The Tribeca New Music Festival line-up was announced recently and while there are many wonderful performances you should check out, there is one that is of special significance to the humble host: violinist Ana Milosavljevic's The Red Viper project on May 18th, 2012 at The Cell Theatre (338 W. 28th Street (between 8th & 9th Ave.) in NYC).

Among a number of works Ana will be performing on her viper, she will be premiering a work she commissioned from me called Red Mamba. While I will have a post about my piece as we get closer to the premiere, let's just say it has something to do with the movie Kill Bill...

Tickets go on sale March 20th.

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 8:56 PM 

Sold out! If you didn't get tickets to our 321 Band concert this afternoon Sunday February 12 at 2:30pm at P.S. 321 (180 7th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn) there's always next year...

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 10:00 AM 

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2011

We made it! We reached our Kickstarter goal, so thank you to all who are helping to make our Pulse-TAKE Dance collaboration happen. Now, if you haven't bought your tickets, they are selling fast so you might want to click this link so you don't miss out...

FIVE POINTS
TAKE Dance + Pulse: Part II  

FEATURING 
COMPOSERS: Jamie Begian, Melissa Dunphy, Joseph C. Phillips Jr., JC Sanford, Joshua Shneider

MUSICIANS: Hannah Levinson, Jacob Garchik, Ana Milosavljevic, Chris Reza, Mariel Roberts

CHOREOGRAPHERS: Takehiro Ueyama, Jill Echo, Kile Hotchkiss, Kristen Arnold, Milan Misko

DANCERS:  Kristen Arnold, Brynt Beitman, John Eirich, Jillian Hervey, Kile Hotchkiss, Gina Ianni, Cliinton Edward Martin, Sarah Mettin, Milan Misko, Nana Tsuda Misko, Lynda Senisi, Kristi Tornga and Marie Zvosec.
Where: Merce Cunningham Dance Studios, 55 Bethune Street, NYC
When: DEC 15-16 @ 9:00PM
DEC 17th @ 8:00PM

Tickets: $20/$15 Students & Seniors         
Can purchase tickets in advance only, HERE

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 9:05 AM 

Dreams of Wonders Undreamt

"...may your generation see wonders undreamt."
-Carl Sagan, The Pale Blue Dot

Dreams of Wonders Undreamt is another part of my dance project, To Begin the World Over Again, based on the writings of Thomas Paine. For this new piece, I set some words of Paine from Common Sense ("...the sun never shined on a cause of greater worth") in counterpoint to a passage from John Wintrop's City upon a Hill sermon from 1630 (the famous "we shall be as a City upon a Hill" that Ronald Reagan made famous) and Nicholas Black Elk's On the Battle at Wounded Knee from Black Elk Speaks ("Now that I can see it all as from a lonely hilltop...", describing the terrible massacre in 1890, this last major battle in the "Indian Wars").

Dreams of Wonders Undreamt takes its title from the dedication Carl Sagan wrote to his son at the beginning of his book The Pale Blue Dot. Where he envisions for his son a more global hope of future wonders, I have translated the phrase to a more local level: the wonders and potential that the promise of America presages, and of which, by implication, has not fulfill. This might seem a critique on the state of America, and in many ways it is. However, Dreams of Wonders Undreamt does not come from a place of political polemics, where any critique or questioning is an apostasy. Rather, my composition is a love song to the promise of America, to that unbound potential and ideal that Thomas Paine wrote and spoke about so eloquently and which I believe all Americans would like to see it be even more worthy to.

Numinous
Monday March 21, 2011 9 PM to 11 PM
$10 suggested donation
Tea Lounge
837 Union Street
Park Slope
Take the M, R Train to Union Street

 Check back as I'll post some more crib notes about the compositions we'll be performing.

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 11:19 AM 

FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2011
19 

“…we must fight for your life as though it were our own—which it is—and render impassable with our bodies the corridor to the gas chamber. For, if they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night.”
James Baldwin, from 
An Open Letter to My Sister, Miss Angela Davis

19 is inspired by two, seemly disparate sources: Arnold Schoenberg's Sechs Kleine Klavierstücke Op. 19 from 1911 and Angela Davis. The initial musical impetus was with the Schoenberg, specifically it was one of my "what if" questions, where I challenge myself with a compositional quandary. In this case, can I make Schoenberg funky? But the emotional timber of 19 is inspired by the activist Angela Davis, specifically her iconic status in Black culture of the 1970s. Particularly I was moved by James Baldwin's An Open Letter to My Sister, Miss Angela Davis from November 19, 1970, which while condemning the arrest of Angela Davis a few months before the letter, also goes on to describe, in biting and incisive commentary, the state of racial dynamics in the United States and paints Davis as a soldier in that on-going struggle for racial and social equality.

