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Improvisation Freedom Revolution TICKETS $30/night | $20/night students & seniors at the door only $140 5-night pass On $270 VIP 5-night pass with preferred seating & gift e honor Milford Graves for his lifetime of achievements in music and his $10 (at door only) JUNE 15 Afternoon Music of the Future @ Roulette Wcontribution to the world of human accomplishment and possibility. Both $5 (at door only) JUNE 16 Panel & Film @ Roulette creative and scientific disciplines music is science and true science is based in concepts that can mirror music. Advance tickets Online: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/374021 We honor Milford for being one of the most brilliant and unique musicians in history. For his inventions and contributions to the art of modern drumming, the removal Acknowledgements of the snares on the snare drum, taking off the heads so the trap set is no longer We thank all the artists who come together to share their visions, to be a bright light. trapped rather it opens to a world concept of drumming. Arts for Art appreciates the generous support of the Jacob and Ruth Epstein Sticks become fingers elbows become mallets - that dampen the skins so the drum Foundation, New Music, USA, John Schiek, the New Hampshire Charitable Trust, Whit Dickey, Mutable Arts, the New York Community Trust, and Srinija can speak in a more open voice. There is melody and rhythm and many forms some Srinivasan. mambo, rumba, a montuno’s descending pattern… A new montuno, with one We thank City Council Member Rosie Mendez. This event is made possible with foot in science and physics another foot in the Congo or Cuba sometimes called public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), a State Agency. Jamaica, Queens. As all great music, it dances and jumps out at you. It is vibrating This program is supported in part by public funds from the Department and is executed with lightening speed and dexterity. Keeping in touch with of Cultural Affairs. This project is supported in part by an award from the National of music, it extends from heart to our hearts. We honor Milford Graves, educator, Endowment for the Arts. mentor, and healer through sound integrating music with medicinal herbs and We thank Two Boots and WholeFoods for donations of food. intelligence, with curiosity and acupuncture, through martial arts and wisdom. We AFA particularly thanks Richard and Roberta Berger, and the many volunteers & artists are honored by his genius unceasing creative in all that he does. who contribute to making the Vision Festival a reality. We thank all the photographers – Parkers who lend their photos to the festival, including Luciano Rossetti, Alan Nahigian, Peter Gannushkin, Michael Wilderman, and Ken Weiss. French-American Peace Ensemble and East-West Collective have been made possible through the French-American Exchange, a joint program of FACE (“French American Cultural Exchange”) and Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, with generous funding from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs de Musique (“SACEM”), Florence Gould Foundation, and Institut Français. Mutable Music begins anew in the digital era, by switching to an all-digital Improvisation Freedom Revolution format. All new releases, including downloadable artwork & liner notes, will be offered in HD & mp3 formats, as well as CDRs. Board of Directors Jo Wood Brown, Whit Dickey, William Parker, Patricia N. Parker, Pete Dragotta, Maria Special deals on all previous Mutable releases by the Arias, Hal Connolly, Patricia Wilkins, David Kreuter, Judy Gage Patricia Ali & . Staff Techincal: Bill Toles, Don Jacobs, Zak Sherzad, / tech staff of Roulette AFA Staff: Patricia Parker, Nader Beizaei, Kaya Nakamura, Adam Zanolini Design: Bill Mazza & Maryanne deProphetis Interns: Anaïs Maviel, Natalia Tuero Visual Art Main stage: projections by Jeff Schlanger; film of Robert Janz at work by Travis Brown Art that changes - on the walls: Robert Janz Live action painting: Jeff Schlanger Photography: Ziga Koritnik, Luciano Rossetti

