We have four new compositions for you from Charley Gray, director of Jazz Studies at PSU and an illustrious large ensemble composer, our co-director Gus Slayton, Portland guitarist and composerKyle Williams, and NYC-based Portland native (and former PJCE member) Eric Allen, who will be presenting his own unique take on some Christmas music for us.

Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 day of show.  $10 for students  They’re now on salehere. Save a few bucks and get them in advance!

We’ll be featuring essays by each composer on the PJCE Blog in advance of the event to give you a taste of what they’re up to.  So far Eric and Kyle’s essays are up.  Have a look!

Thanks for your support and we hope to see you Dec. 10 to support some great new, local music.

Herbie Nichols has been coming to prominence of late with the Herbie Nichols Project, run by the jazz composers collective in NYC in the 90′s, as well as with Roswell Rudd’s publication of many of Herbie’s unrecorded compositions.  We’ll be tackling some of them in a relaxed evening at Tony’s, part of my first Wednesday series.  These are really great tunes that deserve to be heard more often, hope to see you there.

At long last the Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble returns with a fundraising concert on September 24.  After a year of organizational restructuring including incorporating as a nonprofit and finally receiving 501 (c) 3 status from the IRS, the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble is back with a season of concerts we’re kicking off with a fundraiser on September 24 at Gallery 135 in the Park Blocks.  The event will feature an octet made up of members of the full ensemble and five new compositions by Andrew Oliver, Gus Slayton, Dan Duval, Kevin Van Geem, and Bill Athens.  PSU Jazz Studies professor Darrell Grant will be speaking, and there will be local food and beverages as well.  We hope you can join us for this special event to kick off a new chapter in our organization and help further the local jazz scene in Portland!

Tickets and full info here.

Essays by the composers are being posted every couple of days at the PJCE blog leading up to the performance.

The fall Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble concert was a blast, we played over in Northeast at Redeemer Lutheran Church, a great space with very clean acoustics (especially for a church), and it was really well recieved.  The repertoire was a bit more subdued than in recent concerts, but it was nice and “seasonally appropriate.”

The personnel was:

Mike Hankins, Brooks Barnett, Tree Palmedo, trumpets
Dave Bryan, Nick Sweet, Doug Peebles, trombones
Lee Elderton, Gus Slayton, Willie Matheis, Mieke Bruggeman, saxophones
Andrew Oliver, piano; Kyle Williams, guitar; Bill Athens, bass; Kevin Van Geem, drums

We started out with Gus’s great tune “Deep Fjords”, which we sort of butchered the first time we played it, but which was really nice and epic this time, with a great solo by Lee Elderton (click to listen):

Deep Fjords

Next was a tune by JW Davis, who was the first person not acquainted with anyone in the band who just contacted us through our website with a piece to be performed.  That was really cool and we enjoyed playing his tune “Just Me,” which was based off some Monk voicings that he transcribed, always a good source of inspiration!  Solos by Nick Sweet, Willie Matheis, and Mike Hankins:

Just Me (That’s Who Loves You)

Stephen Conolly, a guitarist from central Washington who I met while visiting some friends out at Berklee in Boston, came to town to conduct his arrangement of a tune by Nick Sweet.  It was great to have him there, we interpreted it much differently than the first time we performed it as well, this was certainly an improvement.  Solo by Nick:

Tricks and Tests

Next was my good friend Dan Duval’s rather epic piece that he wrote for us, inspired by the great minimalist pioneers (Cage, Reich, etc.).  Featuring myself, Willie Matheis, and lots of great through-composed stuff:

Glass Beads (for Jessica)

After that, we took a brief intermission, followed by a piece sent for us all the way from Australia, by Rafael Karlen, who I met at the Banff Workshop in May.  He’s a great and very thorough composer, and we took a stab at his tune “Handmade Book”.  This one features Kyle Williams on guitar:

Handmade Book

Next was my tune “28 Days”, named after some sort of record that was set this year in Seattle for consecutive days without rain.  I wrote this originally for the Seattle Jazz Composers’ Ensemble, a somewhat similar project headed up by Michael Owcharuk, but re-arranged it for our group.  Featuring Tree Palmedo on trumpet:

28 Days

Kyle Williams offered a tune excerpted from a soundtrack he wrote to a movie by Salvador Dali.  It was really nice and breezy, and features Bill Athens, Gus Slayton, and Kevin Van Geem:

The Death of a Jerk

We finished up, as we often do, with a piece by Sam Howard.  This was a bit different than his last two, as it was co-written with Lindsey Stormo, a great vocalist who joined us for the performance.  It’s very “Northwesty,” in fitting with the theme of the group:

Courage Like The Mountain

Overall a great performance, probably our best to date – even though we only played eight pieces, I am starting to think that it’s better to play fewer pieces better, rather than trying to cram in a lot of under-rehearsed music.  Thanks again to everyone who continues to make this endeavor a success, and we’re really excited for next year, when we’ll start out by performing in February during the Portland Jazz Festival, followed by some other exciting performances in the works!

