Sonic Ecologies
Doors 7 | Q&A 7:30 | Music 8:00
Ric Louchard Group
Pianist, writer, and composer Ric Louchard writes simple narratives that embody a disarmingly personal and liminal narrative. His original music sometimes accompanies, and sometimes answers the story post-narration. Ric’s music is influenced by mid-twentieth century Western classical composers such as Berio, Crumb, Bartok, Penderecki, and Takemitsu, as well as the American avant-jazz of the same period: Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, and John Coltrane. At the Summit, Ric’s suite will be (except for a few voice pieces) very improvisational, with scores that suggest starting points and/or themes for the musicians to work from.
Personnel:
Ric Louchard - piano, voice | Ben Davis - cello | Josh Marshall - tenor saxophon | Ron Heglin and Anne Hege - vocals
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Fumi Okiji, with Music Research
Fumi Okiji arrived at the academy by way of the London jazz scene in which she took an active part as a vocalist and improvisor. Okiji works across black study, critical theory, and sound and music studies. Her research and teaching looks to black expression for ways to understand modern and contemporary life, which is to say, she explores works and practices for what they can provide by way of social theory. Her book Jazz as Critique: Adorno and Black Expression Revisited (Stanford University Press, 2018) is a sustained engagement with Theodor Adorno’s and the critical potential of art. She proposes that the socio-musical play of jazz is not representative of the individualistic and democratic values the music is most readily associated with.
Marshall Trammell is an experimental archivist, percussionist, conductor, and composer. His aesthetics and activism are centered in social change interventions and generate new local and global ecologies that embrace improvisation as a collective, movement-building tool in the creation of post-capitalist imaginaries. Trammell’s work also uses political aesthetic theory, data creation, mapping, and collective music-and-artmaking in order to step out of the domain of traditional cultural institutions, relocating the act of co-production back in the community.
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Motoko Honda is a critically acclaimed Japanese concert pianist, composer, and sound artist who has created a distinctive sound through her holistic approach to music, and her exceptional sensitivity in relating to other art forms and technologies. Employing a "virtuoso technique paired with her intensely imaginative mind" (Susan Dirende, L.A. Splash Magazine), and with stylistic influences ranging from jazz, world music to contemporary prepared piano with electronics, Motoko's compositions and structured improvisations are intended to affect the skin, organs and minds of the listener rather than simple recitations of rhythmic and harmonic themes. Portrayed as a "keyboard alchemist" (Chris Barton, L.A. Times), and an "embodiment of a muse" (Greg Burk, Metaljazz), Motoko's performances transport audiences on sonic adventures that transcend the boundaries and conventions of contemporary music.
Personnel:
Motoko Honda - piano
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