THANK YOU DONORS A Holly W Sphar • Alain Kirili • Alan Feller • Alan Glover • Alexa Fila • Alexander NOT YET: SIX COMPOSITIONS REVOLUTIONARY ENSEMBLE: Lemski • Alvin Fielder • An Ren • Anyez van Rozenburg • Ayana Lowe • Bernard BY ROSCOE MITCHELL COUNTERPARTS Lyons • Bill & Grace Monagle • • Bill Mazza • Bob Stewart • Brad Smith Brenda Bufalino • Bruce Eisenbeil • Chenoah Rommerein • Christine Reardon William Winant / Jacob Zimmerman / Documents the last live performance Dan VanHassel / Eclipse Quartet / by the legendary Revolutionary Claes Berglund • Claudia Barrett • David Arner • David Baldwin • David Budbill James Fei Alto Quartet / Thomas Ensemble - (violin); David Gage • David Kreuter • Dennis & Mary Girard • Dennis Girard • Don Byrd Buckner / Petr Kotik / many more! (bass); Dragan Miljkovic • Edith Allen • Emily Collins • Evlyn Newell • Fay Victor • Francois (drums, balaphone, chiramia, Grillot • Frank Rubolino • Geraldine Celerier • Gladys Serrano • Greg Smith A monumental recording of recent Yamaha PSR 1500) - Genoa, Italy. Hal Connelly • Hill Greene • Hilliard Greene • Hiroko Takada • Hironori Kishi concert works by Roscoe Mitchell, for November 25, 2005. J. Michael Hanvik • Jack Vartoogian • James Keepnews • James Szabo • Jan Strom solo percussion, alto saxophone & Jan VanAssen • Jane Smith • Jason Kao Hwang • Jean Cook • Jean Louis Prat Also Available: The Art of piano, string quartet, alto saxophone Jennifer Shyu • Jeremy Young • Jesus Rodriguez de la Fuente • Jo Wood Brown quartet, baritone & chamber Improvisation - Leroy Jenkins & Jody Henenfeld • John King • John McCormick • John Schiek • Jon Reichert orchestra. Driftwood, Alone, Together, Apart - Jerome Cooper, Thomas Buckner, Josh Roseman • Judith Kearney • Judy Gage • Katie Bull • • Ken Weiss Also Available: Spectrum - Muhal A Magical Approach - Jerome Cooper, Kyoko Kitamura • Laine Massey • Laura Lewis • Lawrence Blood • Leonhard Grund Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell, The Psyche - Revolutionary Ensemble Lewis Goldfarb • Lois Eby • Lou Grassi • Lyn Horton • Marc Ribot • Marcia Smith Solo [3] - Roscoe Mitchell, Kirili et - In Concert: From There to Hear - Marek Lazarski • Marilyn Sontag • Mark Bartlett • • Marta Ulvaeus les Nymphéas - Buckner, Mitchell, Jerome Cooper, Beyond the Martin Joseph • Maryanne de Prophetis • Matt Butchko • Maura Sheehan • Michael Bourdellon, Khatir, Space – Thomas Boundary of Time - Revolutionary Bisio • Michael Thompson • Michael Wilderman • Michal Trzcianowski • Michal Buckner, Roscoe Mitchell , Gerald Ensemble Zathey • Mike Brown • Miriam Parker • Nathalie Mattheiem • Nicole Peyrafitte Oshita Patrick Frisco • Pete Dragotta • Peter Gannushkin • Peter Gordon • Peter Kuhn Phyllis Bulkin Lehrer • Rackstraw Downes • Radhika Philip • Ray Brock • Richard & Roberta Berger • Richard Bizier • Robert & Sue Nicholson • Robert Bielecki Roberto Barahona • Scott Burton • Scott Currie • Sean Moran • Sharon Pontier Srinja Srinivasan • Steve Dalachinsky • Steve Koenig • • Steven Koenig Park West Finance Station 212 627 0990 Steven Smith • Stuart Smith • Susan Feiner • Susan Swan • Thomas Buckner PO Box 20933 [email protected] Thomas Wilkins • Tom Carhartt • Valerij Anosov • Wayne Stokes • Whit Dickey New York, NY 10025 www.mutablemusic.com on the stock market, more visible than the art. But on the street and on the shore, Janz doesn’t make objects – like a musician, he makes time. This art clings in the memory just because it is precious, and will be gone. It is an indelible politics of interaction with the world, a wrestle against erasure, a conversation with everyone, a stubborn life, an art of sanity with On ROBERT JANZ crazy laughter. But still, in his 80s, Robert works with, not against. He survives, one with anz as in dance. Robert is the monkey. Robert is the joker. Robert is the ninja. the changes, decade after decade, he pops J Robert is always in the present. up, like a good weed. Like an invisible hand, he passes, and something appears. On the street, his vast canvas. Deer in Soho, a mountain on Broadway, the bison are still here. If you’re there at the time. Robert Janz has been one of the most important artists in my life, in the lives He is weather, of all those who were his students, in he passes second by second, day by day, the the lives of other artists, in the lives of mountain changes. the casual encounters, down to the last We don’t see Robert, we see the mountain. We momentary “Did I see...?” or “Is that...?” On Grand and Wooster. “Post no bills. see the deer. Robert is the deer. – the best questions to ask of visual art. Or Post only bulls.” Post no bull. Look and he’s gone. of philosophy. – Fiona Templeton When I first met Robert, I met a stick. I moved across a performance space. A stick appeared, balanced on end, waiting for me. Who put that there? I moved slowly, moments tick, moment stick, moments obert Janz is the wizard of the ephemeral. His aesthetic is that of the Native tick, moments stick. Bang! The stick fell. American: To pass through the landscape without leaving a trace - as fish through Everything changed. Moving among the R the water or birds through the air. performers, with his quiver of sticks, over and

over, Robert changed everything. Sculpture as stream of consciousness - kinetic flux - a celebration of change itself. Walking through woods, I saw 6 sticks, leaning parallel against the trees. In the corridor Change itself is the wizard. A celebration of Robert Janz. I saw six sticks, fanned in the corner. In the studio, I saw 6 sticks, stacked, seemingly – Anthony Howell innocent. Innocent for real, light on the earth, and yet changing everything. Robert’s mischief keeps imagination present. It is always moments, and waits to be found. And then changes. And we change. Robert Janz lives everywhere. Cadaqués (Spain), New York, , Dublin, Baltimore, London San Francisco, Belfast, , Paris, he has moved through, touching each lightly. Painter with water on rock, poet of six words, art in the mail, a hand opening through 3 drawings, a grin like sunlight. Being invisible is expensive. In a Paris park, the chairs move each night, squares, spirals, a Janz dance, people dance it by sitting, adapting each day. Do they notice? In the galleries, other artists’ objects are precious, because hidden, and put the artist Improvisation Freedom Revolution

