jazz / improv
9:30 - Midnite
$10 donation
rob chalfen & subconsciouscafe new chamber musicpresents
“2 DUOS” with
JOE MCPHEE / JOE GIARDULLO DUO
STEVE LANTNER/DAN LEVIN DUO
Joe McPhee is a brilliant improvising musician who plays many instruments, including saxophones, trumpets, valve trombone, clarinet, piano, and sometimes electronics. He was born in November, 1939 in Miami to a family with strong ties to sacred and secular musical traditions. As a child, Joe was taught by his father to play the trumpet and to read music. After a stint in the Army, Joe came to New York City in the mid~’6O’s to share an early collaboration with the great Clifford Thornton, and Joe also began studying saxophone during this time. He taught in the Black Studies Department at Vassar College in upstate New York (and maintains his home in the Hudson Valley to this day), and then he began a musical career centered in Switzerland that continued for more than 25 years. Today, Joe McPhee is held in highest esteem as a musician throughout Europe, as well as here at home.
Joe McPhee’s music can be heard on more than 6O recordings, beginning with Clifford Thornton’s “Freedom and Unity” (Third World 9636, ‘67)
He shared bandstands in a variety of settings with Roy Campbell, Jr., Daniel Carter, Sensei Joseph Jarman, Leroy Jenkins, Sabir Mateen, William Parker, Matthew Shipp, and others.
On the fateful date September 11th 2001, Joe McPhee found himself in a New York recording studio for a previously scheduled session with Joe Giardullo, Michael Bisio, and Tani Tabbal, and knowing what had happened, after some hesitation the four reached deep within their stricken souls to offer up a profound artistic affirmation of life, faith, and hope; the resulting recording, “Shadow & Light,” can be heard on the Drimala label..
Web: www.joemcphee.com
Joe Giardullo released GRAVITY-MUSIC FOR CREATIVE CHAMBER GROUP (Breeze Records) in 1979. It disappeared into obscurity almost immediately, but not before Downbeat’s Francis Davis called it the most “intensely democratic music” he’d heard, comparing it to Braxton’s Paris ensembles and using concepts and vocabularies from mathematics and geology to describe the creative elements of the music. He gave it 4 stars.
In 1981, back from living in Amsterdam, he came off the road and disappeared from performance, although he continued to play in private. A chance meeting with legendary Joe McPhee in 1991 brought Giardullo out again.
Commissions, North American and European tours and a steady stream of acclaimed recordings have followed. Collaborations with drummer Milford Graves, pianist Marilyn Crispell and his long partnership with Joe McPhee have drawn attention from listeners and critics alike.
September 11, 2001 found Giardullo leading a long scheduled recording date. Abandoning the musical plan he had in mind, his quartet improvised music that captured the feelings and thoughts of the immediate moment. That recording, SHADOW & LIGHT was released in March of 2002.
His latest recording is NOW IS (Joe Giardullo 4tet, Drimala Records) has garnered high praise:
“Luminous” Tomajazz/Spain, “ Prepare to be transported” ALL ABOUT JAZZ, “a transcendent gift from the gods!” Downtown Music Gallery/NY, “luminous crescents from his horn” WIRE/London.
Joe has performed with most of the leading improvisors including McPhee, Milford Graves, Roy Campbell, Carlos Zingaro, Bobby Bradford, Vinny Golia, Ken Filiano, Alex Cline, Mike Bisio, Dominic Duval, Marilyn Crispell, John Heward, Rob Blakeslee, David Prentice, Tani Tabbal, Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, Thomas Buckner and Butch Morris, as well as emerging artists such as Rosi Hertlein, Neil Feather, Makoto Sato, Jerome Bourdellon, Dawid Kosiarkiewicz, and Luciano Pagliarini.
Pianist Steve Lantner and cellist Daniel Levin have been performing as a duo for several years. They draw on their wide-ranging musical backgrounds, which include jazz, classical, contemporary, and free improvisation, to create a series of duo improvisations whose style is both exhilarating and all-encompassing.
Pianist/Improviser Steve Lantner is originally from Cleveland, Ohio and became involved with music at an early age, playing both piano and guitar. His music draws on a wide range of influences, including Thelonius Monk, Phineas Newborn Jr., Eric Dolphy, and Charlie Parker, as well as Arnold Schoenberg, Pierre Boulez and Milton Babbitt. He has performed with Joe Morris, Rashid Bakr, Laurence Cook, Joe Maneri, Mat Maneri, Chris Washburn, Timo Shanko, Taylor Ho Bynum, John Lockwood, Eric Rosenthal, Charlie Kohlhase, Tom Plsek, and many others. Venues in which he has performed include The Knitting Factory (NYC), Tonic (NYC), CBGB’s Gallery (NYC), Jordan Hall (Boston), WGBH FM (Boston), Zeitgeist Gallery (Cambridge), and The Middle East (Cambridge).
He has released several recordings under his own name, all critically acclaimed. His two latest releases, Voices Lowered, and Saying So received “Best of the year” awards in 2001 and 2002, respectively. He has recorded for Leo and Riti Records.
He currently leads the Steve Lantner Trio and Quartet, and performs in Boston and New York.
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Pianist Steven Lantner is one of the most original improvisers to emerge in the past several years. It’s not simply because he is always searching for something fresh and original, but that his search uncovers more mysteries and ambiguities than comforting certainties. It also helps that his sound is unmistakeably his own. He shapes and colors his notes carefully and his articulation is precise. He develops his solos with a clear and characteristic sense of time, sequence, and drama. It is this combination of specificity and mystery that makes Steven Lantner’s music some of the more articulate, challenging, and alluring being made today.
~Ed Hazell
Steve Lantner’s radiantly novel approach contains the stuff that provides the earmarks for a fruitful career….No doubt, Lantner is an inventor who pushes his craft to the limits….
~Glenn Astarita - All About Jazz, 7/18/02
Lantner’s playing, while completely free, shows a deep, nearly cellular, mastery of form and balance….His tone is round and warm and his playing, even at its most forceful, is unerringly elegant….Lantner is a great talent.
~James Beaudreau - Pop Matters, December 2002
Lantner is an imposing presence.
~Christian Carey - Copper Press
Free jazz pianist Steve Lantner gives new meaning to the word lyrical. He extends beyond gentle melodies to emphasize communication, and thus tell a story.~Nils ~Jacobson - All About, Jazz 8/7/02
DAN LEVIN
“Levin deserves to have his name added to the short list of cellists who are making a mark in improvisational music.”
—John Kelman, All About Jazz Magazine
“Cellist Daniel Levin is a major new voice on his instrument and in improvised music.”
—Ed Hazell, The Boston Phoenix
“In a word, the scope of the music is wide, the focus sharp, and the playing inspired.”
—James Beaudreau, Signal To Noise Magazine
Production: Rob Chalfen – robchalfen@hotmail.com