2006
Sunday, January 15, 2006
7:30 and 9:30 pm, $20
Harrison on Harrison Sextet:
Jazz Explorations of George Harrison’s music — CD Release Celebration
featuring Uri Caine (piano) and
David Binney (saxophone)
The Jazz Standard
116 E. 27th St., New York, NY, 212-576-2232
Joel Harrison European Tour
Performing music from the new Harrison on Harrison CD featuring David Binney (sax), Dan Weiss (drums), Dave Ambrosio (bass) (Rick Margitza: March 30, 31, April 1)
- 20 March: TILBURG, NETHERLANDS—The Paradox
- 21 March: TILBURG, NETHERLANDS—Fondys Conserv.
- 23 March: NARBERTH, WALES—Narberth Queens Hall
- 24 March: BRISTOL, UK—The Bebop
- 25 March: LONDON, UK—The Vortex
- 26 March: BRUSSELS, BELGUIM—L’archiduc-De Jazz
- 27 March: AACHEN, GERMANY—Klangebreuke Performance Space
- 28 March: KÖLN, GERMANY—The Loft
- 29 March: DORTMUND, GERMANY—Domicil (to be broadcast)
- 30 March: BASEL, SUISSE—Bird’s Eye
- 31 March: SINGEN, GERMANY—Singen Jazz Club
- 01 April: DORNBIRN, AUSTRIA—Spielboden
- 03 April: NÜRNBERG, GERMANY—Jazzstudio
- 04 April: GALWAY, IRELAND—Jazz Society
- 05 April: LIMERICK, IRELAND—Dolan’s Warehouse
- 06 April: DUBLIN, IRELAND—Whelan’s
- 07 April: ROSCOMMON, IRELAND—TBA
Every Sunday, Resuming after April 9th or after.
8 to 11pm
Joel Harrison’s Starfish Parade
Toad Hall
57 Grand Street, Soho (@ W. Broadway)
Free!
Joel Harrison: guitar, voice
Stephan Crump: bass
Todd Isler: hand percussion
Songs, instrumental excursions...
“A brilliant, ever-inventive guitarist” — Village Voice
Sun. June 4, 2006, 10 pm
Joel Harrison group
55 Bar, 55 Christopher St. @ 7th Ave.
Joel Harrison: guitar, voice
Henry Hey: keyboards
Stephan Crump: bass
Chris Howes: violin
Satoshi Takeishi: drums, perc.
ALL NEW, original music including previews of the Vox Americana suite commissioned by Chamber Music America.
“Harrison suggests the music of the future.”
— Irish Times
Joel Harrison Group: June tour
Playing music from the Highnote release
Harrison on Harrison
Jazz explorations of George Harrison’s music
Feat. Dave Binney, Dan Weiss, Dave Ambrosio
Wed. June 7, 2006 10 pm
Live performance Bluelake Public Radio
Michigan
http://www.bluelake.org/radio.html
Thurs. June 8, 2006
UICA (Urban Inst. for Contemporary Art)
Grand Rapids, MI
info: 616 454 7000
Fri. June 9, 2006
The Firefly, 207 S. Ashley, Ann Arbor MI
info: 734 665 9090
Sun. June 11, 2006
Rochester Int. Jazz Festival
Sets at 6:30 and 10
Monday, July 17 , 2006, 6:30-8:30 pm
Joel Harrison and Stan Strickland
Featherstone Center for Arts
Barnes Rd., Oak Bluffs MA
508-693-1850
Saturday, July 29, 2006, 9:30 pm
Offshore Ale, Oak Bluffs
Thursday, August 31st, 2006, 8:00 PM
Ars Nova Workshop presents guitarist/composer Joel Harrison performing Vox Americana, at Rose Recital Hall at the University of Pennsylvania [ Full Press Release... ]
 Monday, September 11, 2006, 9:30 pm
featuring Todd Reynolds and Dave Binney
Wendy Sutter, Dan Weiss, Daniel Kelly, Lindsey Horner
Joel Harrison’s
Vox Americana
Suite for 7 Musicians
World premiere commissioned by Chamber Music America
Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette Street, NYC 10003
(at the Public Theater at Astor Place)
“Brilliant, genre-bending...”
[ Download PDF 4-up Postcard Page ]
Here’s a summary of my Vox Americana Suite:
The piece was commissioned by Chamber Music America’s “New Works” program, a very competitive yearly grant for jazz composition. My ensemble, Free Country, plus guests Todd Reynolds (Violin) and Wendy Sutter (cello), will perform this hourlong piece On Aug. 31 in Philadelphia and Sept. 11 at Joe’s Pub. (For full ensemble info, see press release).
My group Free Country is an ensemble dedicated to creative Jazz explorations of roots American music. Our 2 CD’s on the Act label, Free Country and So Long Second Street, took Appalchian, spirituals, country blues, etc. in fascinating, unpredictable directions, leading the London Times to call our sound “The most singular vision you are likely to encounter all year.” We have spent 3 years or so touring the States and Europe, honing our unique sound.
Vox Americana takes the concept of the Free Country ensemble to the next level. It is a 6 movement, hourlong suite, that is full of references to roots American music, but its language trancends any idiom. The music reflects my experience with many different sources, modern classical, W. African, Indian, etc., all placed within a jazz context, and there is both extensive composing and improvisation. There is a text that appears in 3 movements that I culled from interviewing hundreds of people and asking them the following questions:
1) Who are you?
2) What does it mean to be an American?
3) Where is our country headed?
4) What’s the oldest song you know?
