Vision Festival

Some nice press for the Vision Festival in the NY Times.

I was impressed to see that they even included some media so you could sample some of the offerings on tap. Imagine my surprise when they obviously selected the wrong, clarinet playing, George Lewis to sample!

How embarrassing.

Now, if the Vision Festival could bring that George Lewis back to life, to do a duet with the other George Lewis - we would have some awfully interesting music on our hands.

Apparently someone at the Times didn't do their homework - it would be awfully difficult for George Lewis the clarinetist to play the festival, given the fact that he's been dead for 40 years.

I went back for a second dose of Vision action on Sunday, the 24th. Unfortunately, apparently Vision Festival starts too early for me because again I missed the first act, the T.E.C.K. string quartet, which is a shame because it would have been nice for some timbral variety to hear a string group at the festival.

I arrived as Hamid Drake was setting up with his group NOW, featuring Sabir Mateen on reeds, Paolo Angeli in from Italy on prepared guitar, and Patricia Nicholson on dance. I was quite excited about this one as I have really enjoyed the Drake/Angeli duo album Uotha, and although I haven't seen Sabir Mateen live on many occasions, I enjoy his playing when I have heard him on the past.

The set started out with Drake on frame drum and Mateen on clarinet, with Angeli playing his incredible guitar. If you aren't familiar with Mr. Angeli, his sardinian prepared guitar is quite a creation. Culled from a CD description of his:

"Sardinian guitar, which is sized between a conventional guitar and a double bass, and is tuned lower than a standard guitar. Paolo Angeli has taken this folk instrument and has completely re-tooled it: There is a large mechanical claw stuck onto the side of the body of the instrument, which he uses to pluck counter melodies, piano-like hammers, operated by foot pedals strike the strings and lastly, many extra strings as well as 13 pickups and microphones have been added to further extend the variety of what his instrument can do."

Go to his website and check out some pictures, it's quite an impressive creation.

Anyway, back to the set: my brief synopsis is that it simmered but never boiled over. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the ecstatic jazz set can sometimes tend towards predictable peaks, but it was a bit surprising given some of the band members tendencies towards that style of incendiary playing. Both Drake and Mateen were incredibly restrained, and there were some really fascinating textures that came out of the combination of reeds and Angeli's guitar. He really makes some un-guitaristic sounds, and utilizes some pedals in addition to his unique instrument. To be perfectly honest, I prefer the more aggressive playing from the Drake/ANgeli duo on Uotha to what I heard in concert, but it was still an enjoyable set.

Next up was the Thomas Buckner Trio with Thomas Buckner on vocals, Jerome Bourdellon on flute, and Roscoe Mitchell on his usual arsenal of reeds. I was not familiar with Buckner so I didn't know what to expect, but what we got was a mostly quiet (sometimes at a whisper level) deep listening set that I had a hard time sinking my teeth into. Personally, I would rather listen to music like this on headphones where some of the sonic subtleties can pop out a bit more, and the concert setting combined with my own mental fatigue at this point of the weekend didn't let me really focus the way I would have liked on the music. Similar to the previous set, it was interesting seeing someone like Roscoe Mitchell play with such restraint, since I'm so used to seeing him unleash torrents of musical ideas. It was akin to beholding the grandeur of the Hoover Dam while wondering how it manages to hold back all that water without springing a leak. Only a few leaks sprung out from Roscoe during the set, but otherwise he showed his deep discipline and commitment to the group aesthetic.

The third act of my musical evening was the Daniel Levin Quartet, with Mr. Levin on cello, Nate Wooley on trumpet, Joe Morris on bass and Matt Moran on vibes. I had never seen any of these players live, but I've heard Wooley, Morris, and Moran on record before, so I was interested to see what they had in store. They started out with some composed music that all went through Mr. Levin in terms of dialog. Throughout the set, they switched between composition, solos, and full band improvisations. I tended to enjoy the composed sections more, and I really enjoyed the sound of the group. As I've mentioned before, I'm a sucker for vibraphones, and the combination with bass, cello, and trumpet produced a great tonal pallet. My biggest complaint about this set was the sound - Mr. Levin was way too low in the mix, considering his status as band leader and since so much of the music obviously hinged on his musical cues.