Back to the grindstone for me, finishing up some new Kora Band tunes today, as well as continuing to book the May tour for Tunnel Six, a sextet I co-founded up at Banff, we’ll be touring throughout Canada in the spring, so watch out!

Hope everyone is having a good week.  Back on Friday with the resurrection of the “Post Colonial African Groove of the Week!”

Tonight at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Portland will be the final performance in our second year of concerts by the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, one of my favorite ongoing projects.  As I was just making up the program here, I went back through our old programs and determined that we have already debuted 30 new works written and arranged specifically for our group, and will be premiering 6 more tonight!

Despite the immense logistical (and sometimes financial) difficulties, this is an endeavor which I’m very happy to have started and hope to continue for many years.  One of the best parts of this whole project is putting out the call to composers and seeing what comes in.  Each time, I worry that we will get a bunch of pieces which won’t fit well together, or are too hard, or too easy, or whatever, and each time I am pleasently surprised by the way in which the compositions we recieve fit well into a cohesive program.  This time is no different, though for perhaps the first time since we started out, we will be presenting a program of works which are a bit more in the “modern big band” vibe.  Lots of straight 8th notes, slower tempos, and nice epic buildups.

I’m especially excited about Dan Duval‘s new piece “Glass Beads”, which he has spent many months on, it’s really a great composition and has come together very nicely.  Also of note, Stephen Connolly will be in town from eastern Washington to conduct his arrangement of Nick Sweet‘s “Tricks and Tests” (which you may remember from our July concert), with Nick on trombone, vocalist Lindsey Stormo will be singing on a new reflective piece she co-wrote with Sam Howard, we’ll play new tunes by myself (based on precipitation records) and Kyle Williams (based on Salvador Dali), and we’ll be performing “Just Me” by JW Davis, the first local composer to contact us out of the blue and ask to have a piece performed, along with a reprise of Gus Slaytons “Deep Fjords” from our fall 08 concert.

All in all, it promises to be a great evening!  I’ll post the audio next week, meanwhile if you’re in Portland stop by!

Friday, October 30, 2009, 8 PM
Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble
Redeemer Lutheran Church
5431 NE 20th Ave. (at Killingsworth)
Portland, OR 97211
$10

http://www.pjce.org

(photo by Maureen Oliver, more photos from the concert here)

Well it seems that the PJCE is taking up a lot of space on here recently, although I have some other posts in the works (as well as lots of projects, the list of which was rather frighteningly long when I read it out loud to someone!)

But, for now, a wrapup of last Friday’s PJCE concert.  We really had the best turnout and response thus far, which was gratifying – sans any decent press writeups or radio appearences, I feared for the worst but was pleasently surprised.

As always with a group this large (14), this many new compositions (9), and limited rehearsal time, there were some imperfections, and the Old Church’s acoustics were not helpful in that regard (as you will hear).  However, despite all of that, there were some great moments which I’d like to share with everyone.

1. Finished Products – as promised, a follow up on my previous post about my new mini-tunes.  They were really quite successful and basically accomplished my goals of writing pieces that would be playable with only one rehearsal but were still intriguing, were self-contained, dealt with one basic musical theme each, and would sound good in the Old Church.  This was a good move for me as a composer, as I tend to follow the youthful stereotype of trying to fit everything possible into each composition, and I was finally able to get outside of that significantly here.  Have a listen, each movement is about 2 minutes long:

Finished Products I (Bass Solo: Bill Athens)

Finished Products II

Finished Products III (Trumpet Solo: Tree Palmedo, Soprano Solo: Mary Sue Tobin)

2. Fearless Frogs – There were some other highlights as well, co-director Gus Slayton write a rockin’ tune based on his recent camping experiences, “Fearless Frogs.”  I am always impressed with Gus’s fine big-band voicings and his willingness to write in whatever style he damn well pleases, eschewing whatever big band conventions are left in this day and age.  Part of why I love the PJCE as a project is this attitude of both experimentation and a lack of pretension, which I think most of the musicians and composers have picked up as we’ve moved along.  Here’s Gus’s tune:

Fearless Frogs (Alto Solo: Mary Sue Tobin, Keyboard Solo: Andrew Oliver)

3. Cave Dweller – And, along the same lines, Galen Clark wrote a funky number “Cave Dweller” a year or so ago that he re-arranged for us.  It will be featured on his band Trio Subtonic‘s upcoming CD, which, if you happen to be in Portland, will be celebrated with what will surely be a great show at Jimmy Mak’s on Aug. 7:

Cave Dweller (Trumpet Solo: Levis Dragulin, Tenor Solo: Gus Slayon, Drum Solo: Kevin Van Geem)

4.  Grabby McGee – At the risk of this becoming rather lengthy, I will leave you with two more tunes to enjoy.  One of the PJCE’s newest friends and collaborators Andrew Durkin (of the Industrial Jazz Group) wrote a fine piece for us entitled “Grabby McGee,” which although in a post about the concert on the IJG blog he claims “stuck out like a sore thumb” was, in my opinion and in that of the audience as well, one of the highlights.  Andrew also exemplifies the nonconformist attitude I was talking about a few paragraphs ago, which I greatly appreciate.  And, his piece was the only one which featured people yelling “Cha-cha-cha”, which is not to be underrated!

