Discover Top Posts Tagged with #dave bryant

Jesus take me as I am, I can come no other way. Take me deeper into You, Make my flesh life melt away. Make me like a precious stone, Crystal clear and finely honed. Light of Jesus shining through, Giving glory back to You.

Jesus Take Me As I Am

#dave bryant #jesus is my boyfriend #questionable ccm lyrics

Whirlwind 2.27.1919

Community news from #Whirlwind, #WestVirginia in 1919. #Appalachia #history #genealogy

“Blue Eyed Beauty,” a local correspondent at Whirlwind in Upper Hart, Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Democrat printed on Thursday, February 27, 1919:

We have been having some rainy weather the past week.

Several of our farmers are fencing and clearing ground for this year’s crops.

The Bryant school, taught by W.J. Bachtel, closed on Friday, and the Hall…

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Tattoo of the Day: The New Royal Family...

Dave Bryant pulls some serious AntMagic out of the hat - this probably means the whole world to people of a certain age and possibly quite a lot less to everybody else.

#Dave Bryant

Why Roscoe Mitchell is Important: DAVE BRYANT

Keyboardist and composer, Dave Bryant is best known for his work as a member of Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time group. Bryant’s addition to the group marked Ornette Coleman’s first extended work with a keyboard instrument in decades. Starting in 1990, Bryant toured as part of the group and performed on the Prime Time “Tone Dialing” CD. During Bryant’s tenure with Prime Time, the band also performed with Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, and numerous symphony orchestras throughout the world, including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Kurt Mazur. He currently serves as a faculty member at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

I purchased the NONAAH album a year or two after its original release in the late seventies, at a time when I was discovering a lot of jazz and other improvised music — the realization had sunk in that the sixties weren't coming back, fusion had run its course, and immersion in the "real stuff" ( both contemporary and traditional) seemed the only way forward. I had had some experience in performing "new music," both in the Conservatory and in jazzier contexts, and felt that first thrill of novelty and freedom, as well as the dawning realization that the public at large didn't always share my enthusiasm for the end result. It was at that moment when the initial novelty of the experience was wearing off and the desire to have some quality control (without sacrificing the freedom) was asserting itself that I heard NONAAH for the first time.

Part of what made the album so compelling was the backstory of the opening solo alto performance: A festival crowd audibly groans its disappointment upon hearing that scheduled headliner Anthony Braxton had to cancel. Roscoe then begins with "Nonaah"'s opening repeated figure — a phrase so perfectly constructed and rich in implication that the repetition seems not only justified, but necessary — and the initially confrontational atmosphere of the performance is set. Soon, the boos and jeers of the audience turn into cheers of encouragement, and finally, into rapt silence. This documentary evidence that it was possible to win over a hostile audience, not with flashy stage presence and overblown press releases, but by sheer force of musical intellect and artistic integrity, was thrilling and inspirational to witness. Roscoe's statement in the liner notes that "...if someone was going [to leave], it would have to be them," became something of a rallying cry for me and my fellow travelers, and a welcome alternative to solo performance strategies that could be derailed by a wayward audience cough...

Over the years, I've introduced numerous students and colleagues to that performance, and seen it make a real difference in people's lives. I've had friends tell me that they could divide their musical lives into before- and after-hearing-NONAAH periods. The last time I listened to it, I was surprised to recognize how much of its performance practice I'd internalized over the years: timing, contrasts, emphases, silences; its overtly simple but profound sense of structure, and its psychology and understanding of the compact with the listener.

When I was touring with Ornette Coleman in the nineties, we would sometimes talk about favorite musicians, and I would often mention Roscoe. Ornette would respectfully indulge my enthusiasm, but I could tell he wasn't really familiar with much of the man's work. So, I finally brought along a cassette of the NONAAH album on one of the tours and invited myself over to Ornette's hotel room one evening. He always had his pro recording Walkman and a couple of little extension speakers hooked up on a table. Actually, I think I warmed him up a little by playing a short Art Ensemble piece first, and then I let him have it with that solo version of "Nonaah." He wrinkled his brow on first hearing the repeated opening phrase, but about 45 seconds in, he raised his eyebrows, turned to me, nodded, and said, "Oh, yeah". I didn't hear much from him for the rest of the piece except an isolated grunt or groan. When it got to the end, he said he'd heard some vaguely similar work by others, but "nothing approaching that." Realizing I'd made another convert, I quickly flipped the tape and played him "Improvisation 1." This time, he engaged in non-verbal commentary all the way through, sounding like he was in the throes of ecstasy while being simultaneously pummeled by a prizefighter (probably not too far off the mark from what was actually happening, come to think of it...).

So, thanks, Roscoe — I'm a better musician and a better human being because of your work. Wish I could catch you in Seattle.

Table & Chairs Presents: Roscoe Mitchell Performs Nonaah on June 7th, 2013 at Benaroya Hall in Seattle.

More Info — Buy Tickets — RSVP on Facebook

#Roscoe Mitchell #Nonaah #Dave Bryant