19 is one part of a larger, as of now untitled, mixed music composition that will be recorded next year.  

Numinous
Monday March 21, 2011 9 PM to 11 PM
$10 suggested donation
Tea Lounge
837 Union Street
Park Slope
Take the M, R Train to Union Street

 Check back as I'll post some more crib notes about the compositions we'll be performing.

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 9:07 AM 

Miserere

I first heard J.S. Bach's cantata Ich habe genug BWV 82 in the hauntingly beautiful version sung by mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson on her much praised 2003 Nonesuch recording. The German title, which translates as "I have enough," is a sublime spiritual expression about fulfillment and acceptance of the life waiting beyond the living. 

I first heard Donny Hathaway's "Someday We'll All Be Free" sung by Aretha Franklin on the end credits of the great Spike Lee movie Malcolm X and later found the original on Hathaway's last studio album, Extensions of a Man.  

Whereas the words and music of the Bach and Hathaway reflect a faith in salvation in the hereafter, my Miserere does not seek any kind of religious statement or connotations. While most Miserere's in music come as a setting of the 51st (or 50th) Psalm ("Miserere mei, Deus", translated as "Have mercy on me, O God"), I am using miserere in one of its other non-religious meanings: as a vocal lament. In ancient Greek drama and later in operas, the lament was a moment of focused expressive intensity in the overall formal structure of the drama or opera. 

Taking inspiration from the Bach, my original lyrics open with "I have had enough" and continue to expresses a weary frustration and doubt in the ability to solve or come to terms with the many struggles and problems facing us. Although like the Hathaway song, with its optimism that someday will come, I do convey a muted sense of earthly hope in the face of a seemingly increased hopelessness; and perhaps it is by that hope in hopelessness and doubt, that we will "emerge from all the suffering that still binds [us] to the world."

Miserere is one part of a larger, as of now untitled, mixed music composition that will be recorded next year. 

Numinous
Monday March 21, 2011 9 PM to 11 PM
$10 suggested donation
Tea Lounge
837 Union Street
Park Slope
Take the M, R Train to Union Street

 Check back as I'll post some more crib notes about the compositions we'll be performing.

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 11:10 AM 

Memory of Red Orange Laid Out in Still Waves

Memory of Red Orange Laid Out in Still Waves was originally commissioned last year by Dave Douglas and the 2010 Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT). It premiered featuring Lew Soloff and Taylor Ho Bynum as trumpet soloists. For the Numinous concert, I've recast the trumpets as alto saxophones as well as expanded the ensemble from the original version.

The title comes from a line in the opening of the sobering book by Edward P. Jones, The Known World which, while a work of fiction, was based upon the true incidents of African-Americans owning slaves during the 19th century. The book's subject, as well as the beautiful Kathelin Gray from the Ornette Coleman/Pat Metheny 1986 album Song X, are refracted and transmuted into an original composition that hopes to express the truism of James Baldwin's words about African-American culture (in An Open Letter to My Sister, Miss Angela Davis from 1970, which actually more directly inspired another composition for the 21st gig):
There is always, of course, more to any picture than can speedily be perceived and in all of this—groaning and moaning, watching, calculating, clowning, surviving, and outwitting, some tremendous strength was nevertheless being forged, which is part of our legacy today.
Memory of Red Orange Laid Out in Still Waves will also be one movement of a larger, as of now untitled, mixed music composition that will be recorded next year. 

Numinous
Monday March 21, 2011 9 PM to 11 PM
$10 suggested donation
Tea Lounge
837 Union Street
Park Slope
Take the M, R Train to Union Street

 Check back as I'll post some more crib notes about the compositions we'll be performing.

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 11:14 AM 

This Friday evening, March 18th at 7pm Simone Dinnerstein's Neighborhood Classics concert series returns with Simone playing piano with Grammy winning clarinetist Richard Stoltzman. As always the concert is at P.S. 321 in Brooklyn (180 7th Avenue, between 1st and 2nd Streets in Park Slope). The dynamic duo will be performing two pieces I love Steve Reich’s New York Counterpoint (a work written for Stoltzman) and Johannes Brahms' Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in F minor, Op. 120. The program will be rounded out by a work of J.S. Bach Sonata for Viola da Gamba and Keyboard in D Major.

Tickets are no longer available online, but you are welcome to come by the school in the morning (8:30am to 9:00am) where they can be purchased in the lobby.

Neighborhood Classics, started by Simone last year, is a great series of concerts (previous concerts of the new season of the series featuring cellist Maya Beiser in October and harpist Bridget Kibbey in January). In addition to concerts at P.S. 321, the series has expanded to P.S. 142 on the lower East Side and ALL of the proceeds from each concert goes to each school (the musicians donate their time and services) and will help mitigate some of the effects the MAJOR budget cuts will inflict on all schools next school year. I teachkindergarten music and math at P.S. 321 and know firsthand how much the proceeds from the Neighborhood Classics has helped our school, even now. So beyond the great music, you'll be support the kids by coming out to theNeighborhood Classics.