The final act was akin to a heavy weight title bout, featuring Kidd Jordan on tenor saxophone, Dave Burrell on piano, William Parker on bas, and Louis Moholo on drums, under the banner Louis Moholo and Friends. Their set consisted of two long improvisations, and Kidd Jordan really came across as the band leader here, making some gestures to the other musicians to direct the sound on several occasions. Like the good folks at D:O, I found Burrell and Moholo a little low in the mix, especially Moholo from my seat.

Their set was short, about 45 minutes, and all of it was on the intense end of the free spectrum. Burrell was dazzling and attentive at the piano, engaging the band visually and musically, really adding a lot to the dialog. Kidd Jordan was fantastic as he almost always his when I see him, as I've always loved his use of the upper registers of his horn. A couple of times I would have liked to hear him take a step back so I could hear what Burrell might do in the driver's seat, but overall it was an incredibly balanced group in terms of participation.

That's all I've got to say about that. Overall, my Vision Fest highlights were Matthew Shipp's solo set, Fred Anderson Trio, and the Moholo and Friends set. Here's to hoping next year's even better. I apologize for the lack of visual documentation, but I left the old camera in Chicago. It's probably for the best, since my patented out of focus shots don't add that much to the experience.

While I was at the fest, I picked up a collection of William Parker essays entitled "Who Owns Music?" as well as Volume II of Arcana, a compilation of essays by creative musicians compiled by John Zorn. More on those as I dig in.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere, there's been some good discussion going on over at DJA's Secret Society blog. It's been productive for me to be challenged and engaged in regards to some of my own thoughts, so go ahead and jump into the fray if you've got something to say.  Pat Donaher weighs in on the Zorn issue in regards to a recent David Hajdu article as well.

...or do you?

Well, you only live this life once.

So, when the stars aligned to produce a low airfare, an impulsive state of mind, and a temporary lapse of judgment in regards to my own physical and mental sanity, I jumped on a plane for NYC Friday morning to catch the end of Vision Festival and run around the city for a few days.

I made it to Friday and Sunday, using Saturday to fulfill the inevitable deluge of familial and friendly obligations I take upon myself whenever I step foot in Manhattan (and Brooklyn these days, for that matter).

I can offer a different perspective on Friday from Mr. Olewnick for your comparison pleasure. There's also some interesting discussion on the Vision Festival going on over at DJA's blog (more on that later). Obviously I went in with a decided lack of skepticism, considering the fact that I chose to fly across the country to catch some shows.

I missed the violin tribute to Leroy Jenkins due to some slow food service and an underestimation on my part on how long it would take to get down to the Lower East Side.

Soon after I walked in, Roy Campbell's Ahkenaten Suite began, featuring Mr. Campbell, Billy Bang, Bryan Carrott, Hilliard Greene, and Zen Matsuura. The suite consisted of maybe 4-5 songs, all of them carefully composed. I thought the playing by the individuals was solid if not superlative, but the writing was excellent and I hope he develops the music further and hopefully records it as well. I love the vibraphone so its inclusion in any band increases my sonic enjoyment factor, and it was a great set to kick off my Vision Festival experience.

I was happily surprised to see that Matthew Shipp's solo set was next, since it had originally been scheduled for after the Leroy Jenkins tribute, so I had thought I'd missed it. It was definitely a highlight of the weekend, and it made me regret not seeing him solo when he was in Chicago sometime last year. It was a really engrossing set, and it was interesting to watch the crowd slowly get pulled in, as the background chatter ceased and he wrapped the audience around his twirling fingers. For me, he struck a fantastic balance between density and space, retaining a sense of playfulness and relaxation that shone through the music. A real gem of a set.

Next up was Patricia Nicholson's set of a dance/art installation, with accompaniment by the members of the William Parker Quartet, all individually and then as a group. It started out with each member of the band accompanying a dancer independently, in different locations within the venue - Rob Brown, Flip Barnes, William Parker, and Hamid Drake sequentially, each with an individual dancer.

