Composers Concordance: Setting Free The Funk feat. Sound Liberation
Free
- Amira Abdallah-Baigina (Amira B.), voice
- David Banks, voice
- Sonya Hensley, voice
- Todd Rewoldt, alto saxophone
- Franz Hackl, trumpet
- Gene Pritsker, guitar & rap
- Jai Jeffryes, keyboard
- José Moura, electric bass
- Lee Jeffryes, drums
Dan Cooper — Selected works
Jai Jeffryes — Selected works
Duke Ellington — Selected works
Johnny Green — Selected works
Amira Abdallah-Baigina (Amira B.) — Selected works
Sylvester Stewart (Sly Stone) — Selected works
David Foster — Selected works
Harvey Mason — Selected works
On Thursday, November 16th, 2023 at Silvana in Harlem, Composers Concordance presents 'Setting Free The Funk', a concert featuring new funk inspired compositions performed by Gene Pritsker's Sound Liberation ensemble. Premieres include Pritsker's 'K'nuff Funk' and new arrangements by Jai Jeffryes of tunes from the funk era.
About Composers Concordance
Staying in rotation for 40 years in NYC is a rare feat. In the case of a new music presenting organization, it requires not only diligence and cognizance of achievements of the past but also an ethic of keeping one's ear to the ground for emerging stylistic and technological developments, as well as talented new composers on the scene.
Composers Concordance, founded in 1984 by Joseph Pehrson and Patrick Hardish, advised by Otto Luening, strives to present contemporary music in innovative ways, with an emphasis on thematic programming. Directors Gene Pritsker and Dan Cooper co-curate the programs and lead the CompCord Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra, String Orchestra, and Big Band. Associate Directors are Milica Paranosic, Peter Jarvis, Debra Kaye, and Seth Boustead.
Composers Concordance has also created a Naxos-distributed record label: Composers Concordance Records, co-directed by Peter Jarvis. Composers Concordance's overriding vision is to promote contemporary music, composers, and new works as a rightful and respected part of society. Good music performed and recorded well, pushing the boundaries of sound and composition.
http://www.composersconcordance.comAbout 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 Amira Abdallah-Baigina (Amira B.), voice
https://www.purchase.edu/live/profiles/5106-amira-abdallah-baigina
About Todd Rewoldt, alto saxophone
Saxophonist Todd Rewoldt has performed at major concert venues throughout Sweden, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, Canada, China, Ireland, Australia, and throughout the United States, including festival appearances at Calgary New Music, World Saxophone Congress, Veneto International Jazz, Centro Mexicano para la Música y las Artes Sonoras, International Computer Music Conference, Society for Electro-Acoustic Music, Carlsbad Music Festival, and Tribeca New Music. He has recorded on the Nonesuch, Aleppo, Warner Bros., and Composer's Concordance labels. He has taught master classes at Juilliard, Yale, Beijing Central Conservatory, Sydney Conservatorium, North Texas, UCLA, Temple, and USC. Todd is a Selmer Artist and performs on Selmer saxophones exclusively.
https://music.sdsu.edu/people/rewoldt-toddAbout Gene Pritsker, guitar & rap
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/