersfield. He has lectured on both music and visual art, and currently teaches courses in jazz and popular music at Bakersfield College.
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We recently completed our debut performances at Metro Galleries in Bakersfield, CA and at the Artists Union Gallery in Ventura, CA. For both shows we were accompanied by the brilliant San Diego-based electroacoustic duo KaiBorg (Jeff Kaiser + David Borgo). Click here for an excellent recap of those shows (with more photos) at Jeff Kaiser’s blog.
Below are video excerpts from both performances. Thanks to James Sproul for the video at Metro Galleries.
It was great to revisit this project, as we have only played together once since our last extensive tour in the Fall of 2007. Just three performances were slated for this trip (Syracuse, NY – Pittsfield, MA – New York, NY) but they all went quite well; the old music felt fresh again and we were able to get a good handle on some new material. There is an audio recording (and photos, apparently) from the Syracuse show, and a forthcoming All About Jazz review of the NYC show, so I will update this post when all of that becomes available. The photos from the Pittsfield show above are courtesy of Caleb Hiliadis of the Kaleidoscope of Environments blog.
Our studio session couldn’t have gone better. Joe Marciano and his crew at Systems Two are all fantastic, the room sounds amazing, and you would not believe the gear they have on hand. My mic setup was a blend of a vintage RCA 44 ribbon mic (abt 20%) and an RCA 77-DX (abt 80%) which once belonged to John Coltrane and was reputedly in use on many of his classic RVG sessions (see the pics above… they also put up a modern condenser mic that we didn’t end up using). This was absolutely the best trumpet sound I’ve ever gotten in a studio! And audiophiles take note: everything was mixed live to two-track, with practically zero postproduction aside from a few slight dynamic tweaks. We are aiming for a late 2010 release on this, more details coming soon…
Here is a preview some of the music we recorded. This is “Maslow” from my Transpersonal Suite, a series of compositions each dedicated to and inspired by the writings of a different theorist/philosopher/guru. This suite was the basis of my proposal for the Subito grant:
In all, eight originals were recorded; I had one other composition in addition to the 5-part suite, and Mike brought two new pieces. The ninth and final track on the album is “Just Like A Woman”, a Bob Dylan song that we have been performing together for several years. This was the last thing we tracked, and I finally had the good sense to turn on the video camera as we got into it. Enjoy…
METRO GALLERIES CONCERT SERIES PRESENTS:
IMPROVISATIONAL MUSIC and FILM (Curated by Kris Tiner)
KaiBorg David Borgo – saxophones + laptop Jeff Kaiser – trumpet + laptop
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Kris Tiner – solo trumpet Allen Glass – film projection
Metro Galleries
1604 19th St.
Bakersfield, CA 93301
$5 Admission
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Metro Galleries Presents Improvisational Music and Film
The Metro Galleries Concert Series continues on Thursday, January 28 with a very special multi-media performance incorporating improvisational music, electronics, digital video, and film.
The San Diego-based electro-acoustic duo KaiBorg explores the intersections of cutting-edge computer music and video processing with jazz-influenced improvisational music to manifest what the San Diego Union Tribune has called “a surging sonic kaleidoscope.” Saxophonist DavidBorgo is also an ethnomusicologist and an Associate Professor of Music at UC San Diego. He won first prize at the International John Coltrane Festival in 1994, and has performed domestically as well as in Sweden, Amsterdam, Armenia, Hong Kong, and Macau. His book Sync or Swarm: Improvising Music in a Complex Age won the Alan P. Merriam Prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology in 2006 as the most distinguished book published during the previous year. JeffKaiser is a composer, trumpet player, music technologist, and founder of pfMENTUM, a record label dedicated to the documentation of new music on the West Coast. Kaiser is currently a PhD student in the Integrative Studies Program in Music at UC San Diego. Kaiser and Borgo will be celebrating the recent release of their CD Harvesting Metadata on pfMENTUM Records.
For the opening set, local trumpet player and Bakersfield College and CSUB music professor KrisTiner will perform solo to accompany a live film projection by Los Angeles filmmaker Allen D. Glass. Tiner, whose music has been described as “extraordinarily inventive” by Signal to Noise Magazine, has performed at concert venues and festivals throughout North America and abroad, and he appears on over 40 recordings. He has given solo performances at the Line Space Line Festival of Improvised Music, Slow Sound Festival, and Annual Conference of the International Society for Improvised Music. Glass is an international film artist, psychologist, musicologist, archivist, chemical dependency specialist, and hallucinaturalist whose films and photographs have been exhibited by The British Film Institute, The Museum of Modern Art, Anthology Film Archives, Festival International Nouveau Cinéma Nouveau Medias Montréal, The International Experimental Cinema Exposition, Black Maria Film Festival and the international film festivals of London, Melbourne, Tehran, Toronto, Tokyo and Luxembourg among others.
Metro Galleries is located at 1604 19th St. in downtown Bakersfield. Admission to the show is $5; tickets are available at the door only; all ages are welcome. Doors open at 7:30, music begins at 8:00.