Improvisation is neither religion, nor ideology. Improvisation is not about holding back nor dominating, It is accepting and playing from our human essence. Freedom cannot evolve within existing constraints internal / external, so, collective revolution is born - to transform by powerfully shaking what surrounds us. — Didier Petit shape shifters what is there in shifting space The conduit–improvisation– but shape shifters Goes through the brutal barrier within the walls of bright colored canvas Oppression, repression– emerging from the belly of civilization Gives us its negation– The only the way the colors take shape solution reshape Freedom– The only revolution shift within themselves to form bodies Releases the resolution fragile solid anvils Of the age-old contradiction one note transcribed by others Between the expression so it would never change Of the inspired individual but ever changing And the group’s benefaction it’s not like we disappear as shapes do In continuous ovation we are here to unwash the whitewash Becoming one & reveal what things look like underneath Humanity -The beauty of art what the shifting song relays Is its vindication– to all parts of existence In the fire, the forge of what’s written & what’s thought Truth - celebration that cannot be washed away — Connie Crothers but lay open like a door a book a wound for all to see because renewing depends on us new switches less hitches did you ever think you’d be a part of it> freedom/ vision/ a blessing for the children/ a quilt of liberation the earth / like good improvisation/free/ as in individual SOUND as in free yourself & the revolution will begin/evolve as in change the way you think/feel/give > BE(lieve)/sing: peacefully as in remember where you are/ that we are one/here/together freedom is: improvisation/revolution/music/words/dance/art/LIFE

— Steve Dalachinksky WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12 THURSDAY, JUNE 13 Celebrate Milford Graves — A Life-Time of Achievement CelebratE visual artist Robert Janz Film and photos of the Artist at Work by Travis Brown Afro Cuban Roots Milford Graves drums/perc 7:30 David Virelles piano Bejwelled Dreaming Florentina Román Díaz perc/vocals Terry Jenoure violin Dezron Douglas bass Maria Mitchell dance 7:00 Román Filiú alto

This group depicts Milford Graves’ pre-avant garde Maria Mitchell and Terry Jenoure involvement in African and Afro Cuban music. The are Bejewelled. They shape a rich Tono-Rhythmology portrays the evolving African- improvisation based on Jenoure’s Afro Cuban music landscape in its collaboration with poem “Dreaming Florentina,” and pre/post bebop Jazz enriched by twenty-five years of performance and teaching collaborations. Milford Graves Transition TRIO Milford Graves drums/perc This trio will streamline the post African- 8:30 D.D. Jackson piano Afro Cuban music transition of Milford tenor Graves into the era. The settings of this trio will be in the spirit of the Milford Roy Campbell’s Akhenaten Ensemble Graves/Don Pullen duo of the late 1960’s. Roy Campbell trumpet Bryan Carrott vibes 7:45 Milford Graves NY HeArt Ensemble Jason Kao Hwang violin Milford Graves drums/perc A composite of three members of the Hilliard Greene bass 9:30 tenor original NY Art Quartet: Graves, Rudd, Michael Wimberly drums William Parker bass Baraka, joining the exemplary duo of Gayle The Ahkenaten Ensemble reflects Roy Campbell’s trombone and Parker. “The Power of the Word/Sound” will be the defining statement of this group. deeply felt connection to Egypt. This is the first poetry performance that will feature Jason Kao Hwang on violin. The band will premiere Campbell’s new compositions “Walking to the Pyramids” and “Valley of the Kings and Queens.”

Rob Brown U_L Project Joe McPhee trumpet/sax alto 9:00 Miya Masaoka koto Mark Helias bass Qasim Naqvi drums

These musicians came together for the first time at the U_L benefit. Their different backgrounds and generations produced an electrifying synergy. As an improvising group they operate w/out an obvious leader. Built on generous mutual respect they lead and accompany at different times never overpowering each other. They eagerly await this in depth exploration of the fresh and unknown in a new, shared moment. THURSDAY, JUNE 13 (cont’d) FRIDAY, JUNE 14 Celebrating visual artist Robert Janz A French American Connection Film and photos of the Artist at Work by Travis Brown

Roscoe Mitchell Trio VOCAL-EASE Roscoe Mitchell reeds Steve Dalachinsky poetry 10:00 Henry Grimes bass Connie Crothers piano 7:00 drums A 30 minute interplay where languages meet because it’s / this / dim was commissioned in 1987 and sound is produced and overlap creating by The Conimicut Foundation to compose a series a complete empathetic unit of ONE. of three works for baritone vocalist Thomas Buckner and pianist Joseph Kubera. e.e. cummings poetry provided me with the freedom I imagined. “dim” was premiered in 1988 at The University of Wisconsin. “this” and “because it’s” premiered at the Madison Civic THE DEAD ARE NOT REALLY DEAD Center on August 20, 1989. tonight we will perform THE AIR FULL WITH THEIR BREATHING “because it’s” and “this.” The voice part for “because THEIR SIGHS THEIR JOYS & SORROWS - it’s” will be played on the Baroque Flute and the voice THEIR AIR part for “this” will be played on the Bass Recorder. A Cactus and A Rose was inspired by my gardens here — Steve Dalachinksy in California and “CARDS” is a scored improvisation

Special Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts: Robert Janz Bern Nix Quartet Bern Nix guitar Francois Grillot bass 7:30 Matt Lavelle trumpet Reggie Sylvester drums

The Quartet references the past. It delineates the present and foreshadows the future in original compositions performed by the quartet. Melody, rhythm, harmony are merged to create a sonic experience greater than the sum of its parts. The work comes out of the powerful yet somewhat hermetic notion of harmolodics.

