Vision Festival - Day 1

Walking in the rain down Norfolk Street last night, past the remains of Tonic, you can understand why festival organizer Patricia Nicholson Parker opened the Vision Festival with a prayer. Accompanied by a tranquil groove laid down by William Parker and Hamid Drake, she called for "a million million tones, all ascending, taking all the willing travelers with them." But beneath the unreconstructed flower-child spirituality, there is a undercurrent of anxiety and uncertainty about the future. This year's theme is "The Revolution Continues" but with venues for the kind of creative new music the Vision Fest celebrates getting wiped away by unchecked, unsustainable development in New York (and elsewhere), you get the feeling there might be an implied question mark -- "The Revolution Continues?"

Following the opening invocation, William Parker presented the premiere of "Double Sunrise Over Neptune," an old-school hour-long extended jam for 15 players. The piece is anchored by three different bass ostinatos, but Parker delegated the bass duties here to Shayna Dulberger, who along with drummers Hamid Drake and Gerald Cleaver, did an admirable job holding everything together. Full ensemble passages were used sparingly -- instead, there were many solos and duets, often bookended by Sangeeta Banerjee's melismatic vocal improvisations. The piece is dedicated to the late shehnai master Bismillah Kahn, and there were several passages where both Bill Cole and William Parker would go at it with dueling double reeds. Despite some excellent solo turns, especially from Joe Morris (guitar), Rob Brown (alto sax) and Shiau-Shu Yu (cello), the music sometimes felt a bit tentative and shapeless, and was plagued throughout by truly horrendous amplification (Dave Swelson's first entry on the bari sax was deafening and distorted beyond recognition; Jessica Pavone's viola solo was all but inaudible, etc.). But the  ending, with Banerjee singing English lyrics for the first time, and some beautifully phrased string passages, was dramatic and affecting.

Fieldwork -- a collective trio featuring Vijay Iyer (piano), Steve Lehman (alto sax), and Tyshawn Sorey (drums) -- exists at the imaginary intersection of Milton Babbitt and King Crimson. Basically, they rock out on algorithmically generated rhythmic structures and fiercely angular intervallic ideas. This might sound like a terrible idea, but it is redeemed by the warmth and conviction Vijay injects into even the most austere and deterministic material. Tyshawn Sorey is the ideal drummer for this outfit -- he's a wild card who brings a real loose-sounding vibe to the group. In the quiet moments, he can seem like he's floating above the time, but on closer listening you realize he's still locked into the grid. And when he and Vijay build up a head of steam together, the momentum can be downright scary. Steve Lehman is less uninhibited than the other two -- he's a smart and sophisticated player with tremendous control and precision, but his playing often seems to emphasize the music's most depersonalized qualities. Fieldwork is harder to warm to than the quartet Vijay brought to the Bang on a Can Marathon, but they are really pushing the limits of the post-Steve Coleman math-jazz thing and the bass-less trio thing, so you've got to respect their dedication and focus.

Next up was Cooper-Moore's Keyboard Project. They opened with trombonist Willie Applewhite's plaintive rendition of "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child," while the leader prowled the stage and began to testify: "Jazz! Jazz ain't nothin' but a fuckin' word! Jazz ain't got no Mama!" His theatricality was matched by a Mingusian earthy intensity from the band, especially the horns (Applewhite, Darius Jones and Assif Tsahar) and the deep grooving of drummer Chad Taylor. Cooper-Moore didn't even touch the keyboard until well into their set, but when he did, he played like a mad scientist, his stabbing and skittering triggering a metallic organ patch. Dancer Marlies Yearby seemed to feed off of the leader's wild energy, as well as the sick Dominican-based groove Chad and Isaiah Parker (on percussion) were laying down. The vibe was irreverent but good-natured, and it was fun to hear all these great players I'd never heard before.

Marc Ribot probably has more genuine rock cred than any other jazz guitarist out there, thanks to his contributions to records like Elvis Costello's Spike and Tom Waits's Mule Variations. It was really interesting to hear him so close to last weekend's Television hit, since Ribot's tangly, twangy sound is so indebted to another punkrock guitar hero, the Voidoid's Robert Quine. Spiritual Unity is a band dedicated to performing the music of the primal, blistering saxophonist Albert Ayler, and to that end Ribot has recruited respected free jazz veterans Henry Grimes (who played with Ayler back in the 60's) and Roy Campbell, but the music is definitely filtered through Ribot's own sensibilities. He's trying to draw parallels between the intensity and liberation of Ayler's music and the the intensity and liberation of the early punk scene, and his skronky guitar sound is the bridge between those two worlds. They opened with a beautiful, jangly chorale that built up from a low rumble to rhapsodic intensity and ended in a wail of feedback. Roy Campbell played trumpet (harmon-muted and open), pocket trumpet and fluegelhorn, bringing his entire arsenal of sounds, from clarion long tones to fluid freebop lines to barely squeezed-out cries. Henry Grimes was interactive and conversational, and at one point even picked up a violin for some fluttery high-register contrast. Chad Taylor unscrewed the top hihat cymbal and set it on his snare drum, using his hand to coax strangled sounds from it. But the foundation for all this sonic variety was Ayler's tuneful, anthemic melodies. Ribot talks about Ayler's music in terms of its religious/ritual qualities, and that aspect of the music was in full effect last night.

I'll be back at the Vision Fest tonight for Barry Wallenstein, Bill Dixon with the Sound Vision Orchestra (see Taylor Ho Bynum on this), Henry Grimes with Marilyn Crispell and Rashied Ali and Joe McPhee's Survival Unit III.

More pictures below the fold...

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Tickets provided by the Vision Festival.

See also David Ryshpan's take.