The text, as well as the music, deals with American identity. Obviously there is no attempt to answer these questions; rather I have tried to give snapshots of this time in America, to dig past the surface, to uncover and expose some of the essential conflict, contradiction, privilege, and beauty we live in. I have tried to find deep connections also between many sounds and styles of music that exist in America, whether old or new. It is an ambitious composition, full of surprising twists and turns, humor, pathos, darkness, conflict, and ultimately hope, and reflects a lifelong desire to write long form jazz pieces for larger ensembles, that balances notation and freedom.
Screaming jazz/country telecaster, polyrhythms a la Steve Reich, a quiet elegy, virtuosic soloing, lovely Methenyesque harmony all play in. The music is not a melting pot of half-cooked “world” music influences- rather it is a sharp, highly crafted, focused composition featuring some of today’s most compelling improvisers.
Joel Harrison’s String Choir plays the music of Paul Motian
Monday, October 23, 2006
Cornelia Street Cafe
29 Cornelia Street, W. Village
212 989 9319
9pm- $12
Joel Harrison/ Liberty Ellman - guitars
Mark Feldman - violin
Chris Howes- violin
Jeremy Kittel- viola
Dana Leong- cello
Joel Harrison’s String Choir presents the music of Paul Motian Paul Motian is well known as one of the living legends of jazz drumming. He is also a wonderful, and perhaps underrated, composer. Guitarist /composer Joel Harrison has arranged several of Motian’s pieces for String quartet and two guitars. Motian’s dramatic compositional voice, at turns ethereal, humorous, explosive, and lyrical, lends itself beautifully to this unusual intrumentation. The group consists of some of the most original, gifted string improvisers anywhere, and Harrison’s arrangements highlight both the individual and collective talents of this ensemble. He has composed variations on Motian’s melodies as well as crafted space for improvisations. This is the world premiere of this project, and comes on the heels of several works that Harrison has been commissioned to create that brings the sound of the string quartet into new improvisational realms.
The 2nd set will be a duos and trios, playing original works and improvising. Unusual sounds from strings, inc. uses of banjo, slides, baritone guitar and baritone violin.
Saturday & Sunday, November 18-19, 2006, 10 pm
55 Bar
55 Christopher St. @7th Ave., West Village, NYC
www.55bar.com
A French/ American collaboration made possible by a grant from Chamber Music America featuring:
Joel Harrison: composer/guitarist
Nguyen Le: guitar
Jamey Haddad: percussion
Dave Binney: sax
Gildas Bocle: bass
This is a first-time meeting between guitarists Harrison and French/ Vietnamese guitarist Le, both of whom share a passion for the crossroads of jazz, world music, rock, and classical idioms.
Le, who has numerous CD’s of his own on the Act label, is an amazing player and composer, whose work has intersected with Vietnamese folk song, N. African music, Thelonius Monk, and Jimi Hendrix. His playing beautifully blends the sounds of Asian and Middle Eastern string instruments with jazz harmony. Jamey Haddad, well known for work with Paul Simon, Dave Liebman, and Kenny Werner, will play drumset and various percussion, longtime ally Dave Binney adds his singular soloing, and French bassist Bocle will hold down the low end. These performances will lead to a recording on Highnote Records, available February 2007.
Harrison is composing music specifically for this lineup. Influences will include Messiaen, 14th century Troubadour songs and their connection to New Orleans, Charles Ives, Miles Davis, African trance rhythms, Jeff Beck, etc. Binney will contribute arranging and composing as well.
Saturday, December 16, 2006, 8:30 pm, one set only
ROULETTE
New performance space is located at 20 Greene Street in SOHO, NYC
www.roulette.org
THE WHEEL
5 Movements for Double Quartet and Guitar
Joel Harrison: composer, guitarist
First violin: Mark Feldman
Second violin: Christian Howes
Viola: Caleb Burhans
Cello: Wendy Sutter
Alto saxophone: David Binney
Trumpet: Ralph Alessi
Bass: Lindsey Horner
Drums: Dan Weiss
The impulse for this piece came from a longstanding determination to make music that equally represents improvisation and notation. When Jazz gets tiresome (too much soloing and predictable textures and form), and classical music gets stodgy and monolithic, I tend to dream up pieces that try to incorporate my favorite aspects of both. One of the reasons we love Duke Ellington is that he found a way to make Jazz that had a huge amount of written material to back up and enhance the improvising. It’s a difficult task- the writing can overwhelm the joy of spontaneity, and conversely the solos can sound tacked on and useless. Furthermore, it is very hard to find players who are skilled enough, or even willing, to straddle both worlds. Only 20 years ago this piece would have been practically inconceivable. It is only relatively recently, for instance, that classically trained string players have developed a serious capacity to improvise and “rock out.” Particular challenges involve the balance of the instruments, blending the drums with the strings, and creating lines that sit well on both the horns and the strings.
Two classic ensembles from their respective worlds, then- string quartet and jazz quartet. Rather than writing jazz music and then throwing on some strings like icing on a cake, I decided to start by writing string quartet music with Appalachian, African, and modern classical sensibilities. The improvisation stems from a bedrock of notation, and comes in a variety of forms, from more typical solos over changes, to duo improvising, to free ensemble ‘blowing’. Hopefully there are seamless transitions between the soul and spontaneity of improvising and the structure of written notes, resulting in a kind of music that truly IS both worlds, and does not just borrow from them.
If you would like to receive occasional notices of events and CD releases, please send an e-mail to joel@joelharrison.com and simply say CA mailing list. We appreciate your interest!
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