While the addition of dance to improvised music has never been something that has added much to my experience, it's certainly never taken much away from it, and I don't understand the backlash against its incorporation into events like this from some people. I find it amazing that fans of such a marginalized music could put down an almost certainly marginalized form of dance. My biggest obstacle is probably that I listen with my eyes closed 90% of the time. I also have a harder time not ascribing meaning and intent to dance, constructing plot mentally, whereas I'm content to leave the music in the realm of abstraction.

In any case, I found the set to be enjoyable musically, and I remain open to the possibility that dance will enhance my concert going experience at some point in the future. I find it fascinating that dance and music are considered such separate entities in our society, especially in the art music realm, whereas in many other cultures around the world the two are inseparable. It's something I think about.

Next up was the Fred Anderson Trio, featuring Harrison Bankhead on bass and Hamid Drake on drums. It was truly a pleasure to see Fred in front of an out of town audience since I see him in Chicago so often, and to see how much other people enjoyed his music. It was really an incredible set: it started off with Fred playing a capella, with Harrison Bankhead and Hamid Drake joining in when Fred gave them the signal to do so. After playing as a group, and then featuring solos by Bankhead and Drake and then a full group improvisation again, the first song was basically the entire set, around an hour. It was a tour de force of improvisational music, with each musician putting on a veritable clinic on their respective instruments. The audience was really into it, and the set flew by considering how long it was, and they got a standing ovation.

They closed with Hamid Drake on frame drum, doing his chanting with Harrison Bankhead strumming chords on his bass. They play this song regularly as a trio now and I always find it soothing and enjoyable.

In contrast to Mr. Olewnick who found it lackluster compared to a previous Fred Anderson/Harrison Bankhead duo he'd seen (which is now available from Ayler Records, a great disc), I thought the set was fantastic. For what it's worth, Fred is 78, and for my money plays with an incredible intensity and force that requires no apologies regardless of his age. In terms of Mr. Olewnick's assertion that "...Drake was playing insensitively a lot of the time, often trampling over the other two," I have to disagree. Maybe it's my familiarity with the group, but Drake's propulsive and sometimes over the top style is how they function. He's the driving force, and while Fred is certainly featured, it's not a typical horn front man situation, and Fred has  said many times that Hamid Drake's rhythmic style is what feeds his playing.

While I stayed for Myra Melford's set, I unfortunately don't have much to say about it. I was suffering from physical fatigue from traveling that morning and from listening fatigue after some great music. That's the only unfortunate part of the Vision Fest format for me: music overload, which I had definitely reached by this point in the night. Myra was playing wonderfully though, and a lot of the audience enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to seeing her in Millennium Park this summer with Nicole Mitchell here in Chicago.

To briefly address some of the discussion going on over at DJA's Secret Society, part of the issue for me gets back to the role of so-called critics, pundits, and writers. I'm less interested in opinions than I am in descriptions of the music: how it made you feel, how it sounded, etc. Mr. Olewnick's review tells me more about his own personal taste and prejudices than it does about the music made. Is it the role of a critic to dictate what a musician should or should not do? Is a critic more qualified to determine how a musician should interact or play in a band than the musicians themselves? Of course it's okay not to enjoy something, and to enjoy one thing more than another. But to make essential value judgments about musicians, their intent, and how they go about their art, to me is distasteful.

Perhaps I'm not into what most people would traditionally call 'artistic criticism.' I'm more concerned with finding some beauty and trying to share it with others, to shine a light in a corner where some others might not look. I'm more interested in watering seeds than trampling grass, attempting to reflect the beauty that I find in the music and write something inspired that might elevate rather than denigrate.

More on this topic, and a review of Sunday's shows later....

Bill Dixon will be honored this year at the Vision Festival. I'm really going to try to make it out there this year.

What: Vision Festival XII
A Dozen Years Of Visionary Music, Dance, Spoken Word, Film And
Visual Art

Date: Tuesday, June 19 through Sunday, June 24, 2007

Time: Tuesday - Saturday 7pm; Thursday 6pm; Sunday 5pm
plus a Saturday afternoon session starting at 2pm on June 23!