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 9:45 AM 

Like many people I am thinking of Japan after the devastating earthquake, tsunami, and on-going nuclear danger. I am wishing the best not only for my friends, former students and their families, but for all of the people affected.

To Kyoto

Ando Hiroshige Station 48: Sakanoshita-juku, Mie PrefectureIn anticipation of the upcoming Numinous concert on March 21st, in the spirit of my Inside Vipassana series, I started a Numinous Crib Notes series to profile the compositions for the show. First up To Kyoto, a composition from our first CD and my homage of sorts to Steve Reich. I wrote the piece back in 2000 after my first trip to Japan, which did include a trip down from Tokyo to Kyoto. Here's my original program note for the piece:

Tokaido Road was feudal Japan’s most traveled route. From Edo (old Tokyo) to the ancient capital Kyoto, it was used by nobles and peasants alike. Tokaido Road’s scenic landscapes of distant mountain views, open sea, and quaint towns and villages along the route, inspired Ando Hiroshige’s (1797-1858) famous painting series, Views from the Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido. Today, the scenery is still inspiring, as seen from the Shinkansen (bullet train), which follows the old Tokaido route to Kyoto.

Numinous
Monday March 21, 2011 9 PM to 11 PM
$10 suggested donation
Tea Lounge
837 Union Street
Park Slope
Take the M, R Train to Union Street

 Check back as I'll post some more crib notes about the compositions we'll be performing.

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 10:14 AM 

Come help Numinous celebrate J.S. Bach's birthday at the Size Matters Large Ensemble Series at the Tea Lounge in Park Slope, Brooklyn (837 Union Street). It's a new instrumentation and new works, including: one piece partly inspired by papa Bach's great cantata Ich habe genug BWV 82; previews of two compositions from a new, larger multi-movement mixed music work (that will be recorded next year); a new composition as part of my Thomas Paine dance project, To Begin the World Over Again (I won't be dancing though); and a Numinous favorite. Hope you can come out next week, have a drink, some food and listen, feel, think, and know Numinous.

Numinous
Monday March 21, 2011 9 PM to 11 PM
$10 suggested donation
Tea Lounge
837 Union Street
Park Slope
Take the M, R Train to Union Street

Ben Kono, Rob Mosher (woodwinds), Amanda Monaco, Sebastian Noelle (guitars), Tom Beckham (vibraphone), Carmen Staaf, Mike Eckroth (keyboards), Jean Rohe, Sara Serpa (voices), Kiku Enomoto, Scott Tixier (violins), Nick Revel, Surai Nesrine Balbeisi (violas), Will Martina (violoncello), Evan Gregor (electric bass), Joseph C. Phillips Jr., (conductor, composer)

 Check back as I'll post some crib notes about the compositions we'll be performing.

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 12:06 PM 

If you have kids you might want to come to our 321 Band concert where we have the honor of being the E-Street Band backing children music's Springsteen: the wonderful, Dan Zanes. The show is Saturday February 12th 2pm at P.S. 321 (180 7th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn). Oh wait, the 2pm show sold out in less than a day! Well have no fear, like the Boss, we're adding a second show later that afternoon at 4:30pm, so better get your tickets now! IT WILL SELL OUT! $20 in advance $25 at the door. Tickets at www.ps321.org.

Despite PS 321's great reputation among NYC schools, with looming budget cuts, there is no guarantee that we'll be able to maintain and fully fund all of our great programs and teachers (including maybe, gulp...me!). So like the Neighborhood Classic concert series pianist Simone Dinnerstein started at our school, ALL the money earned from the Dan Zanes concerts goes to help minimize the tremendous effects those cuts will have to our school. Please consider coming out, it will be a fun time...and it might help save an afterschool program or a job!

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 8:14 AM 

Yesterday was our first rehearsal combining the live musicians and the dancers for the Pulse project The Distance of the Moon. So, while I've heard all of the pieces from our musician's rehearsals and have seen video of the dancers rehearsing my piece "The Distance of the Moon", this was the first time seeing and hearing everything together. And I can say it is going to be quite a dynamic and exciting show; you really should make one of the evenings (details below).

BTW, next week on Wednesday October 13th from 6pm to 9pm some of us Pulse-sters will be hosting WKCR's Jazz Alternatives Musician's radio show where we'll be talking about our music, the upcoming project, and our influences.

