#pedernal

[tzompantli-ink]

Iztlacoliuhqui el ciego (la Obsidiana torcida) después de desafiar y caer ante Las flechas de el sol Tonatiuh, es destinado a ser el señor frío de el castigo y la tempestad por la embriagues e inconsciencia humana, una de las Miles manifestaciónes o Nahuales de El Tezcatlipoca Negro.

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[dustedmagazine]

Susan Alcorn Quintet — Pedernal (Relative Pitch Records)

Pedernal by Susan Alcorn Quintet

Susan Alcorn has created a new vocabulary for the pedal steel guitar, an instrument closely associated with the country & western genre.  The composer and steel player started out playing in Texas country & western bands before immersing herself in free jazz, modern classical and musical traditions from outside North America.  Her playing is unique, a culmination of her experiences and influences: equally melodic and atonal, at times terse and at others languorous. She cuts a wide swathe, stylistically, yet is evenly eloquent across the broad range she inhabits.

With Pedernal, Alcorn plays the role of composer, performer and band leader, her debut as the latter after decades of solo, duo, and side-woman outings. Adding her six strings to Alcorn’s compositions is guitarist Mary Halvorson, a long-time collaborator. Alcorn’s pedal steel is the grounding force within Halvorson’s own octet, as can be heard on the Away With You record.  Joining on double bass is another frequent associate, the Baltimore-based Michael Formanek (Alcorn is also currently a Charm City resident).  Ryan Sawyer, who plays with Alcorn and Halvorson on Nate Wooley’s Columbia Icefield album, lends his drumming talents to the proceedings. Rounding out the quintet, Mark Feldman wields the violin, as unique an instrument within the jazz idiom as the pedal steel. 

Alcorn and her team of crack improvisors imbue the quintet concept with a sense of airiness without coming across as fragile or dull.  Whereas a less well-orchestrated combo might seem crowded or even step over each other, this quintet seems to sense when to stay true to Alcorn’s compositions and when to slip out and be a little daring. Halvorson and Alcorn, in particular, are nearly synchronous when they’re not playfully dancing around each other or pulling off a solo.  Feldman’s violin is the perfect foil for those two.  Whether he is soaring or scrabbling about, he has a keen sense of what energy each moment requires. 

It's quite clear that Alcorn has not left her country roots behind, as evinced within the first bluesy moments of Pedernal.  The album, and its eponymous opening piece, were named after the mesa in New Mexico near where the composer holed up in retreat and wrote.  Those first few bars conjure up images of the mountain, which painter Georgia O’Keeffe made famous through many of her works.  The breathtaking vista was inspirational for both women. The elegance and immensity are carried through not only Alcorn’s compositions but are felt in the performance of the quintet, and of each player.  If it’s possible for a landscape to reverberate within a recording, this is definitely the phenomenon at play on Pedernal. 

Bryon Hayes

[shi-gu]

Tecpatl-kun

[vitacostruita]

[kunst-kiste]

Pedernal (1941), Georgia O’Keeffe

[gbiechele]

Tree Bones

Minolta MD 50mm f/1.2 lens on Sony A7.

[brooklynmuseum]

Georgia O’Keeffe said, "I work on an idea for a long time. It's like getting acquainted with a person, and I don't get acquainted easily." One of her perennial subjects during her New Mexico years was the Cerro Pedernal, a flat-topped mountain that’s visible for miles in every direction. She painted it numerous times, at varied angles and distances. In later life, she said that she thought if she painted the Pedernal often enough, God would give it to her.  

O’Keeffe often worked on site, sketching and painting in the hills and desert. She occasionally took photographs as well. In this photo she’s dressed in practical flat shoes, a cotton wrap dress, and a wide-brimmed black hat, all essential elements of her wardrobe. 

Just as she painted certain locations and objects over and over, O’Keeffe adopted a serial aesthetic in her wardrobe. If she particularly liked a garment or accessory, she purchased it in multiples or had duplicates made. Her collection of wrap dresses, copied from a dress originally bought at Neiman Marcus, shows this loyalty to her favorite styles.

Posted by Jessica Murphy  Georgia O'Keeffe (American, 1887-1986). Red Hills with the Pedernal, 1936. Pastel on paper mounted to wood-pulp board, 21 1/2 x 27 1/4 in. (54.6 x 69.2 cm). @BrooklynMuseum, Bequest of Georgia O'Keeffe, 87.136.4. © artist or artist's estate ⇨ #ToddWebb (American, 1905-2000). Georgia O'Keeffe Photographing the Chama Valley, New Mexico, 1961. Gelatin silver print, 8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm). @OKeeffeMuseum, Gift of The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation, 2006.06.0983. © Todd Webb Archive ⇨ Eight Wrap Dresses. Left to right: Black cotton, c. 1960s–70s; White cotton, Carol Sarkisian, c. 1970s; Blue-gray cotton, c. 1960s; Pink cotton, Neiman Marcus, c. late 1950s; Blue cotton, Neiman Marcus, c. late 1950s; Brown cotton, Sidran, Inc., c. late 1950s; Green synthetic velvet, Carol Sarkisian, c. 1970s; Black cotton, c. 1960s–70s. @okeeffemuseum (Photo © Gavin Ashworth)

[simichiamano]

Georgia O’Keefe Deer’s Skull with Pedernal, 1936