January 16/18 – Tin/Bag | Studio Recording @ Systems Two | Brooklyn, NY
January 17 – Tin/Bag (+ Kirk Knuffke-tpt/Jesse Stacken-piano) | Cornelia Street Café | New York, NY | 8:30pm
Tin/Bag (Kris Tiner-tpt/Mike Baggetta-gtr) will once again be touring the East Coast, this time supported by a Subito Quick Advancement Grant from the Los Angeles/SF Bay Area chapters of the American Composers Forum that will fund a studio recording of a new set of compositions at Systems Two in Brooklyn.
Keep an eye on the space below for updated links to various press and media connected to this trip. You can also follow me on Twitter (and follow Mike Baggetta too) for all the up-to-the-minute details…
2008 was a productive year for the Empty Cage Quartet. During the summer we spent two weeks in Montpellier, France where, with support from a Chamber Music America French-American Cultural Exchange grant, we collaborated with the brilliant French duo of Aurélien Besnard (clarinets) and Patrice Soletti (guitar) on a series of rehearsals and performances of original new music for the sextet, culminating in a three-day recording session at Studio Lakanal in Montpellier. The result of that collaboration is the new recording Take Care of Floating, recently released in Europe on the Rude Awakening label.
Despite limited time and a language barrier that was sometimes problematic, Aurélien and Patrice were an immediate and natural fit with our quartet, and these sessions forge a pretty fascinating union of European free improvisation with American jazz-inspired creative music. While we were in France I documented the collaboration in a fairly extensive photo blog that is archived here and here.
Tech-savvy listeners will appreciate the fact that this CD is being released with two distinct mixes embedded on the disc – one engineered specifically for traditional hi-fi stereo systems, and another that is optimized for mp3 listening (the mp3 files appear in a separate folder when the disc is inserted into a computer drive). This innovative solution to the nagging problem of digital audio fidelity is the result of a process that was created by engineer Pierre Vandewaeter at Studio Lakanal.
Take Care of Floating is available now on the Rude Awakening website, and you can listen to an exclusive preview at Last.fm. The album is scheduled for US release shortly, and will be available on iTunes, eMusic etc. soon after.
Following the France trip, in September of last year we spent a week on the East Coast, giving performances at Bennington College in Vermont, the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, NY and in Manhattan where we performed a concert that was sponsored jointly by the annual Clean Feed Festival and the Festival of New Trumpet (FONT) Music. Directly following these performances we hunkered down for two days at Park West Studio in Brooklyn to record two new extended works – the Tzolkien series by Jason Mears and my own first series of Gravitycompositions. That recording is out now on Lisbon-based Clean Feed Records. Here is the official press release:
Gravity is the new release by the Empty Cage Quartet, a group that The Wire magazine has called “one of the best things in jazz to emerge in the new millennium.” Saxophonist Jason Mears, trumpeter Kris Tiner, bassist Ivan Johnson and percussionist Paul Kikuchi are featured here in one of their most focused and exciting performances on record. The music is comprised of two extended compositions that incorporate improvisational systems based on harmonic palindromes and melodic sequences derived from the cycles of the Mayan calendar. Although these musicians are well-schooled in contemporary and experimental methods of composition, there is nothing overtly intellectual or academic about the musical result. This band is equally at home whether navigating the intricacies of modern chamber music, pounding out a funky groove, or blazing through waves of freebop energy. And they do it all with a bold intensity that is well-honed from years of touring and performing together. This is music that forges a rare union of numerological complexity and visceral groove, brain and guts. And that’s what makes this band so special – their music continues to expand and deepen with each new release, reaching toward, in the words of one critic, an “urban folk music of the future.”
And here’s an early review (a good one, thankfully!), by Troy Collins at All About Jazz.
We are planning several CD release concerts (possibly a full-on tour) for early in 2010. Keep an eye on this site for updates, or become a fan of the Empty Cage Quartet on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.
Above are some images from the recent conference of the International Society for Improvised Music held from December 3-6 at UC Santa Cruz. I gave a solo trumpet+flugelhorn performance on December 6 in the Music Center at UCSC, incorporating music by Hank Williams Sr. (“Ramblin’ Man” – one of my favorites), microtonal composer Kraig Grady and myself. Thanks to Jeff Kaiser for snapping these iPhone pics during my set.
Some other conference highlights pictured above: Keynote Speaker George Lewis performing in duet with Roscoe Mitchell; the electro-acoustic duo KaiBorg with video artist Mark Henrickson; and a great dinner hang with Kaiser (again the photographer), filmmaker Allen Glass, trumpeter Dave Ballou, singer/educator/theorist Gerald Phillips with his sister, and saxophonist/educator/author David Borgo.
UPDATE 12/20: I’ve added three more photos above that were taken during my performance by the incomparable photographer/filmmaker/travel buddy Allen Glass. In January Allen and I will be collaborating on a new project involving solo trumpet with film projection – check the upcoming events page for details.
