"Winds, Strings, & Mallets"featuring a sax quartet, vocals, violin, and mallets; presented by Jazz Composers Alliance.
Darrell Katz, the force behind the Jazz Composers Alliance, has had a long-time passion for composing for saxophone quartets. Over time, he has also acquired a similar yen for marimba and violin duets, which first came to light when writing for the group Marimolin.
For years Katz thought it would be great to combine both concepts in a concert, and finally last year (after having considered the idea for 20 years or so), he began staging a few approaches. Now with some fine tuning, he has developed the repertoire that will be presented at the intimate Lilypad space (www.lilypadinman.com) in early December....
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"Winds, Strings, & Mallets"featuring a sax quartet, vocals, violin, and mallets; presented by Jazz Composers Alliance.
Darrell Katz, the force behind the Jazz Composers Alliance, has had a long-time passion for composing for saxophone quartets. Over time, he has also acquired a similar yen for marimba and violin duets, which first came to light when writing for the group Marimolin.
For years Katz thought it would be great to combine both concepts in a concert, and finally last year (after having considered the idea for 20 years or so), he began staging a few approaches. Now with some fine tuning, he has developed the repertoire that will be presented at the intimate Lilypad space (www.lilypadinman.com) in early December.
The Winds, Strings, & Mallets presentation will feature new and recent compositions by Katz, along with David Harris, Bob Pilkington and Helen Sherrah-Davies. [The program will be announced at the show.] The musicians who will realize this work will be Rebecca Shrimpton (voice), Rick Stone and Lance Van Lenten (alto saxes), Phil Scarf (tenor sax), Melanie Howe Brooks (bari sax), Helen Sherrah-Davie (violin), and Vessela Stoyanova (vibes/marimba).
Several of the pieces, written specifically by Katz, will also be included in an upcoming recording of Katz's own work. The record, to be released in 2016, is entitled "Jailhouse Doc With Holes In Her Socks" and will feature his OddSong ensemble.
Further background information on JCA:
The Jazz Composers Alliance (JCA) was founded in 1985, its agenda including the establishment of an active public forum for the presentation of new jazz works, the creation of the Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra, and a concert series that included a visiting composers program. Since then, the JCA has released ten CDs, and had created the Julius Hemphill Composition Awards, a competition which ran for ten years, promoting the most interesting and progressive work by jazz composers around the world. JCA also initiated an intermittent outreach program in Boston area schools, which has offered youngsters the chance to create and perform their own compositions with the visiting JCA performers.
There have been over 20 resident composers writing for the JCA since its inception. With some of New England's finest improvising musicians in its ranks, the Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra has premiered over 500 new pieces by its resident composers, along with commissioned works by Muhal Richard Abrams, Marty Ehrlich and Wayne Horvitz. JCA performances have featured collaborations with major jazz recording artists such as Tim Berne, Henry Threadgill, Sam Rivers, Anthony Davis, Bob Moses, Dave Holland, Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake, Steve Lacey, Ricky Ford, Michael Gibbs, Fred Ho, Maria Schneider, and Dave Fiuczysnki. Hemphill and Rivers can be heard on earlier Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra albums.
The Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra, led by Darrell Katz, recently released their latest "Why Do You Ride?" recording, praised by "All About Jazz" as being "polished and damn near perfect" and going on to say that the record reveals "Katz' dry, pithy sense of humor. While fans of traditional big band jazz may be perplexed or put off by the stylistic diversity ... its varied textures and continually shifting stylistic approach may well please those more attuned to the post-modern sounds of contemporary jazz usually played by much smaller bands." www.jazzcomposersalliance.org
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