TAKE Dance and PULSE present
the world premiere of
THE DISTANCE OF THE MOON
Featuring choreography by Takehiro Ueyama, Jill Echo, Kile Hotchkiss, Julie Tice 
Music by Darcy James Argue, Jamie Begian, Joseph C. Phillips, Jr., JC Sanford, Joshua Shneider, Yumiko Sunami

October 14 and 15 at 8:00 PM
Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South at Thompson Street
Purchase tickets online now at: BROWN PAPER TICKETS
Help us meet our fund raising goal !!!
visit our project at: KICKSTARTER
WE HAVE UNTIL OCTOBER 10th to reach our goal!!!

DANCERS
Kristen Arnold, Elise Drew, John Eirich, Kile Hotchkiss, Gina Ianni, Mariko Kurihara,
Clinton Edward Martin, Nana Tsuda Misko,  Jake Warren, Marie Zvosec

MUSICIANS
Woodwinds: Ben Kono
Guitar: Pete McCann
Violin: Ana Milosavljevic
Cello: Will Martina
Bass: Eva Lawitts
Percussion: Max Jhin Jaffe

For more information contact TAKE Dance
[email protected]  |  917.591.1413

(Photo credit: all by Joseph C. Phillips Jr.) 

(also posted slightly differently as "Survey of the Distance of the Moon" at the Pulse blog: www.pulsecomposers.typepad.com) 

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 8:00 PM 

This is shaping up to be quite the year of dance for me. In June was the premiere of one part of To Begin the World Over Again, a collaboration with Edisa Weeks and Delirious Dances, based on the writings of Thomas Paine (I will post the video from that showing later this month) with the full evening length showing including symposium, premiering June 2011 as a co-production with the Irondale Theater in Brooklyn. And now later this month will be a long-awaited collaboration between Takehiro Ueyama's TAKE Dance and the composer federation I founded and lead, Pulse.

The Distance of the Moon features the 6 composers of Pulse writing compositions for the 4 choreographers of TAKE Dance, performed live by the 6-musician Pulse chamber ensemble. From the official blurb:

Ueyama pairs his "forceful, fluid movement" (Bloomberg News) with Joseph C. Phillips Jr.'s "The Distance of the Moon", a pas de deux depicting the love story between the Moon and the Earth (inspired by the short story "The Distance of the Moon" in Italo Calvino's phantasmagorical 1965 book Cosmicomics).  Set to music creating a sense of wonder, mystery, and beauty, the work is a metaphor for two lovers, like the Moon and the Earth, slowly moving apart and never feeling closeness again.  Ueyama's second work, "And Dance By the Light of the Moon", is a men's quartet portraying quasi-human creatures who discover the Moon set to the music of composer/saxophonist Joshua Shneider. 

Jill Echo, a former Paul Taylor dancer and founding member of TAKE Dance, brings two works that illustrate the various effects that the Moon has on us.  In "Moonshine", theatrical choreography and funk-laced music by composer/guitarist Jamie Begian together portray the enigmatic influences the Moon has on a group of seven people.  Add a bar scene with the effects of alcohol and you get a comedy of mayhem and uninhibited behavior.  In contrast, Echo's second piece depicts the Moon's luminous beauty and its ability to ignite one's unconscious.  Set to music by Japanese composer Yumiko Sunami, the piece is a reflection of the Moon's ethereal power on a quintet of women through four phases – "New Moon", "Ascending Moon", "Full Moon", and "Descending Moon". 

Similarly, choreographer/dancer Julie Tice, a fellow Paul Taylor alumnus, is also captivated by the changing phases of the Moon in a new piece entitled "Lunar Cycles".  Set to music by composer/trombonist JC Sanford, it symbolizes the Moon's transformations and how they affect people's characters. 

Rounding out the program is the choreographic debut of TAKE Dance member Kile Hotchkiss.  His section, "Imperfect Syzygy", features a quintet of dancers outlining the alignment and dissolution of a lunar eclipse.  Moving with the principles of observation and obstruction, the dancers explore the measures of shadowed darkness from astral projections as well as from within.  Topping the "Composer Rising Star" and "Arranger Rising Star" categories in the 2010 DownBeat Critics Poll, composer Darcy James Argue sets the tone with his much talked about "wickedly intelligent dispatch from the fading border between orchestral jazz and post-rock and classical minimalism" (New York Times).

We hope you can come out and support us in this wonderful project. How often do you see and hear modern dance choreographed to LIVE music! You can order tickets at the link below or get them at the box office. And if you are able, we do have a Kickstarter page where you can donate; even a small amount can go a long way to make this possible! Spread the word: Take & Pulse Live is a big WIN!

