Memorial Day

Since I inevitably seem to be out of the US on Memorial Day in recent years, I want to talk a little about it.

But first, my updates:

Firstly, I’m delighted to say that pianist Susanne Kessel presented a wonderful premiere of my composition jalewä for solo piano with Tibetain singing bowl (one player) on Beethoven’s own grand piano (a Graf-Hammerflügel of 1826)! This concert took place at Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, Germany. Susanne sent me this wonderful photo of the piano with my composition spread ready to play and the Tibetain singing bowl positioned accordingly:

Beethoven's Piano, "jalewa", Tibetain singing bowl; Bonn, Germany

The other thing that I wanted to muse about is my practicing sessions. It’s really quite something: sometimes, the instrument practice has been leading directly to the new compositions, and sometimes it has been completely abstracted from it, like today when I worked on technique and ‘color’ practice. It’s is interesting having only the soprano sax with me. I mean, I am basically a tenor player, and though I do actually play lots of soprano, I haven’t had an extended period of practice on only it for years, really. I also, as you know, play lots of clarinet, which one would think would make the soprano easier–it does and it doesn’t. The clarinet in many ways is much easier due to the shape of the bore and mouthpiece–it’s more exact. The soprano has the wildness of a saxophone, but also has an extremely small bore, especially at the top. Doing what would be a tenor practice routine on soprano is challenging to say the least, especially where altissimo is concerned. The challenge is fun, though. I have to work at it, but I like it.

But on to Memorial Day.

It is important to remember our history. I fear that so many Americans have lost touch with our collective history that the meanings of these Holidays that we celebrate has become lost on successive generations. As a college teacher, I don’t even want to begin to get into the lack of knowledge of history of this current generation…

Memorial Day–formerly Decoration Day–was started by Union veterans of the US Civil to not only remember and honor the fallen, but also as a ritual of reconciliation after the Civil War. Those of you reading this who are not Americans have to understand our relationship to our Civil War. The remnants of it–150 years after it began–still influence our ways and modes of thought and how we define ourselves. Many of the major domestic policies of the 20th century were a direct or indirect result of it. It is in our collective consciousness; our ‘long body’ as psychology calls it. Even if our families came to the US after the fact as mine did, it becomes absorbed into our psyche.

One of the people who wrote most eloquently about it was a very close friend and mentor of mine named Sam (Leroy) Parkins. Sam, a saxophonist/clarinetist, composer, and Grammy winning producer (for the Columbia recordings of Charles Ives, the most ‘American’ of American composers) was one of those children born in the wake of WWI and went on to serve in WWII; he passed at Thanksgiving time in 2009.  A few years back, he wrote and published this wonderful essay called The Distant Trumpet in which he recalls as a boy the number of Civil War veterans, proud but very aged, taking place in the Decoration Day ritual, and the presence of the trumpet playing Taps. He recalls his own life and service and how he remembers after only a few years the final surviving Civil War veteran, in attendance, listening for the distant trumpet…

[I have to say that I think the most difficult performance for any trumpet player must be playing Taps at a Memorial Day celebration (or at any military occasion that calls for it); I know as a fact that I wouldn't keep it together...I tear up just thinking about it...]

As an American who travels a great deal overseas, most especially to countries that are not in the West, I am always amazed by the respect that people have for the US and what we stand for: Freedom, Democracy. Many of the places that I travel to are under very harsh dictatorships where human rights is something only mentioned in movies. However, these people believe in the US, believe in the promise of freedom and aspire to have it.

Maybe we have grown lazy…we forget what we have, we forget what we have done in the past, and we forget what our service-people do for us everyday and how they are representatives of the hope and promise which is the United States.

Never forget the ideals which we promote and stand for–we must live up to these ideals if we are to remain the beacon of hope that we are…

And never forget the distant trumpet…

Blessings on this Day of Rememberance,

Demetrius

Sam Parkins and I; NYC, June 21, 2007

Memorial Day, 2011

Now, I told you that I’d be doing this regularly while I was at ARTErra, didn’t I?

I’m just making good on my promise.

