a PDF of Terminals COMPLETE

Bobby Previte’s
TERMINALS, PART I: DEPARTURES
featuring So Percussion
five concertos for percussion ensemble and soloist
So Percussion - Eric Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting
with soloists:
Zeena Parkins, harp and electric harp, John Medeski, piano and organ,
Jen Shyu, voice and er hu fiddle, DJ Olive, turntables, Bobby Previte, drums
TERMINALS is a two-part work composed by Bobby Previte. Part I, “Departures,”
is written for the spectacular So Percussion and five legendary improvisers. Their
separate concertos dovetail in a thrilling and prolific meeting of the classical and
the improvised worlds.
This 90 minute piece brings the standard orchestral percussion instruments
(timpani, snare drum, triangle), alongside instruments that in the last century
were codified into the percussion literature (brake drums, anvils, almglocken),
regional instruments highly associated with folk music (cuica, spoons, talking
drum, timbales), electronic percussion (drum machine), and other unclassifiable
elements (bullwhip), to fashion a landscape unique to each soloist.
Pitting the precise percussion ensemble against the uncontrollable master
improviser, the inherent paradox in the concerto form is dramatically heightened
in an attempt to reconcile the ever-fascinating comic book conundrum:
What happens when an irresistible force meets an immoveable object?
TERMINALS Part I: Departures premiered at Merkin Hall, New York on March
28, 2011, a joint production of the Ecstatic Music Festival and New Sounds Live,
curated by John Schaefer for WNYC. A subsequent performance took place on
May 27 at The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, MA.
THE LIVE SHOW
DJ Olive’s pre-recorded introduction mashes up
hundreds of bootlegged tapes of drum solos Previte
has performed over the past thirty years in concerts
all over the world. Ripped from the context in which
they originally existed, Olive takes these wildly
different solos a step further, fashioning a new
context all his own - a symphony of drum solos.
TERMINAL 1, for Zeena Parkins’ acoustic and electronic harps, starts with an
exciting introduction, her signature glissandi slicing
through the ensemble, proceeds to a lyrical trio
section with bongos and truck spring, and ends with
an 13 bar hocket between
Jason Treuting’s and Adam
Sliwinski’s thundering bass
drums, set on on opposite
sides of the stage. Above all this, her electric harp rides
roughshod, spurred on by Eric Beach’s timbales.
TERMINAL 2, for Jen Shyu, is written for instruments which have a vocal
component, including the Brazilian cuica, a lion’s roar, and a siren whistle. The
middle section is complimented by her beautiful
playing of the Er Hu, the
Chinese fiddle, against
an atmosphere of three
gently bending
flexatones and bowed
vibraphone. A trio for
voice, tom toms and woodblocks follow, culminating
in a rapidly accelerating section led by Beach’s talking drums and Josh Quillen’s
rice bowl/whistle passage. The piece ends with a surprising declamation.
TERMINAL 3 for DJ Olive’s turntables uses shifting tempi - a staple of the
turntable art – while creating a multi-rhythmic
landscape in which the samples run free. Olive
scratches in and out of the first movement’s frantic
pace, settles into the second movement’s jungle
feel with beautiful Shamisen like sounds, and finally
comes to a climax with brutal stabs in the last
movement, a deliberately slow, crushing crawl
inspired by ‘doom metal.’
After intermission, TERMINAL 4, for the composer, pulls out all the stops. A tourde-force movement, Previte modeled the entire work on
elements integral to the history of this instrument he
knows so intimately, the drum set.
This concerto takes as its inspiration
everything a trap drummer experiences.
Starting with a highly theatrical beginning all the members of So Percussion
downstage playing only drumsticks, the
piece then cycles through everything from hilarious
cascades of falling sticks to a development of the
simple drummer 1-2-3-4 “count off” where the players must signal
their intentions out loud, a spoons and washboard duet with a drum
machine followed by an assembly of an entire second drum set just
in time for a drum set ‘battle’ between Previte and Treuting leading
to a vicious bullwhip cracking by Quillen, and finally, a swirling
cadenza led by a distorted vibraphone. History, humor, showmanship and the
modern all come together in this sprawling movement.
