In this Newsletter:

Elliot Sharp performs in Electric Ascension – Saalfelden, Austria Aug, 2009

2009-10 will be an important and vibrant period for Rova:Arts. Below are some of the things we’re cooking up for the coming season.

Rovaté 2010
Over the past 9 years we have produced one major collaboration or commissioned work after another—some of which you may have seen or heard on a CD release, as a special Rova:Arts members CD, or read about at our website. Rovate 2010 will be a co-production with the Other Minds Festival, featuring a new commissioned work for Rova, Pandemonium, from composer/violinist Carla Kihlstedt. Other Minds 15 will take place March 4, 5, and 6. More details on the event will follow in upcoming Rova newsletters, and on our website.

Improv:21
the Rova:Arts series of informances about the art of improvisation will begin once again in January 2010, funding permitting, with New York based trumpeter Peter Evans. In the meantime, you can watch past Improv:21 shows by going to RadiOM and searching for “Rova,” which will bring up Improv21 from 2005 through 2007 including many interesting and unforgettable discussions and musical performances. You can also click on the links below in the RadioOM – Improv:21 Archives section of the newsletter.

New Rova:Arts Website
While we hope to continue to present the Improv:21 series live during the coming season, we have begun another major effort to bring more visibility to the contemporary improvisation scene by launching a new Rova:Arts website with updated content and offering access to Rova’s growing archive of audio and video recordings. The new website is now under construction and we hope to launch it by the release of the next newsletter in November. Eventually we plan to make available streaming versions of concerts from the past 3 decades, and also offer special high quality recordings exclusively to paid members of Rova:Arts through member-only downloads. If you’ve been a member of Rova Arts you’ve already received our annual members-only CDs of live recordings and video documentaries.

The Celestial Septet
Larry Ochs and new World Records are in the process of producing the first release of  The Celestial Septet, with Rova, Nels Cline, Devin Hoff and Scott Amendola (Rova and Nels Cline Singers). The release date will be March 2010. A set of passionate performances recorded in late 2008 finds the septet playing pieces by Adams, Amendola, Cline, and Ochs. If you didn’t get a chance to hear this band in its very few public appearances, we promise you that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Watch our website for further details very soon.

Cleansing the Mirror
Rova:Arts is committed to finding the means to aid in the production of a documentary project of the filmmaking group Ideas in Motion, conceived around Rova’s large ensemble piece, Electric Ascension. Director John Rogers intends the piece to explore the aesthetic and political milieu surrounding John Coltrane’s 1965 groundbreaking work for 11 players, Ascension—one of his most controversial yet influential late recordings.

Ideas in Motion accompanied Rova to Saalfelden to continue filming the group live in action and to interview the players, and we’re hoping there will be more opportunities in other cities to present the work and to complete the production of Cleansing the Mirror.

Rova Takes ‘Art of the Improviser’ on the Road
In the spring of 2010 we hope to bring Art of the Improviser concerts to Chicago and New York, presenting Rova strategies and forms for improvisers—both as a quartet and together with local improvisers. We’ll provide more details as things develop.

New Rova CD
A new Rova Quartet CD with compositions by Larry Ochs and Steve Adams is now in production. The planned release date is late 2010.

Fissures, Futures DVD
Happily, the two performances of Rovaté 2009, dedicated to Buckminster Fuller, were recorded live. This exciting collaboration between 11 world class musicians and the digital animation artist, Lillevan, will be mixed and edited for a final cut DVD that will see the light of day in 2011. Ideally one or more of these tracks will be made available as a streaming DVD at the new website sometime early in 2010.

The Graphic Scores Production
Jon Raskin and Steve Adams of Rova brought the sax quartet into the studio last year to record several versions of some of their compositions for improvisers which are graphically notated (non-traditional music notation, including symbols, pictures, and other graphical elements). They are meticulously working on the post-production of the recordings, and are also planning a special booklet displaying the scores to accompany the CD release. Expect to see some of the scores and an opportunity to download some of the pieces at the new website.

