Demetrius Spaneas |

A repost from my friend Bill Champitto’s email blurb; he says it so well, so I decided to keep it as is.

Demetrius

Two changes for this weekend at the Stork. First, a very good friend, the extremely talented Demetrius Spaneas will be performing with us to help introduce his new CD released last week. In case you haven’t had the pleasure of hearing him perform in the past – check this little blurb about him:

Saxophonist, flutist, recording artist, and composer Demetrius Spaneas leads a dynamic international career. He has shared the stage with Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Three Dog Night, James Ingrahm, Denise Williams, and numerous other major performers. Was the featured soloist for Mowtown’s famous Funk Brothers for 2 years. Featured at major festivals throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.

So this will be an incredible night. Last time we performed together we were opening for James Montgomery and it was a blast.

Next notable piece of news is that the club has changed their no cover policy and there is a $10 charge to get in to the club after 10:00. So please come early.

Last news is that we will be performing both Friday and Saturday (Demetrius is only joining is on Friday), so you have two chances to catch us perform this weekend.

Bill C

Friday, Feb 26 with Special Guest, Saxaphonist Demetrius Spaneas
Saturday, Feb 27 – Just that good old Soul Funkified Jazz!
9:30 pm. start
The Stork Club
http://www.storkclubboston.com
604 Columbus Ave
Boston, MA 02118
Entry is free before 10:00, then $10. You can make reservations in advance by calling (617) 391-0256.

It’s official!

My new CD, Sfumato, has been released!

This recording is a series of meditative duo improvisations with Russian Medieval/Byzantine-style vocalist Galina Parfenova. I will present a solo performance and reception on February 21 to mark the release. I am also happy that I am presenting this in my home town of Lowell, MA. Reception begins at 4PM, with the performance starting around 4:30.

One very important aspect of this recording is that I am not only the performing artist and composer on this CD, but I am also the producer, the publisher, and I have created my own record label, DSM (dspaneasmusic)–in which this is the first release, DSM-01–that will solely be an outlet for my own creative endeavors.

It was a lot of work, but very satisfying!

The CD is now available on digstation, CD Baby, and iTunes. Amazon and downloadable ring-tones available soon!

Once the whirlwind of this weekend is over, I will have all of the CD information up on this website–sooner rather than later!

As serendipity would have it, on the following day, February 22, I will be a special guest of both Middlesex Community College and Lowell High School. I will give a talk/presentation about myself and my career to LHS students. This special program is organized through Middlesex Community College. Below is a description of the program:

The Middlesex Community College Music Outreach Program started 5 years ago.  Our goal is to present high quality musical events which go beyond the normal school music curriculum for Lowell area high school students. These have included concerts, lectures, demonstrations and workshops presented by professional musicians of the highest caliber, including members of the Boston Symphony, as well as MCC faculty.  Lecture/concerts are presented in the Assembly Room of the newly renovated Federal Building on E. Merrimack St.

This is exciting for me! As any of you who have followed my travels know, I love giving these types of talks…not to talk about ME, per se, but to talk to students who may be interested in pursuing a career in music. I will tell them the truth…both the good and the bad, the happiness and the frustration, the elation and the devastation. The ones who are serious will hopefully understand…others, well, others may not be ready to hear quite that intense of a message.

Also, it’s important for me in these talks to discuss other cultures and how the US is looked upon internationally. I will also tell them the issues that I have personality encountered as an American traveling into less than friendly regions of the world. Again, many may not understand the weight of such issues, but the ones who are ready will listen, and begin to understand.

It’s always an issue what to tell someone who wants to pursue a career in the arts, to major in it at college. It’s a difficult call; usually, I would tell someone that if they can do something else, anything else, do it…

…the problem is when you can’t do anything else. I’m not talking about skills here…I’m talking spiritually. If your soul will not allow anything else, then you have no choice…you must. If it can allow other possibilities, then don’t do it. This is the issue that most young people don’t understand until it’s sometimes too late. They liked singing or playing in a band in high school, and then think that they’ll do this only, usually with very poor guidance from teachers and mentors…they have no real understanding of what they need to do, or what will be expected of them.

They also have no idea what they’re getting into…

This is where these talks are helpful. Young people can ask questions…this is where I can be of best service to them. They have to understand that most of what they know about the career, about the economy, about music education at the high school and college levels in the US, and about the reality of job opportunities are completely wrong.

It’s all about honesty, which is unfortunately something that young people don’t always get when being wooed by college programs or other types of–for lack of a better word–promoters.

But I’ll do my best for them–I have to.

One last thing–for those of you who are keeping score at home, I have decided to go back to my metal Otto Link 8 on tenor…‘The Cannon’, i. e., the Dukoff 10* is going back in the archives as a memento of a past life. We tried for a while–we were mutually exclusive for a month, but just decided that too much time had passed and we had drifted apart…

Actually, in all honesty, I like a lot of what the Dukoff brings in so far as power and edge, but the Link is overall the most complete mouthpiece. Well, that’s OK…I started on a Link, almost exclusively played on a Link until I was with the Funk Brothers (actually, I switched to the Dukoff when I played with Three Dog Night for some reason…). I mean, Coltrane played on a Link…you can’t get better than that.

