The session with Chick Corea was tremendously insightful as he, Fred Sherry, Ida Kavafian, Billy Childs, and Phillip Ying reminisced about past collaborations. This was heavily focused on Corea's album, Leprechaun, on which he first wrote for strings. The cross-pollination of jazz and classical music/performance was a big part of the discussion. This was meant as a 'moderated discussion', in that there was someone there to ask questions and direct the conversation. It somehow seemed more natural though, and more interesting, to let the musicians wax nostalgic on their prolific careers. Chick even talked about playing with Miles and Miles' approach to dealing with his collaborators' input. It seems that in performance Miles always let his players do their thing, even when he didn't like what they were doing. He let people find themselves and define themselves - he was responsible for himself and led by demonstration...I would imagine that you didn't get called for the next tour though if you weren't smokin'!

Chamber Music America’s (CMA) annual conference was last weekend at the Westin Hotel in NYC. This is the first time we have attended the full conference (though we have participated in APAP and other conferences), and overall found it to be very worthwhile. There were some stimulating talks with guest speakers, including Steve Reich, Leon Botstein, and Chick Corea. The weekend also included showcase performances from member ensembles. We got to see a wide variety of these performances, some of which were exciting, some disappointing, and some simply confusing as to their relevance at such an event. There were also sessions on fund-raising and other organization-building topics.

Steve Reich talked about being an inventor – something we all need to do as makers of art music in order to have any hope of survival! He basically related the idea of chamber musicians being entrepreneurs, except that most of us are not going into this so that we can drive a Porsche and have 3 houses. Reich also discussed the genesis of his phasing works and his approach to writing for new ensembles/instruments as his palette expanded over the years from all like-instruments to more diverse ensembles.

Leon Botstein was the ‘shake-up’ factor of the conference. Mr. Botstein was likable just as much for his broad perspective on music history, as for his sense of humor, and fearlessness. He declared, “The age of recording is dead.” He was also very clear that he did not aim this comment at electronic music, but that he specifically meant the recording of “standard repertoire,” and the idea that there can be a “definitive recording” of any piece of music. He was essentially advocating the unique experience of a live performance. He also addressed this issue of “standard repertoire,” posing the question: why are we still performing the same 10 pieces by the same 5 composers when there is so much good music to be heard? Now step back a second here…he is saying this to a room full of classical musicians, and concert presenters, the latter of whom are mostly rooted in the idea that Schumann, Beethoven, and Brahms is all the public wants to, or should be allowed to hear, or that they will dare to take a chance on presenting. One needs only to view the programming of an American Symphony Orchestra concert to see how Mr. Botstein approaches this problem. His question is a relevant one and one that contemporary composers struggle with constantly. This problem is the exact reason why a young Frank Zappa turned to rock and roll instead of chamber and orchestral music. This goes deeper as CMA itself seems unable to even grasp the definition of contemporary music (more on this in the next installment).

Welcome to 2010

Reflecting on musical happenings in 2009, there were some great moments that we hope to share more info and footage on as tapes are collected, images are digitized and so on. Highlights included the production and release of Loop 2.4.3's 2nd album, Zodiac Dust, a residency at Alma College in MI with David Zerbe's fabulous percussion program, tours through the northeast and midwest, returning to SOUNDunderGROUND in New Haven, surfing in Maine with David Y. (that's me above trying on the full-body wet-suit) and a final blowout concert in November at the Tank in NYC with Tom Burnett, Steve Gilewski, Teresa Smith, and the enhanced visual atmosphere provided by luckydave. We do have some video footage of that event which will be showing up soon on youtube.

Frank Jiminez took his own video of the event and has made one post on his dataimagen site of our work-in-progress, As a Child. You can view that video HERE.

More to come....Happy New Year from Loop 2.4.3

- t.k.