Grabby McGee (Bari Solo: Lee Elderton)

5. Caribbean Project - And finally, our friend Chance Hayden was in attendance and took a video of trumpeter Levis Dragulin’s tune “Caribbean Project”.  Levis is a great trumpeter but spends lots of time on cruise ships in exotic locations, so we were lucky to have him in town for this concert:

(Trumpet Solo: Levis Dragulin, Guitar Solo: Kyle Williams, Drum Solo: Kevin Van Geem)

All in all, a great evening.  I didn’t quite get to everything in the concert on this post but I want to keep it a manageable length, I will probably put some others up eventually.  Meanwhile, enjoy the music and any thoughts or, better yet, compositions for our forthcoming shows are always appreciated!

We have 9 pieces on this program, all of which are new to us, and 6 of which are premieres!  I feel quite lucky that all these fantastic composers have lent their talents to our group.  A preview:

- from Andrew Durkin, “Grabby McGee”, which features major triads, synth vibes, and a maniacal calypso ending (classic, for those familiar with the IJG)
- from Eric Allen, “Casually Imported Unicorn,” which is second only to “Senioritis,” which some of you may remember from last year, for his most EPIC composition thus far.
- from Galen Clark, “Cave Dweller,” an arrangement of a great groove tune from the Trio Subtonic book
- from Gus Slayton, “Fearless Frogs,” an undeniable groovy thing!
- also on the groove track, “Caribbean Project” by Levis Dragulin, who also arranged John Zorn’s somewhat Klezmerish “Kisofim” for us, featuring a woodwind intro and organ!
- my “Finished Projects” (see previous post)
- from Michael Owcharuk, “The Cat and the Watering Can”, a cute (but not trite) reggae thing with lots of great flute work by Lee Elderton.  Michael is coming down from Seattle to play it with us!
- and from Nick Sweet, arranged by Stephen Connolly, “Tricks and Tests,” a beautiful wispy composition and arrangment.

This organization is really about as “grassroots” as they come, partially due to the logistical difficulties inherent in organizing a 14-person ensemble, and partially due to Gus and my busy schedules.  I think it’s about time to bring some more people on board for ease of organization and functionality.  I still have aspirations to incorporate as a nonprofit, perhaps later this year or early next year.  This, however, is a huge task and requires probably more time than I have to spare.  Does anyone with experience in nonprofits or in large group jazz bands have any suggestions for the future health of our organization?

Meanwhile, stop by the concert tomorrow night at the Old Church!!

http://www.pjce.org

I have learned a great deal about large-group composition not only by composing for this group myself, but also from checking out my peers’ (and teachers’) charts, some of the best of which you can enjoy at the “Music” page of our site.  My original effort was a 3 part Afro-Suite for big band, featuring various West African drum rhythms.  This was pretty successful.  After this I arranged some of my own and others’ small group tunes, which was a fun exercise.  For the most recent concert in February, I continued on my lengthy multi-part composition kick which had been instigated by listening to a lot of Claudia Quintet and Franco (the great Congolese guitarist and bandleader from the 50′s-90′s).  However, that piece, “Right Lane Turns Right Ahead” (sound familiar?) was actually not compelling at all, and didn’t accomplish my goal of taking the listener on an interesting journey through various musical styles and ideas, instead just sounding disjointed and incomplete.

Therefore, this time I have taken the total opposite approach, one partially inspired by my interaction with Adam Benjamin at Banff.  I have written 3 (and am working on a fourth) very short pieces entitled “Finished Products 1-4″, each of which deals with only one idea and is under two minutes.  I hope that this will be an instructive compositional exercise in addition to being an enjoyable listening experience.  So far, so good – I think I may have finally set enough restrictions for myself to compose something which isn’t trying to be “everything at once” – the young musicians’ worst enemy, it seems!

I’ll post the recordings up here after the concert and you can judge for yourselves whether I’ve been successful or not!  Meanwhile, encourage your friends in Portland to come check out the show, we have many new and exciting works by composers from here and from Seattle!

Friday, July 10, 2009
7:30-9:30 PM

The Old Church
1422 SW 11th Ave
Portland, OR 97201

Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble
Directors: Andrew Oliver and Gus Slayton
Trumpets: Joel Griffith, Levis Dragulin, Tree Palmedo
Trombones: Dave Bryan, Dan Evans, Douglas Peebles
Saxophones: Mary Sue Tobin, Willie Matheis, Gus Slayton, Lee Elderton
Rhythm: Andrew Oliver; piano, Kyle Williams; guitar, Bill Athens; bass, Kevin Van Geem; drums

$10, $8 students

http://www.pjce.org