Peace,
Demetrius

ps–I did go back to my bigger set-ups on clarinet and bass clarinet recently, but that’s a story for another time.

Demetrius Spaneas
CD Release Reception and Performance
ALL Gallery
Lowell, MA
February 21, 2010
4PM

It is with great happiness that I announce the releasing of my new CD Sfumato. This recording is a series of meditative duo improvisations with Russian Medieval/Byzantine-style vocalist Galina Parfenova. I will present a solo performance and reception on February 21 to mark the release. I am also happy that I am presenting this in my home town of Lowell, MA. Reception begins at 4PM, with the performance starting around 4:30.

Suggested donation to the ALL Gallery: $5
Sfumato will be sold at the event.
Sfumato will also be available through CD Baby, digstation, and iTunes; the official release will be that weekend. Links and details will be posted closer to the official release date.

Old and New

January 14 is my birthday–my 41rst, to be exact–so I feel the need to write something. Nothing overly erudite or philosophical; I just want to muse through some updates, some new projects, and a rediscovery.

I am very happy to say that my Tajikistan project is coming together nicely for May. I will be collaborating with the Bactria Cultural Centre and the US Embassy to bring jazz music to a festival in Dushanbe, surrounding urban and rural areas, and up to the villages in the Pamirs Mountains, one of the highest occupied areas on Earth. Both the BCC and the US Embassy are striving hard to make this happen, and I just today finished a grant proposal for funding. All I really need is a plane ticket, which, by the way, is ridiculously expensive since there is no easy way of actually getting to Tajikistan and getting around the country is downright treacherous. We’re hoping for the best!

It looks as if February 21 will be the date for the CD release party of Sfumato, my collaboration with vocalist Galina Parfenova. By party, I mean a reception and solo concert at the ALL Gallery in Lowell, MA. Times TBA. I will also probably have the international on-line release fall on the same weekend, possibly the 20th, which interestingly, coincides with the beginning of Pisces, which, if I’m not mistaken,  represents the final stage in spiritual evolution. Why, you may ask? I don’t know, the date felt right. Sometimes, you go with your gut.

I am starting a new collaboration with Boston-based sculptor Laura Evans to create an installation work for the Transcultural Exchange 2011 Conference (titled The Interconnected World). We met today face-to-face for the first time. I like her as a person even more than her work, which I think is fantastic. I feel that on one’s birthday, one should not only take measure of the past, but create something new. I believe the project will center around the concept of blending the mechanical and the biological and will incorporate evolving perception-based sound and visual elements; this is all that I’ll say for now.

On to rediscovery. So, I’m a tenor player…really a tenor player: sound, conception, improvisation…I do it like a tenor player. Before I went to Russia in 2007, I played tenor almost exclusively (as far as the saxes go). Because of the difficulties associated with traveling with instruments, I went small: I started traveling with instruments that I know could fit on almost any plane with no trouble (for saxes, I’m talking mostly alto, since the case is compact; even soprano can have issues because the case is long). Since I have been back, I have been rediscovering the joys of playing tenor; although many of the composers I work with still write for alto (which is the ‘standard‘ horn, or at least has been for most classically trained composers), I have been incorporating the tenor into my own projects as much as possible.

Now, before Russia, in 2006, I made a decision to get out of the rock life. I had been on the road for years as a rock/R&B tenor player, which gave me both some of my greatest and all of my absolute worst experiences; basically, it was a wash. Now, being a rock tenor player, I played on a certain piece of equipment that was–and let’s put it bluntly-unacceptable in any other genre. This mouthpiece, which I lovingly dubbed ‘The Canon’, was a metal Dukoff 10* that has a baffle that you could spelunk on (every classical and straight-ahead jazz saxophonist reading this just shuddered…audibly…). When I finished my stint with The Funk Brothers in 2006, I decided that I needed to sound a tad more, oh, tame to fit in with the scene in NYC. Musicians are very, very difficult when it comes to equipment. Not just mouthpieces, but even using certain brands of instruments can get you black-balled…were I to show up with that mouthpiece on even a progressive big band gig, I’d catch Hell for it from both the bandleader and the rest of the sax section. Forget playing a show or a pops orchestra gig. Understand, I’m a loud player with an extremely full sound to begin with; using The Canon, I could punch holes in brick walls at 100 paces (I’m only half kidding). It wasn’t built to blend with cellos or clarinets (although I can make it, and have), but to ‘edge through’ amplified rhythm sections.

So, The Canon went into the drawer and I pulled out a metal Otto Link to blend. It’s a nice mouthpiece, but I felt like a major league baseball player off the steroids cycle…I even went as so far last year to switch to hard rubber, still an Otto Link, an 8*, so nothing to sneeze at and still darn big, but I was starting to sound more and more like a 1950’s straight-ahead jazzer (which is what everyone wants) and not like, well, me.

This morning around midnight, I was listening to a live performance (1992) of Paul Simon singing Still Crazy After All These Years (one of my absolute favorite songs, and appropriate for my birthday, I think). I was loving the experience when all of  a sudden it went up another notch: the late, great Michael Brecker–who needless to say influenced all of us tenor players one way or another and who recorded the sax solo on the original–played. That sound! That is what a tenor sounds like…that’s what I sound like in my Platonic Ideal…what I used to sound like.

