|
Philip Gelb - Shakuhachi
The Space Between trio formed in the winter of 1996 when the Dana Reason/Philip Gelb duet invited Pauline Oliveros to join them for a concert in San Francisco. The trio's unique combination of just-intonation accordion with shakuhachi and piano immediately creates a special sonic space. The Space Between employs timbre and texture as their main structural units for composition and improvisation. As a result, the discrepancy in tuning systems of the instruments becomes an advantage rather than a disadvantage. Since the three members live in different cities, performances are rare; highlights include the Opus 415 festival in San Francisco, Spruce Street Forum in San Diego, and a two night stint at the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies where they were joined by Barre Phillips on bass. Pauline Oliveros has become a senior figure in American avant-garde. In the '50s she was part of a circle of iconoclastic composers, artists, poets and such gathered loosely around John Cage. Oliveros has been as interested in finding new sounds as in finding new uses for old ones - nowadays she most often plays accordion, an unexpected visitor perhaps to musical cutting edge, but one which she approaches in much the same way that a Zen musician might approach the Japanese shakuhachi. Pauline Oliveros' life as a composer, performer and humanitarian is about opening her own and others' sensibilities to the universe and facets of sounds. Since the 1960's she has influenced American music profoundly through her work with improvisation, meditation, electronic music, myth and ritual. Pauline Oliveros is the founder of Deep Listening, which comes from her childhood fascination with sounds and from her works in concert music with composition, improvisation and electro-acoustics. Pauline Oliveros describes Deep Listening as a method to listen in every possible way to everything possible to hear no matter what you are doing. Such intense listening includes the sounds of daily life, of nature, of one's own thoughts as well as musical sounds. Deep Listening is my life practice," she explains, simply. John Cage stated: "Through Pauline Oliveros and Deep Listening I finally know what harmony is... It's about the pleasure of making music." Dana Reason is a pianist/composer/improvisor from Montreal, Canada. Ms. Reason has appeared at the San Francisco Jazz Festival, Frau Musica (Nova) Cologne, Beyond the Pink Festival, (LA), Guelph Jazz Festival, Banff Arts Festival, Knitting Factory (NYC), Music Gallery (Toronto), and Newfoundland Sound Symposium. She has performed with Pauline Oliveros, George Lewis, Cecil Taylor, Joe McPhee, Lisle Ellis, and Richard Teitlebaum among others. She has been featured on National Public Radio, and Radio Canada. Ms. Reason has recorded for Music & Arts, Red Toucan, Deep Listening, Sparkling Beatnik and Ryokan labels. Ms. Reason contributes writing to the Twentieth Century Music Journal, Musicworks, and Improvisor magazines. Her music has been reviewed in Cadence, Coda, Musicworks, 20th Century Music Journal, Wire, Jazz Critique (Japan) and Outside Magazines. Ms. Reason was the co-organizer of the ground-breaking symposium Improvising Across Borders (1999) held at the University of California, San Diego. Reason holds a Bachelor of Music from McGill University, a Master of Arts in Composition from Mills College and is a Ph.D candidate in the music program Critical Studies/Experimental Practices at the University of California, San Diego. Philip Gelb has been performing shakuhachi nationally and internationally as a soloist and in ensembles since 1995. Performance highlights include the World Shakuhachi Festival, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (SanFrancisco), Mills College (Oakland), Kniting Factory (New York), Session House (Tokyo), Munster Neue Musik Festival (Germany), Earshot Jazz Festival (Seattle), Music Gallery (Toronto), Center For New Music and Audio Technologies (Berkeley), Gainesville Jazz Festival, Subtropics New Music Festival (Miami), University Of California SanDiego, Bard College, Stetson College, Rollins College, University of Vermont, and Earlham College. He regularly peforms with some of the leading figures in contemporary music including Pauline Oliveros, Joe McPhee, Davey Williams and Chris Brown, and has performed in large ensembles led by Leo Smith, Roscoe Mitchell, and Marco Eneidi. His recordings are available on Deep Listening, Sparkling Beatnik, New World/Counter Currents, Leo, Ryokan, Abray, Twisted Village, and Cultural Labyrinth. Philip Gelb currently lives and teaches in the San Francisco Bay area. strictly Ballroom | CCRMA home | Christopher Burns home Copyright © 2001 Christopher Burns. All rights reserved. |