Featured composers Matthew Shipp, Tom Chiu, and Polygraph Lounge perform at the Cutting Room in New York City
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Pictured at The Cutting Room (back row, l-r) are: Melissa Fathman, Matt Maneri, Polygraph Lounge's Rob Schwimmer and Mark Stewart, Tom Chiu, Sibelius' Ernie Jackson, David First, Margaret Lancaster and Matt Shipp; and (front row, l-r) Alex Steyermark, Martha Mooke, Frank J. Oteri and ASCAP's Fran Richard and Cia Toscanini. |
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Sponsored in part by Sibelius |
The ASCAP Foundation presented the latest installment of its highly popular Thru the Walls showcase series at The Cutting Room in Manhattan on April 22, 2004. Sponsored in part by Sibelius, the music notation software company, the series is designed to showcase the work of composers/ performers whose concert music defies boundaries and genres. Alex Steyermark, filmmaker (Prey for Rock & Roll) and former music supervisor/producer, served as special guest host for the evening, and composer/ NewMusicBox.org editor Frank J. Oteri emceed the event.
The featured composer/performers were Matthew Shipp (the Matt Shipp Duo with Matt Maneri); Tom Chiu with David First and Margaret Lancaster; and Rob Schwimmer and Mark Stewart (Polygraph Lounge with Melissa Fathman).
Launched in January 2001, Thru the Walls was conceived and produced by ASCAP composer/performer Martha Mooke, who continues to co-produce the event with ASCAP's Cia Toscanini. Previous composer/performers who have participated include Eve Beglarian, Gregg Bendian, Kitty Brazelton, Kenji Bunch, Jed Distler, Mark Dresser, Annie Gosfield, Susie Ibarra, Arthur Kampela, Lukas Ligeti, Denman Maroney, Martha Mooke, Ben Neill, Bobby Previte, Todd Reynolds, Brandon Ross, Randy Woolf, Evan Ziporyn, Misha Piatigorsky, and Pamela Z.
Featured Composers
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Matthew Shipp |
Matthew Shipp
With his unique and recognizable style, pianist Matthew Shipp worked and recorded vigorously during the 1990s, creating music in which free jazz and modern classical intertwine. He first became known in the early '90s as the pianist in the David S. Ware Quartet, and soon began leading his own dates � most often including Ware bandmate, leading bassist William Parker � and recording a number of duets with a variety of musicians, from the legendary Roscoe Mitchell to violinist Mat Maneri, who began appearing on recordings in the 1990s. Through his range of live and recorded performances, and unswerving individual development, Shipp came to be regarded as a prolific and respected voice in creative music by the decade's close.
Born in the 1960s and raised in Wilmington, DE, Matthew Shipp grew up around '50s jazz recordings. He began playing piano at the young age of five, and decided to focus on jazz by the time he was 12. He went on to study music theory and improvisation under Clifford Brown's teacher, Robert "Boisey" Lawrey. After one year at the University of Delaware, Shipp left to attend the New England Conservatory of Music for two years.
Shipp moved to N.Y.C. in 1984 and soon met bassist William Parker, among others. Both were playing with tenor saxophonist Ware by 1989, and Shipp debuted as a recording artist in a duo with alto player Rob Brown. He then went on to lead his own trio with Parker and drummers Whit Dickey and Susie Ibarra. In 2000, Shipp began acting as curator for Thirsty Ear's Blue Series.
Two years later Shipp released Nu Bop, which would prove to be a pivotal release in the development of the Blue Series. With Nu Bop, Shipp began exploring the possibilities of hip-hop sensibilities in a jazz context by incorporating tight grooves and a sparing use of programmed beats and synth work. His next two releases, Equilibrium and Antipop Consortium vs. Matthew Shipp, saw Shipp employing his hip-hop and electronic influences with more assurance. Equilibrium features a more subtle use of beat programming, while Antipop Consortium vs. Matthew Shipp is an overt melding of the masterfully experimental hip-hop sensibilities of the Antipop Consortium with the unparalleled jazz playing of Shipp, William Parker, drummer Guillermo E. Brown, vibraphonist Khan Jamal and trumpeter Daniel Carter.
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Tom Chiu |
Tom Chiu
Violinist Tom Chiu has received wide acclaim for his performances as a soloist, chamber artist, and experimental improvisor. A noted performer of new music, Mr. Chiu has worked closely with distinguished composers such as Milton Babbitt, Virko Baley, Dean Drummond, and Oliver Lake, among others, as well as free jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman, with whom he appeared at the 2000 Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival in New York.
He has also collaborated with lesser-known fringe artists whose work he admires, such as balloon virtuoso Judy Dunaway, avant choreographer Eun-Me Ahn, and drone-pop guitarist David First. One very special interdisciplinary project of recent years is Red Beads, a collaboration with composer Ushio Torikai, puppeteer Basil Twist, and theatrical mastermind Lee Breuer of Mabou Mines. His discography includes recordings for the BMG, Cambria, Koch, Sombient, and Tzadik labels, and his original works as a composer-improvisor have been performed in New York, California, and Australia.