It was after midnight, I live in an apartment, I couldn’t break out the tenor then…I had to wait until this morning. I opened the equipment drawer in my studio and there it was, The Canon, like a re-found lover…it wasn’t a rekindling, but a roaring blaze of sonic ecstasy.

It hit me…I only do almost exclusively my own projects now. I’m not running to Broadway shows or big band gigs and hustling work. I’m a soloist, why do I care if I blend with anyone? My sound and my color palate have always been unique. Like any relationship, The Canon and I have to patch-up some things, and in some ways re-learn how to communicate; but I think we’re both in it for the long haul.

Nice Birthday

More Info: Mike Frengel m.frengel@neu.edu

http://www.musictech.neu.edu/2010springconcerts

Electroacoustic Music Series
Sponsored by the Music Technology program at Northeastern University

Spring 2010: Concert 1 of 4
1/23/10 – 8pm

Gilles Gobeil, Featured Composer
After studies in music theory, Gilles Gobeil completed his Master’s in composition at Université de Montréal. Since 1985 he has concentrated on the creation of acousmatic and mixed works. His compositions approach what is known as “cinéma pour l’oreille” (cinema for the ear); many of them are inspired by literary works and seek to “visualize” them through the medium of sound.

Gobeil has been awarded more than twenty prizes in Canada and internationally, such as Black & White (Portugal, 2009), Ars Electronica (Austria, 2005, 1995), Bourges (France, 2009, 1999, 1989, 1988), Stockholm Electronic Arts Award (Sweden, 1997, 1994), CIMESP (Brazil, 2001, 1999, 1997), Métamorphoses (Belgium, 2002, 2000), British Design & Art Direction (2002), Ciber@rt (Spain, 1999), Luigi Russolo (Italy, 1989, 1988, 1987), Newcomp (USA, 1987), SOCAN (Canada, 1993), Conseil Canadien de la Musique (1985), Brock University (1985), SDE Canada (1984). He received the Prix Opus 2004–05 (Disc of the Year) from the Conseil québécois de la musique (CQM) for his disc Trilogie d’ondes; in 2003–04, Le contrat was a finalist in the same category.

He has received commissions from Codes d’Accès (Montréal), empreintes DIGITALes (Montréal), GMEB — Groupe de musique expérimentale de Bourges (France), Musiques & Recherches (Belgium), Réseaux des arts médiatiques (Montréal), Société Radio-Canada, ZKM — Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (Germany), Totem Contemporain (Montréal), Folkmar Hein, and from the performers Suzanne Binet-Audet, René Lussier, Arturo Parra and Rick Sacks.

He has also been Composer-in-Residence at The Banff Centre (Canada, 1995, 1993), Bourges (France, 1991), GRM — Groupe de recherches musicales (France, 1993), ZKM — Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (Germany, 2009, 2007, 2006, 2005) and was Guest Composer of the DAAD’s Artists-in-Berlin Programme (Germany) in 2008.

Gobeil is currently a professor of music technology at Drummondville CEGEP, where he has been teaching since 1992, and has been Guest Professor of electroacoustics at the Université de Montréal (2005–06) and at the Montréal Conservatory (2007). He is a member of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC), Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre (CMC) and co-founder of Réseaux, an association dedicated to the production of Media Art events.

Edmund Campion, Composer
Edmund J. Campion received his Doctorate degree in composition at Columbia University and attended the Paris Conservatory where he worked with composer Gérard Grisey. Campion is currently Professor of Music at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also serves as Co-Director at CNMAT (The Center for New Music and Audio Technologies). Prizes and honors include the Rome Prize, the Nadia Boulanger Award, the Paul Fromm Award at Tanglewood, a Charles Ives Award given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Fulbright scholarship for study in France. Recent projects include a Fromm Foundation commission for Outside Music, written for the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and a French Ministry of Culture Commande d’etat for Ondoyants et Divers (Billaudot Editions, Paris), written for the Percussion de Strasbourg Ensemble.

Mike Frengel, Composer
Mike Frengel holds B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in electroacoustic music composition from San Jose State University, Dartmouth College and City University, London, respectively. He has had the great fortune to study with Jon Appleton, Charles Dodge, Larry Polansky, Denis Smalley, Allen Strange, and Christian Wolff. His works have won international prizes and have been included on the Sonic Circuits VII, ICMC’95, CDCM Vol.26, 2000 Luigi Russolo and ICMC 2009 compact discs. Mike serves on the faculty of the music departments at Northeastern University and Boston Conservatory, where he teaches courses in music technology and composition.

Elainie Lillios, Composer
Elainie Lillios’ music reflects her fascination with listening, sound, space, time, immersion and anecdote. Influential mentors include Jonty Harrison, Pauline Oliveros, Larry Austin and Jon Christopher Nelson. She has received grants/commissions from Rèseaux, International Computer Music Association, La Muse en Circuit, New Adventures in Sound Art, ASCAP/SEAMUS, LSU’s Center for Computation and Technology, Sonic Arts Research Centre, Ohio Arts Council, National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts and others. Her composition Veiled Resonance won First Prize in the 2009 Concours Internationale de Bourges, with other awards from the Concurso Internacional de Música Electroacústica de São Paulo, Concorso Internazionale Russolo, Pierre Schaeffer Competition and La Muse en Circuit Radiophonic Competition. Elainie’s music is available on the Empreintes DIGITALES, StudioPANaroma, La Muse en Circuit, New Adventures in Sound Art and SEAMUS labels.

