Gene Pritsker's Sound Liberation: 'Let’s Save The World Suite'
Free (Online: Free | In-person: Ticket price TBA)
- Gene Pritsker, electric guitar
- Franz Hackl, trumpet
- Paul Carlon, saxophone
- José Moura, bass guitar
- Damien Bassman, drums
Composers Concordance and Composers Concordance Records present the album release of Gene Pritsker's Let's Save the World Suite. The seven-movement composition, based on three poems of Erik T. Johnson, is scored for a quintet of trumpet, saxophone, electric guitar, electric bass, and drum set, with poet Erik T. Johnson reciting the poems in three of the movements. The music and poetry deal with our feelings toward the world in the past few years during the time of the pandemic, though not directly mentioning it. The music is inspired by jazz, music of various cultures, contemporary classical techniques, and has an overall unique sound – combining sonic elements that have very different personalities.
Also performing that evening is Mike Handelman and the Blues Deconstruction, a power trio performing Handelman's arrangements of blues and rock classics and Robert Brashear's Home(away) Band, a collective of NYC musicians performing Brashear’s original songs.
About Sound Liberation
Sound Liberation, an eclectic chamber ensemble/band, was formed in 1996. The band has gained exposure in the New York city area and has generated a loyal core following playing such notable venues as Joe's Pub, Wetlands, Knitting Factory, The Blue Note, Downtime, New Music Cafe, Cutting Room, Le Poisson Rouge, and many other performing spaces.
Sound Liberation's musical philosophy, developed by band founder Gene Pritsker, is based upon "ending the segregation of sound vibration (i.e. musical Genres)". The group incorporates its philosophy by performing compositions that encompass a diverse range of musical genre, heavily influenced by hip-hop and rock rhythms. This enables one to hear elements from classical music to Jazz to music of various cultures at a Sound Liberation show.
The group performed at the Outreach Festival '06 and '07 and '14 in Schwaz, Austria. In '07 Sound Liberation performed at the Estonian House and presented Gene Pritsker's opera Money at the Players Theatre and Flea Theatre in New York. In May of '08, Money was performed at the Etna music Festival in Catania, Sicily and Sound Liberation played in Ragusa, Sicily. In July '08, they performed at the Blaine jazz Festival in Blaine, Wa. In May of '09, Sound Liberation presented 2 nights at the Flea theater, performing Gene Pritsker's one-hour VRE Suite written for the Sound Liberation Quintet and a concert with B3+ of music from their albums on Col-Legno records. In September 2011, they performed at the Bremen Musik Fest in Germany. In past years the group was part of the Peekaboo Festival of New Music, 21st Century Schizoid at Cornelia Street Cafe and Theater, and toured Newfoundland, Canada in April of '99.
In August of '09 the Song No Truth was featured in the Universal Home Videos motion picture The Wedding Bothers. In the fall of 2010, Human Condition was featured on PBS's Road Trip Nation series. The band played a very publicized concert at New York's Le Poisson Rouge in January '10. The New Yorker wrote: "Pritsker, a rule-breaking composer-guitarist (and rapper) who impresses funk and rock beats onto classical structures, fronts this eclectic jazz-type combo of singers and instrumentalists."
https://noizepunk.wixsite.com/soundlibAbout Gene Pritsker, electric guitar
Composer/musical polymath Gene Pritsker has written over nine hundred compositions, including chamber operas, orchestral and chamber works, electro-acoustic music and songs for hip-hop and rock ensembles. His compositions employ an eclectic spectrum of styles, that are influenced by his studies of various musical cultures.
He is the founder and leader of Sound Liberation, an eclectic hip hop-chamber-jazz-rock-etc. ensemble. He also Co-Directs Composers Concordance. Gene's music is performed all over the world at internationally recognized festivals and by highly respected ensembles and performers.
He co-founded the Grammy-nominated Absolute Ensemble with Kristjan Jarvi and has been a composer in residence and guitarist since its creation in 1993. He worked closely with jazz fusion legend Joe Zawinul and has orchestrated major Hollywood movies, including Cloud Atlas, for which he wrote additional music and composed his Cloud Atlas Symphony. He is also the lead orchestrator for such TV series as Babylon Berlin, Jett, Netflix's Sense8, and Messiah. Gene is the lead orchestrator and has additional music in the 2021 film The Matrix Resurrections.
"My music is extremely eclectic, for me music has no bounds – I view the world of music as one big genre. My motto for my art is ending the segregation of sound vibration."
Gene is also a guitarist/rapper/Di.J./ and producer he incorporates each of these musical attributes to create music that is "not designed for easy listening or to melt into the background. It is insistent. It demands attention and curiosity." (New York Newsday) "Mischief-maker and cultural blender-in-chief, Pritsker is a serious artist, yet much of his work is witty and irreverent. Anyone can draw a mustache on the Mona Lisa, but few musicians draw it as artistically and creatively as Gene Pritsker." (Raymond Tuttle, Fanfare Magazine)
https://www.genepritsker.com/About Franz Hackl, trumpet
Franz Hackl, trumpeter, composer, and brass instrument maker, is founder and artistic director of the Outreach Orchestra, Festival and Academy, and leads his own group, Franz Hackl's IDO Quartet. His forward approach, building on traditions and looking beyond fashionable trends, leads to his distinctive style.
https://hacklmusic.com/hackl-360