TERMINAL 5, the finale, directly follows without a break, beginning with a
massive chord punctuating the all out cadenza.
This movement highlights John Medeski’s thrilling
keyboard virtuosity, and the writing –amglocken and
brake drum counterpoint, steel drum hemiola and
Sliwinski’s majestic chime part - is intended to match
the power and reach of the Hammond Organ.
In the quiet middle
movement, the piano
trades with Quillen’s steel drums until finally, Previte
re-enters in the last movement for a stunning duet
with Medeski, in turn joined by Treuting. The evening
ends with all the soloists back onstage in a final build
to a huge polychord before the gentle coda emerges from its wake –
four chattering snare drums played downstage amongst the forest of fallen sticks.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Zeena Parkins, composer, multi-instrumentalist, improviser, sound artist, wellknown as a pioneer of the electric harp, has also extended the language of the
acoustic harp with the inventive use of unusual playing techniques, preparations,
and layers of digital and analog processing. She also builds multi-speaker
environments to reconfigure sonic spaces. Parkins has received commissions to
provide scores for film, video, chamber orchestras, theater and dance. She has a
particularly strong commitment to her collaborations with dance and has longterm creative relationships with choreographers Neil Greenberg, John Jasperse,
Jennifer Monson, Jennifer Lacey, DD Dorvillier, and Emmanuelle Vo-Dinh.
Merce Cunningham Dance Company commissioned a new work from Ms.
Parkins for Experiments in the Studio and she performed with MCDC in their
ongoing EVENTS series at DIA Beacon. Zeena also works with Body
Cartography. Their most recent piece together, Mammal, was choreographed for
the Lyon Opera Ballet. Zeena appears in festivals worldwide and on numerous
recordings. Collaborators include: Ikue Mori, Kim Gordon, Bjork, Yoko Ono,
Christian Marclay, Matmos, William Winant, Fred Frith, Elliott Sharp, Marina
Rosenfeld, Thurston Moore, Carla Kilhstedt and filmmakers: Abigail Child,
Cynthia Madansky, Mandy McIntosh and Daria Martin. Zeena’s recent solo
release on Table of the Elements, Between The Whiles, has met with critical
acclaim. Zeena is honored to have received three New York Dance and
Performance Awards (Bessies). Zeena is a distinguished visiting artist, teaching
at Mills College.
Born in Illinois from Taiwanese and East Timorese parents, Jen Shyu, a soloist
and bandleader now based in NYC, has established herself as a pioneering and
original voice in the improvisational, avant-garde jazz and creative music worlds.
Shyu has sung a featured role in Anthony Braxton’s pending recording of his
opera Trillium E, and has a duo project called Synastry with bassist Mark
Dresser, and has also worked with such innovators as Dave Burrell, Pheeroan
Aklaff, Ben Monder, Mat Maneri, and currently records and tours with
saxophonist/composer Steve Coleman and Five Elements, singing on his latest
albums Harvesting Semblances and Affinities (Pi Recordings 2010) and
Lucidarium and Weaving Symbolics (Label Bleu 2005 & 2006). Aside from being
a MacDowell Colony National Endowment for the Arts Fellow in 2008-2009, she
has been awarded fellowships from the Asian Cultural Council and the Bronx
Council on the Arts, as well as premiered fulllength chamber works for voice,
ensemble, and dance in collaboration with choreographer Satoshi Haga at
Roulette Space in 2008 (Cry of the Nomad) & Jazz Gallery in 2009 (Raging
Waters, Red Sands), both supported by the Jerome Foundation. She has
performed solo and with her band at such venues as Lincoln Center, Brooklyn
Academy of Music, Bimhuis in Amsterdam, and many venues
throughout the US, Asia, Southeast Asia, and Europe. More info and downloads:
www.jenshyu.com, www.jenshyu.bandcamp.com
After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts from SUNY Purchase, Gregor Asch
moved to Brooklyn in 1990 and co-founded Lalalandia Entertainment Research
Corporation. Lalalandia made many of the most memorable Brooklyn warehouse
after hours environments of the 90's. It was during this time that Asch started
making music as Dj Olive. Multipolyomni and We(TM) are two notable projects
he created . We(TM)'s '97 release "as is" can be considered a classic.