Demetrius Spaneas, Saxophone
Multi-wind instrumentalist/composer/recording artist Demetrius Spaneas leads a varied international career and has worked with such diverse artists as John Cage, Ray Charles, and Kyrgyz traditional musicians. He has been featured soloist and composer at major concert venues and festivals throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Through his work with the US Embassy system, he has presented concerts and lectures on American music and culture throughout the former Soviet Union. His current cultural initiatives focus on Central Asia, the Balkans, China, and Russia, where he is Music Director for the International Foundation for Contemporary Arts and Humanities “APXE” based in St. Petersburg. For details and upcoming events, please visit: http://www.dspaneas.com

2010 and Transitions

Is there a year that is not a transition year? In the grand scheme of things, change is constantly happening around and within us; the size and scope of this change, and how it effects our consciousness, defines whether or not we consider a period to be one of transition or not. For me, the idea of being ‘stable’, at least in a non-psychological sense, is so far removed from my consciousness that the idea of staying in one place, one job, or one state of mind, for an extended period is almost a dream. Change happens, constantly; for some of us, a life in constant flux is the standard.

It’s also interesting how an artist’s concept of self changes, or at least matures, over their creative period. 10 years ago, I was composing very little (although I was working as an arranger/orchestrator), running around as a saxophone teacher to multiple colleges, and freelancing full-time, playing well over 200 gigs a year…sometimes up to 4 a day. I would run from orchestra rehearsals on bass clarinet to matinee performances of a musical theater production to an evening jazz or rock gig on tenor. On the road, in constant motion, was a standard state for me. I actually couldn’t turn down work quickly enough, and I took less than half of what I was offered, purely for the fact that I couldn’t physically do everything and be everywhere–if I could fit it, somehow, regardless of the physical or psychological strain, I’d do it. I was one of the most working musicians in the Northeast, and I was miserable.

Many of my colleagues have asked me why. They tell me that their life’s goal was to play gigs; for many years, I also defined myself by what I was doing and with whom I was playing. “You’re working constantly”, they would say, “you get to play out every day and play with all of these great musicians and ensembles. I would kill for that.”. Yes, I was, but the excitement of it–realize, I enjoyed the crazy life-style much more than the actual gigs–was wearing thin and I found myself progressively more and more unsatisfied.

My transition from freelancer to artist started in the early 2000’s. After an extended period of both physical and spiritual trauma came to an end, I started focusing on me as artist rather than me as ‘worker bee’, or a better analogy, ‘drone’. Work was becoming less and less during this period, anyways; the post-9/11 world had little desire or funding for the arts or interest in live music, and gigs, once plentiful, dried-up quickly. Within the first year following the attacks, my gig numbers were half what they were the previous year and dwindling rapidly. It was then (2002) when I decided to record my first solo CD and start to seek both a national and international audience.

I also began to compose again.

I always wanted to be a composer. Even in high school, I wanted to write and major in it in college, but there was no one to advise me. I had a great saxophone teacher in high school (Tom Ferrante, who taught at (then) U Lowell) who pushed me to New England Conservatory, where I studied classical and jazz performance, as well as took private composition lessons. I had always seen myself as a composer, and that my performing was just a means to this end. My original goal was to get a doctorate in composition, teach full-time at a university or conservatory (I actually love teaching), and by my 40s be doing both composing and performing, with composing becoming more prominent as I matured. Well, life (gigging, making rent every month) got in the way and I never achieved this. No time and not enough money to do it. I had to work, I had to hustle.

But through the many twists and turns over the last 20+ years, I found my way.

Amazingly, now, in my 40s, I have a similar artistic career to what I wanted. I don’t have the doctorate nor a full-time teaching gig, but I have created a unique career as a composer/performer. I don’t gig much any more–this means I’m not playing music that I don’t like just for money–but play either my compositions or music by my friends whom I want to help, to champion. I don’t have the stability that I yearned for, but I do have the flexibility of not being tied to a specific city, or country. I’m no longer on the first-call list for orchestras or pit bands, but I am on the international festival circuit as a performer and composer, which is amazing. I’m finally an artist, and thankfully, still growing and maturing as one.

Sometimes, it’s hard to remember that it’s OK to be a creative artist and not a money-making machine. It’s difficult to not let life get in the way of living fully. Maybe my New Year’s resolution will be to turn this thought into a daily mantra.

That being said, I look forward to the transitions of 2010. I have been living in Boston since fall 2008. My position at Northeastern University may well be coming to an end in June (I have a two-year contract, renewal dependent on funding) and again, I will be in flux. Chances are, I will be in another city, if not another country–options are being weighed–dependent solely on opportunities and how they evolve over the next couple of months. Even if my position continues unaltered, chances are that I will move back to NYC and commute; I thrive in that creative atmosphere, and all of my important artistic work in the US is there…Boston, for me, holds very little of artistic interest.