all negative capability needs is a good post-modern rhythm section-worthy of dealing My focus is on the archaic, image making at the origins of humanity and art. The with manifold aspects of TIME imagery I draw on comes from the earliest art, from the childhood of humanity. Contact and swing with the deepest Past expands our understanding of our inheritance and its potential. — Bern Nix — Robert Janz FRIDAY, JUNE 14 (cont’d) SATURDAY, JUNE 15 A French American Connection Building a Future PANEL 12:30 East-West Collective Where Improvisation and Culture Come Together Didier Petit cello This quintet of musicians from France, Five years ago Arts for Art began meeting with educators to encourage Improvisation-based 8:45 Sylvain Kassap clarinets China and USA perform music that music as part of curriculum and to address access to complex music in underserved communities. Xu Fengxia guhzeng retains the integrity of each player’s This program is now called coT.I.M.E. (community of Teachers of Improvised Musical Excellence). Teachers discuss their findings and ideas for new curricula to build a future of innovators and Larry Ochs tenor sound and musical background in a collective sound-world that mixes improvisers from a broad population and help new generations find their unique voice. Miya Masaoka koto improvised music with the traditional sounds and tendencies of Eastern music. Utilizing various tones and THE FUTURE textures with modes and linear musical structures, they merge the sensibilities Achievement First M.S. Band 2:00 of two distinct cultures. Gene Baker director York College Creative Ens/CUNY 2:30 Tom Zlabinger – Director Brooklyn Young Improvisers 3:00 Jeff Lederer, Jessica Jones All schools (50 young musicians) 3:30 William Parker, Dir., Hamid Drake guest

French American PANEL 5:00 The French-American Peace Ensemble French and American musicians of different generations and influences Francois Tusques piano will shed some light on how this transatlantic cultural exchange Louis Sclavis clarinets shaped their music as well as their social and political ideals, and on 10:00 the many ways this conversation continues to amplify and resonate. Kidd Jordan tenor Moderator: Michel Dorbont William Parker bass Panelists: Didier Petit, Francois Tusques / William Parker, Larry Ochs Hamid Drake drums

The two Frenchmen have never played together. Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up They speak little English and the Americans less Tomas Fujiwara drums French, the common language being music. We Michael Formanek bass 7:30 come together to perform collective improvisations Mary Halvorson guitar and newly written compositions, bringing our Brian Settles tenor individual musical aesthetics together to create Jonathan Finlayson trumpet new living musical works that bind us as musicians and humans. FAPE comes at a time when it is crucial Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up will perform new for people of different cultures to come together compositions from their upcoming album, to be with their differences intact so that individuality released in 2014. Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up’s, becomes the binding factor in our concept of unity. Actionspeak (482 Music), was called “insightful, invigorating, hard to put a finger on...music with a history, smartly informed and firmly moored” by The New York Times, and “head-turning...postbop elegance...propulsive groove and subtle abstraction” by Time Out New York. SATURDAY, JUNE 15 (cont’d) SUNDAY, JUNE 16

Future Present Decolonizing the Music PANEL 2:00 Davis/Revis/Cyrille Reclaiming the Power of Creative Music in Communities of Color Kris Davis piano By the mid ‘60s, the jazz avant-garde had become one of the foremost revolutionary modes of 8:45 Eric Revis bass cultural nationalist expression in the Black Arts movement. In the decade that followed, artists drums drew upon the New Black Music’s ethos of self-determination as they founded jazz lofts across downtown New York City. While the music continued to flourish, artists began to notice the Revis/Davis/Cyrille brings together three generations decreasing engagement with audiences of color particularly beginning in the mid 70’s as more of jazz. Deeply explorative, yet never losing sight generally all forms of ‘protest music’ were losing ground. By the early 80’s this ‘revolutionary’ music of the whole. This evening they will present a full could barely find a place to be heard in the urban areas that had originally fostered it. length, in the moment composition that has not yet been named nor has it yet been imagined. The three musicians have been described to collectively Black February FILM 4:00 deliver “an extraordinarily sensitive set...free jazz without any of the chest-thumping catharsis...but Documentary by Vipal Monga with real narrative intrigue.” Legendary jazz composer, conductor, Lawrence “Butch” Morris, is profiled in Black February, the first documentary feature by director Vipal Monga. The film chronicles the concerts that Simmons / Burrell Duo celebrated Morris’ 20th anniversary of Conduction, his revolutionary technique for live music- alto “The first generation after Ornette, making. More than a simple portrait, Black February is a film about the creative process and the 9:45 piano Coltrane and Ayler, Dave Burrell and scope of a musical theory that redefined what it means to make music. Sonny Simmons have built their unique revolutionary music. They work in Inner City: Migration the jazz tradition: free within the law, Miriam Parker dance/choreography expanding the language while never Jason Jordan dance 6:00 severing their roots. A keen explorer of Hamid Drake drums Monk, Ellington, opera and new music, Jo Wood Brown art Dave Burrell reintroduced the ragtime into the free jazz era; Sonny Simmons, a Robert Janz art bluesman at heart, turned his attention Inner City Projects is a collaborative work. Parker towards the East at Coltrane’s urge... choreographs in terms of flow patterns through the It’s a wonder they had never worked audience. Wood-Brown’s floating cubes of translucent together. The Vision Festival gives you light form an active visual body that link Janz’s images of a chance to see two powerful masters bison to the movement of dancer and audience below. join forces.” Hamid Drake’s drum sets up a cadence between the real and the imaginary. WORKz Reggie Workman bass Positive Knowledge 12:30 Marilyn Crispell piano Oluyemi Thomas bass clarinet/sax Odean Pope tenor Ijeoma Thomas voice/words 4:00 Tapan Modak tablas Henry Grimes bass/violin Pheeroan akLaff drums Michael Wimberly drums A unique melding of stellar musicians, definitive Honor and gratitude unto the interior of the TONE innovators in a spectrum of genres. (Classical, World, WORLD. Positive Knowledge will be embarking on Jazz and beyond) Exploring, expanding, creating a collective / individual journey, telling the tales of new musical DNA out of their unique lineages. self-transformation and celebrating it with humanity. They will perform Reggie Workman compositions: Indeed we will accompany each other every moment of Synapse II, Was’ 9, Summit Conference, Cycle III and the way. Ijeoma, Henry, Michael and Oluyemi. Ode to Brother Yusef. SUNDAY, JUNE 16 (cont’d) THE POWER OF CREATIVE MUSIC Improvisation Freedom Revolution Bluiett’s Bio-Electric Ensemble AFA Programs Hamiet Bluiett baritone Arts For Art is committed to providing access to un-compromised creative jazz 7:30 DD. Jackson piano Harrison Bankhead bass music and multi-disciplinary art by diverse artists. To that end, AFA has developed Hamid Drake drums major programming initiatives that significantly advance its mission to strengthen the presence of innovative art in community. The Music comes from a quiet dedication to the organic impulse towards creation. It is about healing, both oneself and those who can feel/hear the THE VISION FESTIVAL (18 years) vibrations and keep themselves in tune. It is based ■ An intensive gathering of artists and audiences from around the world. AFA in a belief that art has this power and we do. Tonight celebrates Lifetime Achievements by legends in the field, brings together the work with all compositions, both written and spontaneous of multiple generations and provides for unique collaborations which expand the we will seek to create harmony with the universe. artforms. ■ AFA invites music educators who participate in AFA’S coTIME to bring their Mario Pavone ARC students to perform original music at the festival. Mario Pavone bass 7:30 piano ■ The festival includes panels that bring attention to important social issues. Gerald Cleaver drums EVOLVING SERIES (10 years) Here is new music, specific to these players and to the AFA’s platform for artists of all generations to present work that explores a range of deep history and the forward thrust of the propulsive creative possibilities. We are committed to building content and context for the art we piano trio within our musical tradition. present. While we focus on the new, we honor great artists who are no longer with us, because our history makes us stronger.

