Pomegranate: New Music for Bill Dixon
The Stone
New York, NY
Stephen Haynes/trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn
Joe Morris/guitar
Ben Stapp/tuba
William Parker/contrabass violin
Warren Smith/drums and percussion
For two weeks during the month of January, Joe Morris curated a remarkable series of concerts at The Stone. Each of the fourteen night featured two sets of music, and each set featured a different ensemble/grouping of musicians. Many, but not all, of the concerts included Joe. Elsewhere, with another musician, this would be an indicator of redundancy, but with Joe Morris we were afforded a rare and sustained window into the remarkable range of his work. Read more about the series here.
I was invited to join the series for two evenings, each a week apart. The first concert was a new grouping of Kyoko Kitamura, Joe Morris, Micheal Evans and myself. The music was a delight. Listen to/view video of the music here.
The second concert allowed me to continue the work on my Pomegranate project, a dedication to my teacher Bill Dixon. What had been conceived of as a two-bass quartet had changed since the Hartford premier of the project. Joe Morris had moved to the guitar and I invited Ben Stapp to join us on tuba.
The weather was quite cold, but we were warmed by the audience. Great to look out and see so many friends, old and new, wrapped up in the music. The ensemble shows great promise and there were moments of sustained beauty. We were graced by the presence/presents of photographer/friend Enid Farber who made the pre-show hang in The Stone's basement and stayed on after Ivo Perelman's set to photograph our work. Her images, like her vision/sensibility, are special. Enid is one of the great photographers of/in this music.
The weather was quite cold, but we were warmed by the audience. Great to look out and see so many friends, old and new, wrapped up in the music. The ensemble shows great promise and there were moments of sustained beauty. We were graced by the presence/presents of photographer/friend Enid Farber who made the pre-show hang in The Stone's basement and stayed on after Ivo Perelman's set to photograph our work. Her images, like her vision/sensibility, are special. Enid is one of the great photographers of/in this music.
In March, this ensemble will open the Spring concert series at Firehouse 12 in New Haven. The concert will be recorded. The next day, we plan to spend time in the studio at Firehouse 12 doing more recording. I plan to draw at least one album of music for commercial release from these recordings.
Images of Stephen Haynes and Pomegranate at The Stone by Enid Farber
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2 comments:
I'm so pleased to see Pomegranate on the Firehouse 12 schedule! And doubly pleased that you are opening the Spring 2013 series! Good for you, the ensemble and we the audience.
Richard
This music is changing my life, Stephen. Thank you for being exactly who, what and where you are today. I focused on critical legal theory in law school and this music... or, this reality, more accurately, is the musical version of critical theory. I look forward to hearing, learning and experiencing more.
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