I also look forward to the wonderful projects that I am engaged in; many of these will come to fruition in 2010. As I have said many times, as an artist, one must constantly produce at the highest possible level; it is through this body of work that one is remembered, that one is impactual and influential, and that one continues live in the collective consciousness long after their physical body dissolves.

I am probably most proud of the two recordings that will both be released in 2010. The first, entitled Sfumato, was recorded in St. Petersburg, Russia in December 2007. This is a collection of meditative improvisations with Medieval-style overtone singer Galina Parfenova. The two of us went into a studio and just interacted…it was natural, organic, and if I may say, beautiful. This will be released in February; this was also the first of my recordings that I decided to be the sole producer on, so there is an added bonus that it is the first of my catalog.

The second CD has a very different vibe, but was created in much the same way. November Snow was recorded in Beijing by German sound master Jurgen Frenz. The CD is a collective improvisation of myself, Neil Rolnick, and Bruce Gremo. This series of improvisations uses technology (computers and interactive electronic instruments, as well as acoustic instruments) where Sfumato was purely acoustic. We are planning on sending this to major labels, primarily in Europe–we believe that we have something special and powerful.

It will be a busy year compositionally. Right now, I am engaged in writing a piece for the Rome, Italy based ensemble Piccola Accademia Degli Specchi. This wonderful ensemble has a special love for living American composers. The work, entitled Love Letters in the Ether, will be the centerpiece of their US tour and I hope that it will become a mainstay in their repertory for European concerts and festivals, as well; I am actually working with them to produce this US tour. It’s a big work, and one of the strongest pieces I have written.

I also am going to write a large-scale piano work for my friend Susanne Kessel in Bonn, Germany. I have been wanting to write a piano work of large size and scope for a while now, and Susanne is absolutely a wonderful artist. I also hope to schedule the premier to coincide with my own concert/lecture tour of Germany sometime during the 2010-2011 concert season in which I will travel to multiple cities.

Boston-based choreographer Rebecca Rice and I are working on a new production entitled Energy Theory. This piece will present energy as an eternal force of creation and transformation; this will be done through music, costume, and modern dance choreography. I will write for a small ensemble that features me as improviser.

I need to write an orchestra piece…it’s been a while, a really long while…not counting working as an orchestrator, I haven’t written for orchestra since I was a student. There wasn’t a need to; as a composer/performer, one writes mostly for oneself. But it’s time to have a mature orchestra work in my catalog. I may actually take one of my large chamber pieces or film scores and adapt it for orchestra; I have some compositions that I believe will work beautifully and have a whole new life in this format. We’ll see…

Concerts and traveling are starting to come together for the spring. The main trip in the works is to Dushanbe, Tajikistan. I am organizing a collaborative project with both the Bactrian Cultural Centre and the US Embassy in Dushanbe. I will organize a ensemble that combines American Jazz (me) with traditional Tajik music and musicians. We will be the centerpiece for their Jazz Festival, and then do outreach concerts throughout the country. Of course, this project depends on my fundraising, so I will be working on this intensely over the next few months. More on this later on.

NYC, as always, holds my most interesting US endeavors. My group The Sapphire Ensemble will be organizing our annual spring concert at (most likely) the ICO Gallery. This location will be dependant upon whether or not they have their piano ready; they most recently moved to a larger location in Chelsea. This is why the date is not yet set.

My main concert of the spring, however, is as a soloist. I will present my program Metanoia : A Monologue on Life, Loss, and Rebirth on April 12 as part of the Composers Collaborative, Inc. concert series at the Cornelia Street Café. This is the first time in the organization’s history that they have given an entire concert to one artist; I am grateful for this opportunity.

We will see what happens, and where, in the fall.

I am happy to see 2009 depart. It was a year of angst (my trip to Uzbekistan), triumphs (my trip to China), and loss (the passing of friends, colleagues, and teachers). I am always one who looks to the future and never to the past. There is no event or time-period in my life that I would ever want to relive or revisit, and I would never want to go back…only forward. The wonder of 2010 is that it hasn’t happened yet, so the possibilities–the opportunities–are endless.

Happy New Year

Demetrius

ON LEGACY

What happens when a composer dies? I’m not talking physically, of course, but about what happens to a composer’s body of work and their place in history and within the collective consciousness.

Composers are different from visual artists. The creation of a painter or a sculptor continues to exist well after the creator passes into history. We know what we know of our history from the remains of frescos, pottery, and statues from eons past. The objects are tangible, physical; they take up space and exist every moment. Some may well outlast humanity.

Music is perceived in time, and it only exists during performance (live or recording). Physical scores exist, but these are naught but a diagram, a guide. A composer exists only through his or her performances. When these end, the composer also ceases to exist. Beethoven exists for us because Beethoven is performed a great deal. The greatness of his music has established his place in our consciousness and our history. Beethoven is the one composer that is known world-wide above any other; granted, Bach, Mozart, and Wagner are pretty high on the list internationally, as well, but Beethoven outshines them all. Beethoven is the reflection of Western Culture and its Individualism; he’s its patron saint. His shadow is long…composers for decades (even to today!) after his death were terrified to write symphonies for the fear of being compared (obviously unfavorably) to Beethoven. Music’s first Romantic and its first superstar, he changed the rules of the game…that’s legacy.