However, before I jump into today’s topic, I want to announce again that tonight the wonderful German pianist Susanne Kessel will premiere my composition jalewä for solo piano with Tibetain singing bowl (one player) on Beethoven’s own grand piano!

This concert will take place at Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, Germany. The instrument is Beethoven’s Graf-Hammerflügel of 1826. Special private concert for Deutsche Rechtsanwaltskammer. The last pianist allowed to play this instrument was Alfred Brendel!

I wish her the best!

********************

It’s time…let’s let that cat out of the bag:

I came here to this residency to create what I thought would be a post-classical/avant-jazz/world-music mix CD…well, to put it succinctly, that ain’t happening…

What IS happening is that I am writing the music to a different kind of album…I’m going back to my roots: I’m writing funk and fusion tunes.

The ideas of the pieces are actually the same–even the titles for the most part. I mean, hey, my music skims the borders between these styles, anyways…just now I’m going fully in one direction, and instead of acoustic instruments I’m writing for me backed by electric piano, electric bass, and drumset.

And I like it…

I think part of my worry was that I had this one idea in mind and now it’s gone off at an obtuse angle…in the past few weeks, I had been listening lots to the music of my formative phase: Motown, Rolling Stones, Weather Report, Michael Brecker–and lets not forget that the better part of my career was spent playing with folks like the Funk Brothers and Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles and others in that world…I left that world a few years back, and maybe it’s time to dive back in under my rules, with a quartet and playing only my music…

But, what I’m doing isn’t rock or R&B, it’s most certainly jazz fusion–high intensity with complex harmonic relations.

…this ain’t smooth jazz, neither…

My other worry was that this was some form of mid-life crisis compensation…I don’t think so, and I hope I’m not that pathetic…

Well, that’s *that* story–I have even written the title track; if you recall, the CD was to be named Painting, and I wrote that when I arrived! I’ve sketched/written six tunes this week–which is pretty amazing even for me, I dare must say (I hope I just didn’t jinx myself…): four I’m happy with, and two not so happy with yet; I want to talk about the third and fourth ones I like.

Two days ago I took a walk to this church named Nossa Senhora do Crasto which is relatively close to the residency. The church itself only opens once a year, and the grounds are very quiet and lovely; a perfect place for contemplation and meditation. Also, only a few kilometers from the church and down in the valley is this river that was recommended to me to find.

So, on that first day, I walked and sat around the church grounds. I could just slightly hear the river down in the valley below…couldn’t see it, but the topography implied its whereabouts. I started to walk towards the sound, but after a few minutes, I started to get this tune in my head…a tune about the river…I had to (literally) run up the hill back to the residency to jot down what I was hearing–I basically wrote the entire tune in that sitting; I called it The River.

Today I went again. I passed the church and went straight down the hill in the direction of the river’s sound. I was humming the tune that I had written, as well as Shall We Gather At The River and Michael, Row the Boat Ashore. Going was difficult–I was trying to find the right path–the main road seemed to curve far away from the sound I was hearing. I kept trying to cut through brushes and paths laden with thorned bushes–lots of thorned bushes. Eventually, I got back on the main path where eventually, there was a smaller path going in what seemed like the direction I wanted. It was. In the distance, I saw a small bridge and finally encountered my river–I then tried to get close enough to the falls (which was making the noise), but it was rather tricky and dangerous, so I decided against it, but I was satisfied.

On the long walk up the hills out of the valley, the skies opened…the rain came down, baptizing the land, the trees, and me…standing there, drenched and smiling in my private and not so private epiphany, the fourth tune was born…Sweet Rain.

Until soon,

Demetrius

On the way to the Church

On the way to the Church, 2

The Church

The river valley

The intrepid--albeit ignorant--American

Not a great path choice...but I took it, anyways

The River...Halleluja

Greetings All,

Finally…I was able to get  a piece of hardware that connects my camera’s memory card to my laptop–it appears that the cable I need isn’t available in this region–so you will get the first batch of photos here, and more on my subsequent blog posts.