Place: Angel Orensanz Foundation
172 Norfolk Street, New York, NY

Tickets: $30 per night in advance / $35 day of show / $150 for 6
night pass
on sale April 5 at http://www.BrownPaperTickets.com or 800.838.3006

More Info: http://www.visionfestival.org or 212.696.6681

Vision Festival XII Schedule

Tuesday June 19
Poet/Host Lewis Barnes

7:00 Opening Invocation
Patricia Nicholson / William Parker / Hamid Drake

7:30 William Parker - "Double Sunrise Over Neptune" - World
Premiere
Lewis Barnes trumpet / Rob Brown alto saxophone / Sabir Mateen reeds
Bill Cole double reeds / Joe Morris guitar, banjo / Jason Kao
Hwang violin
Mazz Swift violin / Jessica Pavone viola / Shiau-Shu Yu cello /
Brahim Fribgane oud
William Parker bass / Shayna Dulberger bass / Hamid Drake drums /
Gerald Cleaver drums

8:30 Fieldwork
Steve Lehman saxophones, compositions / Vijay Iyer piano,
compositions
Tyshawn Sorey drums, compositions

9:30 The Keyboard Project: Cooper-Moore Quartet with Marlies Yearby
Darius Jones alto saxophone / Cooper-Moore keyboards
Nioka Workman cello / Chad Taylor drums / Marlies Yearby dance

10:30 Spiritual Unity featuring Marc Ribot (with special guest Henry
Grimes)
Roy Campbell trumpet / Marc Ribot guitar
Henry Grimes bass / Chad Taylor drums

Wednesday June 20 - Bill Dixon Lifetime Recognition
Poet/Host Barry Wallenstein

7:00 Barry Wallenstein and Friends
Barry Wallenstein vocals, poetry / Daniel Carter reeds, trumpet /
special guests TBA

7:30 Bill Dixon with the Sound Vision Orchestra - World Premiere
Bill Dixon trumpet, compositions
Graham Haynes trumpet / Stephen Haynes trumpet / Taylor Ho Bynum
cornet
Dick Griffin trombone / Steve Swell trombone / Joe Daley tuba
Andrew Raffo Dewar soprano saxophone / Michel Cote reeds / J.D.
Parran reeds
Will Connell, Jr. reeds / John Hagen reeds / Karen Borca bassoon
Glynis Lomon cello / Andrew Lafkas double bass
Warren Smith vibraphone, percussion / Jackson Krall percussion

9:30 Co-Pilots: Henry Grimes and Marilyn Crispell
Henry Grimes bass / Marilyn Crispell piano

10:30 Survival Unit III
Joe McPhee reeds, flügelhorn / Fred Lonberg-Holm cello
Michael Zerang drums

Thursday June 21
Poet/Host Alexandre Pierrepont

6:00 New York - Paris Poetry
Tribes, New York
Miguel Algarin, Steve Cannon, Steve Dalachinsky, Post Midnight,
Ishle Park
The Weavers, Paris
Thomas Gilson, Mathias Gross, Alexandre Pierrepont, Laurence
Pierrepont, Daniel Vassaux

7:30 Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble - Xenogenesis Suite: A
Tribute to Octavia Butler
David Young trumpet / Nicole Mitchell flute / David Boykin reeds
Justin Dillard piano / Tomeka Reid cello / Josh Abrams bass
Arveeayl Ra drums / Marcus Evans drums / Mankwe Ndosi vocals

8:30 Hardcell
Tim Berne alto saxophone / Craig Taborn piano / Tom Rainey drums

9:30 Local Lingo
Jason Kao Hwang violin, viola, compositions / Sang Won Park ajang,
kayagum, voice

10:30 Jayne Cortez and The Firespitters
Jayne Cortez poetry / Bern Nix guitar / special guests TBA
Al MacDowell bass / Denardo Coleman drums

Friday June 22
Poet/Host David Budbill

5:30 Panel Discussion Part I - Art in America: A Grassroots Struggle

7:00 50 Violins for Leroy Jenkins
Memorial tribute led by Billy Bang, coordinated by Jason Kao Hwang

7:30 Matthew Shipp Solo Piano

8:30 Roy Campbell's Ahkenaten Suite - World Premiere
Roy Campbell trumpet / Billy Bang violin / Bryan Carrott vibraharp
Hilliard Greene bass / Zen Matsuura drums

