PEOPLE: Musicians & their Music

In fact, the impetus for this blog post on musicians emerged from cleaning up. In the process, I unearthed a forgotten CD. On it were old, color-negative photographs of musicians. This discovery prompted the following post in which I combined these images with some newer, digital photographs which had been waiting for me to select them.

Whenever appropriate or possible, I also provide a link so you might enjoy hearing the person play along with seeing a photograph. 

Flamenco guitarist, Pepe Viramontes, born in Zacatecas, Mexico. I wish I knew more about him, but even finding his name from this side of the country posed some challenges.

Musician, Dan Rathbun, is also a recording engineer and builder of fabulous electronic instruments. He was the founder, along with Nils Frykdahl and Carla Kihlstedt, of the industrial, prog-rock west coast band, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (SGM).  This group’s inventive compositions of textured, raucous sounds won SGM a large following, especially in the West, right up to its final show in 2011 in San Francisco. 

Matthias Bossi became the drummer for SGM in 2004, the band’s fifth year. These two photographs were taken at SGM‘s show of March 2, 2004 at Tonic, a major venue for avant-garde music in New York until it succumbed to gentrification  in 2007. 

A recording of that show can be found here.  An interview from 2007 which offers insights into the forming of SGM can be found here (8:48).  And a recording of one of the group’s iconic pieces, Sleep Is Wrong, can be found here (6:36).

I photographed double bassist, Rion Wentworth, at one of the events sponsored by MATA, which stands for Music at the Anthology.  Founded by Philip Glass and two members of his touring ensemble, composer and vocalist Lisa Bielawa and pianist and composer Eleonor Sandresky,  MATA promotes the work of young composers.  It took its name from the fact that its first venue for presenting new work was the Anthology Film Archives.

This and the two following photographs are of the members of Trio Solisti, which has been called “the most exciting piano trio in America,” and a trio that, in the words of critic Terry Teachout, has “succeeded the Beaux Arts Trio as the outstanding chamber music ensemble of its kind.”

The pianist is Adam Neiman, and I would recommend his web site to everyone for elegance and the clarity of its layout.  It also offers listeners six sample audios and six sample videos of his performances.

This is Trio Solisti violinist, Maria Bachmann.

This is Trio Solisti cellist, Alexis Gerlach.  Here is a video link in which they perform the first movement of the Mendelssohn Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 49 (10:06).

My thanks to the Trio for allowing me to spend a few minutes taking these photographs as they rehearsed in the hour prior to their performance.  That performance was part of the Tri-Noon Recitals offered free to the public at Rockefeller University.

My title for this photograph is a reference to the fact that the Bryant Park stage faces west. The sun was pouring in from that 41st Street break in the buildings; this made for a nice setting, but a slight photographic challenge.

The string quintet seen playing here is Sybarite5.  As their web site states, they play an eclectic repertoire “from Mozart to Radiohead.” This promotional video offers a good introduction to the group and its playing.  The event, New Music in Bryant Park, is promoted by Chamber Music America in conjunction with the Department of Parks.

This was a single, “quick-draw” shot, taken with my handy pocket camera, as we ran for the Shuttle. The group is Affinity Brass. Three examples of its repertoire can be accessed at this site.

I imagine that Colin Huggins is one of New York’s most frequently-photographed musicians, given his commitment to haul out and assemble his baby grand on any weekend that weather allows. Then, also, his venue is Washington Square Park, a major meeting place as well as protest gathering place in Greenwich Village.

As you can see, a bit of snow on the ground deters him not. You can watch Colin (and his heterogeneous audience) in warmer circumstances here, playing Philip Glass‘ Metamorphosis 2 (4:40), and here, playing Clair de Lune by Debussy (3:33).

The following four photographs, taken during a rehearsal of Necessary Monsters by Carla Kihlstedt and Rafael Oses, capture three of the seven musicians who performed this staged song cycle in Chicago. Three years later, it was recast and performed (with a new director) at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center.

The photographs below are simply four portraits, hardly related to Necessary Monsters, since–on stage–each musician was costumed and transformed into a specific being (monster). The best introduction to Necessary Monsters is this trailer produced by the Yerba Buena Center (15:35), and it shows clips from the actual performance.

Here is a video of the earlier, Chicago, version of Necessary Monsters (21:12) as staged.

Carla Kihlstedt is a violinist, vocalist and the composer of Necessary Monsters.

Theresa Wong, Bay Area cellist, vocalist and composer, here performing in a rehearsal for Necessary Monsters.

Freddi Price has carved out a wide niche for himself as a multi-instrumental musician; as a stage performer, whether in regular theater, cabaret or puppet theater; and as a stage designer and constructor.  I caught him here during rehearsal for the Chicago version of Necessary Monsters.

2 Foot Yard was started by Carla Kihlstedt as a form of investigation into song-writing as a solo project. That provided its name: a (back) yard, but one only large enough to be occupied by two feet. Then, again, her intentions were to write pop songs, but what emerged was too quirky to ever approximate “pop.” 

Thus, as she once stated, the title’s other play on words refers to “a mis-matched measurement.”  So, a collaborative being by nature, Carla called on two other musical friends of kindred spirit to form a trio and transform 2 Foot Yard into a composer’s collective for song.

The three principals are pictured below, each in two photographs taken during a performance at Le Poisson Rouge.  The last photograph, Colin & Johnny, shows two other musical friends who joined 2 Foot Yard for this particular performance.

Carla I, Manhattan, NY, Le Poisson Rouge, 2009

Carla II, Manhattan, NY, Le Poisson Rouge, 2009

 

Marika, Manhattan, NY, Le Poisson Rouge, 2009

Shahzad & Marika, Manhattan, NY, Le Poisson Rouge, 2009

Shahzad I, Manhattan, NY, Le Poisson Rouge, 2009

Shahzad II, Manhattan, NY, Le Poisson Rouge, 2009

 

Colin & Johnny, Manhattan, NY, Le Poisson Rouge, 2009

Brass Sextet–Prow Half, Manhattan, NY, Central Park, Harlem Meer, 2015

Stop Shopping Choir, Manhattan, NY, Joe’s Pub

Alex on Calle Ocho, Miami, FL, La Esquina de la Fama

Carla, Redding, CT, Private Wedding Celebration, 2007

 

Willie & Carla, Redding, CT, Private Wedding Celebration, 2007

 

Willie & Daniel, Redding, CT, Private Wedding Celebration, 2007

 

Mickey, Redding, CT, Private Wedding Celebration, 2007

Jim, Lancaster, PA, Lancaster Square

Zeena, Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada, 2008

Trio with 2 Instruments, Woods Hole, MA, 2014

 

The Next Generation, Viggo & Jen, Chilmark, MA

We’ll have to wait as well to hear Viggo, even though I have watched and heard him make some great moves on his father’s drums.