Not that everything he wrote was brilliant. It wasn’t. Every composer has turkeys in their catalog (here, I must add one of my favorite quotes from a former music history teacher: “There is no bad Mozart, only indifferent Mozart”…this falls into the ‘take the money and run’ category); in Beethoven’s case, the monumental masterpieces (and there are many) so out weigh the turkeys that the latter become inconsequential…or never played, which is even better.

Most composers that we study and know of were fine composers and excellent craftsmen. The funny thing is that many of these composers have extremely large catalogs, but they may be known for only a small number of works…even only for one. In most cases, these are not the works that they wished they would be remembered for. Take John Philip Sousa, for example. Everyone knows Sousa…he’s in the American consciousness, and there is a standard marching band instrument that bears his name. Stars and Stripes Forever is one of the most, if not the most, played American compositions. His other marches probably fill out most of the top 10. They’re great…fantastic compositions with innovative counterpoint…but they are marches. Sousa was a composer of ‘serious’ concert music, including a large number of operettas and tone poems. This is want he wanted his legacy to be.

Another interesting assessment (that we have due to documentation) is how a composer’s impact and influence change over time. Here, I will give two brief contrasting examples. J. S. Bach, grandmaster extraordinaire, was known as a keyboardist and choirmaster during his life…on one list of the most important living German composers, his rank was (I believe) 47th, with G. P. Telemann taking top honors (this fact is attributed to the same music history teacher who gave the Mozart quip earlier…I don‘t really know if it‘s even remotely true, but it makes good reading). Granted, Telemann is not horrible, he just shouldn’t be mentioned in the same breath as Bach. Now, as the story goes, Bach was ‘rediscovered’ by (none other than) Felix Mendelssohn when the later found manuscript paper of the former packing fish at the market. Yes, the history books had to be rewritten, and the musical firmament had to be realigned. The discovering of Charles Ives (during his lifetime, at least) had the same impact. The flip side is poor Sir Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert and Sullivan fame. In graduate school, I did a bibliography project where I looked up Mr. Sullivan’s entries in multiple editions (a new one each generation) of Grove’s Dictionary of Music. Mr. Sullivan’s first biographical entry was multiple pages, and it discussed a popular composer at the height of his powers. Over the generations, his entries became smaller and smaller to the point of inconsequence. The collective consciousness decided that he was not that important after all.

The purpose for this written meditation into legacy is actually a very personal one. I have had a number of teachers and colleagues–all composers–who were both close and influential to me as a creative artist, pass in the last couple of years. Two very important friends in fact passed the week of Thanksgiving. Other than their passing effecting me both emotionally and spiritually, I also began to think of how these people will be remembered…how will I be remembered? What will last, if anything?

This group is split between classical (art music) composers and jazz composers. There is a difference here, and it’s an important one. Even though many jazz compositions are not as through-composed (completely written) as classical scores, many do have the luxury of being easily recorded. The jazz musician who is a composer is almost always a performer as well; this is very untrue for most classical composers (yours truly being a major exception, although truth be told, I straddle the fence between ‘classical‘ and ‘jazz‘). Jazz composers perform and record their own material. The act of recording creates an incredible documentation that is far more consciously powerful than a written score. John Coltrane’s compositions (and of course his playing) has been one of my major influences, however I am conscious of the fact that it is the specific recording (that is impossible to recreate exactly) that had the impact. Even if the pieces are meticulously arranged, the nature of jazz breeds infinite possibilities to each performance. If you’re playing a Coltrane composition, it doesn’t guarantee that it will sound anything like Coltrane. On the flip side, these compositions become important because of who recorded it; Coltrane was writing (as I also do for my solo works) for himself, even though every time he performs it, it will be different.

The classical composers get the short end of the stick here. Many major works go undocumented save for a bound score possibly gathering dust in a university library or on a classical music publisher’s shelf. Symphonic works and operas are big–real big–and expensive; expensive to produce, and expensive to record. Many composers now opt to write chamber music or electronic works which are easily presented and cheaply recorded–‘cheaply’ is a relative term…realize a couple of hours of recording a chamber ensemble can easily run well into the thousands, not to even mention editing and mastering. There is a reason that my first two solo discs are just that: me alone.

On the other hand, you get what you write (with some slight, usually acceptable, variation) every time. If the Vienna Philharmonic or the Newton Community Symphony plays Beethoven, you’ll get Beethoven. Easy.

With the iconic jazz recordings, one does wonder whether they will become more important, or less, as time rolls on. Coltrane’s will still be there, as will Miles’, but how about the second and third tear artists. There were many who were extremely influential, yet don’t have the immediate recognition even from younger jazz players. My former (and recently passed) teacher Jimmy Giuffre falls into this category. He was one of the leaders of the 1950’s and 60’s jazz Avant-garde and produced some major breakthrough recordings, especially with his trio. I am amazed now that he has limited recognition with jazz students and young players, although many people still know his tune Four Brothers (even though they don‘t know that he wrote it), which was written for the Woody Herman Band’s famous saxophone section…of course, I wonder how many people, jazz musicians or other, can actually name the four great saxophonists this was written for.