Sept 24^th
Jones Jones
The School of Dramatic Art Theatre
Moscow, Russia

Larry Ochs – saxes
Mark Dresser – bass
Vladimir Tarasov - drums

Oct. 4^th
Kihnoua & Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core
21 Grand - Oakland 
416 25th Street
Oakland
(510) 444-7263

Here’s the upcoming tour itinerary of the quintet:
Oct 8: The Whole Music Club, University of MN, Minneapolis, co-produced by Northrop Auditorium
Oct 9: Sheldon Concert Hall, St Louis, MO, produced by New Music Circle
Oct 10: Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida
Oct 11: Timicula White House, Orlando, FL
Oct 12: Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY
Oct 13: Roulette, New York City
Oct 15: Real Artways, Hartford, CT
Oct 16: Portland Conservatory of Music at Woodford’s Church, Portland, ME

Electric Ascension in Saalfelden, Austria

Ackley Reports

Ornette Coleman performs Saalfelden Festival 2009    Photo: Myles Boisen

So much about the Saalfelden Jazz Festival experience this past August exemplifies what keeps me engaged in this music and what makes me ecstatic over being part of Rova World: great art, a dedicated community of fellow artists and lovers of the work, and incredible opportunities to export projects we create in the Bay Area to remote and interesting locations. It was thrilling to arrive at a renowned international festival—which leans forward artistically—with a stellar band to present an electric version of John Coltrane’s Ascension. And, with one short rehearsal this new configuration of the Electric Ascension band delivered a riveting hour long performance.

Check out the band that joined forces with Rova (Ochs really outdid himself in casting this one): Elliot Sharp - e. guitar; Jason Kao Hwang – violin; Ikue Mori - laptop electronics; Chris Brown - electronics; Zeena Parkins - e. harp and electronics; Eyvind Kang - viola; Peter Evans - trumpet; Trevor Dunn - bass; Andrew Cyrille - drums. From Sharp’s blistering opening to Adam’s reflective closing solo the performance smoked. Everyone played their collective hearts out and made some incredible music happen in that tiny Austrian town tucked away in the foothills of the Alps. And, as with each performance of Electric Ascension, I left the stage yearning for the next opportunity to do it again.

In December 1995 Rova presented our first performance of Ascension with the original Coltrane lineup of 5 saxes, two trumpets, piano, two basses and drums. Leaving the stage of the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco that night, Glenn Spearman leaned over to me and said “It’s (Ascension is) our Handel’s Messiah. We should do it every Christmas!” A dozen performances and 14 years later I just have to say, ‘I feel you, Glenn!’ At last count 45 artists have now contributed their creative energies to the Rova-based Ascensions, staged in 6 countries.

Sympathetic with the vibe of that growing community of participants, the Saalfelden scene was organized so that all the festival performers, workers, and the audience could interact freely. The festival setup encouraged the participating musicians from many cities to connect with each other; and listening friends from several countries had a chance to meet with each other and with the performers in a warm and informal setting. The technology was happening too: a video monitor in the musicians’ lounge area showed all performances live, and a large screen mounted in the public square outside the performance hall allowed folks to view the festival for free while hanging out, eating, and drinking at outdoor food stands.

The music presented was really special. Although the weekend wasn’t the blockbuster festival that Rova witnessed during our last visit to Saalfelden in 1994, this time we caught a really good Oliver Lake Trio, with Michael Gregory Jackson on guitar, and Pheeroan Aklaff on drums; a thoughtful tribute to bassist, cellist, and composer Oscar Pettiford by Erik Friedlander’s Broken Arm Trio; and a knockout Ornette Coleman set to close the festival. Following the Electric Ascension performance, ex-Berkeley-ite, Steven Bernstein led his Diaspora Suite ensemble through a hard blowing set, featuring Rova comrades John Schott, Ben Goldberg, Scott Amendola, Devin Hoff and others.

