NEC Contemporary Improvisation Department presents

This organization is supported in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, Exotica and by a grant from the Boston Cultural Council, curated by Anthony Coleman a local agency funded by the Massachusetts Cultural Council and administrated by the Mayor’s Office of Arts, Tourism, and Special Events..

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Assistive Listening Devices are available for Jordan Hall concerts at the coatroom, or by contacting the Head Usher or House Manager on duty.

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Tuesday, February 16, 2016 7:30 p.m. NEC’s Jordan Hall necmusic.edu/concerts

Why Exotica? CI Chamber Music Ensemble

Oh those Greeks! They knew how to how to live. What is required is to stop Zachary Mayer, baritone saxophone courageously at the surface, the fold, the skin, to adore appearance, to believe in Lily Honigberg, Rafael Natan, Eden MacAdam-Somer, Pilar Zorro-Leyva, forms, tones, words, in the whole Olympus of appearance. Those Greeks were violin superficial-- out of profundity . – Preface to The Gay Science - Nietzsche Dylan McKinstry, Daniel Bitrán, guitar Nicholas Castañeda, tiple We have an amazing and very interesting situation here in the Contem- Carlos Pino, double bass porary Improvisation Department: our students come from so many Ana López, Seyun Park, maracas backgrounds, and our curriculum isn’t genre-based, so we have the DoYeon Kim, Jinhe Jung, guacharaca delightful yet perplexing problem where a word like Improvisation (for Rubin Holhbein, bass drum example) can have many definitions and meanings. And there can be a desire to assimilate so much material in so short a time that certain things become Eden MacAdam-Somer, director fetishized and certain other things can become grasped only on a superficial level. Jewish Music Ensemble This is the thing that it is. Jenny Herzog, Ilona Tipp, voice It creates so many challenges, problems. It forces us to confront filters – to Franzi Seehausen, voice, clarinet pay attention to, in Duke Ellington’s words, “who is enjoying the shadow of Burcu Gulec, castanets, finger cymbals, dumbek whom” Ilona Tipp, melodica Rafael Horowitz Friedman, oboe Why Exotica? I’m not a dyed-in-the-wool fan… Daniel Bitrán, soprano saxophone Zachary Mayer, baritone saxophone Exotica is most clearly distinguished for undermining the concept of Artavazd Tadevosyan, duduk authenticity, which jazz and rock fans have tended to take for granted, as Rubin Hohlbein, trumpet well as for its ethos of arch irony, glittering artifice, and guiltless self- Elinor Speirs, violin indulgence. This gave exotica a subversive allure for those who revived it in Davey Harrison, mandolin the late 1980s and 1990s and, perhaps paradoxically, gave revivalists a basis Jeremiah Klarman, piano for their own subcultural identity, defined in opposition to a mainstream Ari Sussman, ukelele music culture dominated by rock. – Phil Ford, Oxford Music Online Matthew Okun, guitar Yaniv Yacoby, percussion So, Exotica can function as an example of Post -Canonical Thinking. It can help to expose the problematic inherent in Canon Creation itself. It can Hankus Netsky, director provide a challenge to “The Great Man Theory” - the idea that Works of Art are Good for You.

Carmen : Exotica – Unpack! Oy, Mayer, hold me tight, There’s Textbook Exotica (Les Baxter, Martin Denny), there’s Pre-Exotica Tonight’s the night. Exotica (Tizol and Ellington, Chinoiserie in the 20s), Classical Music Exotica But why do you sit so pensively? (Mozart’s use of “Turkish” elements, Scheherazade ), Post-Exotica and

Exotica used as a basis for Sonic Exploration (Sun Ra, John Zorn’s The Mickey : Dreamers ). Oy, Carmen it does as much good as swinging a dead chicken around my head,

