{"id":5060,"date":"2015-05-18T20:39:05","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T20:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.artinfo.com\/blunotes\/?p=5060"},"modified":"2015-05-18T20:39:05","modified_gmt":"2015-05-18T20:39:05","slug":"all-the-things-roy-nathanson-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/2015\/05\/18\/all-the-things-roy-nathanson-is\/","title":{"rendered":"All The Things Roy Nathanson Is"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Roy%20Nathanson\"<\/a>If you see Roy Nathanson<\/strong> on the Q train, head down and pen out, he’s working on a poem. If you see him with his saxophone raised, he\u2019s exulting in song or free improvisation.
\nMore and more, the two activities have merged for the 64-year-old Brooklynite.
\nFrom June 2-7, Nathanson\u2019s residency at The Stone<\/a>, the tiny club John Zorn founded in\u00a0Manhattan\u2019s East Village, will explore the words and sounds and, most of all, the friendships that fuel Nathanson\u2019s restless and genre-bending creativity. His duet partners will include guitarist Marc Ribot, pianists Myra Melford, Anthony Coleman and Arturo O\u2019Farrill, and trombonist Curtis Fowlkes, Nathanson\u2019s fellow founder of the Jazz Passengers group. His bandmates include the members of his unusual Sotto Voce ensemble, in which everyone sings and a beatboxer rules the rhythm section, and all-stars from Manhattan’s Institute for Collaborative Education, where Nathanson runs the music program.
\nNathanson has an uncanny knack for translating words into music and vice versa. His poem inspired by the tune “All the Thing You Are” contains this verse:<\/p>\n

Today when we were cooking oatmeal<\/em>
\nI heard Sonny Criss drive his Selmer<\/em>
\nthrough the “Angel glow that lights a star” line<\/em>
\nand I marveled at the metaphorical power of stars<\/em>
\nHow they rise above the bridges of all these old tunes<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nathanson also has a way of drawing great musicians into his own world regardless of the material. But this week, such communion will focus very much on one song:\u00a0\u201cThe Nearness of You.”
\nNathanson shared with me his enthusiasm for the program, and for that song:<\/p>\n

This week of concerts feels particularly emotionally powerful since somehow, at 64, I\u2019ve fallen back totally in love with my saxophone. Reed craziness and all. These last 10 years or so I’ve been concentrating almost entirely on connecting text and words\u2014particularly on understanding how poetry, metaphor, voice and saxophone work together as language. This has also corresponded to the period I’ve started the ICE music department and involved my students in much of my artistic exploration.
\nA combination of aging, life troubles and changes, and diving again into Eric Dolphy’s language for Russ Johnson’s \u201cOut To Lunch\u201d project made me remember how my saxophone itself can tell a story without words. How just breath moving from note to note is a magical thing to savor. That a singing note is just a crazy cool thing.
\nFor this Stone residency, I’m exploring duo conversations with old collaborators and friends whose language I know well: Marc Ribot, Curtis Fowlkes, Anthony Coleman, Arturo O’Farrill, Myra Melford, Claire Daly and Napoleon Maddox. These are people with whom I’ve spent years playing concerts with and sharing life experiences with. Anthony and I recorded 3 CDs and worked with musical gesture, words, free improv and composition. Curtis and I started the Jazz Passengers with this duo process. Marc and I have played together for over 35 years. The duo with Anthony hasn’t been heard in years, and others like the duos with Myra and Arturo are projects I\u2019ve always wanted to do. If words come out of this duo process at the Stone, fine; but mostly the improvisations will be an older kind of storytelling for me.\u00a0I will also have the pleasure of playing with the groups I’m most associated with: The Jazz Passengers, Sotto Voce and the recent Out to Lunch project.
\nWhile rehearsing last week with Arturo, he had the idea of playing \u201cThe Nearness of You,\u201d a song I always loved. Arturo discussed how the song always seemed full of ambiguity, and I felt that too. That ambiguity was part of what I always found beautiful about it. Musically I remember both my dad [also a saxophonist] playing it, and how it in organ bars while I played in\u00a0\u00a0Charlie Earland’s band, I felt\u00a0it swing in ways that were almost oblivious to the lyrics. So I’m going to do a version of that song in every single\u00a0duo.
\nPhoto: Charna Meyers<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Full schedule below:
\n6\/2 Tuesday
\n8 pm
\nRoy Nathanson and Curtis Fowlkes Duo
\nRoy Nathanson (sax) Curtis Fowlkes (trombone)
\n 
\n10 pm
\nThe Jazz Passengers
\nCurtis Fowlkes (trombone) Roy Nathanson (sax) Brad Jones (bass) Bill Ware (vibes) Sam Bardfeld (drums)
\n 
\n6\/3 Wednesday (RJP)
\n8 pm
\nMarc Ribot and Roy Nathanson duo
\nMarc Ribot (guitar) Roy Nathanson (sax, poetry)
\n 
\n10 pm
\nRoy Nathanson Organ quartet feat. Marc Ribot
\nMarc Ribot (guitar) Greg Lewis (Hammond B3 organ) Nasheet Waits (drums) Roy Nathanson (sax)
\n 
\n6\/4 Thursday
\n8 pm
\nMyra Melford and Roy Nathanson duo
\nMyra Melford (piano) Roy Nathanson (sax, vocal)
\n 
\n10 pm
\nRuss Johnson\u2019s Still Out to Lunch
\nRoy Nathanson (sax) Myra Melford (piano) Brad Jones (bass) George Schuller (drums) Russ Johnson (trumpet)
\n 
\n6\/5 Friday (SC)
\n8 pm
\nRoy Nathanson and Anthony Coleman duo (Lobster and Friend)
\nAnthony Coleman (piano) Roy Nathanson (sax)
\n 
\n10 pm
\nRoy Nathanson\u2019s Sotto Voce
\nRoy Nathanson, Napoleon Maddox (beatbox) Tim Kiah (bass) Curtis Fowlkes (trombone) Jerome Harris (guitar) Sam Bardfeld (violin)
\n 
\n6\/6 Saturday
\n8 pm
\nArturo O\u2019Farrill and Roy Nathanson duo
\nArturo O\u2019Farrill (piano) Roy Nathanson (sax)
\n 
\n10 pm
\nInstitute for Collaborative Education All Star Band
\nRoy Nathanson, Isaiah Barr (saxes) Leo Hardman-Hill (trumpet) Sean Sondregger (sax) Max Balton (guitar) Nadeghe Giraudet (vocals) Zuri Gordon (poetry) Pete Karp (drums) Zara Acosta (clarinet)
\n 
\n6\/7 Sunday
\n8 pm
\nRoy Nathanson, Napoleon Maddox, Claire Daly Trio
\nRoy Nathanson (alto and soprano saxes) Napoleon Maddox (beatbox) Claire Daly (baritone sax)
\n10 pm
\nRoy Nathanson with Zack O\u2019Farrill Trio
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you see Roy Nathanson on the Q train, head down and pen out, he’s working on a poem. If you see him with his saxophone raised, he\u2019s exulting in song or free improvisation. More and more, the two activities have merged for the 64-year-old Brooklynite. From June 2-7, Nathanson\u2019s residency at The Stone, the … <\/p>\n

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