But first I want to talk about what’s going on here…

I’m here, in Portugal, at a rural artist residency for one month to stimulate the creative process–my creative process–to write the music for my next CD. If you know me and are reading this, you know this fact…

What you don’t know, but may have gleaned from my last post and from my twitter and facebook comments is that the direction that this music is going is not what I expected. I went into this conceiving a post-classical project with jazz elements, mainly me improvising. What is coming out, however, is something much more raw and perhaps much closer to my essence as a player and musician. I don’t want to let the cat completely out of the bag yet, but let’s just say that this initial acoustic project has become ‘switched-on’ and that I may have to trade-in my string players for some amplifiers…

Strangely too, my writing process has also morphed somewhat while here–again, it may be the nature of the music I’m writing, but still…my music (at least my more ‘through-composed’ classicalish music) traditionally has been very melodically based with little harmonic motion, if any; heck, the piece I just wrote for Susanne Kessel is basically only a Bbm6 chord; simple and meditative. I am writing some very complex harmonic relations right now. I’m also taking a more pure jazz approach and starting with these chords/harmonic relationships and expanding from there, rather than basing it on melody or form. Very different for me, but it’s generating some interesting results.

Rhythm is very essential to all of my music, but what I’m writing now is very groove-based.

I will also say that in only a few days I have five ‘tunes’ down on paper–still in the working stages, believe me–and I am very happy with three of them. As i mentioned earlier, I will more than likely write a number of pieces and then decide later what may or may not work for this project.

I also have to be very careful and allow myself ‘break time’…I can see me falling into a pattern of constant working and not giving myself the downtime I need to recharge the batteries. I do get into very intense work-modes in which I tend not to emerge from until I’m completely finished with my given task; again, not particularly healthy. I was awake working until 4AM the other day…

I also have to remember to carry paper and pencils with me…today as I was walking, I had an idea and had to run back to the residency to write it down…this is a story for my next blog, which will posted very soon…

So…here are some promised photos:

Morning from balcony

View of garden from my work-space

View down the street

Artist work studios

Grounds and garden

Grounds and garden 2

Critters

Main residence house

My new friend Balzac...he greats me every morning

First traditional Portuguese meal of the trip

‘Til (very) soon,

Demetrius

Hi All!

So…I made it!

The trip itself was actually quite easy: two flights (NYC-London; London-Lisbon) and a 3-1/4 hour bus ride from Lisbon to Viseu. I have to say that Virgin Atlantic was probably the most comfortable–and friendly!–overseas flight that I have ever taken. No issues whatsoever with my saxophone, the seats very mostly comfortable, all and all a good experience–kudos to them!

So, ARTErra is just beautiful! A lovely Arcadian setting, with artist studios, a vegetable garden, and numerous chickens, ducks, and bunnies. Portugal itself is just a lovely country full of kind people: beautiful rolling hills, gardens, everything has that Mediterranean orange/green/white thing happening…you know what I’m talking about. Micaela Ferreira, the director and owner of the residency is not only a kind and brilliant supervisor, but also Portugal’s main voice-over actress; she is the Portugeuse voice of ‘Casper the Friendly Ghost’…I mean, how cool is that?

The other artist here with me right now is NYC-based film-maker Noe Kidder who is working on a short film while here. We very may well do something here together in the next day or so…so be ready…

I have to admit that I had–and still really have–no idea what to expect of this experiment of ‘forced creativity.’ I mean, in all my many years as a professional artist, I never applied for an artist residency. I mean, sure, I’ve been resident artist at many international festivals and at conservatories and what not, but I never applied to create my own project–in this case my next CD–in a new location to stimulate artistic, oh, creativity.

I think I’m prepared…

I brought manuscript paper, pencils, computer, soprano saxophone…that”s good!

I brought a month’s worth (with obvious laundry expeditions) of clothing…I do, however, have to admit that it occurred to me yesterday that my entire wardrobe consists of blues and various olive colors…maybe that’s odd?…I am happy to report that my wardrobe is not overwhelmingly black like many of my colleagues–granted, much of that is for professional reasons, and it’s just easier to wear black most of the time. Plus, it does give this ‘New York City Hip’ vibe…what do blues and olives say about me, I wonder…? May need a fashion expert’s advice here…anyone???

