Wednesday, May 8, 2013

SPAIN: KEN VANDERMARK SOLO "MARK IN THE WATER" KEN VANDERMARK + AGUSTÍ FERNÁNDEZ Martes 14 de mayo, Jamboree, 20:00h y 22:00h

        
© Jim Newberry

KEN VANDERMARK SOLO "MARK IN THE WATER"
KEN VANDERMARK + AGUSTÍ FERNÁNDEZ
Martes 14 de mayo, Jamboree, 20:00h y 22:00h

GIRA COMPLETA:
9/5/2013 Klub Kino Gric, Zagreb (Croacia)
10/5/2013 La Médiathèque, Mons (Bélgica)
11/5/2013 Culture Center Drugstore, Belgrado (Serbia) 
12/5/2013 CK13, Novi Sad (Serbia)
13/5/2013 Klub Dragon, Poznan (Polonia)
14/5/2013 + Agustí Fernández, Jamboree, Barcelona   


“Mark in the Water” (Not two records, 2011) es el segundo álbum de Ken Vandermark en solo (el primero, "Furniture Music", fue publicado por Okka en 2003). Diez piezas de música seleccionada entre los temas del concierto que realizó el 29 de noviembre de 2010 en la sala Alchemia de Cracovia.
A veces cuando escuchas un cd grabado en directo durante un concierto que te gustó mucho te sientes decepcionado, sin el ambiente del escenario, sin el sentimiento de comunión entre el artista y la audiencia, la magia y la energía han desaparecido y la grabación parece simplemente correcta. Bien, pues este no es el caso.
Durante el concierto tocó una serie de “retratos” dedicados a los más influyentes innovadores de los instrumentos de lengüeta (Brotzmann, McPhee, Braxton, Lacy, Hawkins, entre otros) y en medio “piezas abiertas”. La estrategia ideada para el concierto no fue la que finalmente dio forma al álbum, donde sólo hay tres de los retratos y siete piezas abiertas. Una selección realizada por el propio artista, que analizando el material grabado decidió que algunos de los resultados no eran lo suficientemente satisfactorios.
Entre el material considerado digno para aparecer en el cd, encontramos solos de saxo tenor como "Dekooning" (retrato de Coleman Hawkins) y "Looking Back" (para Joe McPhee). Ambos con un profundo sentimiento, pasión y madurez. Una pieza para Bb clarinete "White Lemon" (para Jimmy Giuffre) que cautiva con una melodía delicada, elegante, sencilla y tranquila. En clara oposición con las notas agudas, estridentes y penetrantes del mismo instrumento que parecen constantemente apresuradas en "Burning Air" (para John Carter). La lista completa incluye retratos de Evan Parker, Coleman Hawkins y Anthony Braxton y piezas abiertas dedicadas a Peter Brötzmann, Jimmy Giuffre, John Carter, Eric Dolphy, Steve Lacy, Joe McPhee y, al único del grupo que no toca un instrumento de viento, Fred McDowell. Cuatro piezas en saxo tenor y clarinete bajo, dos en Bb clarinete.
Tanto cuando toca piezas abiertas como retratos, lo que realmente hace Ken Vandermark es mirarse al espejo y dibujar un autorretrato. Y este cuadro nos da la imagen de un músico excelente, un notable artista de alma sensible y apasionado como quien más por la música. Un mero capítulo de su viaje musical, un documento de su plenamente consciente desarrollo como artista y músico. Un dibujo de una estela en el agua (tratando de capturar y fijar lo que nunca permanece igual). Me gustó el concierto, me gusta el álbum.  
“Entras, te plantas directamente frente al otro tipo, le miras a los ojos y le dices la verdad”, James Cagney, On the process of acting (sacado del texto que acompaña al cd). (Free) Jazz Alchemist

KEN VANDERMARK, 9/22/64, Warwick, Rhode Island, Estados Unidos
 Saxo tenor, clarinetes, saxo barítono. Licenciado en cine y comunicación por la McGill University, Montreal, 1986.
Los últimos veinte años Ken Vandermark ha explorado y trabajado incansablemente para extender las posibilidades de la música improvisada y la composición tanto en América del Norte como en Europa. Desde que en 1989 se trasladó a Chicago desde su Boston natal, ha actuado y grabado en una gran variedad de contextos y con muchas formaciones diferentes. Entre sus grupos, podemos mencionar, entre otros, Vandermark 5, NRG Ensemble, el DKV Trio, AALY, el Vandermark Quartet, Spaceways Inc., School Days, etc. Actualmente la mayor parte de su trabajo como compositor e improvisador está enfocado en las bandas Made to Break, Side A, Free Fall, iTi, la Resonance Ensemble, el Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet, Sonore, Territory Band y Free Fall, sus dúos con Tim Daisy y Paal Nilssen-Love, o sus solos.
En 1999 le fue concedido el premio “Genius Grant” de la Fundación MacArthur. En 1994  el Vandermark Quartet fue escogido por el Chicago Tribune “Chicagoans of the year in the arts”; en junio de 1998 la revista Down Beat le seleccionó como uno de los “25 for the future”, concretamente como el músico más importante de la escena de la improvisación menor de 40 años. En el 2004, Ken fue nombrado “Musician of the year” por el All about jazz de Nueva York. En septiembre de 2008 fue escogido uno de los 40 Héroes culturales de Chicago por la revista Time Out y en 2012 fue reconocido como “Chicagoan of the Year”.
Ken Vandermark es un músico muy prolífico y cada año inicia nuevos proyectos y colaboraciones que extienden el alcance de su trabajo. En diciembre de 2008 grabó su primera banda sonora para el documental Strade d'Acqua, dirigido por Augusto Contento. En el año 2011 trabajó en otra banda sonora para un nuevo documental de Contento, esta vez sobre la escena de la música creativa de Chicago. El material incluye actuaciones de Steve Albini, Wayne Montana, David Grubbs, John Herndon y Rob Mazurek.