Alas, it never works when I want it to. Carmen, I am all played out! And this is just a sampling. – Hankus Netsky The challenge in these curated concerts comes out of the presentation of a repertoire and/or a body of work and the variety of responses that our students can/will have to that repertoire – like a gallery of paintings arranged by theme, and not by artist or period. EKP Orchestra The variety of responses…what is there to say about the variety of Adrienne Arditti, soprano responses? Billy McShane, flute Jesse Heasly, clarinet Maybe Wallace Stevens said it best: Travis Bliss, bass clarinet Evan Allen, alto saxophone And out of what one sees and hears and out Jeff Balter, baritone saxophone Of what one feels, who could have thought to make Leo Hardman-Hill, trumpet So many selves, so many sensuous worlds, Carrie Furniss, trombone As if the air, the mid-day air, was swarming Cale Israel, tuba With the metaphysical changes that occur Tracy Curtin, violin, concertmaster Merely in living as and where we live. Brittany Karlson, violin, cornet Abigale Reisman, viola – Anthony Coleman Evan Raczynski, double bass Matthew Deligatti, guitar Will Greene, electric guitar Special thanks to Eden MacAdam-Somer for her rigor, her enthusiasm, her Nick Neuberg, piano assistance, and her support. Mia Friedman, electric bass Aaron Edgcomb, Sam Fribush, percussion

Katie McShane, conductor

Carmen Katz Classic exotica! A Spanish habanera by a French composer about a Spanish EXOTICA military officer and a Roma prostitute, re-imagined through Mickey Katz’s unapologetically ethnic Jewish lens. Special thanks to Judy Bressler. ______Translation (but, really, you’re not supposed to know what it means, and when you ask the person next to you, who knows Yiddish and is

laughing hysterically, all he’s supposed to say is “never mind!”).

Yatsuhashi Kengyo 六段の調 (Rokudan no Shirabe) Carmen:

Oy, my Mayer, you are dear to me Alec Whiting , mandolin Like gold to me, I am really in love. But it’s like cake when you eat radishes, Oy, Mayer, it should rot from your head. Traditional Korean Binalee Mickey : The Jayu Quartet: Ay, mayn Carmen, you’re not all that warm, Wonmi Jung, voice Ay, you are a bargain, such a bargain, DoYeon Kim, gayageum You have a face like a drowned cat, Chris McCarthy, piano Ay, my Carmen you are an ugly witch. Eli Cohen , drums Carmen : You are a bum! Mickey : Yum tsiridum. Rubin Hohlbein Italian Sunrise (Broken Telephone) Carmen : You have misled me my entire life. Mickey : And every time look at another girl Survivors Breakfast: Oy, Carmen, everything works like it’s very well-greased. Leo Hardman-Hill, Rubin Hohlbein, Carmen : You are a chump! trumpet Mickey : So I’m told. Carrie Furniss, trombone Carmen : Also, for me, a lover - Oy! Zachary Mayer, baritone saxophone Mickey: I’m so happy. You old horse, Davey Harrison, mandolin I am strictly a lover boy... Will Greene, electric guitar Chorus : La Saratoga, dumplings and pirogies, Katie Martucci, violin Roasted duck, I’m having a fit. Katie McShane, cello Mickey : Oy, Carmen tsatskele, I’m burning with desire, Jacob Hiser, piano One look on you and I break into a sweat, oy! Devon Hurt, electric bass Carmen : Mayer, you are too old. Don’t be a pig. Eladio Rojas, drums Spray yourself with some cold water! Anthony Coleman , director

solo player. – Pilar Zorro-Leyva Traditional Chinese 漁舟唱 晚 (Evening Songs from a Fishing Boat) The Snake Charmer For some reason, western musicians tend to think of the oboe as a snake Hankus Netsky, piano Eden MacAdam-Somer, charming instrument. As this improvisation progresses, the oboe will violin Hui Weng , guzheng hopefully start sounding more and more like the Indian bean (an actual snake charming instrument) and the snake will become increasingly entranced, although whether this is from the sound of the instrument or the motions that the snake charmer makes with the instrument is still up Duke Ellington Pyramid Juan Tizol for debate. – Rafael Natan, Jenny Herzog

