Tag: improvised music
Rise Up, Fallen Angel on Vimeo
by admin on May.24, 2011, under Concerts, Design, Events, Fallen Angel, Films, Media, Music, Open Source, Photography, Rise Up Fallen Angel, Technology, Video
Rise Up Fallen Angel – Thurs 5/26-Sat 5/28 – www.cprnyc.org – Brooklyn, NY from Christina deRoos on Vimeo.
I am in NYC working hard on the show with my collaborators.
Christina deRoos, my collaborator in the visual projection aspect of the show, made a video yesterday and posted it on Vimeo as a demo.
I hope you like it.
Collaborations – Tonight – 1 Night Only
by admin on Aug.12, 2010, under Concerts, Events, Music, Projects
Music and Spoken Word – Improvised, Intense and Infused with fun!
A variety of spoken word artistry provided by:
Max Kala
France Perras
Alice Hamilton
Eric Wyness
T Crane
Music provided by Paul Plimley, piano+guitar; Tommy Babin, upright bass; Phil Emerson, guitar and Victoria Gibson, notebook+vocals.
This event is part of a new summer festival presented by Visions Ouest Productions:
Un nouveau Rendez-vous d’été / A new Summer Rendez-vous
L’ÉTHÉÂTRE 2010
Jeudi 12 Août / Thurs. August 12, 2010
à/at
Auditorium Jules-Verne, Vancouver
5445 Baillie Street, Vancouver (at 37th Avenue, between Oak & Cambie,
close to Van Dusen Botanical Gardens). Skytrain Station 41st. Free parking.
20h00
Tickets : $16 presale online until 6 pm/ Prévente jusqu’à 18h00 ce soir
www.rendez-vousvancouver.com
or $18 at the door
There are two more nights of the festival featuring:
Friday August 13, 8 pm:
Screening of (English subt.) – L’ENFANT PRODIGE / THE CHILD PRODIGY Luc Dionne
Admission: $10 Tickets sold online
Bande-annonce / trailer <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3a3UkDD5gs>
Saturday August 14 – THE CLOSING NIGHT
Screening of PICHÉ, ENTRE CIEL ET TERRE / PICHÉ: THE LANDING OF A MAN
(English subt.) – Sylvain Archambeault
Admission: $10 Tickets sold online
Bande-annonce/ <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAPUeWCaS38&feature=related>
trailer
Followed at 10 pm by L’ÉTHÉÂTROPICAL with DJ Marc Fournier
Une célébration de l’été et un au-revoir à tous les artistes et bénévoles
qui ont participé à L’ÉTHÉÂTRE.
I will miss the extremely fun after party because I will be in New York city.
So you have to come to my show if you want to see me before I go.
The piano trio
by admin on Jul.16, 2010, under Concerts, Events, Media, Music, Photography
The piano trio is where my friend Paul Plimley really lives. Yes, I can interest him in electronics; and he does play guitar, vibes and percussion — but he really lives his most joyous moments with bass and drums.
The trio with Barry Guy, Paul Plimley and Lucas Niggli was one of my personal highlights from the 2010 Vancouver International Jazz Festival. They reached the highest levels of improvisation in ensemble performance where they meshed into a texture of beauty and complexity that shone with emotion.
Lucas Niggli is a Swiss drummer who plays with style and delicate strength. He stretches the boundaries of percussion while playing in the pocket for the band. This balancing act displays the greatness of a drummer; too much steady time keeping and the innovative spark fades, too much of stretching one’s own personal boundaries and the connection with the ensemble is lost.
The photos show the level of communication and emotion present in the Ironworks as each of these expert musicians wholeheartedly joined their considerable individual talents into a cohesive whole.
Barry Guy (below) is a bass player living in Switzerland, who plays with Lucas often. This evening of music allowed him to display many extended techniques and timbres. He played with intelligence, skill and unrepentant emotion. His composition, Fixed, Fragmented, Fluid; had been played as one of the festival opening works in a larger ensemble that included this trio. That was structured improv, but this was free and he was able to fly with his fingers and bow with authority. 
There was a Canadian pianist who completed the trio named Paul Plimley. I must admit to being biased when I write about Paul, but I have seen him play in Vancouver many times, and grace the stage of the Ironworks with other trios. This was one of the best performances I have ever witnessed from the maestro. The combination of Barry Guy and Lucas Niggli challenged, supported, encouraged and battled with Paul in the most delightful way possible. There was always a spirit of fun and several times the joy crackled in the air like electricity.
I was a photographer that evening, soundless and motionless focusing on the light and motion as I was transported by the music.
There are other photos of a larger ensemble concert featuring these three musicians taken by Chris Cameron posted on the Coastal Jazz website here.
TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival June 25 – July 4
by admin on Jul.03, 2010, under Concerts, Events
My last shift as Crew Chief for the Ironworks is this Saturday, July 3 — come down and see two great shows: The Brad Turner Quartet at 8pm and The Michael Zilber Group at 11pm.