AUTUMN: IN GARDEN SERIES (5 years) AFA takes a direct approach to bringing creative art to communities. Free shows take place in community gardens, making innovative art a neighborhood event. Marshall Allen & McBrides BASS ROOTS Christian McBride bass EDUCATION/OUTREACH PROGRAM (6 years) 7:30 Lee Smith bass ■ AFA continues to develop Community Teaching Improvised Music Effectively Howard Cooper bass (coTIME) by bringing together music teachers to develop new music curriculum Marshall Allen alto for our schools. Crossing bridges back and forth between generations, ■ AFA’s after-school music ed program, Music Is Mine began with workshops in breaking down Jazz distinctions / keeping the lines 2010. This expanding program makes complex music available to children in low- of communications Open. In this way we learn, income housing. young from elders and the elders who never become old because they are still listening still playing still growing. They share amongst each other and ARTS & ADVOCACY (17 Years) with the listener, the music that is an expression Since the first Vision Festival AFA has maintained a commitment to support social justice of life itself. and the artist. We hold Town Hall Meetings / Panel discussions / Salons where artists network and address the political, and practical concerns of being an artist in our society. Improvisation Freedom Revolution Improvisation Freedom Revolution

Improvisation an endless conversation equal rights self-determination revolution the WY ithout ou We Can Do Nothing main trend! — AB or 18 years, Arts for Art has presented the successful world-class Vision Festival Fas well as other less visible but equally important initiatives. It is a labor of love to Music is a love beast keep this powerful music alive & visible. Yet, A.F.A. is struggling with a staff too small to A sky dragon In this culture where you are required effectively move forward. A snake to play the same changes If you put your ear close in the same way as everybody else if AFA has made a difference. Now, we are in an important renewal phase as we invite You will hear you want to succeed— younger musicians to become AFA’s new artistic leaders and curators. Something anyone who wants to truly improvise Arts for Art struggles to bring music and art with substance as well as complexity to has to seize the freedom — Joe McPhee challenge the status quo. Events such as the Vision Festival and the Evolving Music to say what you want to say in the way Series have been a hub for the dispersed community of un-compromised arts. But we you want to say it, need your help - it is critical for the sustainability of A.F.A. and the future success of all Improve / Action and if you do that—you are automatically our projects. A struggle such as this cannot be successful without the support of a larger Improvisaction a part of The Revolution! community! ImproVision — David Budbill Next Year AFA would like to bring you… Air in motion ■ Vision Festival 19 R/evolution ■ A group of younger artists to carry the Vision forward… — Sylvain Kassap ■ Move THE UNDER_LINE forward with special Salon multi-arts performances that will build bridges within the music and arts communities and make it available 2 Kinds of Hope to a younger audience 1. like false promises taking you down the rosy path - filled withvodka bars ■ Begin to implement “Grow It Local” to bring music & art directly to the travel logs and dope, tv - down to the reservation that was designed community just for you and yours – to keep you – safe from all that Stuff ■ Continue our education intiatives to make sure that this complex music is they don’t want you to get - any of - the good stuff like available to a new generation what they’ve been - holding back - for your own good - of course 2. then -there is the other kind of hope that comes after a long hard winter I believe that this is a struggle that we share. Together we can build that Larger like spring’s buds - pushing their way on community – without which Arts for Art will be unable to continue to make Visions Real. to old tired dried out looking trees making them feel and look all young again Become a Donor or a member today till they do the improbable and the world becomes new Visit: www.artsforart.org/contribute and we can see - again - that who we are or stop by the Arts for Art table at the Vision Festival. is beautiful and powerful and filled with Spirit … we improvise a revolution because we are free Thank You!