TAKE Dance and PULSE present
the world premiere of
THE DISTANCE OF THE MOON
Featuring choreography by Takehiro Ueyama, Jill Echo, Kile Hotchkiss & Julie Tice 
Music by Darcy James Argue, Jamie Begian, Joseph C. Phillips, Jr., JC Sanford, Joshua Shneider & Yumiko Sunami

October 14 & 15 at 8:00 PM
Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South at Thompson Street
Purchase tickets online now at: BROWN PAPER TICKETS

Help us meet our fund raising goal !!!
visit our project at: KICKSTARTER

DANCERS
Kristen Arnold, Elise Drew, John Eirich, Kile Hotchkiss, Gina Ianni, Mariko Kurihara,
Clinton Edward Martin, Nana Tsuda Misko,  Jake Warren, Marie Zvosec

MUSICIANS
Woodwinds: Ben Kono
Guitar: Pete McCann
Violin: Ana Milosavljevic
Cello: Will Martina
Bass: Eva Lawitts
Percussion: Max Jhin Jaffe

For more information contact TAKE Dance
[email protected]  |  917.591.1413

(Photo credit Take Dance by Quinn Batson; Pulse by Marcy Begian)

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 12:00 PM 

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2010

Tonight!!!

Numinous performs Vipassana
Wednesday September 22nd, 2010 8 PM to 9 PM
$10  
Brooklyn Lyceum
227 4th Avenue
Park Slope
Take the M, R Train to Union Street

Ben Kono, Rob Mosher, Ed Xiques (woodwinds), Phil Rodriguez (trumpet/flügelhorn), Deborah Weisz, (trombone), Tom Beckham (vibraphone), Megan Levin, (harp), Amanda Monaco, Mike Baggetta (electric guitars), Carmen Staaf, Aaron Kotler, (keyboards), Jared Soldiviero,  Nicola Cannizzaro (percussion), Charenee Wade, Nicky Schrire, Sara Serpa, Jean Rohe, Becca Stevens (voices), Ana Milosavljevic, Scott Tixier (violins), Nick Revel, Brian Lindgren (violas), Will Martina, Lauren Riley-Rigby (violoncellos), Steve Whipple, (bass), Joseph C. Phillips Jr., (conductor, composer)

Learn more about Vipassana by reading the other installments of the Inside Vipassana series:

2010 series
Inside Vipassana #11: Vipassana Reborn (recap of the 2009 Inside Vipassana series)

Inside Vipassana #12: Bang a Gong with Jared Soldiviero (Numinous percussionist speaks about Vipassana)

Inside Vipassana #13:  Ever changing stillness (behind the melodies of Stillness Flows Ever Changing)

Inside Vipassana #14: Electric Lady (Amanda Monaco, Guitar, and Vipassana)

Inside Vipassana #15: The Dharma in Music (Vipassana, a journey of reflection)

Inside Vipassana #16: 'Cello Song (interview with Numinous cellists Will Martina and Lauren Riley-Rigby)

Inside Vipassana #17: Feel the Vibes with Tom Beckham (Vibraphone and Vipassana)

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 7:03 AM 

Vibraphone has always been a part of Numinous. In fact before I even had a group, in those dark times when I was only just planning how best to execute dominion over the musical establishment, I dreamed of having a music ensemble that included the vibraphone. Now some people might think this is because of Steve Reich and Musicians. In reality Steve and his 'band' were only a small part of my thought process. It really was much earlier in my career, long before I even knew who Steve Reich was, that the love of the vibraphone began.

Most likely it began, where so many first loves began, in high school. The set of vibes the school had were always so tantalizing close where they sat in the percussion section of my high school band. I couldn't really touch them, since I wasn't a percussionist, but I always wanted to. Every time someone played them, my ears perked up and my desire grew. I can't really explain why I liked the vibes, perhaps it was the tintinnabuli sound since I think I am predisposed toward bells (a secret desire of mine (not so secret now) is to write for a hand bell choir! Hey out there bell choir world, I'm open to commissions...). But the vibes, with its warm and roundness of tone, only hints at bell-ness so I guess the real answer is I just liked how it sounded. Simple. 

So when Numinous began, the vibraphone was definitely going to be part of it. And years after the beginning, when I was writing Vipassana, I thought TWO vibes would be heaven! However, ever since last year, I have broken up my 'Noah's Ark' of instruments in Vipassana and replaced the second vibraphone with harp. Initially this was for pragmatic reasons, as chronicled in Inside Vipassana #3, but since then it is because I just love having the harp in the group. But the one vibraphone still has quite the heavy lifting in Vipassana, including a solo feature in "Of Climbing Heaven and Gazing on the Earth" and some intricate rhythmic work (with the harp) in "Into all the Valleys Evening Journeys". And since the beginning of this journey that is Vipassana, the person doing a wonderful job with the demanding vibraphone requirements is Tom Beckham. So I thought it would be fun to hear what it is like playing Vipassana from his vantage point.