9:30 Dance/Music/Art Installation "A State of Mind" by Patricia
Nicholson
Dance: Miriam Parker, Julia Wilkins, Gus Solomons, jr
Music: Lewis Barnes, Rob Brown, William Parker, Hamid Drake
Artists: Jo Wood Brown, Katie Martin, Kazuko Miyamoto, Phyllis
Bulkin-Lehrer, Lili White

10:15 Fred Anderson Trio
Fred Anderson tenor saxophone / Harrison Bankhead bass
Hamid Drake drums

11:15 Spindrift for Leroy Jenkins
Myra Melford piano, melodica / Mark Taylor French horn
Brandon Ross guitars / Shuni Tsou di-zi

Saturday Afternoon June 23

2:00 Michael Bisio Quartet
Stephen Gauci winds / Avram Fefer winds
Michael Bisio bass / Jay Rosen percussion

3:00 SYNERGY Sight and Sound
Amir Bey costumes, set design / Saco Yasuma alto saxophone,
compositions
Ras Moshe reeds / Dave Ross guitar / Christopher Dean Sullivan
bass / Lou Grassi drums

4:00 Mary Halvorson and Jessica Pavone
Mary Halvorson guitar, vocals / Jessica Pavone viola, vocals

5:00 Corey Wilkes Quintet
Corey Wilkes trumpet, flügelhorn, vocals / Kevin Nabors tenor
saxophone
Junuis Paul bass / Isaiah Spencer drums / Jumaane Taylor dance

Saturday Night June 23
Poet/Host David Budbill

7:30 Ganelin Trio Priority
Vyacheslav Ganelin piano, synthesizer, percussion / Petras
Vysniauskas soprano sax
Klaus Kugel drums, percussion

8:30 Eddie Gale All-Star Band
Eddie Gale trumpet / Prince Lasha reeds / Kidd Jordan tenor saxophone
Valerie Mih piano / William Parker bass / Alvin Fielder drums /
Patricia Nicholson dance

9:30 Rob Brown Quartet
Rob Brown alto saxophone / Lewis Barnes trumpet
Todd Nicholson bass / Guillermo E. Brown drums

10:30 Whit Dickey Trio
Sabir Mateen reeds / Todd Nicholson bass / Whit Dickey drums

11:30 Amiri and Amina Baraka's Blue Ark
Amiri Baraka poetry / Amini Baraka poetry, vocals
Dwight West vocals / Rene McLean reeds / Adegoke Steve Colson piano
Curtis Lundy bass / Pheeroan akLaff drums

Sunday June 24
Poet/Host Alexandre Pierrepont

3:30 Panel Discussion Part II - What Is "Serious" Music or Art?

5:00 T.E.C.K. String 4tet
Tomas Ulrich cello / Elliott Sharp acoustic guitars
Carlos Zingaro violin / Ken Filiano double bass

6:00 Hamid Drake now
Hamid Drake drums / Paolo Angeli prepared guitar
Sabir Mateen reeds / Patricia Nicholson dance

7:00 Thomas Buckner Trio
Thomas Buckner vocals / Jerome Bourdellon flute / Roscoe Mitchell
reeds

8:00 Daniel Levin Quartet
Daniel Levin cello / Nate Wooley trumpet / Joe Morris bass / Matt
Moran vibraphone

9:00 Louis Moholo and Friends
Kidd Jordan tenor saxophone / Dave Burrell piano
William Parker bass / Louis Moholo drums

Visual Art at The Vision Festival
A State of Mind
Dialogue Amongst the Arts

Amir Bey - installation
Jo Wood Brown - installation
Kazuko Miyamoto - installation
Yuko Otomo - installation
Maura Sheehan - installation
Cassie Thornton - installation

Bill Mazza - live drawings
Jorgo Schaefer - live drawings
Jeff Schlanger - live drawings

Bill Dixon - painting
Robin Kahn - painting

Phyllis Bulkin Lehrer - video
Katy Martin - video
Lili White - video

Peter Gannushkin - photographer
Luciano Rossetti - photographer
Michael Wilderman - photographer