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Guest, Nov 2011

Ayman Fanous

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Start:
May 30, 2014 8:00 pm
Cost:
10

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Ayman Fanous Residency, Day 1: 

Over the last 25 years, Ayman Fanous has forged a singular synthesis of classical and flamenco guitar technique with contemporary free improvisation.  His music has been described as a “stylistic amalgam of Derek Bailey and Paco de Lucia” (Signal to Noise). Fanous also reaches back into his Egyptian ancestry in improvisations on the bouzouki.  Although he has only recently begun to release recordings, his duo partners have included a number of leading improvising musicians including Bern Nix, Tomas Ulrich, Jason Hwang, William Parker, Frances-Marie Uitti, Ned Rothenberg, Mark Feldman, Mat Maneri, Lori Freedman, Kinan Azmeh, and Tatsuya Nakatani.  Over two nights at the Firehouse Space, Fanous will bring together some of the most original and acclaimed improvising musicians in New York to debut four different ensembles, including several first meetings.

8:00pm:  Ayman Fanous/Tomas Ulrich Duo, with special guest Chris Speed   

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Tomas Ulrich is one of the most powerful, expressive, and prolific cellists in improvised music, having appeared in over 80 CD’s, including as the leader of his own group, Cargo Cult. He received music degrees from Boston University and the Manhattan School of Music. Mr. Ulrich’s work clearly demonstrates the influence of such diverse artists as Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Dmitri Shostakovich and Olivier Messiaen.  His 2007 CD with Fanous, Labyrinths, was described as “the benchmark for all cello-guitar duo recordings” (Signal to Noise).  JAZZ NOW has characterized him as “the total package … incredible chops, great imagination and superb pitch. He fulfills the roles of bassist, guitarist, and additional horn player and is endlessly talented and creative”. Tomas has written music for film, theater and instrumental performance and has concertized in Europe, Japan, South America and the United States.

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Fanous and Ulrich will be joined by Chris Speed, a composer, clarinetist and saxophonist living in Brooklyn, NY, who is “one of the principal figures in a dynamic left-of-center jazz/improv scene in the city” (NYTimes). His own bands include Endangered Blood, Human Feel, yeah NO, Trio Iffy, Pachora and The Clarinets. Throughout the nineties his formidable improvisational approach contributed to other pioneering NYC bands including the Dave Douglas Sextet, Myra Melford’s Same River Twice, John Zorn’s Bar Kokhba, and Trembling Before G-d, and Mark Dresser’s trio with Anthony Coleman. Speed became known as one of the leading NYC musicians adapting the odd time signatures and melodies of Balkan music into jazz-based music. He was named the rising star clarinetist in Downbeat magazine for 2004, 2005 and 2006, was the recipient of a NEA composition grant in 1993.

In this debut performance, Fanous, Ulrich, and Speed will explore chamber improvisation with free jazz, contemporary classical, as well Balkan and Middle Eastern influences.

9:30pm: Ayman Fanous/Jason Hwang Duo, with special guest Tatsuya Nakatani

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Jason Kao Hwang (composer, violin/viola) has created works ranging from jazz, “new” and world music. He recently released his octet CD, Burning Bridge (Innova), commissioned by Chamber Music America/ New Jazz Works. In 2011, he released Symphony of Souls (Mulatta), performed by his string orchestra Spontaneous River, and Crossroads Unseen (Eunonymus), the third CD of his quartet EDGE. The 2012 Downbeats Critics’ Poll voted him “Rising Star for Violin.” Mr. Hwang’s opera, The Floating Box, A Story in Chinatown was named one of the “Top Ten Opera Recordings of 2005” by Opera News. Fanous and Hwang’s critically acclaimed 2013 duo CD, Zilzal (Innova), has been described as  “music that is Middle Eastern in origin and that brings forth Asian and a definite third stream influence to invoke a totally new stream of musical consciousness” (Brent Black, criticaljazz.com). 

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For the first time, Fanous and Hwang will be joined by Tatsuya Nakatani, one of the most original percussionists performing in improvised music today.  His approach to music is visceral, non-linear and intuitively primitive, expressing an unusually strong spirit while avoiding any categorization. He creates sound via both traditional and extended percussion techniques, utilizing drums, bowed gongs, cymbals, singing bowls, metal objects and bells, as well as various sticks, kitchen tools and homemade bows, all of which manifest in an intense and organic music that represents a very personal sonic world. His approach is steeped in the sensibilities of free improvisation, experimental music, jazz, rock, and noise, and yet retains the sense of space and quiet beauty found in traditional Japanese folk music. His percussion instruments can imitate the sounds of a trumpet, a stringed instrument, or an electronic device to the extent that it becomes difficult to recognize the source of the sound. He has devoted himself to a musical aesthetic where rhythm gives way to pulse, often in a way that is not always audible or visible, in currents that incorporate silence and texture.

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