I also brought the Edith Grossman translation of Cervante’s Don Quixote. Maybe I meant this as a subconscious sick and twisted joke; maybe I thought that after a month of working that I’d be ’tilting at windmills’…I had/HAVE no idea…

But, as of now (knock on wood) this experiment has gone well. In the first 2 days, I sketched 3 pieces; two of them I like very much and the other I may easily learn to. Instead of writing today, I edited to see what I had written…it is good. If I actually keep up this rate, I’ll have the music for the CD done by week’s end. What I’ll probably end up doing is writing a number of tunes, then wade through what I think may work best for this CD project and ‘file’ the others for future usage. Or, I could say ‘to Hell with it!” and make a double album like they used to do in the 70′s, complete with album-jacket poster.

The main issue that is intriguing me may or may not have to do with the idyllic setting (although communing with Balzac the turtle seems to be improving my worldly disposition exponentially: more on him on a later post) : all truth be told, the music that I have been writing (and hearing in the dark corners of my brain…) has absolutely NOTHING to do with what I planed on composing…totally different, and I mean totally! Maybe I’m feeling nostalgic and want to get back to my ‘roots’; maybe it’s all of the music that I have been listening to lately having a profound influence on my psyche (I did listen to the Rolling Stones’ Beggar’s Banquet and Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On numerous times on the flight to London…but that’s all I’ll give you…for now…); I mean, it’s wild…odd…but I’m running with it and we’ll see what comes of it…

…more on that later…and I’ll be writing lots in the weeks to come…

Speaking of which, in my grand organizational scheming I forgot the cable that connects my camera to my laptop, so I can’t post photos just yet…but will within a couple of days when I get a new cable.

So…I will leave you with a photo (taken via Blackberry) of the view from my balcony on my first morning here; quite something, isn’t it:

View from my balcony; ARTErra

‘Til Soon!

Demetrius

Hello All,

So…I have finished my semester commitments at Five Towns College, just in time to start my 48-hour whirlwind preparation for Portugal. My semester was a busy one, but also successful. I know that we are being advertised–and that some of us are being featured–in an upcoming issue of Chamber Music America, and that the College has requested that Jazz Times interview me personally for an upcoming article on film-scoring. That, plus the fact that the College is commissioning me to write a new choral piece for them are good signs for continued success in the future.

On Thursday, I leave for Portugal to begin my month-long artist residency at ARTErra Residences Rurais Artisticas (notice my photo and write-up in their blog). The goal of this residency, as you all know, is to compose the music for my new CD, which I will entitle Painting. I want this music to be about relationships: human, to nature and environment, to spirituality, to our times. Ideas have begun to creep into my consciousness…some are being rather insistent about it. The interesting thing is to see what will actually happen; will the ideas stay to the fore and evolve into fully bloomed works, or will they dissipate when I am engaged in a completely different environment that will influence (I don’t want to utter the overused word ‘inspire’) new ideas to take shape? Who knows?

And getting back to ideas, I have a ‘sound’ in mind that I went into this project with–not only a musical sound, but one of color…instrumentation. I have a band together of colleagues who are interested and willing to record with me; a septet (instrumentation a secret for now). The sound is like my recent music: modal, a melodic mix of post-classical and jazz improvisation and world music elements. Very me. However, there is this nagging sensation of wanting to go back to my roots and doing a funk/soul album with vocals…trying to beat that one back, but with all of the good wine and fish and sunshine, I don’t know what is going to come out of it all…it will be an adventure, though…it’s *always* an adventure…

The real adventure will be to see if I can handle peace and quiet to work. I live in NYC…I like dirt and noise, after all…

Speaking of adventure, once again I have to deal with traveling with an instrument plus the added issue of taking a laptop. I wish I could take my new tenor, but, alas, there’s just no way they’ll let me on with that with all of the regulations now (which change from airline to airline and from country to country). I was going to only take my flute, which I thought would be a calming influence since I had such an intense playing season, but I’ll be playing exclusively (I think…see above paragraph…) saxophone on this album, and the people at the residency tell me that everyone is expecting a solo concert or two of saxophone music, so I’ll bring my soprano sax, which I know will be on the CD (I think…again see above…) and it’s in the same key as the tenor, just an octave higher.