In Vipassana the vibraphone generally has a prominent role in the  piece, particularly in the first and third movements. What kind of musical or technical challenges does the music create for you? 
The First movement  is really fun to play because it has tight ensemble sections, some nice chordal passages for the vibes, and later, an improvised duet with vibes and piano. Stylistically speaking, it really has the best of both worlds. The third movement seems to be more technically difficult movement for vibes. The challenge has always been to be rhythmically articulate, precise, and relaxed-sounding.

As a longstanding member of Numinous, how has performing Vipassana changed for you over the 5 years we've been playing it?
As time goes by, I find it easier to hear and appreciate the different ensemble sections while performing the piece. The process of recording music, committing it to  CD has also changed my perception of the piece. I definitely feel more familiar with it's narrative as a result of going through that process.

What do you like about Vipassana?
I like that it strives to combine different aspects or genres of music. It aims to challenge the listener.  As a performer, the part I like the most is that feeling that I get of "having meditated" after performing the concert. It's that feeling you get after being involved in a thought process which is taking you outside of normal flow. I hope to feel this at the end of each performance--that feeling of being involved in a process–being transported.

What do you find beautiful (or where do you find beauty)?
Everywhere, everything!  Especially through my family and my two and a half year old daughter, but also including: animals, ocean life, trees/forests, twilight, certain food, art, sound, laughter, the list is endless. Hopefully, as artists, we are all trying to be a part of a process of discovering 'what is beautiful'. I think if an artist is not involved in that process then he or she should ask oneself  what they value about the music they are drawn to, and how they would characterize it.

Who are your musician heroes? 
My musical Superhero list would have to include the great vibraphonists Milt Jackson and Gary Burton. They have really done the lion's share of innovation on the instrument. Whatever I am doing today most likely has a connection to something that those two musicians have put out there in the world.

What's your favorite Bjork and/or Gustav Mahler piece? Why?
I really like "It's Not Up To You" from Vespertine because of the way this tune opens up. The voices help make it lift off. I also like "All Neon Like" from Homogenic--the melodic and harmonic choices are compelling, and the groove is organic, heavy, and deep. 

In addition to being a musician, you are a graphic artist so if you could have designed any logo/design what would it be (i.e. what graphic design do you find pleasing/inspirational)? Why?
The Coke Logo (for obvious financial reasons, ha ha!, just kidding.). Seriously, I am inspired by good typography and type design of any period, as well as ornament and design from 1900-1979. I am also currently renewing my love for Dr.Seuss' and Charlie Harper's body of work.

What is a book(s) that have inspired you? 
Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet.

What was the last time you've had that numinous feeling about something? 
While driving my car at 55 mph with all the windows down on 4th avenue, Brooklyn, in January.

Tell us something fun or interesting about you that most people wouldn't know or suspect?
I once played a gig on my instrument without a dampening bar. For all you non-vibists, the dampening bar is the thing that keeps the notes from sustaining. Not having one is like having someone pressing their foot down on the sustain pedal on a piano for the whole night. Anyway, for this particular gig, we were supposed to perform one of tunes from the "Blues on Bach" record by the MJQ. I had very little materials at the time to improvise an effective dampening system, so I eventually had to play the entire gig by muting the sounds of the instrument with either my hands, or with my mallets. It was an exercise I won't soon forget because it really made me think about the length of the notes that I would play, etc.

What's next up for you in your own music career?
Aside from other recording projects, I'm pulling my own music together for a vibes/guitar quartet project called "Slice", and I'm also continuing to fill out music for what will become the 3rd CD for my five-piece group.

You can learn more about Tom at www.tombeckham.net

Numinous performs Vipassana
Wednesday September 22nd, 2010 8 PM to 9 PM
$10  
Brooklyn Lyceum
227 4th Avenue
Park Slope
Take the M, R Train to Union Street

Learn more about Vipassana by reading the other installments of theInside Vipassana series:

2010 series
Inside Vipassana #11: Vipassana Reborn (recap of the 2009 Inside Vipassana series)

Inside Vipassana #12: Bang a Gong with Jared Soldiviero (Numinous percussionist speaks about Vipassana)

Inside Vipassana #13:  Ever changing stillness (behind the melodies of Stillness Flows Ever Changing)

Inside Vipassana #14: Electric Lady (Amanda Monaco, Guitar, and Vipassana)

Inside Vipassana #15: The Dharma in Music (Vipassana, a journey of reflection)

Inside Vipassana #16: 'Cello Song (interview with Numinous cellists Will Martina and Lauren Riley-Rigby)

(photo credits, from top to bottom: photo from the artist; photo by Marcy Begian)

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 8:17 AM 

Cello is my favorite string instrument. In college during my methods classes (this is where we learned how to teach each instrument by having to learn to play each instrument) I remember that semester excitingly walking with my cello every day 2 miles from the university campus bus stop to my home in order to practice. In my methods class we had French horn players, singers, pianists, clarinetists, and saxophonists like me; and all of us trying to make sense of bow grips and left hand positions. But I remember it all being great fun. Our teacher was the cello instructor of the university, so she actually had pretty high expectations which was wonderful because she really expected us to know how to play. She had us write arrangements for cello choir, which we, as a class, had to perform. I remember (and still have copies of) a number of my little compositions and arrangements. I was especially fond of two pieces: one which referenced the opening of the 1st Symphony of Brahms; the other, my arrangement of the opening of the Prelude from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde!