Early Jazz Ensemble: Charmaine Lee, voice Quiet Village Jordan Skomal, trumpet It would seem just plain-old wrong to give a concert devoted to the theme Rex Bennett, trombone of Exotica and not to perform one of this genre’s few acknowledged Travis Bliss, tenor saxophone masterpieces – Les Baxter’s Quiet Village. Chris McCarthy, piano In wanting to describe this piece, I really can’t do better than to quote Jonathan Nankof, guitar Francesco Adinolfi’s groundbreaking tome, Mondo Exotica: Isaac Levien, double bass Eladio Rojas, drums Baxter’s melody on Quiet Village was inspired by an attentive and Anthony Coleman , director personal rereading of Bolero. The song proceeds repetitively while foregrounding an array of insistent percussive sounds that recall the tam-tam and the “savage, tribal” worlds so dear to exotica. Baxter (also) Simon Hanes Columbo exploited various musical orientalisms— for instance, the use of thirds Ragazzi altered by sharps and flats. As a result, instead of the more tonal music that would result from diatonic thirds, Baxter produced dissonance. Tredici Bacci: Moreover, he returned to the fateful chromatic scale that so many Charmaine Lee, voice musicians have often resorted to for suggesting dances of the seven veils Ezra Weller, flugelhorn and voluptuous moving bodies. Les Baxter’s intuition was, therefore, to Travis Bliss, tenor saxophone combine the technical and artistic possibilities at his disposal with the Evan Allen, harpsichord, keyboard average music on the charts of the time, drawing from a store of Marie Abe, accordion unusual but nevertheless classic “exotic” elements… Matthew Deligatti, acoustic guitar Simon Hanes, electric guitar Such elements were characterized, above all, by a lack of Jesse Heasly, double bass differentiation between geographical places. The same flattening of Nick Neuberg, drums difference would come to broadly characterize exotica . Abigale Reisman, Lucia Pontoniere, violin Adinolfi, Francesco (2008-04-04). Mondo Exotica: Sounds, Visions, Obsessions of Eden MacAdam-Somer, viola the Cocktail Generation; Duke University Press Clare Bradford , cello – Anthony Coleman

Intermission Ikh hob dikh tsufil lib. I love you much too much ikh trog oyf dir kayn has. I’ve known it from the start Ikh hob dikh tsufil lib But yet my love is such Michael Mauléart Monton Yellow Bird tsu zayn oyf dir in kaas. I can’t control my heart

Sam Fribush, steel pan Ikh hob dikh tsufil lib I love you much too much Will Greene, electric guitar tsu zayn oyf dir gor beyz, I ask myself what for Alex Monti, electric bass A nar ikh heys, Then, darling, when we touch Aaron Edgcomb , drums ikh veys. ikh hob dikh lib. Mmm, I love you more

Kh’hob dir mayn lebn avekgegebn, Perhaps I hold your heart too tightly mayn harts un mayn neshome, But who am I to say Robert Johnson Zoneilio Tropio ikh bin krank, nor mayn gedank If I should hold it lightly (1583–1633) trakht nit fun nekome. It might slip away from Shakespeare’s Chavi Bansal, choreography and dance

The Winter’s Tale Carol Lewis, viola da gamba Ikh hob dikh tsufil lib I love you much too much arr. Burcu Gulec Eli Cohen, Dylan McKinstry, tsu zayn oyf dir gor beyz, I ask myself what for Aaron Edgcomb, percussion A nar ikh heys, Then, darling, when we touch Burcu Gulec , voice ikh veys . ikh hob dikh lib. Mmm , I love you more