And, while not forgetting the music we came to play, it’s really impossible to capture in words the music that happens once Electric Ascension launches. At the beginning I experience an overwhelming feeling of anticipation and intense focus, then ecstasy takes over and memory fails. I retain fragments: Sharp’s driving blind energy, Ochs’s blast furnace tenor, Raskin’s clever cueing behind solos, Parkins’ trickery, Cyrille and Dunn juggling the pulse, the dance of Brown and Mori’s circuitry, Peter Evans’ tortured trumpet, Kang and Hwang teasing the tonality, Adam’s on-the-edge contemplation, and myself gliding through the maelstrom. But it’s no good to say more than that we hit the stage and gave the music all we had. After that, who knows what exactly was delivered and what was received.

What I often struggle with at these European events that are so well planned and which include artists who challenge their audiences with daring and risky work, is the discrepancy between American attitudes about art and its place in society and those of the Europeans. This 4 day event that was meticulously organized; which drew enthusiastic, full house audiences; that was easily accessible by locals as well as fans from dozens of countries; took place in a town with a population of 17,000. (Elko, Nevada’s is about the same.) And several equally well-conceived and adventurous festivals of cutting edge improvised music and jazz happen in other remote Austrian locales—including St. Johann im Tirol, Nicklesdorf and Ulrichsberg (pop. 3,000!). And, of course, this sort of dedication to presenting non-commercial musical performance the right way is happening in every country in Europe.

The one negative about it all is the travel. The Rovas and many of the other performers at the festival were flown over to play one concert only. Oliver Lake told me he does it all the time. Obviously this is not economically or physically ideal. The wear and tear of that kind of travel is getting more pronounced. As Andrew Cyrille has it: “I don’t get paid to pay; I get paid to travel.” For this event I was gone from home for around 75 hours, 40 of which were in transit. I stood in line waiting for a boarding pass in the Frankfurt airport longer than I was on stage in Saalfelden. But really, let’s face it: it’s nice work if you can get it.

Last moments of the trip were spent with Cyrille and Jason Hwang at the airport. Jason was talking violins and bows and Andrew shared stories about carrying his drums for Philly Joe Jones to play, watching Buddy Rich with Miles Davis at Birdland, and his recent visit with Cecil Taylor. I drank it all in. I loved playing with Jason and Andrew and was honored to share the stage with Zeena, Ikue, Eyvind, Peter, Trevor, Elliot, and Chris. Doing it all with the Rova crew made it truly exhilarating. And Myles Boisen did a great job making sure the band sounded right in the room.

I think Myles enjoyed himself too. Here’s an excerpt from an email he shared with the group the last night of the festival:

Through the open door on the balcony (of my hotel room) I heard a few squeaky saxophone notes, growled a bit to myself over this interruption to the peace of the Austrian countryside, and walked over to close the door. Then a familiar and desperate keening in the sound grabbed my ear, and as I really began to listen all it took was 3 or 4 notes before I realized that this was Ornette Coleman practicing in his room a few yards away. I stepped out onto the balcony to listen slack-jawed at the familiar lilting scales of one of my all-time favorite saxophonists as he warmed up for his gig tonight at the festival. Even the occasional cracked notes - undoubtedly the sonic by-products of a reed being tested - made me smile. 10-15 euphoric and incredulous minutes passed as I drank in the crisp mountain air at the base of the Alps, listened to Ornette's leapfrogging exercises, looked out on impossibly green hillsides…

Where and when will the mutable Electric Ascension band reconvene for another euphoric flight?

Excavating the LP’s

Though I still have most of my LPs from when they were the recording medium of choice, I haven’t had a working turntable for a long, long time. I recently got a turntable that plugs into a USB port so you can digitize your LP’s, and as a result I’ve been digging out things that I really love but haven’t heard in ages. Here are some of my favorite re-discoveries.

(I feel like I’m breaking the implicit understanding of these lists, which is to suggest things people can pick up and enjoy, since some of these recordings are out of print, but I think it’s worth talking about anyway.)