— Patricia Nicholson Parker – Patricia Nicholson Parker Milford Graves Speaks Interview by Ken Weiss

pontaneously improvised music is the most difficult type of music to do for a band. SIt’s much more difficult than written music. We’re trying to take you to another kind Interview by William Parker of level. Let’s talk about the history of free-jazz. If people would look at free-jazz in a non-technical or intellectual way, looking past that they are not playing the right notes, here’s like a storyline that’s bein’ told, or they’re not playing the right beat, they’re out of time and all that, that’s the most Tman. It’s goin’ back into Afro American superficial way. But free-jazz didn’t develop like that. Free-jazz developed with a lot of traditional music that was developed by people who where not that academically astute in playing the music. They didn’t have people during the time of slavery and people conservatory training. Now some people say ‘isn’t that bad?’ I say no, that’s excellent. that was coming out of slavery, people who They came out of nowhere, the only thing they came with was a divine will to want were breathing out their emotions through to be able to play music. Some of the guys their voice. That’s what that music was really were criticized because they couldn’t read about. People were breathing. And that goes music but I said ‘Good, that’s new creation.’ back even further, if you want to go into the The major thing that they had over the guy whole concept of African music. Relative to with conservatory training is that they wanted my research, they don’t have an equivalent to do it. word in African traditional language for “music”. There’s no word such as “music.” Your You also have to understand that free-jazz music is your experiences in life. So you speak developed at a very critical time in this country. this stuff out. You don’t speak in a monotonic They were on this planet when there were way, you know what I mean? You sing your some historical changes being made in this stuff out, man. But you can get sidetracked country and this world and the theme all over when come into a conservatory setting, the world was freedom! We want freedom, we where people put you in a box and mold you. want independence. We don’t want to follow So for economic reasons we do these things the same rules because those rules didn’t work to survive, but from a true biological level, for us. It was a time for change in human rights, you have a contradiction there. People talk civil rights, political rights and everything else. about playing cosmic music, music of nature, These people were supposed to be free just like well; you can’t do it by using conservatory the poetry was, the dance was, the painting material. It’s a contradiction. It doesn’t work. was. So when you listen to this music, don’t just listen for a note because it has nothing to do The roles of musicians are very powerful. with that. I don’t know if people understand Humans have a multitude of mechanical the real initial movement that was involved receptors; these different receptors can in creating this type of music. When we got detect frequencies from all over the planet. togethe with Ayler, there was no talking about Musician’s job; we are receptors of the vibration of the planet. We’re supposed to vibrate tunes, we just played, man, and people don’t with that and come out with that stuff, and not say, “Well, this is an A-note and it’s know that. The guys who made this music based on the twelfth root of two,” or this here or something. Most of the music has were part of a change in America, and it was fallen into this bag in that it me graphically written on a piece of paper. It doesn’t work a great change. Everybody wanted liberation like that as far as nature is concerned. At the present time, vibrations on the planet and when it comes, it’s not an intellectual are rapidly changing. The planet is starting’ to send out some stuff that is making’ us liberation. This is real time survival liberation vibrate like mad! Photos: Ken Weiss and the people did it with conviction. ‘Remember the Dead and Fight Like Hell for the Living’ Cultural Politics of Memory and Improvised Poetics of Protest at the Vision Festival “Simply the hippest journal about jazz in New York that has ever been published” - Joe Lovano “The most comprehensive periodical on the music by Scott Currie that I have ever read” - Andrew Cyrille y any standard, the Vision Festival The festival’s own historical roots and po- Bhas clearly made history: if nothing litical spirit can be found in New York City’s else, its eighteen consecutive years of loft-jazz scene of the 1970s, where cre- improvised music, dance, poetry, and vi- ative musicians, denied professional op- sual arts presentations every spring have portunities and press recognition, staged established it as standard bearer for the performances in their own living and The New York City jazz avant-garde in the United States, and rehearsal spaces. From this empowering earned it a place alongside creative mu- ethos of self-determination there soon Jazz Record sic’s most illustrious and emerged a network EXCLUSIVE CONTENT ON JAZZ & IMPROVISED MUSIC IN NEW YORK CITY enduring international of artist-run venues COMPETITIVE & EFFECTIVE ADVERTISING: [email protected] SUBSCRIPTIONS AND GENERAL INFO: [email protected] forums (FMP, Moers, stretch-ing across TWITTER: @NYCJAZZRECORD; FACEBOOK/NYCJAZZRECORD Nickelsdorf, Tampere, downtown Manhat- Victoriaville, and Guelph tan—from dilapi- www.nycjazzrecord.com come to mind). How- dated storefronts ever, the true measure and tenements on of the festival’s histori- the Lower East Side cal significance lies not to abandoned facto- merely in its impressive ries and warehouses longevity, but also, and in the nearby Cast Buenos perhaps most impor- Iron district (now tantly, in the sustained better known as Aires aesthetic engagement SoHo)—that helped Authentic Argentinian with the legacies of the transform blighted Cuisine past and exigencies of urban neighbor- the present that has hoods into vital 513 East 6th Street - defined its core identity breeding grounds East of Ave. A and, indeed, its activist for cutting-edge art. mission. In calling atten- Here, the loft-jazz New York, NY 10009 tion to an artistic move- avant-garde made ment written out of dominant historical its enduring contribution to the devel- 212-228-2775 narratives, the festival has gone beyond opment of the music, and passed on its [email protected] setting the record straight, by further traditions to a new generation through www.buenosairesnyc.com demonstrating the transformative power open sessions, rehearsal bands, and in- of collaborative improvisation in mobiliz- formal professional mentorship.

