Often, even when I’m not listening to music in my office, I’m listening to music. The stuff from down the hall, that is.
On one side is a space used by bassist Ben Street, a hero of today’s jazz scene. Street invites all manner of musicians in, just as in his professional work; best of all is when he’s working with Cuban percussionist Román Díaz.
Sometimes I hear the sound of hammered dulcimer, the primary instrument played by Dan Joseph, whose space is right across the hall from Street’s. Joseph’s wide-ranging tastes frequently draw me away from what I’m supposed to be listening to. I wander down the hall just to figure out what’s coming from his space, or to get a better taste of it. Often, I’ve never heard anything like it.
Joseph leads his own chamber group, The Dan Joseph Ensemble, and has collaborated with some of New York’s most adventurous musicians. A few weeks ago, he lent me a terrific book, “Deep Listening,” which was inscribed by its author, Pauline Oliveros, one of Joseph’s principal teachers.
In addition to his composing and music making, Joseph often writes about music and culture, for The Brooklyn Rail and NewMusicBox.org. Like me, he likes to talk about music, sometimes in public. He’s created one vital forum for such discussions—the music and sound series Musical Ecologies at The Old Stone House in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Joseph started the series in the fall of 2012, out of “my own need for more regular and substantive conversation with other music people,” he told me. “As the series has unfolded,” he said, “this conversation component has really become its heart.”
His next installment, Sept. 8, focuses on a musician who has long fascinated me: Peter Gordon. At Musical Ecologies, Gordon will present “The Ten of Wands,” a self-described “solo tone poem” with saxophone, keyboards, laptop and spoken word. The evening will begin with a conversation hosted by Joseph, and a reception will follow.
Here’s some more information on the series, and about Gordon:MUSICAL ECOLOGIES 2016-17 AT THE OLD STONE HOUSE
http://musicalecologies.net | http://facebook.com/musicalecologies
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 8, 2016, 8:00 PM, Admission by contribution ($10 suggested)
PETER GORDON: The Ten of Wands (a Tone Poem)
The Old Stone House
in Washington Park, 3rd Street & 5th Avenue
Park Slope, Brooklyn – http://goo.gl/maps/lgbZg
718-768-3195 – http://www.theoldstonehouse.org
The 2016-17 season of Musical Ecologies opens Thursday September 8th with composer and musician Peter Gordon. A longtime veteran of New York’s Downtown music scene, Gordon will present The Ten of Wands, a self described “solo tone poem” with saxophone, keyboards, laptop and spoken word. The evening will begin with a conversation hosted by series curator Dan Joseph, and a reception will follow.
Musical Ecologies is a monthly symposium on music and sound held every 2nd Thursday (except where noted) at the Old Stone House in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Curated and hosted by composer Dan Joseph, each event typically focuses on a single artist who presents a work or project either in the form of a talk or lecture, a multimedia presentation, a performance, or combination thereof. Each presentation is preceded by an extended conversation with the curator and audience.
About the artist:
Peter Gordon is a composer, saxophonist, arranger, producer. Born in New York City, he spent his childhood in Virginia and Munich, Germany, before moving to LA when he was 17. After attending UC San Diego and Mills College, Gordon moved to New York in 1975, where his Love of Life Orchestra (including Jill Kroesen) first gained attention at downtown venues such as the Kitchen, CBGB, Max’s Kansas City, and the Mudd Club. He was music producer for Robert Ashley’s video opera Perfect Lives, as well as the recent Spanish-language version, Vidas Perfectas (presented at The Whitney in 2014.) A composer of scores of scores for theater, dance, film and video projects, he has been recognized with both an Obie Award and a Bessie Award. His music for film and television include Joe Versus the Volcano and ABC-TV’s Desperate Housewives, and the New York Philharmonic performed his orchestrations for Michael Tilson Thomas’ Thomashefsky Project. A friend and frequent collaborator of the late Arthur Russell, Gordon has recently been touring Arthur Russell’s INSTRUMENTALS, directed by Peter Gordon in the US, Europe and Australia. As educator, Gordon is Professor of Music at Bloomfield College.
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/289992731358218/
Upcoming: Andrea Parkins (10/13); Vicki Ray (11/10); Mark Stewart (12/8)…
Complete 2016-17 season schedule: http://www.musicalecologies.net/current/
Larry Blumenfeld on jazz and other things