For my undergraduate senior saxophone recital I composed Urban Sketches for Alto Saxophone and Violoncello for a cello friend of mine and me to play (actually we used to have late night improvised jam sessions, the result of which lead me to actually composing a 'formal' piece, Urban Sketches, for us to play). I still love the piece (which you can hear at the above link) especially for how the cello and saxophone can be so sonically similar with a warmth of tone, as well as an easy flexibility and dexterity. One of the things on my 'to-do-someday' bucket list is to write a cello 'concerto' or a piece for cello choir or at least a major piece that features the cello in some fashion.

Now Vipassana doesn't specifically 'feature' the cello, except in a few spots, but my love of the instrument does come through in various passages. And for a number of years now I've been fortunate to have two wonderful cello players (and great persons) playing those passages with beauty and excellent musicianship: William Martina and Lauren Riley-Rigby. So I asked them a few questions about their experience with Vipassana.

Hearing about my composition a number of people have asked me, "Have you done the Vipassana meditation retreat?" or "Is the piece inspired by doing the Vipassana retreat?" I always have to answer "no, I haven't done the retreat." This is not from lack of interest however, but rather a lack of time as the  retreat can be either a 10-day or 30-day stay (totally free, BTW). For those of you that don't know about Vipassana or the "noble silence" that is the Meditation retreat, in the very first Inside Vipassana series post (October 2009), I explained how I came to know about it through an article in TimeOutNY in which the author does the 10-day retreat, and which I hope to do myself someday.

www.dhamma.org explains Vipassana thusly:
Vipassana, which means to see things as they really are, is one of India's most ancient techniques of meditation. It was rediscovered by Gotama Buddha more than 2500 years ago and was taught by him as a universal remedy for universal ills, i.e., an Art Of Living. 

[A] non-sectarian technique...Vipassana is a way of self-transformation through self-observation. It focuses on the deep interconnection between mind and body, which can be experienced directly by disciplined attention to the physical sensations that form the life of the body, and that continuously interconnect and condition the life of the mind. It is this observation-based, self-exploratory journey to the common root of mind and body that dissolves mental impurity, resulting in a balanced mind full of love and compassion. 

And while my composition Vipassana does not flower from the meditation, it does have similar goals as the above description. John Adams called his composition On the Transmigration of Souls a "memory space" for the victims of September 11th, 2001 and I think of my Vipassana functioning similarly, however as a space for a 'journey of reflection' toward one's self. It is not a hippie tune in, bliss out or new age-y crystals and chants, but rather Vipassana is a simple and humble medium that allows listeners to be active in reflecting on their own emotions and thoughts. Actually, my Numinous tag-line "Listen. Feel. Think. Know" is quite appropriate here, for after the hour-long journey through Vipassana and through the self, that one can emerge energized, refreshed, and inspired, is what I would hope listeners experience.

More information: Vipassana Meditation (www.dhamma.org) or Insight Meditation Center (www.dharma.org)

Numinous performs Vipassana
Wednesday September 22nd, 2010 8 PM to 9 PM
$10  
Brooklyn Lyceum
227 4th Avenue
Park Slope
Take the M, R Train to Union Street

Learn more about Vipassana by reading the other installments of theInside Vipassana series:

2010 series
Inside Vipassana #11: Vipassana Reborn (recap of the 2009 Inside Vipassana series)

Inside Vipassana #12: Bang a Gong with Jared Soldiviero (Numinous percussionist speaks about Vipassana)

Inside Vipassana #13:  Ever changing stillness (behind the melodies of Stillness Flows Ever Changing)

Inside Vipassana #14: Electric Lady (Amanda Monaco, Guitar, and Vipassana)

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 8:00 AM 

Now you might not suspect it, but when I was younger I was the lead guitarist of a short lived synth-pop-rock band (think Rush meets Tangerine Dream). Actually I wasn't very good, as I only started learning the guitar just before starting the band (for you guitar-heads, I had a black Yamaha (Pacifica?) with a small Fender amp). But I became good enough that I was able to use the guitar to play and compose a number of songs (some of which, I'll transform into a Numinous opus one of these days). Anyway back in those days I was listening to rock guitarists for inspiration: Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, Alex Lifeson, Steve Howe, Prince and later moved to people like Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page. Sure I heard (and liked some) other guitarists like George Benson, Lee Ritenour and Al Di Meola (surprisingly knowing me now, Pat Metheny not to mention Grant Green and Wes Montgomery, came much later). So back then my conception of the guitar's usage was much more rock based.