With the FLUX Quartet, of which he is founder and first violinist, Mr. Chiu has appeared at international festivals in Melbourne and Oslo, as well as American festivals such as Ojai, Summergarden, and Lincoln Center's A Great Day in New York. Currently, FLUX is resident ensemble in When Morty Met John..., a three-year series at Carnegie's Weill Hall featuring the music of John Cage, Morton Feldman, and composers from the New York School.
Holding degrees in music and chemistry from Juilliard and Yale, Mr. Chiu occasionally reminisces about his childhood appearance with Tom Hanks in the feature film, The Man With One Red Shoe.
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Rob Schwimmer & Mark Stewart |
Polygraph Lounge
Plundering the common cultural currency of yesterday, today and tomorrow, Polygraph Lounge is a virtuosic duo specializing in musical hilarity/anarchy in the Spike Jones tradition.
Polygraph Lounge is Rob Schwimmer and Mark Stewart. Individually they have worked with Paul Simon, Wayne Shorter, Steve Reich, Laurie Anderson, Bang on a Can, Stevie Wonder, Annette Peacock, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Willie Nelson, Anthony Braxton, Kurt Vonnegut, Eliot Feld, Fred Frith, Sam Rivers, Burt Bacharach, Muddy Waters, Alwin Nikolai, Vernon Reid, John Cale, Sammy Davis Jr. and Hanson.
Rob Schwimmer
Rob Schwimmer is a composer, pianist, thereminist, synthesist, singer, and arranger who has performed and recorded throughout the world.
Over the years he has written for many feature films (one of which won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film,) theatre works, television series, TV-movies, and documentaries as well as CD's. He has worked with Wayne Shorter, Stevie Wonder, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Willie Nelson, Paul Simon, Edie Brickell, Henry Jaglom, Laurie Anderson, Arif Mardin, Teo Macero, Hal Willner, Muddy Waters, Annette Peacock, Sam Rivers, Geoffrey Holder, John Cale, Jay Black and the Americans, T-Bone Walker, Steve Buscemi, "Red, An Orchestra" and The New Haven Symphony (as featured theremin soloist), Burt Bacharach, Karen Black, C&C Music Factory, Matthew Barney, Adam Guettel, Mabou Mines, Mandy Barnett, Vernon Reid, Liza Minnelli, Kurt Vonnegut, Alwin Nikolai/ Murray Louis, The Zambonis, Henry Jaglom, Talujon Quartet, The Philistines, Jr., Mary Cleere Harran, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Towa Tei among others. He is also a member of The Zmiros Project, a klezmer trio.
His own new theremin CD on the November Music label is titled Theremin Noir. Mr. Schwimmer can also be heard on CBS/Sony, Warner Brothers, Toshiba/ EMI, Def Jam/ Island, Manhattan/Blue Note, Dorian, NHK, Capricorn, Evidence, Knitting Factory, Polystar, and Traditional Crossroads records, as well as Dreamworks SKG, Universal Pictures, TriStar Pictures, HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, CBS, NBC, ABC, Discovery Channel, TBS, NHK (Japan), Lifetime, Noggin, A&E, Polish National Television, NPR and Nickelodeon.
Mark Stewart
Multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer and instrument designer Mark Stewart has been heard around the world performing old and new music. Mark spent much of 1999, 2000 and 2001 recording, touring and performing with Paul Simon and the previous summer performing at Lincoln Center in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night with Helen Hunt, Kira Sedgwick, and Paul Rudd.
A founding member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Mark is also a member of Steve Reich and Musicians, David Krakauer's Klezmer Madness, the manic duo Polygraph Lounge with keyboard and theremin wizard Rob Schwimmer, The Fred Frith Guitar Quartet, Arnold Dreyblatt's Orchestra of Excited Strings and Zeena Parkins' Gangster Band. He has also worked with Anthony Braxton, Bob Dylan, Cecil Taylor, Meredith Monk, Edie Brickell, Don Byron, Paul McCartney and Marc Ribot. He has worked with the choreographers Eliot Feld, Susan Marshall, and Yoshiko Chuma and has worked extensively with composer Elliot Goldenthal on music for the feature films Titus, The Butcher Boy, Bob the Gambler, In Dreams and Heat, often playing instruments of his own design and construction. His New York Lower East Side "lab" is home to an instrument workshop and sonic salon where traditional and new instruments cohabitate. He has played for the Broadway shows Showboat, The Who's Tommy, The Sound of Music, Carousel, and The Lion King.
Stewart can be heard on Warner Bros., Sony Classical, Point/Polygram, Nonesuch, Label Bleu, Resonance Magnetique, Cantaloupe and CRI recordings.
