12th Annual CompCord Festival: Album Release of 'CompCord @ 40' Anniversary CD Party
$20
- Franz Hackl, trumpet
- John Clark, French horn
- David Taylor, bass trombone
- Gene Pritsker, Di.J
- Evan Francis, flute & saxophone
- Yayoi Ikawa, piano & keyboards
- Dan Cooper, bass guitar
- Gerry Brown, drum set
David Taylor — Fanfares for Our Mothers
John Clark — Variations on America the Beautiful
Dan Cooper — Selected works
On April 19th at Shapeshifter Lab, the "CompCord @ 40" festival begins appropriately with an anniversary CD release party. The new compilation album, CompCord @ 40—featuring the music of more than twenty contemporary composers, as well as cover art by Graham Elliott (Living Colour)—will be issued on the CCR label, distributed by Naxos.
Performers at the event include the cutting-edge brass ensemble B3+: Franz Hackl (trumpet), John Clark (French horn), and David Taylor (bass trombone), together with Gene Pritsker (Di.J). The group will premiere Pritsker's composition Every Man Over Forty is a Scoundrel, which takes its title from George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman (1903) – "Maxims: Stray Sayings". In addition, B3+ will perform Taylor's composition Fanfares for Our Mothers, and Clark's Variations on America the Beautiful.
Also set to perform is the Dan Cooper Quartet. Dan's compositions have been described as "full of instrumental virtuosity and sly humor" (Fanfare) and "invigoratingly eclectic to the max" (Strings Magazine). Performing on 6-string bass guitar, Cooper shares the stage with Evan Francis (flute and saxophone), Yayoi Ikawa (piano and keyboards), and Gerry Brown (drum set).
All four festival concerts will also be live-streamed on Composers Concordance's Facebook Page. Celebrating the Big Apple's most eclectic new music series with a myriad of brazen new compositions, The "CompCord @ 40" festival is not to be missed!
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 B3+ Brass Trio
This is bass trombone, French horn, and trumpet as you have never heard, seen, or experienced before. Taylor/Clark/Hackl are creating their own brass trio literature. The tension initiated by the blending of improvisation and composed passages defies every attempt to categorize it. B3+ develops into much more than its individual parts―it is music at its purest. It is as simple and as complex as that. You will hear an exciting meeting of Bartok, Pastorius, Schubert, Bach along with early classical music, jazz standards, free jazz, original music, authorized and non-authorized interpretations of pop tunes, and Welsh hymns. John, Franz, and Dave began to play their instruments at an early age, and their open minds and searching ears got busy right away. Sometime later they earned advanced degrees from the Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, and Manhattan School of Music. "Real-world degrees" were subsequently earned as they worked with great musicians all over the world.
B3+ is where the experiences and ideas accumulated in orchestras, recording studios, jazz clubs, big bands, late-night jam sessions, and on long bus rides from gig to gig…all get a chance to bubble and stew and become something unique. Think: Gunther Schuller meets P. Diddy meets Yo-Yo Ma meets Gil Evans meets Michael Jackson. Get the picture?
John Clark, French horn |
Franz Hackl, trumpets |
Jonathan Greenberg, bass trombone
About John Clark, French horn
About David Taylor, bass trombone
Receiving B.S. and M.S. degrees from Juilliard, David Taylor started his playing career as a member of Leopold Stokowski's American Symphony Orchestra, and by appearing with the New York Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez. Simultaneously, he was a member of the Thad Jones Mel Lewis jazz band, and recorded with groups ranging from Duke Ellington to The Rolling Stones. He has appeared and recorded with major jazz and popular artists including Barbara Streisand, Miles Davis, Quincy Jones, Frank Sinatra, and Aretha Franklin. Mr. Taylor has won the NARAS Most Valuable Player Award for five consecutive years, and has also been awarded the NARAS Most Valuable Player Virtuoso Award, an honor accorded no other bass trombonist. He has been a member of the bands of Gil Evans, Thad Jones-Mel Lewis, George Russell, Jaco Pastorius, Charles Mingus, Michelle Camillo, Bob Mintzer, Dave Matthews, the Words Within Music Trio, and B3+. In 1998 Taylor performed on four GRAMMY nominated CDs: The J.J. Johnson Big Band, Dave Grusin's West Side Story, the Joe Henderson Big Band, and the Randy Brecker Band. The latter two CDs were chosen for GRAMMYs. David Taylor is also on the faculties of the MSM and Mannes. He plays Edwards bass trombones exclusively.
https://www.davetaylor.net/About Gene Pritsker, Di.J
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/