Multipolyomni's episodes from their opera "Quark Soup" are considered
influential to the forming of the early Williamsburg art scene. In 2000 he started
two record labels: Phonomena Audio Arts & Multiples and The Agriculture. Dj
Olive's first solo CD, "Bodega", is a Brooklyn favorite which he followed up with
the much loved "Live in Tasmania". On an all together different note, Room40
from Brisbane, Australia released Dj Olive's "Triage", "Buoy" & "Sleep" CD's, 60min voyages of beat-less warmth Olive calls "sleeping pills". He has also been
working on a concept he calls "The Vinyl Score" since 1995, which are palettes
of sound pressed on vinyl and then played with 'rules' by turntabalists. He has
continued building installations, making sound art and participated in many
exhibitions including: The Whitney Biennial 2008; Treble, Brooklyn Sculpture
Center 2004; City Sonics, Mons 2004; Venice Biennale 2003; The Whitney
Biennial 2002; Bit Streams, The Whitney Museum of American Art 2001; Art at
the Anchorage, Brooklyn 1996.
As the keyboardist in the trailblazing instrumental trio Medeski Martin & Wood, a
solo performer, film composer, and producer, collaborator and sideman with
countless artists, John Medeski channels his transformative forces with uncanny
power and imagination. A skilled composer and whirling-dervish improviser, he
consistently wrings sonic revelations from acoustic and electric piano, Hammond
organ, Clavinet, Mellotron, assorted synthesizers and other instruments. He’s
nearly as dynamic visually as aurally, wind-milling his hands across the keys,
leaning into a B-3 stab, reaching inside the piano to tap the strings with a
screwdriver. He was born in Kentucky and raised in Florida, starting piano
lessons at the tender age of five. Medeski attended the New England
Conservatory (NEC) in Boston. He continued to play piano there, but the
discovery of a dust-covered Hammond B-3 organ in a rehearsal hall would
significantly alter his course. Thanks to his mentor, Bob Moses, Medeski landed
gigs with the likes of Dewey Redman and the Either/Orchestra while still in
school. Shortly after graduating, John moved to New York City and immersed
himself in the downtown arts scene. “It had a punk-rock attitude, but it also had
the ‘higher calling’ of the best jazz,” reflects Medeski. “Whether you were
reaching up to God or flipping off the Man, it was about something more than just
entertainment.” John Medeski has performed and/or recorded with T Bone
Burnett, Natalie Merchant, Ray Lamontagne, Trey Anastasio, The Blind Boys of
Alabama, k.d.lang, Susana Baca, Rufus Wainwright, and many others. He has
scored several feature films including William Vincent starring James Franco,
and he has produced records for The Wood Brothers, The Dirty Dozen Brass
Band, and the Campbell Brothers.
Since 1999, So Percussion has been creating music that explores all the
extremes of emotion and musical possibility. Called an “experimental
powerhouse” by the Village Voice, “astonishing and entrancing” by Billboard
Magazine, and “brilliant” by the New York Times, the Brooklyn-based quartet’s
innovative work with today’s most exciting composers and their own original
music has quickly helped them forge a unique and diverse career.
Excitement about composers like John Cage, Steve Reich, and Iannis Xenakis as well as the sheer fun of playing together - inspired the members of So to begin
performing together while students at the Yale School of Music. A blind call to
David Lang, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and co-founder of New York’s Bang
on a Can Festival, yielded their first commissioned piece, the so-called laws of
nature. Sos recording of the so-called laws of nature became the cornerstone of
their self-titled debut album on Cantaloupe Music. In subsequent years, this
relationship would blossom into a growing catalogue of exciting releases: Steve
Reich’s Drumming; So member Jason Treuting’s amid the noise; Treasure State,
with the electronic duo Matmos; and Paul Lansky’s Threads.