Photos, pgs 25-31: Bill Mazza Photos, ing creative communities. a great argentinian restaurant in the east village present—while effectively marginalizing many of their erstwhile loft-scene com- patriots—the Vision festival gave new voice to a community of artists all but si- lenced by a hegemonic pre-internet me- dia-scape that publically denied their his- tory, and gave them a chance to reclaim it through bold concerted action. Clearly grasping the premise of George Orwell’s warning, “who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present con- trols the past,” Patricia’s team of artist- organizers conceived the festival as an improvisational intervention to disrupt As a young bassist starting out right ness among improvisers, which found ex- the existing consensus of an exclusionary around this time, William Parker followed pression first in a series of Lower East Side culture industry, in an effort to leverage a professional trajectory that took him Music Festivals during this period, and modest (and hard-won) commercial suc- on daily tours of the downtown loft-jazz not long thereafter in Patricia’s found- cess into long-overdue critical recogni- son to celebrate the holiday on the Lower scene, tracing out song-lines through ing of the Improvisers Collective in 1993. tion and empowering media visibility. East Side, with a memorial concert hon- its musically defined urban geography, Although organized without external oring one of the great unsung heroes of following an itinerary centered on such funding support, these latter initiatives Having been fortunate enough to serve the loft scene: saxophonist-composer seminal jazz lofts as Studio Rivbea and brought together a grass-roots coalition with this visionary team in the festival’s Jimmy Lyons. The surprising success of Studio WE, as well as numerous shorter- of local artists around a shared vision of early years, I should probably note that what had begun as a desperate gambit lived and lesser-known spaces. In fact, creative community empowerment that it wasn’t easy: having to contend with set a precedent for years to come, as the Parker met his wife-to-be—dancer/cho- would give rise to a self-sufficient festival George Wein’s powerful JVC festival up- Vision festival paid annual homage to a reographer and future Vision Festival on the grand scale and ambitious scope town, along with Michael Dorf’s high- litany of trailblazing artists including De- founder Patricia Nicholson Parker—while of Sound Unity. profile (and also corporate-sponsored) nis Charles, Julius Hemphill, Frank Wright, playing with saxophonist Jemeel Moon- Knitting Factory festivals on our home , , , doc’s Ensemble Muntu at Studio Rivbea Quite understandably, then, given the turf, threw any number of obstacles in and Wilber Morris. in December 1973. By the early 1980s, rich legacy of socio-aesthetic activism our path, which we had to turn into op- as the combined forces of gentrification to which it was heir, the future-oriented portunities in order to survive. As I recall, Upon reaching its tenth anniversary (and and conservativism brought an end to Vision (for the 21st Century) Festival that the festival’s tradition of Memorial Day reclaiming its original June programming the loft era, William had already seized Patricia organized in the wake of the Im- artist tributes began when Dorf moved schedule), the Vision Festival instituted opportunities to organize festivals at provisers Collective embraced its history, his festival from mid-late June—where an annual lifetime recognition program in East Village lofts and clubs, and formed a drawing from it not just inspiration, but he had competed unsuccessfully with place of the Memorial Day tributes, to cel- pivotal partnership with Patricia and Ger- even more critically a galvanizing sense Wein’s festival the previous year—to ear- ebrate the achievements of inspirational man bassist Peter Kowald, with whom he of purpose. Faced with the dominance ly June, where it would have competed leaders still active on the contemporary subsequently staged the 1984 and 1988 of a neo-traditionalist jazz establishment directly with our program. Thus forced scene, and thereby demonstrate the con- Sound Unity Festivals. The international that had emphatically written the loft to schedule our festival a week earlier, tinuing power of avant-garde’s illustrious impact of these two seminal events cata- movement out of its official histories, and over a three-day weekend that tradition- past to shape the present and evoke the lyzed the coalescence of a new post-loft with the rise of a trendy new downtown ally sent New Yorkers off to the beaches future. Although the festival continued to creative-music scene, helping to foster a scene that was branding a few Sound from Coney Island to the Hamptons, we stage occasional tribute concerts to mark renewed sense of community conscious- Unity veterans as the cutting-edge of the decided to give our audience a good rea- the untimely passing of influential loft icons—including Leroy Jenkins, Sirone, explicitly in the dedication of the sixth committed pacifist members, who had weapons of mass instruction at their dis- , , and Billy festival to “A Vision Against Violence.” organized its last two festivals around the posal. These interventions actually began Bang—its new focus reflected an ever- Subsequent festivals have carried this theme “A Vision Against Violence.” very shortly after the onset of hostilities: deepening commitment to the age-old newly inaugurated tradition forward with almost two months before the Vision activist principle: “remember the dead, mobilizing themes including “AvantJazz The 2003 Vision festival took place during Festival, Arts for Art staged the weekend and fight like hell for the living.” Honor- for Peace,” “Vision for a Just World,” “The the relatively brief “honeymoon” period mini-festival AvantJazz Against an Iraqi ees to date have already included such Revolution Continues,” “The Creative Op- after the U.S. military captured Baghdad War (4-6 April 2003), at which Nicholson pioneering figures as , tion,” “Take a Stand,” and “This Time Free- and before the loyalist re- Parker debuted a work by , , Kidd Jordan, Mar- dom.” In view of the globally polarizing sistance forces regrouped her new PaNic dance com- shall Allen, , Peter events that gave it impetus, the first of into a deadly and deeply pany and Parker reunited his Brotzmann, and Joe McPhee; this year’s these dedicatory themes merits