My concern for traveling actually had me check out the possibility of purchasing a curved soprano sax since they can fit in most carry-on luggage…yes, I know…after looking at one and holding it…yes, they’re like a cute little teapot…but…I couldn’t…especially after hearing the snickers from my colleagues…I mean, I’m 6′ 3″…it just doesn’t look or feel right…yes, image IS everything, I’m afraid…

And speaking of images, Grammys, Grammys, Grammys…what *are* you doing?

As you see, numerous categories, including Latin Jazz in entirety, Chamber Music, Best Classical Album, most American Roots Music, and distinctions between male and female vocalists no longer seem to exist.

There has been backlash, most of it coming from the Latin Jazz community–God bless them–but I haven’t heard much from the classical community, who seem to still be wallowing in the misery of orchestral bankruptcies to raise their weary heads in protest.

I’ll link this again because it’s important!

From what I gather, the final push for this revamp came when Esperanza Spalding won for Best New Artist over Justin Bieber, whom I *refuse* to link to. The supposed fury was that the Grammys ‘were out of touch with reality’ (mostly from the ones making money off of Bieber) and that things had to change…hence the elimination of 31 categories.

Now, artists in fringe forms…everything save pop, it seems–who had some chance of recognition have been denied this opportunity. I am angry on numerous levels, not the least being the fact my colleagues (and myself, mind you!) have been edged out of any international award recognition for our recordings. This also makes me want to reconsider my recording project somewhat now that Chamber Music, Jazz Instrumental, and World Music categories are eliminated–all of the categories I could be in. Of course, what else am I going to do? Call up Bieber and say “hey, let’s do a bubblegum pop album for the over-40 crowd”…uh, no…

So I’ll carry on as planed, of course…the adventure…

Next time you hear from me–and it will be soon–will be my blogging from Portugal. I will be updating regularly about the creative process to give you insight into my psyche…man, that’s scary…

Yours,

Demetrius

It is my lovely pleasure to introduce you to the newest member of my ‘family’:

Selmer Mark VI 122xxx

This is my ‘new’ early 1965 (Serial Number 122xxx, for those who keep score of such things) Selmer Mark VI tenor saxophone.

I finally came to the decision to get a Mark VI; it was a tough decision. I had my Selmer Series II tenor (when I got it, it was still referred to as a Super Action 80 Series II, and it was the newest top-line model; my soprano and alto are also Series II’s)–a really great horn, mind you–since my Freshman year at New England Conservatory. This was to be become the instrument that I used the most in my professional life, the one I toured with, the one that I used on-stage with Ray Charles, Aretha Frankin, the Funk Brothers, and dozens of other top acts. I was/am a tenor player, and this was my voice; this horn has been a part of me and that voice since the late 80′s.

There did come a point, however, that I felt that I had taken that horn as far as it could go. I spent some years trying to expand it’s harmonic spectrum with various alterations and equipment, including a series of different mouthpieces and even a solid silver neck. All gave me glimpses of what I wanted, but it was still vague…still ethereal…

If I were just doing classical/orchestral/Broadway/big band playing, it would be perfect; since I work in very modern jazz and experimental improvisation and focus on exploring the color spectrum, I needed something that would give me freedom to do so.

My guess was that about 5 or 6 years ago, I decided to get a Mark VI, assuming that I could find one that could give me more of what I wanted. I had starting trying other tenors (different Selmer models and other brands) as far back as the early 2000′s and had decided that nothing out-played mine. I tried all of these newer horns with fancy designs, special resonant energy rocks (seriously…), different metals, including a solid silver tenor that weighed more than my Honda Civic…nothing stood out, which is why I started to think vintage.

I then started looking at vintage horns–Kings and Conns, as well as older Selmers–nothing did it for me. I even tried a number of Mark VI’s and Balanced Actions (an older Selmer model from the 30′s and 40′s), but still nothing outplayed mine.

