Thanks to Catherine Kirby and everyone at the National Concert Hall for able and professional assistance, to John Godfrey, Juniper Hill and Melanie L. Marshall, the then coordinators of the UCC Music Research Seminar Series, who strongly supported Wadada’s visit, and to Mary Hickson, Chris Gaughan, Peter Crudge, Eoin Winning and everyone at the Cork Opera House. Kudos to Tony O’Connor and Athos Tsiopani for the behind-the-scenes help, and to John Hough for the videography and the technical support. Thanks also to Carmel Daly and Mel Mercier of UCC School of Music; Gary Sheehan of Note Productions; Jeffrey Weeter, Paul O’Donnell and, formerly, Jesse Ronneau of the UCC Concerts Committee; and Andreas W. Ziemons, Niamh Ryan and Louise Walsh at Music Network. Thanks to David Leikam of the Arts Noticed, Linda Plover of Blue Monkey PR, Eoin Brady and Bernard Clarke of Nova, and Sandra Quinn at the Evening Echo for their support.
A big thank to the best sound engineer in the world, Alex Fiennes, for amplifying the Cork event, and making the performance sound its best! and to Melanie for the conversations and unofficial roadie duties. Kudos to Marian Murray for jumping into the deep end, a special note of thanks Paul G. Smyth for stepping-up to support this project, and to Dennis Cassidy, Fergus Cullen and Benedict Schlepper-Connolly who came to the rescue when our drum-hire situation briefly went into tail-spin.
And of course a big, big, big thanks to Charles Hayward, Ian Smith and Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith for letting me share in their skill, craft, intelligence, musicality, generosity and sense of play (and their patience with this first-time tour manager): I’ll treasure Charles’ rhythmic travels to the outer reaches of an alternative-universe Caribbean; Ian’s brave counterpoint; and the spiraling, expert stacatto precision of Wadada’s trumpet.
Last but not least, thanks to all who came to listen and witness creative music in real-time!
A special one-of-a-kind improvised music performance by artists from Ireland now based overseas, and Ireland-based artists from abroad takes place on Monday, 4 April 2011, upstairs at The Roundy, Castle Street, Cork, Ireland. The event will begin at 9:00 pm (doors open at 8:45 pm) and admission is €10 (€5 concessions) at the door.
This is a rare performance in Ireland by Catherine Sikora (New York-based, originally from West Cork), a saxophonist with a striking, compelling sound. She has been described as “a free-blowing player’s player with a spectacular harmonic imagination and an evolved understanding of the tonal palette of the saxophone” (Chris Elliot, Seacoast Online). Joining Sikora will be cofounder of the London Improvisers’ Orchestra, trumpeter Ian Smith (London-based, from Dublin), and Cork-based guitarist Han-earl Park (originally from California). Smith and Park are members, with Charles Hayward, of the power-trio Mathilde 253, which will tour Ireland with the legendary composer-improviser Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith this month. The group will be complemented by composer, drummer, intermedia artist and lecturer at the UCC Department of Music, Jeffrey Weeter (who recently moved to Cork from Chicago) known for his innovative work in collaboration with Kate Simko.
about the performers
Since making her way to New York City from West Cork, Ireland to study abstract improvisation, Catherine Sikora has become a well-known face and sound in New York creative music circles. She has worked with Elliott Sharp, Eric Mingus, Michael Evans, Matt Lavelle, Jeremy Bacon, François Grillot and Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber, among many others. Her undeniably unique approach sets her apart from everyone else, even when surrounded by the most original and creative voices in New York City. Sikora is a contributing writer to the book “Silent Solos-Improvisers Speak” (Buddy’s Knife Publishing, Köln, DE) and is currently working on producing a solo recording.
Ian Smith has performed with Evan Parker, John Stevens, Maggie Nicols, Lol Coxhill, Steve Beresford, Eddie Prévost, Greg Tate’s Burnt Sugar Arkestra, Reeves Gabrels, John Sinclair, Harris Eisenstadt and many others. In 2000 he recorded his second CD as a leader, Daybreak, with Derek Bailey, Veryan Weston, Gail Brand and Oren Marshall. His own trio, Trian, has played the London Experimental Music Festival and the Soho Jazz Festival. He also participated in a reformation of Cornelius Cardew’s Scratch Orchestra in 1994. He has collaborated with composer Roger Doyle, winner of the Bourges International Elecro-Acoustic Music Competition, and he has been featured on two instrumental tracks by the hip hop band Marxman. He toured the UK with Butch Morris’ London Skyscraper conduction project. He cofounded the London Improvisers’ Orchestra and The Gathering.
Han-earl Park 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 Europe and America. He is part of Mathilde 253 with Charles Hayward and Ian Smith, and has recently performed with Wadada Leo Smith, Pat Thomas, Lol Coxhill, Paul Dunmall, Mark Sanders, Matana Roberts and Richard Barrett. His recordings have been released by labels including Slam Productions, and DUNS Limited Edition. Festival appearances include Sonic Acts (Amsterdam), the Center for Experiments in Art, Information and Technology Festival (California), dialogues festival (Edinburgh), Sonorities (Belfast) and VAIN Live Art (Oxford).