Patricia Nicholson Parker:

Hamid Drake and William Parker:

"Double Sunrise Over Neptune" Ensemble:

Fieldwork:

Cooper-Moore's Keyboard Project:

Spiritual Unity:

Comments

[Dan]

1.

Hi Darcy - thanks for the write up. FWIW, I don't think Cooper-Moore or his group are particularly attached to Chicago, other than Chad Taylor who was raised here (although its possible some more are from here since not all the names are familiar). If you want to check out some serious Chicago players, Nicole Mitchell's group on Thursday, the Fred Anderson Trio on Friday, and Corey Wilkes' group on Saturday afternoon are the hits this Vision Fest.

[Vijay]

2.

Hey Darcy, Thanks for writing. I want to clarify, for the blogospheric record - Fieldwork is not "my" band. It is a collective. Each member has an equal share as composer, performer, and co-leader. Peace & respect from Vijay Iyer

[DJA]

3.

Hey Vijay,

Thanks for the clarification. Since Fieldwork has gone through several lineup changes, with yourself as the only constant, I'd thought it was fair at this point to refer to it as "your" band -- but I will happily edit so that the collective nature of the group is more evident.

[DJA]

4.

Hey Dan,

My deepest apologies -- the band was announced as "Chi-town in the house," but I guess the emcee must have been talking about Chad and no one else. (And since none of these players except Chad were familiar to me, but I knew he was from Chicago... ) Many thanks for the much-needed correction.

Also, I was only able to make the first two days of Vision Fest this year, so I'm afraid I'll miss Nicole, Fred and Corey this time around, much to my regret.

[Maggie Osterberg]

5.

Man, Darcy; you're hitting all my NYC guitar heroes: Verlaine and Lloyd and now Ribot (with a shoutout to Quine)!

A quick gearhead question, if you'll indulge me? What sort of rig was Ribot playing and how was sound for the band handled?

[JAMES]

6.

chad taylor is actually from tempe arizona. he made his way to chicago later on in life.

[DJA]

7.

Hey Maggie,

Ribot was on the opposite side of the stage from me, and it was dark, so I didn't get a very good look at his setup. His Wikipedia page lists a few different guitar and amp combos, but I couldn't tell you exactly which one he used Tuesday night. I have a slightly brighter photo that I will email you, though, in case it reveals any mysteries.

[John Anderson]

8.

Hi Darcy,

Thanks for your comments on Vision Fest. Very interesting an informative for those that couldn't be there. Quick question: What do you mean when you say Fieldwork makes use of algorithmic rhythms? Do you know for a fact whether or not they use algorithms as part of their compositional proces? If so, what types of algorithms?

I saw another blog about Fieldwork's show where it was mentioned that they draw from Carnatic music. I've never known Tyshawn Sorey nor Steve Lehman to draw from Carnatic music in their writing, but perhaps you guys have the inside scoop on what they're up to these days. Very interesting in any case.

Peace Out,

John

[DJA]

9.

Hi John,

My understanding is that all three will, on occasion at least, use some kind of deterministic method to generate rhythmic and/or intervallic material for their Fieldwork music. I am being deliberately vague because I don't want to misrepresent their process. If you want to know the details it's probably best to ask the artists directly.

[John Anderson]

10.

Cool. Thanks, Darcy. Just out of curiousity, how did this become your understanding? Is it just what the music sounds like to you? I don't know Vijay Iyer that well, but I know Tyshawn and Stephen pretty well and I've never known them to use any serial techniques for their pitch material, and Stephen in particular is pretty clear about staying away from repetition and and formulas...just curious where you get your info from. Do you know all of these guys? That would explain it....!

Best As Ever,

John J

[DJA]

11.

Hey John,

I was primarily trying to convey something about the sound of the music, though I certainly didn't mean to imply that it sounded formulaic or repetitious -- but of course one of the big concerns of the mid-century serialists was precisely to avoid audible repetition.

It would take a much more perceptive listener than me to be able to determine definitively, on first listen, whether a given piece of music used any serial techniques or not. But there is a certain kind of spiky austerity associated with high modernism and Fieldwork definitely shares some affinity with that particular sound-world, even if the methods used to generate the music are different. That's the main point I was trying to make, but in retrospect I could have been clearer.

That said, people who have studied with Vijay at Banff have described a "rhythmic process" that, at least from their accounts, sounds somewhat deterministic (if not exactly serial). But it's entirely possible that my understanding is flawed, or some crucial information is getting lost in translation. Again, I defer to the artists themselves when it comes to explaining their process.

[Ryshpan]

12.

If I may enter the fray here, at the Vision Fest tunes weren't announced by title nor composer, so it made it difficult to determine whose piece was whose. Vijay Iyer taught at the Banff Centre when I was out there a couple of years ago and went into great detail about his use of Carnatic rhythmic cycles in his music, and the many ways he will use them as generative processes in his music. (Rudresh has parsed the Carnatic tradition in a bit of a different way, and his "Codebook" album takes the generative material a few steps further.) I'm not as familiar with the work of Tyshawn Sorey or Steve Lehman, though it seems that Fieldwork definitely has a sound akin to Vijay's other work, so whether Sorey and Lehman have investigated the Carnatic tradition on their own or have just assimilated it through Iyer and the band, I don't know.

The music isn't formulaic by any means, and it's repetitive only in the way that it's often based on ostinati figures that turn upon themselves rhythmically.

[John Anderson]

13.

Very interesting insights. Many thanks folks. I guess the question then would be what Tyshawn and Stephen's music sounded like before they became co-leader/composers in Fieldwork....or should we simply assume that their work is influenced by Vijay's since he's the most famous....that doesn't sound right, but one never knows.

John J.J.

[DJA]

14.

John, FWIW I think Fieldwork has its own sound, distinct from the music Vijay, Steve and Tyshawn write for other ensembles.