Kenan Adnawi Promises Slippery Bolts The EKP Orchestra - a mix of players on the instruments that they studied Kenan Adna wi , oud and players on instruments that they are less familiar with. An aesthetic choice, the atmosphere of a non-place. The EKP Orchestra. – Katie McShane Alexander Olshanetsky Ikh Hob Dikh Tsufil Lib arr. Franzi Seehausen Caravan Franzi Seehausen, voice How much is enough? This is the question each of us dealt with as we put Zachary Mayer, alto saxophone together this performance of Duke Ellington’s Caravan . As we tried to Elise Leavy, accordion, voice create a more ‘faithful’, less ‘exotic’ adaptation of the music that inspired Lily Honigberg, violin Caravan, we discovered our own ‘exotic’ version of a classic American Dan Klingsberg, double bass example of Exotica. – Farayi Sumbureru Eli Cohen , drums Aqui ta’ is a piece written on a “Torbellino” rhythm, part of a tropical Afro-Colombian tradition from the southern pacific coast of Colombia: Katie McS hane Slippery Bolts Violines Caucanos (Violins from the Cauca region of Colombia). This arrangement presents you a traditional “Violines Caucanos” ensemble (with EKP Orchestra maracas and guacharaca), accompanied by a very enthusiastic nontraditional result of the constant feeling of guilt and shame I carry with me at all times Duke Ellington Caravan – regret that I wasn’t born in a place or at a time that would have made it Juan Tizol possible for me to become an Italian film composer in the 1960s and 70s. Farayi Sumbureru, voice Yet, despite my obvious shortcomings, I keep trying to write music in a Sam Fribush, organ Umar Zakaria, genre that I will never fully understand. Result? Exotica! Take a bath in it. double bass Aaron Edgcomb , drums – Simon Hanes

Yellow Bird Tonight we tap into a simulation of global paradise. Close your eyes and let Pilar Zorro -Leyva Aqui ta ’ us take you to the islands. This American version of the 1893 Haitian anthem entitled Choucoune – with lyrics that praise the beauty of a Haitian CI Chamber Music Ensemble Eden MacAd am -Somer, director woman with that nickname – was retitled Yellow Bird . It has become part of the standard repertoire for calypso and the steel pan. – Sam Fribush

Zoneilio Tropio Rafael Natan The Snake Charmer A folkloric dance and music from a fictional place with its own history, art, Jenny Herzog culture, language, geography and ecology apart from the world that we live Rafael Natan, oboe in. A fictional piece of music and dance imagined through the familiar Jenny Herzog, voice elements of East and West. Mariel Austin , costume design , production

Beurth to gezice naar der zoneilio (tropio) Foargh lu yio abarua kalh hism parth fihim kiskh Les Baxter Quiet Vill age Salh to ihreavenir giegiemward paklon Pörgatöryhi kai sepereșen Kalmanovitch Coleman Reichman Trio Sepereșen dal pörgatöryhi – Burcu Gulec Tanya Kalmanovitch, viola Ted Reichman, accordion Promises Anthony Coleman , piano My piece is called Promises . It is an improvisation on a theme by Paganini. Through this piece I want to evoke the violin but translate its sound with the essence of Middle Eastern musical traditions and the oud. Georges Bizet Carmen Katz – Kenan Adnawi (1838–1875) arr. Nat Farber and Jewish Music Ensemble Ikh Hob Dikh Tsufil Lib Hankus Netsky Hankus Netsky, director Everything new seems exotic at first... Yiddish lyrics by Mickey Katz This arrangement indicates the love for one’s own and the attraction to another culture -the seeming contradiction of two worlds that, in the end, creates a mixture and maybe also a completely new world. – Franzi Seehausen