Sun Ra - Live at Montreux (Inner City 1039)

I first heard Sun Ra when I was sixteen in a tiny coffee house in Ann Arbor, Michigan, having gone because it sounded odd, and it was a life-changing experience. I saw him almost every chance I had after that, and was always surprised and delighted. But I’ve always felt that there’s more of a gap between the live experience and the recordings for Sun Ra than for any other music I know, maybe because the recordings tend to focus on one aspect of the music and the concerts were always vast and kaleidoscopic. This is the recording that comes the closest for me to capturing what it was like to see him live. It also has an amazing, epic John Gilmore solo on Take the A Train. Sun Ra also gave me an understanding of the Big Band Era, which I had never gotten before. Big Band music of my lifetime always seemed too regimented and polite, but when Ra ripped into a Fletcher Henderson chart, it became apparent what kind of energy this music could generate.

John Cage – Indeterminacy (Smithsonian/Folkways 40804)

This one I know is available, since my LP copy was so worn that I went out and got the CD. Cage reads ninety one-minute long stories while David Tudor improvises piano and electronic music. Neither could hear the other while they were recording, and the result makes you ponder deeply on the nature of randomness. Endlessly entertaining.

Julius Hemphill – Dogon A.D. (Arista 1028)

Rova just returned from Saalfelden, Austria, where we heard a great concert by Vijay Iyer and his trio playing music from his new CD Historicity. They did their version of the title tune from Dogon A.D., so I’m not the only one who still thinks highly of this recording. Beautiful playing and great writing from one of the giants of this music. I’m also really digging Julius’s Georgia Blue (Minor Music 003) with the Jah Band – Nels and Alex Cline, Steubig and Jumma Santos.

Donald Fagen – The Nightfly (WB-23696-1)

I was somewhat shocked when I played this one and found out how much I still enjoy this music. It’s catchy as can be, grooves like crazy, has funny, clever lyrics, beautiful production touches all over, and maybe my all-time favorite 16 bar sax solo in the middle of a pop tune by Michael Brecker on Maxine.

The Electronic Arts Ensemble – Inquietude (Gramavision 7003)

I don’t know much about this band. I think they were from upstate New York and put out a couple of recordings in the early 80’s. Working with synthesizers and guitar, they made music that sounds like structured improvisations, combining architecture and immediacy in a really interesting way. It’s a remarkably modern-sounding work that creates an individual sound space that’s not like anything else I can think of.

David Holland Quartet –Conference of the Birds (ECM 1027)

I don’t think there’s any jazz tune more deeply imbedded in my brain than Four Winds on this record. It’s really fun hearing Sam Rivers and Anthony Braxton in this context, dealing with compositions strikingly different from their own.

Hal Willner – Amarcord Nino Rota (Hannibal 9301)

This summer, after her long battle with breast cancer, we lost Tina Marsh, a friend and fellow traveler on the creative path. She gave so much personally and artistically and will be missed by those she touched. A trip to Austin will never be the same without her there.

Want to sample some of the earlier Improv:21 informances?
We will be uploading one show every two months to RadiOM (the archive website of Other Minds) until the entire series is online. There is a lot of stimulating information in each show.

Here’s what’s available at the moment:

We want to express our deepest gratitude to all the generous private and public donors who contribute to Rova:Arts. Your support has been essential to the successful presentation and documentation of our projects over the year.

Formed in 1977, Rova’s been in a state of continual artistic renewal for over 3 decades. Rova:Arts, formed in 1986 to support the activities of Rova, has been instrumental in producing local projects and advancing an ongoing cultural exchange between local Bay Area artists and the international scene through its Rovaté concert series. These events, made possible by funding to Rova:Arts, have engaged Bay Area musicians and composers—as well as musicians from around the world. Rova:Arts projects are often reproduced in other parts of the world, thereby bringing the work to a broader audience. Also, many Rova:Arts events have been recorded, resulting in releases which have been enthusiastically celebrated.

Rova:Arts has produced the Improv:21 series, providing a forum for innovative musicians like Henry Kaiser, Wayne Horvitz, Mark Dresser, Ellen Fullman, Roscoe Mitchell, Zeena Parkins and others to share their artistic visions and unique paths to creativity, with you the audience, in an intimate setting. With your support this fascinating and informative series can continue.

Click here to find out more and to Join Rova:Arts. Thanks for being part of the art.