Then…a few months ago…I went to Rayburn Music in Boston. I was determined to try some newer horns–Selmer had a few years back released two new models called the ‘Reference’ series: one similar to a Mark VI, the other to a Balanced Action.

(You see, Selmer got a lot of bad rap in the 70′s from stopping the Mark VI and moving to a new model called the Mark VII, which had all of these new designs but was a commercial disaster–not bad instruments, I’ve played some beauties, just not a Mark VI. The Super Action 80 (released around 1980) and the forthcoming Series II (mid-late 80s) and Series III (mid-90′s) were Selmer’s move to recoup losses and reputation. The Reference horns (2000′s) were an admittance that their earlier horns in general were superior; a newer version of a classic–but they are not as good, believe me. The issue wasn’t as much the design (although it IS an issue for me–I’ll explain later) but of the fact that the brass alloy mix had changed–the brass used in the Mark VI’s was taken from artillery shells used in WWII–a very high-grade brass. Selmer eventually ran out of this brass, and also the machinery used to make the Mark VI eventually wore out. Selmer–and I admire them for this–was always into innovation, so they were constantly adapting their horns, so that no two from the same model, even close in age, would be identical–some would be radically different–the Mark VII experiment was just a matter of time. I still think that of the post-Mark VI horns, the Series II’s are the best.)

Anyways, I was convinced that as a contemporary player that I needed a contemporary horn. Emilio Lyons (the Sax Doctor!) and Jim Hobbs at Rayburn’s were going to work with me and Selmer to get me a customized Reference. I was ready to pick one out…then they gave me two Mark VI’s to try, both were fantastic, but one was just a universe above the other, and above any of the new horns I tried. It was also really expensive–I agonized over this for like 2 months–I even had dreams about this horn, so it was in my consciousness. I went back to Boston and Rayburn’s and Emilio and Jim worked with me to make purchasing this horn–which included a special Emilio overhaul that customized the horn to my hands and replaced the cork with an imported European sponge which makes the horn practically silent–possible. I am, as always, in their debt.

There are a couple of physical characteristics of this new horn that I have to talk about:

The first is the weight. Mark VI’s are light horns–my tenor probably weighs as little as my Series II alto (which is silver plated, which makes it heavier). Considering that the tenor has 1/3 more brass, this is considerable. In recent years, the idea of lighter instruments has become more and more of a factor–heavy instruments hurt…also, the lightness of the horn/brass alloy mix adds to the horn’s unique color spectrum: this makes it more difficult to control for younger players, but gives us seasoned ‘old-timers’ more ‘possibilities’…

The horn is soft and dark. Newer horns (all instruments) are so much louder and brighter–they are easy to play, loud, and in-tune. The older ones make you work to produce what you want (see my ‘old-timer’ comment above). My student’s instruments are soooooo loud and easy to play…and bright…and limited…

There is no high f# key. The high f# is a newer invention, from the 70′s. I never really used it much–mostly for alternate-fingering trills and such, since there are much more ‘fluid’ ways to play passages up there without it. I was concerned that not having this would be difficult–it’s not, provided that I remember it’s not there and not try to hit it–I’m getting better. I still am amazed that they are making horns with high g keys now…learn how to produce it the old-fashioned way…this is a rant for another blog…

So, me being me, I had to give this horn a baptism of fire: my first performance was as a soloist in DJ Spooky’s China +New York: Contemporary Asian/American Music, on Sunday, April 10, 2011 at (le) Poisson Rouge in NYC–mind you, I had owned the horn for only two days. We premiered Benoit Granier’s point[a] for myself and violinist Mari Kimura as soloists, accompanied by the TIMI Modern Music Ensemble (and computer) from Beijing.

Here are a couple of photos from the show:

At (le) Poisson Rouge, April 10, 2011

At (le) Poisson Rouge, April 10, 2011

Click this link to hear what it sounded like:

LPR_April_10_2011

Cool, huh?

So, that’s my story–I’m delighted with the new addition. I am a little sad about parting with my old horn, but it’s in good hands: my friend Evan Ziporyn, the wonderful reed player with Bang On A Can All-Stars, assured me of its continued play at a high level. A parent can’t ask for more than that…

’till next,

Demetrius