Jeffrey Weeter is an intermedia artist and audio engineer. He has designed real-time video instruments and performed as the resident VJ for the Wake Up! series at Sonotheque. An audio engineer and theorist, he has presented at ATMI, ICMC and SEAMUS, and has published in Organised Sound. He has worked with the ensembles Powerpoint, Fire and Ice, Lucid Dream Ensemble and Cartwright/Moorefield/Weeter. Weeter’s work explores the relationships between media via performance. Performances utilize electronic and acoustic instruments coupled with video projection, expanding the dynamics of performance and forging a hybrid palette. Video elements characterized by manipulated and found materials combine with the music to form a mesh of shifting relationships. His work negotiates a shared agency between live performer and random or deterministic processes.
Expect powerful and inventive musical interactions as internationally renowned composer-improviser Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith performs with the virtuosic, cross-idiomatic ensemble Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward, Han-earl Park and Ian Smith) in Cork and Dublin, Ireland in March 2011. This two-date tour marks Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith’s first appearance in Ireland, and the Irish debut of Mathilde 253.
Hailed as “one of the most vital musicians on the planet today” (Bill Shoemaker, Coda), legendary composer, multi-instrumentalist, improviser and educator Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith has been active in creative contemporary music for over forty years. He is creator of Ankhrasmation, a systemic music language, and his music traverses traditions as diverse as the delta blues, creative world musics, American experimentalism and live-electronics. His current ensembles include the Golden Quartet (currently with Vijay Iyer, John Lindberg and Pheeroan akLaff), Silver Orchestra (with J.D. Parran, Lindberg, Okkyung Lee, Harris Eisenstadt and others), Organic (with Nels Cline, Lee, Lindberg, akLaff and others), and his compositions have been performed by ensembles including the Kronos Quartet, Da Capo Chamber Player, New Century Players, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Del Sol String Quartet and New York New Music Ensemble. He is faculty member, and director of the African-American Improvisational Music program, at The Herb Alpert School of Music at the California Institute of the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a longtime member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.
Mathilde 253 consists of the pioneering avant-rock drummer Charles Hayward (This Heat, Camberwell Now, Massacre), rising Cork-based guitarist and improviser Han-earl Park (Paul Dunmall, Kato Hideki, Stet Lab), and Irish trumpeter and mainstay of the London improvised music scene, Ian Smith (Derek Bailey, The London Improvisers Orchestra, The Gathering). Mathilde 253 was formed to explore the spontaneous mashup of avant-rock, African-American creative musics, European free improvisation and noise, and collaborates with noted improvisers such as Lol Coxhill and Pat Thomas. Guillaume Belhomme described the music of the ensemble’s eponymous debut CD, released in 2011 by Slam Productions (SLAMCD 528), as “ordered and entwining… a tapestry of choice: that of another Mathilde, of a complete beauty”.
The Dublin event will open with a solo performance by the Dublin-based Paul G. Smyth, one of Ireland’s foremost free-improvising pianist.
The events take place: Wednesday, 30 March, Half Moon Theatre (Cork Opera House, Emmet Place, Cork), 8:00 pm; and Thursday, 31 March, Kevin Barry Room (National Concert Hall, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin) 8:30 pm.
Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith will also speak on ‘Ankhrasmation: A Systemic Music Language for Creative Music’ as part of the UCC Music Research Seminar Series. The talk is free, open to the public, and takes place at the UCC Music Building (Sundays Well, Cork) at 2:00 pm on 30 March.
Stet Lab featuring Stephen Davis (drums) with Han-earl Park (guitar), plus Helena Reilly (voice), Kevin Terry (guitar) and Dan Walsh (drums).
Admission: €10/5.
[Details…]
February 15, 2011
The Lamp Tavern
Barford Street
Birmingham B5, England
Bar & Co.
Temple Pier
Embankment
London WC2R, England
8:30pm
(doors: 8:45pm)
Boat-ting presents a performance by Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward (drums, percussion and melodica), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Ian Smith (trumpet and flugelhorn)) with Lol Coxhill (saxophone). Also performing are Sharon Gal (voice), Alex Ward (guitar) and Steve Noble (drums); Red Start (Noel Taylor (clarinet), Benedict Taylor (viola) and Noura Sanatian (violin)); and Sibylline Sisters (Sibyl Madrigal (poetry), Aromorel Weston (voice) and Kay Grant (voice)). Admission: £6/4.
[Details…]
[facebook event…]
March 2011
The Netherlands
I’m looking for performance opportunities in The Netherlands mid-March 2011. Interested promoters, venues and sponsors, please get in touch!
Monday, February 7, 2011, at 9:00 pm (doors open at 8:45pm): featuring Belfast-based drummer and composer Stephen Davis, plus Helena Reilly (voice), Kevin Terry (guitar) and Dan Walsh (drums), the final Stet Lab event with myself, Han-earl Park, as curator takes upstairs @ The Roundy, Castle Street, Cork, Ireland. Admission is €10/5. [Details…]
30+ events over 3+ years: it has been an interesting, sometimes exciting, by occasion wild, at times frustrating, but always fascinating ride. Thanks to all who’ve supported the Lab. Here’s hoping the next three years are just as fascinating. [Some thoughts from the midpoint (2009)…]