“Looking In The Mirror” (texto que acompaña al cd)

I’d already been considering the idea of recording a second album of solo music when Marek Winiarski of Not Two Records approached me, suggesting that he’d like to release such a document. Though inspired; by Peter Brötzmann’s approach to chronicling solo work, building a “sonic autobiography” with “chapters” recorded every five years or so, I was already three years behind schedule- Okka Disk had issued my first solo album, “Furniture Music,” in 2003. Marek’s proposal was the push I needed to complete the task.
When I made the first solo album I had used templates or loose descriptive frameworks to develop each improvisation. Nothing was pre-composed in the conventional sense but this system gave me a specific set of parameters to work with that were flexible enough to adapt to a specific performance and environment. At that point in the process I needed such guides. After trying a variety of strategies to solo performance these gave me the most successful balance between freedom and constraint, they allowed me to create music that wasn’t reliant on other participants, with a system that wasn’t only an imitation of ideas that had been presented better before; by reed innovators like Braxton, Brötzmann, Carter, Dolphy, Giuffre, Hawkins, Lacy, McPhee, and Parker.
For a few years after “Furniture Music” was released, I continued to use this kind of material for solo concerts. Then something changed; at a certain point the template methodology no longer excited me. It seemed that once I understood how the system worked I needed to find a new approach to solo playing, one that I couldn’t fully grasp. It was necessary to reestablish the edge of improvisational risk for each performance and, primarily motivated by the solo recordings of English trombonist, Paul Rutherford, I decided to try and abandon the frameworks altogether. I began playing “open pieces” that allowed me to discover what was in the room, in the sound that night, to find where it would lead me. The musical hazards in playing this way are real- an improviser is completely exposed, the line between success and failure is obvious to an audience watching and listening. But somehow, after hearing artists like Peter and Joe McPhee perform their solo music for more than a decade, I realized that taking this chance was actually the point. In the hands of artists like these, improvisation is a direct expression of experience, it’s a specific impression of a time and place, a way of getting to facts about living with veracity. For me it became necessary to try, as James Cagney said about acting, to “plant yourself squarely on both feet and tell the truth.”
The ten pieces included on “Mark In The Water” were selected from a concert held at Alchemia, in Krakow, on November 29, 2010. The venue, the people who owned it and who worked there, the audiences who came to the club to listen, had all become a significant part of my creative life during the second half of the 2000’s.
I had been asked to play two sets of music that evening- something I’d never done before as a solo performer. The dread over the possibility of becoming stuck and repeating myself during the course of the performance, as well as the fear of starting the concert only to find out that I had nothing to say that night, were real.
The circumstances were extremely intimidating. Despite my conviction that I should now approach solo concerts without a plan, up to the final minutes before going onstage I was still not sure I’d find a way to create a successful concert. Then by chance, Jarek Gawlinski, a young staff member working at Alchemia, played the album, “The Hawk Flies High.” It’s a classic for me, one that’s a significant part of my upbringing and listening background. Hearing Coleman Hawkins ‘tone fill the club made me consider his solo work, the pieces “Picasso” and “Dali.”  Suddenly, I had the idea of making “portraits” of the reed players who had most inspired me - Anthony Braxton, Peter Brotzmann, John Carter, Eric Dolphy, Jimmy Giuffre, Coleman Hawkins, Steve Lacy, Joe McPhee, and Evan Parker; as well as the guitarist, Fred McDowell, who has made some of the most perfect solo music I’ve ever heard; not to imitate them, but to launch an improvisational profile by using a loose interpretation of their creative aesthetics. I would then combine these pieces with those that were completely open. Within a few moments, thanks to Leszek and Coleman Hawkins, I knew I had found a way to approach both sets.
By the end of the night twenty pieces were recorded, and everyone present seemed to be as exhausted and elated as I was. Though a few notated compositions were played (“Sweet Dragon” by Joe McPhee closed the first set, “Love Cry” by Albert Ayler was the first encore of the second set, “Goodbye Tom B.” by Joe was the third encore and final performance of the evening), none of these performances were used for the album; they can be found on Marek Winiarski’s Not Two compilation, “Krakow Jazz Fall 2011.” Of the remaining material- nine portraits and eight open improvisations- I felt that only three of the “portraits” were strong enough to release, and that seven of the nine open pieces were worth including on “Mark In The Water.” Ironically, the conceptual strategy that helped me with the gig also proved to be the least viable from a musical standpoint. The mirror of this material has made it dear to me- it’s time to take the creative leap that Rutherford, Brötzmann, and McPhee encouraged; to erase the slate, walk on stage without a plan, and try to “tell the truth,” whatever that might be. Ken Vandermark

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