This time has been very busy for me and I have not been keeping up with my news posts. After the festival I will post photos, but as always, Chris Cameron documents the festival with precision and grace. His selected photos can be found on the Coastal Jazz website and the most current ones are here. This is the 25th anniversary of the festival and of Chris as the official photographer — his work has preserved “the decisive moment” (Henri Cartier-Bresson) of many festival performances. Cameron’s body of work is an enduring legacy that captures the emotions that resonate long after the vibrations in the air have stilled.
The highlights of the festival for me so far are: Fixed Fragmented Fluid, featuring a large ensemble under the direction of Barry Guy; Paul Plimley with Barry Guy and Lucas Niggli; The Mario Pavone Trio with Tony Malaby and Gerald Cleaver and the Unity Globe Orchestra.
I have heard and been inspired by many of these shows. I loved the energy of Hiromi and Stanley Clarke; John Scofield spoke to my blues heritage with his Piety Band; Mike Stern mellowed out and got ambient; outstanding moments of great playing at each one of my Ironworks shifts will be discussed in future posts.
Today and Sunday the music is open to the public with free concerts at the Roundhouse Community Centre Complex. I don’t want to miss any more of the music. Later!
Voice Over Mind Festival Performance
by admin on May.09, 2010, under Concerts, Events, Photography
Vocals have always been a large part of my performance practice and I have been working on developing even more techniques in vocal improvisation. Every Saturday at 10am, I am now practicing with the Voxy Choir, directed by Kate Hammett-Vaughn and Carol Sawyer. This ensemble offers workshops every week to stretch our performance preconceptions by introducing us to teachers outside of the mainstream of music.
Kate and I have known each other since I used to write reviews and the Women In Music column for Nite Moves magazine in the late 1980′s. More recently, I recorded, mastered and co-produced her CD, So Lucky To Be Me. Kate is a great vocal teacher and very well connected in the Vancouver and Canadian jazz community. This enables her to bring in a variety of talent to lead workshops with Voxy Choir such as her long time musical collaborator, Ron Samworth.
I only met Carol Sawyer recently, but she impresses me with her diversity in artistic practice that encompasses video, photography and other fine arts as well as her imaginative performance art.
Workshop leaders outside of music have included Jay Hirabayashi, best known for his work with Kokoro Dance and a young man from the theatre, who I was introduced to as Paul. This Saturday, May 8th; the workshop was at The Western Front with NY performance artist/composer Shelley Hirsch.
Shelley Hirsch was in Vancouver to perform on the Friday evening as part of the Voice Over Mind Festival. Some members of the Voxy Choir, including me, had also participated in part of the festival at the Chan Centre on Wednesday evening under the direction of DB Boyco and Christine Duncan. Shelley will be continuing to perform locally in Seattle, WA and Victoria, BC.
The mixed choir was drawn from Voxy and DB’s students, including members of the Roundhouse Senior’s choir. We sang an adaptation of Songbird, written by Vancouver performer/composer Takeo Yamashiro for the Songbird Oratorio, a homage to the plight of birds surviving the encroachment of urban development. This composition was followed by a conducted improvisation led by both choir directors. I sang in the low section, as most of the choir could only sing in the upper range and I have worked hard to expand my range in the low part of my voice.
Anthony Braxton’s Sonic Genome Project
by admin on Jan.27, 2010, under Concerts, Events, Music
There are no words that can express the feeling of the concert that will be happening at The Roundhouse Community Center on Sunday, January 31, 2010 starting at noon — you will have to be there to hear the music. Money is no object, as it is a free 8 hour long concert that brings together Anthony Braxton’s 12+1 tet and an ensemble of approximately 50 of Vancouver’ improvising musicians.
With Anthony Braxton reeds/composition, Taylor Ho Bynum cornet/trumpet/flugelhorn/bass trumpet, Nicole Mitchell flutes, Andrew Raffo Dewar, James Fei reeds, Steve Lehman saxophones, Sara Schoenbeck bassoon, Jessica Pavone violin/alto viola, Mary Halvorson electric guitar, Reut Regev trombone, Jay Rozen tuba, Carl Testa double bass/bass clarinet, Aaron Siegel drums/percussion/vibes.
The concert is presented as part of the PuSH Festival in association with The Coastal Jazz and Blues Society. The Coastal website has a lot of information about the Genome Project world performance premiere on their site. The image that appears here is linked from the Coastal site as I have taken no photos yet. According to the press release, this piece was conceived as a recording project and this is the first live performance. A CD of the recorded Genome Project is already available.
I am excited and honoured to have been accepted into this ensemble and I will be playing with computer and vocals. There are already several guitar players, including my friend Paul Plimley, so I think this instrumentation will be more useful in creating unique textures.This is the largest instrumental ensemble I have ever been in, although I have sung with larger choirs, this will be a once in a lifetime experience. Please come down sometime during the 8 hours of music to enjoy the space and be part of the energy.
Research into the Immersive Environment Instrument
by admin on Sep.19, 2009, under Immersive Environment Instrument, Media, Open Source, Projects, Technology
UniverCity Net – digital art by Victoria Gibson
As an Integrated Media Artist, I have many project ideas that I am constantly working on. My most recent project proposals have been seeking support to develop a new instrument for me to play in performance. My current goal is to develop a performance instrument that works using gesture control and sensors to create an alternative reality environment.