So's ongoing body of original work has resulted in exciting new projects such as
the site-specific Music For Trains in Southern Vermont and Imaginary City, a
fully-staged sonic meditation on urban soundscapes commissioned by the
Brooklyn Academy of Music for the Next Wave Festival 2009 in consortium with 5
other venues. So’s next theatrical project where (we) live is slated to premiere in
Fall of 2012.
So Percussion is increasingly involved in mentoring young artists. Starting in the
fall of 2011, its members will be Co-Directors of a new percussion department at
the Bard College-Conservatory of Music. The summer of 2009 saw the creation
of the annual So Percussion Summer Institute on the campus of Princeton
University. The Institute is an intensive two-week chamber music seminar for
college-age percussionists featuring the four members of So as faculty in
rehearsal, performance, and discussion of contemporary music for students from
around the world.
So Percussion has performed their unusual and exciting music all over the
United States, with concerts at the Lincoln Center Festival, Carnegie Hall,
Brooklyn Academy of Music, Stanford Lively Arts, the Cleveland Museum of Art,
and many others. In addition, recent tours to the United Kingdom, Russia,
Australia, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the Ukraine have brought them
international acclaim.
With an audience comprised of "both kinds of blue hair... elderly matron here,
arty punk there" (as the Boston Globe described it), So Percussion makes a rare
and wonderful breed of music that both compels instantly and offers rewards for
engaged listening.
Bobby Previte’s first stage appearance came in 1956 at the Niagara Falls
Talent Show, where, guitar in hand, and adorned in an over-sized suit, he belted
out a solo rendition of Elvis Presley’s ‘Hound Dog.’
Eight years later, thinking drumming might be a good way to get girls, he
fashioned a bass drum from a rusted garbage can, a kick pedal from a wire coat
hanger wedged between two pieces of linoleum and a rubber ball stuck on top,
tom toms from upside-down trash bins, cymbals from aluminum pie plates
suspended on plungers, and a box of loose junk for a snare - then practiced for a
year in his dark basement with a lone spotlight shining on him before eventually
starting a band, the “Devil’s Disciples.” But when they finally got a gig at the
church he was fired for not having ‘real’ drums. Seeking revenge, he took a job
as a paperboy, saved every penny, and a year later bought the Rogers kit he still
uses today in concerts all over the world.
Strolling in the East Village one bright afternoon, he peered inside a limo stuck in
traffic (crosstown) and suddenly found himself face to face with Jimi Hendrix.
Thinking fast, he unfurled the poster of Jimi he had fortunately just acquired, then
looked on in astonishment as Hendrix smiled and flashed him the peace sign.
All the rest, as they say, is noise.
NOISE:
HISTORY: BA, SUNY Buffalo. Moved to New York City in 1979. Has worked
for/with an unlikely array of leading lights including John Adams, Terry Adams,
Robert Altman, Johnny Copeland, Lejaren Hiller, Charlie Hunter, Lenny Kaye,
John Lurie, Sonny Sharrock, Michael Tilson-Thomas, Tom Waits, Victoria
Williams, and, the internet swears Iggy Pop, although he can’t seem to
remember that, exactly.
AWARDS: NEA, NYSCA, NYFA, Franklin Furnace, The American Music Center,
MCAF, Mid Atlantic Arts, NY State Music Fund, Lower Manhattan Cultural
Council, The Jerome Foundation.
EVENTS: DIORAMA, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, 2010; THE 23
CONSTELLATIONS OF JOAN MIRÓ, Winter Garden, New York, 2008; THE
SEPARATION, Walker Art Center, 2007; DIALED IN (with Benton-C Bainbridge),
Lincoln Center, EMPAC, Eyebeam, 2007; Touring various other bands and
projects since 1985 at festivals and clubs worldwide.
RECORDINGS: Sony, Nonesuch, Palmetto, Gramavision, Enja, Thirsty Ear, New
World, Ropeadope.
MASTER CLASSES: Eastman School of Music, Walker Art Center, Art and
Music Omi, Cornish University, The New School.
RESIDENCIES: The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, Civitella Ranieri,
eleven MacDowell Colony fellowships.
ODDITIES: actor, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, “The Mute Marine,” w/ William
Shatner, 1984; as “The Drummer” in SHORT CUTS - Robert Altman, 1993.