Music of Zappa, Hendrix taken to its complicated heights
Hoodoo
By Jeff Miers, The Buffalo News, N.Y.
http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/yb/144423409
May 2--When you listen to a lot of complex, demanding music over a
protracted period of time, it starts to change your expectations. We
might be told, and often, that the best a song can hope for is to be
catchy, sit at a nice brisk tempo, and appeal to a common denominator of
listenership. But then there's the other stuff. The music that doesn't
bow down to overtly court the listener, doesn't condescend to some
anti-intellectual standard, but rather, demands that the listener rise
to meet it at its own level and on its own terms.
Trumpeter, composer, arranger, bandleader and UB associate professor of
music Jon Nelson is familiar with music of this demanding strain. He's
spent most of his time since 1982 immersing himself in it. On Friday, he
brought the band he leads--Genkin Philharmonic, born of a for-credit
music ensemble course at UB -- to the Tralf Music Hall for a concert
concentrating on the music of challenging American composers of the late
20th century.
Frank Zappa and Jimi Hendrix, mostly. With a side of Captain Beefheart,
thank you very much. Not names that most in the academic world would
place alongside, say, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, or even John Cage. But
beneath Nelson's deft hand as an arranger, the music of these two "rock"
musicians was presented in a challenging manner. Schooled classical
musicians might turn their noses up at the suggestion that Zappa's
"Echidna's Arf (Of You)" is as profound a piece of music as one of the
three movements in "The Rite of Spring," but they shouldn't. The best
music blurs the lines between idioms and challenges lazy classification
schemes. Nelson and his ensemble drove this point home throughout two
inspired sets of dense, jubilant, often humorous, just as often poignant
music on Friday.
Some of the bravest and most refined musicians to ever have called
Buffalo home gathered on stage, as Nelson led the ensemble through
inspired readings of some of Zappa's most challenging material -- the
dreaded "Black Page," feared by musicians far and wide for its
complexity; a searing medley arrangement that married together "Peaches
En Regalia," "Let's Make the Water Turn Black," "Harry, You're A Beast,"
and "The Orange County Lumber Truck"; a pulse-quickening run through
"Zomby Woof" among them.
Nelson led the band, and the arrangements were his, but he was not
featured soloist on every piece. Saxophonist Steve Baczkowski -- music
curator for Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center -- blew some fabulously
"outside" solos during the Zappa selections, recalling Pharoah Sanders
and Albert Ayler in their knotty, textural free-form construction.
Trombonist Jonathan Lombardo -- Buffalo Philharmonic's principle
trombone since 2004 -- deftly navigated the dangerous curves in the
music to Baczkowski's left. Flanking him, Cuban-born violinist Lazara
Nelson tore through an avant-garde blues take on Hendrix's "Crosstown
Traffic." Trumpeter Tim Clarke blew screaming upper-register solos on a
half-dozen tunes.
Bassist Michael Wagner laid down a bottom end worthy of Zappa bassist
Tom Fowler, circa the "Roxy & Elsewhere" album, and also handled the
vocals for the Beefheart, Hendrix and Zappa material. Drummer Matthew
Felski and percussionist Tom Kolor made the immensely complex rhythmic
structures sound easygoing and natural, and keyboardist William Louden
provided the harmonic color so essential to these arrangements.
The Genkin Philharmonic is simply an awe-inspiring band, one that makes
incredibly complex music fun and accessible, while simultaneously living
up to that music's lofty standards. If the opportunity arises to catch
one of their shows, you should certainly take it.
Concert Review
Genkin Philharmonic
Friday evening in the Tralf Music Hall.
--
Trout Mask Replica
WFMU.org or WMSE.org; because music channels on
Sirius Satellite, and its internet radio player, suck
Charles Ulrich
quoted:
> Music of Zappa, Hendrix taken to its complicated heights
>
> By Jeff Miers, The Buffalo News, N.Y.
> http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/yb/144423409
>
> Schooled classical musicians might turn their noses up at the
> suggestion that Zappa's "Echidna's Arf (Of You)" is as profound a
> piece of music as one of the three movements in "The Rite of Spring,"
> but they shouldn't.
Schooled classical musicians might turn their noses up at the suggestion
that The Rite Of Spring has three movements.
--Charles
ttuerff
> In article <4BDEF518.8040...@spamcop.net>, Hoodoo <hoo...@spamcop.net>
I'm not even all that schooled ( or even super familiar with the piece
-- I mean, I can't immediately tell you that's what's playing if
somebody has it on ) about the piece and I was wondering about that
comment, too. I've seen several productions of the dance and I always
thought of it as one long piece of music, myself.
TT