It probably wasn't until years later, after moving to Seattle, that my compositional concept of the guitar changed. When I joined the Seattle Young Composers Collective (now called the Degenerate Art Ensemble) as a player/composer, I was inspired by the guitarists in the group who often, it seemed to me, to write the most interesting music and whose usage of the guitar was so intriguing. Sure they used the guitar to create power chords and screaming lines, but also they used the guitar to create subtle colors, weird effects, or melodic lines with other instruments in the ensemble. Seeing and hearing this as part of the ensemble was a revelation in my thoughts of what a guitar can do and lead me to explore it when I moved to NYC.

For Vipassana, I wanted guitars because they can offer all of those things above. There are some places in the music where the guitars are used for their chordal ability, but mostly the guitars are playing melodic figures. And a guitar solo gliding over gentle waves created by a two piano figure and long, languid sustained pitches heard in the voices, was always one of the features I envisioned as I was composing "Of Climbing Heaven and Gazing on the Earth". And ever since Vipassana's second performance, including on our recording, the person doing those beautiful guitar solos has been Amanda Monaco. 

So I asked Amanda a few questions about her experiences with guitar and with Vipassana.

How did you come to playing the guitar?
My dad played guitar, so I wanted to be like him and play guitar too. He had a band in high school with three of his six brothers, and used to tell me stories about the gigs my grandmother would book for them.

What challenges does Vipassana pose for you as a guitarist? what is it like being in a guitar 'section'?
I love being in a guitar ‘section’! Guitar is such a social instrument to begin with, so the more, the better, and when the parts intertwine the way they do in Vipassana, it’s a great time. This is also where the biggest challenge of Vipassana lies, because all of the individual lines sound effortless but in fact are quite intricate and one wrong note can lead to big trouble.

What do you like about Vipassana?
Vipassana is incredibly moving; I always feel like I’m on a journey whenever we play it.


What do you find beautiful (or where do you find beauty)?
I usually notice beauty when I’m not looking for it; I’ll be walking down the street and I’ll see some flowers tucked away in a tiny front yard, or a little cat sitting in the window, curious about the sidewalk happenings.

Who are your musician heroes?
There are so many, but my top four: Ted Dunbar, Jim Hall, Eddie Van Halen (circa 1981), Wes Montgomery.

If you could be flying over any place in the world, where would it be? why?
My favorite place to fly over is Central Park. Being a runner, and having spent so much time there, it’s one of those places that is very dear to me.

What is a book(s) that have inspired you?
One book is John Coltrane by Lewis Porter. It’s inspiring when you read about how hard he worked, and the beauty that came from his hard work.

What was the last time you've had that numinous feeling about something?
I was sitting on a dock by the East River, watching the sunset, looking at its rays resting on the water, with the breeze blowing through the grass and trees. The world felt eternal and majestic, very peaceful.

Tell us something fun or interesting about you that most people wouldn't know or suspect?
I love doing counted-cross stitch. When I was a kid, I used to make these huge pictures of flowers, “home sweet home” samplers, etc. and now I make little pictures for friends when I get the chance.

What's next up for you in your own music career?
I’m writing music for a new CD that I will record soon with my quartet (aka Deathblow: Michaël Attias, alto and baritone saxophones; Sean Conly, bass; Satoshi Takeishi, drums). I’ve also started a non-profit organization called the Long Island City Jazz Alliance (http://www.licja.org) whose mission is to bring jazz to the neighborhood of Long Island City, Queens, through concerts and workshops. There’s also a CD of music I recorded of original music inspired by texts from the Pirke Avot, a collection of rabbinic teachings compiled in the third century C.E., that I’m hoping to release in the next year. It features Ayelet Rose Gottlieb (vocals), Daphna Mor (recorders, ney), Sean Conly (bass), and Satoshi Takeishi (percussion).

You can learn more about Amanda at www.amandamonaco.com.

Numinous performs Vipassana
Wednesday September 22nd, 2010 8 PM to 9 PM
$10  
Brooklyn Lyceum
227 4th Avenue
Park Slope
Take the M, R Train to Union Street

Learn more about Vipassana by reading the other installments of the Inside Vipassana series:

2010 series
Inside Vipassana #11: Vipassana Reborn (recap of the 2009 Inside Vipassana series)

Inside Vipassana #12: Bang a Gong with Jared Soldiviero (Numinous percussionist speaks about Vipassana)

Inside Vipassana #13:  Ever changing stillness (behind the melodies of Stillness Flows Ever Changing)

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 9:50 AM