Matana Roberts, Han-earl Park and Mark Sanders (original photos by Brett Walker, Stephanie Hough and Andrew Putler)
Thanks to Paul O’Donnell and Jeffrey Weeter of the University College Cork Concert Series; to Kevin Terry and Athoulis Tsiopani for helping out on the evening; to the Music Research Seminar Series (run by John Godfrey, Juniper Hill and Melanie L Marshall) for hosting the talk by Matana; to the Head of Music, Mel Mercier; to Carmel Daly for administrative support; and to John Hough for the technical and photographic work. I’d like to thank Jesse Ronneau who worked to host many improvised music events at the School over the years. This was the last concert, before he moved on to greener pastures, with his involvement, and his support of, and belief in, this and other projects has been invaluable.
And a very, very big thanks to Matana and Mark for their incredible musicianship and generosity. I find Matana’s work daring, original and provocative—her sound is by turns humorous and beautiful, and always compelling—and Mark is about the finest drummer I have had the pleasure of working with. I hope I managed to keep up with them on the evening, and hope to play again.
Finally, thanks to all who came to support this event!
Get ready for a truly international musical exploration of technique, craft and tradition by three extraordinary improvisers. Chicago-born, New York-based saxophonist Matana Roberts, leading Birmingham-based drummer Mark Sanders, and Cork-based Korean-American guitarist Han-earl Park perform as part of the University College Cork Concert Series on Thursday, 25 November 2010 at 8:00 pm in the Ó Riada Hall, UCC Music Building, Sundays Well, Cork. Tickets are €10 (€5 concessions) and available from Music, School of Music and Theatre, UCC.
The event marks Matana Roberts’ first performance in Ireland. Hailed as the one of the “brightest lights of the new Chicago wave” (The Wire) and an “eloquent, dramatic tone-warping free-jazz artist, right out of Ayler’s anti-bebop tradition” (John Fordham, The Guardian), Matana Roberts represents the younger generation of African-American experimentalists. She is a member of the New York chapter of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and the Black Rock Coalition. Roberts’ work traverses jazz, rock, music theater and acoustical engagements with architecture. Coin Coin, a multi-movement “blood narrative” about her family tree including Marie Therese Coin Coin, is widely acknowledged as her most important composition.
Mark Sanders has been heard in Ireland on tour with the great Charles Gayle and William Parker, performing in groups with Paul Dunmall, and with Paul G. Smyth and Hannah Marshall at the National Concert Hall. In free improvisation and avant-rock circles, Sanders is arguably the most sought-after drummer of his generation. A sensitive and skillful collaborator, he has been called upon by musicians as diverse as Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, John Butcher, John Tchacai, Peter Brötzmann and Jah Wobble.
Han-earl Park teaches improvisation at the School of Music and Theatre, UCC. As an improviser, he is fascinated by the collision of improvisative traditions, ideologies and agencies, engaging on-stage with the high-energy free jazz of Paul Dunmall, avant-rock back-beats of Charles Hayward, downtown ambient noise of Kato Hideki, and, shortly, with Richard Barrett’s patchwork complexity and Leo Smith’s creative world music.
“I was very excited when I heard that Matana Roberts was to play here! She is undoubtedly one of the brightest voices in improvisation today, and we’re incredibly lucky that her first performance in Ireland will be in Cork. The trio with the incredible Mark Sanders and Cork’s own musical powerhouse Han-earl Park is going to be pure dynamite. UCC has been a centre for improv for years, but this is going to be one of my top highlights!” says John Godfrey, lecturer and composer at the School of Music and Theatre, UCC.
With a trio representing diverse strands of present-day improvised musics, prepare for a performance that fragments and recombines musical histories, and explores the revolutionary potential of real-time music.
Matana Roberts will also be presenting a talk, ‘Coin Coin: a Blood Narrative in Blacks, Browns, Reds and Blues’ at the UCC Music Building at 11:00 am on 25 November 2010. The talk is free, and open to the public.
concert: Matana Roberts, Han-earl Park and Mark Sanders
Date: Thursday, 25 November 2010.
Time: 8:00 pm.
Venue: Ó Riada Hall, UCC Music Building, Sundays Well, Cork, Ireland.
Performers: Matana Roberts (saxophone), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Mark Sanders (drums).
Tickets: €10 (€5) from Music, School of Music and Theatre, UCC, tel: +353 (0)21 490 4530, email: .
talk: Matana Roberts ‘Coin Coin: a Blood Narrative in Blacks, Browns, Reds and Blues’
Date: Thursday, 25 November 2010.
Time: 11:00 am.
Venue: Ó Riada Hall, UCC Music Building, Sundays Well, Cork, Ireland.
Admission free.
performers’ bios (150 words each)
Chicago born Matana Roberts is a saxophonist/composer/performer who works in various mediums of improvised sound and performance, and has been active in New York since 2001. A Vanlier and Brecht Forum fellow, and a 2008 and 2009 nominee for an Alpert Award in the Arts, she has appeared on numerous recordings, and performances worldwide with her own, as well as collaborative, ensembles such as Sticks and Stones, Burnt Sugar, Exploding Star Orchestra, Oliver Lake Big Band, and the groups of Julius Hemphill, Myra Melford, Jayne Cortez, Merce Cunningham and Savion Glover. In 2008, the success of her leader debut, The Chicago Project, led critics to call Roberts “one to watch” (Jazzwise) and “an eloquent, dramatic, tone warping free jazz artist right out of Ayler’s anti bop tradition” (The Guardian). She has also recorded as a side woman on recordings with a large smattering of influential ensembles.
Improviser, guitarist and constructor Han-earl Park (박한얼) works from/within/around traditions of fuzzily idiomatic, on occasion experimental, mostly open improvised musics, sometimes engineering theater, sometimes inventing ritual. He feels the gravitational pull of collaborative, multi-authored contexts, and has performed in clubs, theaters, art galleries and concert halls in Denmark, England, Ireland, The Netherlands, Scotland and the USA.
He is involved in ongoing collaborations with Bruce Coates, and with Franziska Schroeder, long-standing associations with Alex Fiennes and Murray Campbell. Recent performances include Mathilde 253 (Park, Charles Hayward and Ian Smith) with Lol Coxhill, a duo concert with Paul Dunmall, a trio with Kato Hideki and Katie O’Looney, and the performance of Pauline Oliveros’ ‘Droniphonia’ alongside the composer. He has appeared at festivals including Sonic Acts (Amsterdam), the Center for Experiments in Art, Information and Technology Festival (California), dialogues festival (Edinburgh), Sonorities (Belfast) and VAIN Live Art (Oxford).
Recently heard in Ireland with saxophonist Charles Gayle and bassist William Parker, and with saxophonist Paul Dunmall and guitarists Han-earl Park and Jamie Smith, Mark Sanders has played with most of the UK’s major improvisers including Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, Paul Rutherford, Barry Guy, Lol Coxhill, Phil Wachsmann, John Butcher and Keith Tippett.
He has also played with Roswell Rudd, Tim Berne, Ned Rothenberg, Charles Gayle, Sirone, William Parker, Mark Dresser, Butch Morris, John Tchacai, Leo Smith, Peter Brötzmann, Jah Wobble and Springheel Jack. He is a member of The ZFP with Carlos Zingaro, Simon Fell and Marcio Mattos, a trio with Frode Gjerstad and John Edwards, and a trio with Lotte Anker and Peter Friis Nielsen. Sanders is also a member of SPEEQ with Hasse Poulsen, Luc Ex and Phil Minton / Sidsel Endresen.
Sanders has released over 100 CDs, and has performed at numerous festivals across the world.