Another one of my influential recently passed teachers was Joe Maneri. Maneri’s situation is even more precarious because of the lack of recorded material in widespread distribution. A member of Schoenberg’s outer circle (an amazing situation for jazz musician), he became fascinated with microtones–the shades of tuning between half-steps–and based his career on exploring composition and performance utilizing these. For Joe, the octave contained 72 notes, or 6 to the half-step. These concepts completely opened my mind up to color possibilities. He was a very influential teacher and important fixture at New England Conservatory, but will these ideas last? Yes, there is the Boston Microtonal Society which he began and which continues to present occasional concerts (run by his former students), but again, for how long? And who is teaching these concepts now to the next generation…who is carrying that torch? Many of us who worked with him use the concepts to varying degrees, but no one that I know of bases their career on them.

The one I’m not so worried about is George Russell. He influenced decades of jazz musicians with his writing; much of modern jazz is practically based on his concepts, and he influenced classical composers and theorists, as well. Much of my composing uses his concepts (in my own way, but they are there). Again, though, future generations will have to decide.

Speaking of theorists, I can say with absolute authority that I had the most wonderful music theory training at New England Conservatory for the sole reason that music theory was taught by composers and not by music theorists. Practical application versus speculation. Learning from composers, we didn’t painfully analyze individual chords or break structures down to their most simple (and sterilized) form; we learned to apply theory as a composer did, by writing in specific forms and structures to really see how these concepts worked. This was wonderful. My main disgust with music in academia is that students are no longer taught how or why, only what. The practical application is gone. This is another rant for another time, but there is a reason I brought it up. I was both a student of and an assistant to James Hoffmann. Hoffmann was a composer who taught music theory. He and Joe Maneri were forever linked due to the fact that they started a concert series at the Conservatory called the Enchanted Circle, which ran for decades. This was a very eclectic series, and pretty much anything went. I like that. The funny thing is that Jim was an incredible theory teacher, but it wasn’t until his retirement concert when I actually heard his music. I was asked by him to play, and I remember the piece vividly…it was called Image Evolving. It was very lovely, with elements of Minimalism and wonderful counterpoint and structure. Why hadn’t I heard any more of his music? I knew the man at that point for many years and as a student worked closely with him as a theory assistant. What I heard was a lot better than many more popular composers who seem to have constant performances. Will this music ever be played again? Probably not. It never made it into the consciousness, even into the consciousness of the place he taught at for decades. Odd, sad, but true. If he didn’t, or wasn’t able to, promote his own music while alive, who is going to do it now?

The next three I have to discuss were all friends. Each had their Light extinguished before their time, and in some cases, before their work had a chance to manifest into the consciousness. Roger Sessions once said that composers should not be taken seriously until after middle age, and for the most part, I agree with this. The unfortunate part is when you can see the blooming of a unique and powerful voice that is suddenly cut off before it comes to full maturity. What could have been? And, what will happen to their legacy?

Denise Broadhurst was a lovely soul. A wonderful composer whose music showed incredible style and elegance. She was one of the composers whose music I played throughout my international touring. As a younger, woman composer, her music was an inspiration to student women composers in the former Soviet Union countries. One has to understand that women composers are not taken seriously in these patriarchal societies; they are taught by men, even though women composition students outnumber men by about 10 to 1 (mainly because men are pushed out of the arts by society and into business and science; the societal oppression there goes both ways, believe me). In Denise’s music, they were able to find an inspiration that they could be successful. Denise died of breast cancer basically at the same time I was coming back to the US from my year in Russia. She was 38. I never got to see her. Her family and closest friends have created a scholarship in her name at Nassau Community College, and are planning to eventually document and record all of her music. I have also offered to record her saxophone and clarinet music, release them, and have all proceeds go to the scholarship fund. She touched so many at such a young age; but it’s up to those who are left to keep her in the collective consciousness.

Charles Wells was probably the only person I had ever met whom I could call truly Christian, and I mean that in the purest sense possible. We studied with the same composition teacher, Chinary Ung. Charles was giving to the point of excess, to the point where his own career as a composer and pianist took a far back seat to his desire to give and help those in need. He helped me through an extremely difficult time in my early to mid 20’s. Charles was the most encouraging and supportive friend and colleague one could hope for. There was no sense of competition, and he would gladly stop his own projects and creativity to help another, even if they were competitors for the same prize. It just didn’t matter to him. He was also the person who first introduced me to a holistic lifestyle and yoga practice, something I needed badly at that point during my recovery from a devastating illness. He is one of the reasons I am who I am today. A purest, Charles refused to use modern technology; he handwrote all of his music scores. His calligraphy was absolutely gorgeous, it resembled Islamic holy script…the problem was that it was impossible to read. Charles never received many performances due to this. His music was Neo-Romantic, lush and beautiful. It was almost never played, and I think that I may have given him more performances in the three years that we were studying together than he may have ever had. Charles died in a car accident the week of Thanksgiving, 2009; he was probably doing something for someone out of pure altruism. He will be remembered as a kind and loving soul, but I’m afraid his music may not survive.