Rokudan no Shirabe is a traditional Japanese piece thought to have been shopping mall, fried cricket treats and delicious Sichuan food, dinners with composed by Yatsuhashi Kengyo in the 1600s. Originally a chamber piece, local artists and calligraphers followed by a celebration at the local German the solo koto version has become the most popular. The piece is made up pub (complete with a raging cover band). One of the highlights of our trip of six “dan” or sections. This structure is from where the piece takes its was a collaboration on these folk melodies with Beijing-based guzheng artist name (“Rokudan no Shirabe” translates roughly to “A Song In Six Steps”). Zhan Zhou, who grew up studying Chinese music in the aural tradition. As a koto player the piece has been part of my world for nearly a decade. Hankus and I had been listening to a similar version of the piece, performed For this concert I will be presenting the first “dan” of “Rokudan” on solo by Zhan’s sister, Wang, but we only had one rehearsal with Zhan to learn mandolin. – Alec Whiting his version the day before the concert. On a program that ranged from Thelonious Monk to Mahalia Jackson, Appalachian traditional dance, and Binalee (“wish”) is a traditional Korean song, performed to get rid of bad contemporary classical performances on the guzheng and piano, this piece luck. Since the lunar new year was last Monday, The Jaeyu Quartet (this was especially well-received. After the concert, we learned that one reason year’s NEC Wild Card Honors Ensemble) offers Binalee as a wish for a year the piece was so well-appreciated was due to its popularity as the theme of good luck. The incantation sung at the beginning invites the gods into this song for the Chinese daily weather report. – Eden MacAdam-Somer moment, in Jordan Hall, February 2016. It describes the creation of the world and wishes for an end to misfortune and pain. The rhythms in this Pyramid song are from the traditional Korean samulnori jangdan, a set of rhythmic During Duke Ellington’s Cotton Club period (1927–1931), he was required cycles. Given the prevalence in this world of ignorance and to create music to underscore the clichéd and stereotyped images of Black misrepresentation due to ignorance and a lack of respect , The Jaeyu life (jungles, cotton fields…) presented in the nightly floorshows. He took (“Freedom”) Quartet wishes for all people to have the freedom to define this task, which could have been onerous in other hands, and used it as a themselves as exactly who they want to be, rather than being reduced to workshop : he trained himself to become a master of sketching contrasting objects and commodities. – The Jayu Quartet moods and musical situations. When Puerto Rican valve trombonist Juan Tizol joined the Ellington band in 1929, he brought along his specific musical Italian Sunrise (Broken Telephone) culture and added it to the palette of Ellington and the Ellington Band. Some A game, sometimes referred to as “Chinese Whispers”, or “Russian of the pieces Tizol and Ellington created together serve as classics in the Scandal”, but probably known to most simply as “Telephone”, brings joy to prehistory of Exotica . Caravan (played elsewhere on this concert) is by far children all over the world at parties and on playgrounds. This game the most famous of these, but there are several other brilliant ones, provides a lesson of miscommunication, misinterpretation, and including Pyramid , from 1938. Many of the Tizol–Ellington collaborations misrepresentation. Through metaphor, people can see how the smallest seem to exist in an imaginary world, where North Africa and the Hispanic errors accumulate to create real change; whether it is in gossip or in an oral world become conflated into one space of otherness . Actually, the roots of tradition. This piece takes a simple melody and lets it transform, through Puerto Rican music, particularly the Andalusian de cimaś , are connected to various interpretations. – Rubin Hohlbein the Moorish history of Spain, thus “justifying” this connection. But Ellington was no purist, nor was he an ethnomusicologist; all of the many stylistic Evening Songs from a Fishing Boat juxtapositions in his music serve in the creation of that unique magical place This past December, Hankus and I were invited to join CI alumnus and NEC – Ellingtonland. – Anthony Coleman Prep faculty Hui Weng for a masterclass and performance in Nanjing, China. The trip was amazing, a bewildering cacophony of the exotic and familiar: Columbo Ragazzi extremes of city noises and profound silences of traditional gardens, a visit These two pieces stem from the deep love and admiration which I have for to an old temple that had been razed and turned into a modern outdoor the music of Italian films from the 1960s and 70s. They are also a direct