particu- entrenched insurgency. Little Huey Creative Music festival will extend the proud tradition lar attention. Coming on the heels of a Orchestra to premiere his still further by presenting a Lifetime of correspondingly rapid and World Peace Trilogy. Need- Achievement award to percussionist-im- Global events in the weeks, months, and seemingly conclusive mili- less to say, then, by the time proviser Milford Graves. years leading up to the eighth festival’s tary victory in Afghanistan, the festival arrived, its theme climax on Memorial Day weekend of the end of “major combat op- of “AvantJazz for Peace” reso- Alongside its honorary 2003 presented Patricia erations” in Iraq, announced nated with a critical mass of interventions into the cul- and the artists on the by President George W. its artist and audience con- tural politics of memory, Vision scene with a for- Bush in his “Mission Accom- stituencies, and, as the foot- the Vision Festival has also midable and provoca- plished” speech, appeared age released on the Vision participated in the mak- tive set of challenges, to leave relatively little discursive space Volume 3 CD/DVD set amply documents, ing of history through which they engaged in the public sphere of mainstream me- festival performances and installations the improvised poetics of head-on with a charac- dia culture for critical contestation or embodying this theme succeeded in am- protest that have defined teristic zeal. Not only reasoned debate by antiwar activists. The plifying this resonance into powerful ex- its engagement with the had the downtown arts bombing of the U.N. headquarters, which pressive statements of protest. activist causes of its day. recession following the marked a decisive shift into an ever-wors- From its very first year, September 11th attacks ening wave of violent bloodletting—that In my research into this festival, I have the Vision festival has on the World Trade Cen- reached a dreadful nadir with the bomb- drawn upon the work of a number of en- showcased a unique and ter finally and seriously ing of the Golden Mosque and would not gaged academic theorists to account for transformative collabora- impacted the budget of begin to abate until after the 2007 Sunni the manner in which Visionfest organiz- tive conception, uniting their non-profit collec- Awakening—was still months away, and ers managed to bring the inspirational improvising musicians tive—forcing them to the missing weapons of mass destruc- power of the aesthetic legacy they had with dancers, painters, scale the festival back tion—which had provided the original long championed to bear upon the politi- and poets, to explore ex- from sixteen days to rationale for military action—would not cal exigencies of antiwar mobilization. In temporaneous modes of six—but also the domi- become a poorly considered American this regard Daniel Fischlin and Ajay Heble expression that cross the nant political climate of presidential joke for almost a year. (the Guelph Jazz Festival’s founding Ar- prevailing conventional hawkish neo-conserva- tistic Director) have argued quite persua- boundaries and often tivism stemming from Nonetheless, a widespread, deeply felt sively that the characteristic improvisato- challenge hegemonic po- 9/11, and leading to the sense of moral outrage and revulsion ry practices featured at both the Guelph litical ideologies. Within war in Iraq, had effec- at the televised horrors of war impelled and Vision Festivals are “less about origi- a few years, this engaged tively marginalized the artists on the Vision scene to stage col- nal acts of individual self-creation … than interdisciplinary aesthetic subaltern oppositional laborative improvisational interventions about an ongoing process of community was manifesting itself voices of the collective’s in which they deployed all the aesthetic building” and, indeed, they have gone so far as to assert that improvisation in these traditions is “predicated on the explora- tion of alternative (and alterative) modes of being in community.” In turn, their Mike Reed theoretical perspective on improvised Stirrup music explicitly builds upon the broader Dana Reason foundational position taken by Chris- Michael McGinnis topher Small, who believes music mak- ing establishes relationships “not only Nat Reeves between those organized sounds which Seval are conventionally thought of as being Harris Eisenstadt the stuff of musical meaning but also be- Tomas Fujiwara tween the people who are taking part, in Greg Burk whatever capacity, in the performance; Dave Rempis and they model, or stand as a metaphor for, ideal relationships as the participants ceed in harnessing the affective potency in the performance imagine them to be.” of avant-garde improvisational collabo- ration—rich in socio-politically critical, In the context of the Vision Festival, resistive, and even subversive symbolic I would argue, the collaborative interplay resources—to unite and mobilize us in

www.482music.com of avant-garde improvisers on stage fre- collective reflection and shared commit- quently serves as a metaphor for alterna- ment around its theme of “Improvisation, tive and frequently utopian conceptions Freedom, Revolution.” As Patricia has so of social interaction and organization. eloquently reminded us, all we need to The festival’s ritual frame highlights and do is: “Hear the music. Let dance move us. reinforces the already potent socio-po- Let art revolutionize our way of seeing. litical connotations of these creative acts Be challenged by the creativity all around on the bandstand through all the media us…. Do not settle. Do not be undone. of mobilization orchestrated by the or- Be not limited. Be profoundly uncomfort- ganizers. Dance, music, and poetry per- able with evil…. Let the art which keeps formances, along with video, sculpture, our spirit be woven through the days and paintings, and mixed-media installations, nights of our lives.” all combine with activist speeches, panel discussions, and progressive pamphlets Improvisation to consolidate an aesthetic of spontane- ous creative self-realization and link it Freedom emphatically and enduringly to an ethos of collective community empowerment and commitment to social action.

Ultimately, of course, all of us at this year’s Vision Festival can experience for our- selves how well the performances suc- Revolution Serving The World’s Musician’s since1978. && Handmade Strings Since 1919

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