Although my core training is in music, I have studied dance and motion and have spent years of my life in on-stage performance as a musician. In my recent presentations, I have played computer based instruments and I realize that a lot of the impact of musical presentation is about the gesture of producing the sound.
If I am to continue to use the computer as a performance instrument, I need to develop a controller that responds to dance-like movements. The vision of being able to focus physical energy through dance and control audio and visual elements was crystallized into my need for an Immersive Environment Instrument (IEI). (continue reading…)
Echoes of You Far Away
by admin on Sep.02, 2009, under Girl Can Dream, Podcasts
Podcast (girl_can_dream): Download
Third Podcast in the Girl Can Dream Series
The previous two podcasts were about my heritage music, gospel and blues. This third one features some of the work I do using the computer and effects. All the music in this series is written and performed by me, Victoria Gibson, and I have imposed the limitation that I be able to perform it in a live solo concert. I am playing with a computer in one of these examples, but I still count it as a solo work.
The title, “Echoes of You Far Away” comes from the memories of the interesting people that I spent time with this summer who are far away now. The style is a recollection of the naturally echoing space called “The Cistern Chapel” that I speak about in the podcast audio.
In May, I met Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster and David Gamper, the trio known as The Deep Listening Band, in Port Townsend. This ensemble first recorded in the cistern 20 years ago and many sound artists have followed them down the narrow entrance to experience the 45 second reverb since then. My mission was to document the 20 year anniversary return of the Deep Listening Band to The Cistern Chapel located nearby in Fort Worden with video and photos and to assist with the audio recording.
I journeyed to the location on my Yamaha FJ1200 motorcycle loaded down with all the required gear.
The video and photos that were taken of the band may be released by The Deep Listening Institute as a DVD or on their website, but I am giving a preview of the photos I took of the Cistern Chapel. I do not include any photos of the band as some of them may be used in the commercial release and we have not finalized the details. The audio was recorded by Jonas Braasch, a colleague of Pauline’s from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, School of Architecture, Architectural Acoustics Program who is a fine saxophone player. The audio of my experiments was recorded by me using my Zoom H4.
This slideshow gallery includes photos of my trip and some of the cistern itself. It was very dark under the ground and the feeling in the place was unique.
You Are Here Podcast
by admin on Aug.11, 2009, under Podcasts, You Are Here (YAH)
Podcast (vixmedia01): Download
Paul Plimley and Victoria Gibson have formed the duo, You Are Here and are excited to announce their first podcast. This podcast contains samples from the first three musical works completed from their upcoming disk “Twilight Zone Love Affair”. Paul and Victoria discuss the meaning and the making of the three tracks, Condensed History Patterns, In A Ghana Havana and Sleepwalkers Vacation.
Download a pdf file outline of the three tracks and some information about Paul and Victoria here.
You Are Here (YAH)
Vancouver Jazz Festival 2009
by admin on Jul.06, 2009, under Concerts, Events, Media, Photography
The Vancouver Jazz Festival, produced by the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society, is over for another year, tonight is the volunteer party that is the final event. This year, I was more involved than ever before as I not only volunteered as Crew Chief at the Ironworks, but I volunteered to take photos of my fellow volunteers. These photos are also hosted on Flikr under username jazzvolunteer and I have my set; Victoria’s Volunteers.
Click on any image to start, click on the << or >> to navigate and click on the image to end. With this basic viewer it only shows the page you are on, so you have to change to the next page. The more sophisticated plug-ins make viewing all the images possible. If you need instructions for the plug-ins or to make the gallery work go to the Gallery page.
Victoria’s 2009 Jazz Festival Volunteers
Photography is a social art and in that way, being a photographer at the festival is very different from being a musician. If I walk up to people in the street and start singing, they think I am strange, move away slowly, and would hesitate to get in an elevator with me. I find I have to set up sactioned events to get people to participate musically. But, if I walk up and ask to take their photo, it is a much more socially acceptable artistic connection. People like to have their pictures taken and they trust me enough to give me their contact information so I can send them the image. They are friendly and happy with the process. I am really enjoying interacting with people since I started to take photos and I meet a lot more potential friends.
In Vancouver society, there usually is some distance between the community and the music makers. Music making can be isolating because so much time is spent practicing alone. In performance, music is a special event that occurs in an area separated from the audience, where the community is expected to be passive observers and listeners. As a musician, you come into a prepared area, present your show, then leave without having any direct personal contact with the receiver of your art. This is not the case in other cultures I have studied, and I was very happy that it was not the case when I attended a workshop on Saturday.
Saturday, I had an encounter with three amazing French musicians cellist, Didier Petit and bass clarinetist, Sylvain Kassap with drummer, Edward Perraud. They made my life complete during their workshops by asking me to sing with them.
Vancouver musicians bassist, Clyde Reed and erhu player. Lan Tung also joined the sonic esploration. I had such a wonderful time as these musicians, solo and in ensembles, know how to open up and create the space that welcomes music in. My next post will be about this event.
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