I had the absolute pleasure of being good friends with one of the most interesting and unique individuals who had ever graced NYC. Leroy (Sam) Parkins was a free spirit in the most wonderful sense. A composer, New Orleans-style clarinetists and ‘whore house’ tenor player (the latter self-proclaimed), and Grammy winning producer. He was also the most spry octogenarian I had ever met, and still quite the lady charmer. While living in NYC, I would visit Sam weekly to have bagels and coffee and play clarinet duets; after moving, I continued this every time I was in NYC. We would spend hours every Saturday playing, listening to recordings, and trading stories, although his were far more interesting. The man had worked with everybody, knew everybody. Hey relayed personal stories of Benny Goodman, Igor Stravinsky, and every major figure that students read of in their music history books. But, he was hip to the scene and wanted to know what was happening where, and also how to be a part of it. He went out constantly to clubs and concerts to catch what was new, and asked me specifically how I was able to produce concerts and promote myself; Sam still gigged a couple of times a week down in the West Village. As a composer, Sam’s music was a combination of his wild life experiences and his formal training at New England Conservatory and Cornell. He took a long hiatus from writing when he became a producer for Columbia Records, and had only recently started writing again. People started to become interested in his music; he seemed to have either been in the trend, or ahead of it, in his earlier works from the 50’s and 60’s. He played me his recordings from that time period, which were quite something. When Elaine Kwon (piano) and I performed one of his pieces at the Knitting Factory in 2007, it was the first time he had heard it since he wrote it, almost 50 years earlier. Most recently, he had been focusing on writing choral music based on religious themes. He wanted to be rediscovered, like Ives. Sam died on vacation over Thanksgiving, 2009. He was Israel, probably the cause of death was an embolism from being immobile during the long plane flight. They also discovered advanced cancer; it was just a matter of time.

What will be left? Who will be there to champion one’s music? Will it just dissolve into the annals of time and history, and will one be designated to naught but a footnote. Composers, and I believe this for all creative artists, strive for immortality. Music is more precarious than the visual arts here; so is choreography. After Merce Cunningham passed (just recently) an article was written in the NY Times on whether or not his work will survive, given the indeterminateness of it. Can it be reproduced, and unlike jazz musicians, this work can only be documented on video.

I have always felt that as a creative artist, I have to constantly produce and document; if not for my own legacy, then to give forward to the following generations. This is probably why I have recorded over five CDs worth of material in the past two years, and constantly document every new project. Always producing and creating at the highest possible level is the key. Information technology is a double-edged sword: one can easily document everything one does, but because of the absolute mass of information now available, one’s work can be impossible to find except through a specific search.

I think I have this need as an artist to save humanity, or at least to have positive influence over the artistic and spiritual development of the next generations. My work has taken the form of international collaborations, most especially to bring my own brand of individualism to oppressed regions of the globe. This is not arrogance–I have none–this is filling a need, helping people to realize their own potential for greatness. This is also why I travel so much to oppressive, less hospitable regions. Although certain people may argue this with me, I don’t believe that it’s because of some underlying thanatopsis in my personality; if I have a lasting impact as an artist, it should because of what I was able to do for others. My job isn’t finished yet, so if I were to pass today, my work, although promising, would remain unfinished. If I can help some realize what they can be, help them evolve as individuals, and help them to create for themselves, what greater legacy is there?

Please join us Friday, December 4 at 8pm for our first concert of the season – Words and Music – featuring the winners of the Forecast Music 2009 Call for Scores.

Renee Weiler Concert Hall
at Greenwich House Music School
– only $10 at the door –
46 Barrow Street, New York, NY
Tel: 212-242-4770
Directions: 1 train to Christopher St./Sheridan Sq or the A, B, C, D, E, F and V trains to W. 4th St.

James Barry: Songs of Issa & unfulfilled
Clifton Callender: chansons innocentes (*call winner)
James Holt: Ham-Sah (**Forecast commission)
Jeff Myers: La Beaute (*call winner)
Jody Redhage: Starlings & This November
Eric Schwartz: Tra La La
Demetrius Spaneas: Moonlight of Lost Dreams

Performed by sopranos Amberleigh Aller, Jacquelyn Familant, Cameron Russell and instrumentalists Rose Bellini, William Harvey, Elaine Kwon, Isabelle O’Connell, Jody Redhage, Demetrius Spaneas.

New Traditions: music for winds and guitar

Demetrius Spaneas, saxophones
Robert Ward, guitar

Performing a variety of new and adapted works for saxophone and guitar, including: Astor Piazzolla Cafe 1930 from Histoire du Tango; Alan Hovhannes Suite for Alto Saxophone and Guitar; David Claman Aasai Neelaavey (means New Moon in Tamil); Pajdushka, a Macedonian folk dance; and the premier of my With Boundless Glory, She Transforms the World (a hymn to Usha).

Wednesday, December 2, 2009
12PM
The Fenway Center
77 St. Stephen Street
Boston, MA

On November 22, 2009 I will conduct the Northeastern University Concert Band in the premier performance of my Supplication and Exuberance for Symphonic Band. We will also perform works by Hector Berlioz, Gustav Holst, Johannes Hanssen, and James Barry. The concert will be shared with the Northeastern University Wind Ensemble, Allen Feinstein directing; the Concert Band and I will play the 2nd half of the concert.

Fenway Center
Northeastern University
Boston, MA
November 22, 2009
4PM

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