More fun from my Interlake High School band director archives: a great first place award-winning performance from the January 27, 1995 Finals performance at the Clark College Jazz Festival in Vancouver, Washington. We performed "Technically Speaking" by Mike Pendowski and finished with a spirited version of Louis Prima's "Sing, Sing, Sing."

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 10:21 AM 

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2010
During my years teaching high school band and International Baccalaureate music at Interlake High School in Bellevue, Washington (many years ago now), we had some fantastic groups (for example, I've previously discussed our residency with composer Maria Schneider-May 2010). Now that I'm converting some of my old VHS tapes into digital, I'm going through many old videos of all of the groups I taught at Interlake and getting to see again and remember how much talent were in those groups. It is bringing back some great memories for me so I'll be sharing some of those performances with you and you can see and hear for yourself (including some time in 2011, our aforementioned legendary concert with Maria Schneider).

First I have three videos from January 30, 1998 in which the Interlake High School Jazz Ensemble won first place in the AA division at the Clark College Jazz Festival in Vancouver, WA. This was a great festival for it featured many of the great high school programs in Washington and Oregon (including the much bejeweled Garfield and Roosevelt High School Jazz Bands, although not in our division since they were AAAA schools owing to their larger populations). We performed two compositions for the preliminary competition during the afternoon ("Wyrgly" by Maria Schneider and "After the Rain" by John Coltrane and arranged by me) and when selected as one of three bands for the evening competition, we performed "Wyrgly" again along with "Fingers" by Thad Jones. So here are the Finals performances, enjoy! (you can view the prelims on my Youtube channel)

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 4:28 PM 

With the 2010 Christmas snowmageddon, I've had a little time (when I wasn't shoveling) to get to a few things I've been wanting to do for years. One of those things was to transfer some old VHS tapes into digital files. With help from Santa, who supplied me with a video capture device, these past few days I've been doing the slow slog of converting those tapes and uploading them. It actually has been wonderful to see some of the long ago events/performances/concerts that I participated in. So over the next few months I'll be sharing some of the treasure trove with the world.

Back in 2000 I was commissioned by JoLea Maffei and the Maffei Dance Company of NY to compose a new work. The resultant composition, "Flying" was used for the dance Multimatrix, choreographed by JoLea Maffei and performed February 11-12, 2000 at the Theatre of the Riverside Church in New York City. For the Maffei Dance Company's 2002 season, with financial help from the American Music Center's Live Music for Dance grant, Multimatrix was performed with live accompaniment by members of Numinous, with myself conducting. In addition, I was commissioned to write a new composition, "Penumbra." Penumbra and Multimatrix were performed on March 21-23, 2002 at the Merce Cunningham Studios in New York City.

So below are the opening night performances of both Penumbra and Multimatrix.

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 3:07 PM 

A few weeks ago I posted video of my dance piece, The Distance of the Moon, featuring TAKE Dance and the Pulse ensemble. Now I have the footage from my other dance collaboration this year: "These are the Times that Try Men's Souls". Performed as a works-in-progress on June 3rd and 4th 2010 at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, this work is part of a larger piece, To Begin the World Over Again. Based on the writings of Thomas Paine, this collaboration with choreographer Edisa Weeks and Delirious Dances is partly funded through the American Music Center's Live Music for Dance grant and will premiere in June 2011 at the Irondale Theater.

The June 2010 performances featured:
Cristal Albornoz, Paul Hamilton, Maxx Passion (dancers); Ben Kono, Steve Lyon (woodwinds); Stephanie Richards (trumpet); Amanda Monaco, Mike Baggetta, (electric guitar); Megan Levin (harp); Deanna Witkowski, Aaron Kotler (keyboards); Charenee Wade, Sara Serpa, Melissa Stylianou (voice); Jared Soldiviero (snare drum); Ana Milosavljevic (violin); Will Martina (violoncello); Shawn Conley (bass); Joseph C. Phillips Jr., conductor

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 8:39 PM 

Right now while I'm in the middle of writing music for some upcoming projects, I've actually had a little time to read for fun. Like many people I have a stack of 'to read' books that I always plan to get to 'someday.' Sadly someday ends up being later than I hoped for and of course, my 'to read' stack gets taller than my shelf I stack them on.

One of those books I've been hoping to pull down off that shelf, and have now started, is A Power Stronger than Itself by George Lewis. Written in 2008, it is the account of American Experimental Music in the 1960s through today, especially as it relates to the neglected (or less heralded) exploits of African-American experimenters working contemporaneously as the more trumpeted 'New York' school of music avant-gardist in the 1960s like John Cage, Morton Feldman, Earle Brown, Robert Ashley, Steve Reich et. al. And so far is an inspiring and fascinating read. Along with a dizzying cavalcade of musicians, both known and unknown to me, are the accounts and struggles of the artists both socially and musically (remember this was the 1960s when "race, itself was assumed to overdetermine the identity of the black creative artist"; actually, I think this statement might, in some ways, still be true  today). 

I'm only a few chapters in right now but I'm sensing this is going to be one those books that influences me on a deep level long after the book returns to my shelf of 'read' books...

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 10:49 PM