New Steve Reich, including rock instrumentation

[Bassomatic]

I know some folks around here will be as interested as I am in checking out Reich's new release of Nonesuch (what do Bjork, Reich, and Wilco have in common? What a label).

Hopefully I'll get time to listen tonight. The reviews of Double Sextet look very promising...

http://www.nonesuch.com/albums/double-sextet

 

[KRosser]

This just came out...will be picking it up tomorrow....I can't wait!

 

[Member 995]

I'm intrigued by the idea of "2x5." This could be fresh.

The samples of "Double Sextet" sounded like what I expect from SR - not a bad thing at all, but . . .

I'm not sure if I'm familiar with the guitarists (Bryce Dessner and Mark Stewart) or bassist (Robert Black).

 

[KRosser]

I'm intrigued by the idea of "2x5." This could be fresh.

The samples of "Double Sextet" sounded like what I expect from SR - not a bad thing at all, but . . .

That's the piece that won the Pulitzer last year. The snippets I heard I really loved...

I'm not sure if I'm familiar with the guitarists (Bryce Dessner and Mark Stewart) or bassist (Robert Black).

Dessner is a classically trained player, for some reason I think part of Ben Verdery's circle, also a very accomplished electric guitarist. He's in the rock band The National.

Stewart and Black are members of the Bang On A Can All-Stars, one of the premier NYC new music ensembles. Stewart also does a lot of Broadway pit work and his 'day job' for the last decade has been touring with Paul Simon.

 

[Member 995]

That's the piece that won the Pulitzer last year. The snippets I heard I really loved...

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I'll enjoy it. The clips just seem like the next installment in Reich's catalog. Not a bad thing at all, as I'm a huge Reich fan.

Dessner is a classically trained player, for some reason I think part of Ben Verdery's circle, also a very accomplished electric guitarist. He's in the rock band The National.

That's why the name was familiar - The National. I just read a brief biography and he sounds like my kind of guy!

Thanks for the info!

 

[Bassomatic]

Stewart and Black are members of the Bang On A Can All-Stars, one of the premier NYC new music ensembles. Stewart also does a lot of Broadway pit work and his 'day job' for the last decade has been touring with Paul Simon.

Terrific and uber versatile player, no?

 

[NashSG]

I've heard a couple of the Bang On a Can records of them doing Music for Airports and Terry Riley's In C and they are good. Music for Airports being done by an actual group and not some tape loops was really wild.

Reich did do some work with electric guitars before on that multitracked piece with Pat Metheny called Electric Counterpoint. It's worth checking out.

 

[e-z]

Mark Stewart played on a soundtrack for film a worked on. He was super nice and a great player.

 

[Member 995]

Rehearsal footage:

 

[KRosser]

Terrific and uber versatile player, no?

Indeed....

 

[KRosser]

I finally got it this weekend and have been listening to it....really fantastic stuff.

 

[Astronome]

music for 18 musicians is a regular in my cd player....soo very mesmerising.. reminds me of M.C. Escher's metamorphosis series

 

[KRosser]

I've heard a couple of the Bang On a Can records of them doing Music for Airports and Terry Riley's In C and they are good. Music for Airports being done by an actual group and not some tape loops was really wild.

They have a big catalog, a lot of the stuff is really great. It was started by three NYC composers Julia Wolfe, David Lang and Michael Gordon, to basically give them an ensemble of players to write for in whatever combinations. In some ways the Wolfe, Lang & Gordon stuff is where they really shine, I think

Reich did do some work with electric guitars before on that multitracked piece with Pat Metheny called Electric Counterpoint. It's worth checking out.

PM premiered the piece and apparently advised Reich on making a few of the parts lay better on the guitar. It's not a collaboration at all, though - it's 100% Reich all the way. The Brooklyn College of Music commisioned it for Pat to play at a festival

Other guitarists, electric and acoustic, have adapted Reich's works also - fingers crossed that this is an area Reich stays interested in.

 

[Member 995]

music for 18 musicians is a regular in my cd player....soo very mesmerising..

That was the first Reich piece that really grabbed me. I had studied some of his earlier works in college, but "Music for 18 Musicians" really did a lot for me. It remains one of my favorite pieces of music for long road trips and/or introspective listening.

 

[Bassomatic]

A friend and former boss works with Reich and said Pat struggled mightily with that piece, specifically the sight reading. Didn't PM comission that one, or did I dream that up.

 

[KRosser]

A friend and former boss works with Reich and said Pat struggled mightily with that piece, specifically the sight reading. Didn't PM comission that one, or did I dream that up.

No, The Brooklyn College of Music commissioned it for Pat to play at the 1987 Next Wave Festival, and they got SR & PM together. I also heard Metheny struggled with it a lot, but that kind of reading and performing is way out of his comfort zone, and kudos to him for stepping up.

Reich has put on a lot of shows with Mark Stewart doing it, which I'd love to hear.

 

[KRosser]

That was the first Reich piece that really grabbed me. I had studied some of his earlier works in college, but "Music for 18 Musicians" really did a lot for me. It remains one of my favorite pieces of music for long road trips and/or introspective listening.

My first was "Tehillim" - it came out during a period when I was buying all the ECM jazz I could get my hands on, and it both defied my expectations and completely floored me. It's still one of my favorite pieces of music ever

 

[Bassomatic]

Rehearsal footage:

Great find - thanks.

'Discipline'-era King Crimson always reminded me of Reich - the interlocking Balinese-y thing, the hints at phasing in those Belew and Fripp duet sections . It's sort of ironic seeing Reich get down to it with a "rock band" .

I remember looking at Reich's thesis in the library when I was a Mills student. It was through composed music for a jazz band, which is as close as he's gotten to what he's just now getting around to (not counting the Metheny thing, which was a solo thing, especially timbrally). It was considerally more primitive than his later work, but was patternistic and original all the same. (Hey, he was a drummer).

Is that Evan Ziporyn on piano?

 

[Bassomatic]

I also heard Metheny struggled with it a lot, but that kind of reading and performing is way out of his comfort zone, and kudos to him for stepping up.

Absolutely. It was a bit of new music snobbery, kind of snarky.

 

[KRosser]

Great find - thanks.

'Discipline'-era King Crimson always reminded me of Reich - the interlocking Balinese-y thing, the hints at phasing in those Belew and Fripp duet sections . It's sort of ironic seeing Reich get down to it with a "rock band" .

Not coincidental - I read interviews with Belew where he said Fripp dragged him to a few Reich concerts when their orbits first started overlapping with Eno & Talking Heads, etc. and Fripp was living in NYC.

I remember looking at Reich's thesis in the library when I was a Mills student. It was through composed music for a jazz band, which is as close as he's gotten to what he's just now getting around to (not counting the Metheny thing, which was a solo thing, especially timbrally). It was considerally more primitive than his later work, but was patternistic and original all the same. (Hey, he was a drummer).

Interesting! He was a student of Berio's there. There's an interesting article where he talks about doing the serialism exercises which he hated and Berio was the one who told him, "If you want to write tonal music, write tonal music" and basically allowed him to reject the whole post-Schoenberg thing and find his own voice. Reich describes it as nothing less than a total epiphany.

Is that Evan Ziporyn on piano?

Yeah! According to the liner notes, Ziporyn asked to get involved on a 'gamelan piano' concept.