Pittsburgh New Music Net

This Saturday, March 13, marks the last occasion to see the very unique HiTEC, an ensemble of Pittsburgh musicians and performers utilizing instruction pieces, chance, improvisation, theatrics, and a giant spinning Wheel-of-Fortune. Intrigued? Well, you should be and you probably come to this event, because it is literally your last chance to see the act. Extensive detail below…

HiTEC (Histrionic Thought Experiment Cooperative),
the experimental orchestra founded by
tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
will present its last ‘UNCERT’ (Uncertainty Concert), Saturday, March 13, 2010,
8PM (doors open 7:30PM), at the Kresge Recital Hall
in the CFA (Center for Fine Arts) at CMU (Carnegie Mellon University)
- $6.00 suggested donation, free to CMU students.

HiTEC has previously publicly presented the talents of:

tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE: piano, SysMan, electronics, percussion, spinner
Ben Opie – reeds, electronics
Kenny Haney: clarinets
Unfinished Symphonies: electronic keyboard
Hyla Willis: amplified erhu
Jonathan Brodfsky: monome with mabalhabla software
Spat Cannon: upright acoustic bass
Johan Nystrom: extended percussion
Joy Toujours: electric guitar w/ nylon strings, violin
Roger Dannenberg: trumpet, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet
William Wedler: Experiment 1
Ben Harris: violin
Dani Simmonds: banjo-uke
James Gyre: drums
Tony Balko: camcorder
Julian Krishnamurti: electric bass
David Bernabo: electric guitar
Red Bob Jungkunz: drums
Kerrith Livengood: alto flute
Josh Beyer: cello
Mike Tamburo: hammered dulcimer
Erok: trombone
Mike Kasunic: synthesizer, flute, percussion
Missi St Pierre: toy piano w/ effects
Stuart Anderson: laptop

& will introduce, for this occasion:

Spencer Rafael Diaz: camcorder
Gina Ketter: 5 string electric viola

Videos of HiTEC can be seen online @:

For Tony Balko’s 16mm footage of HiTEC
(Histrionic Thought Experiment Cooperative) ’s beginning
of our 21st rehearsal on September 14, 2008EV:

For the beginning of my documentary of HiTEC’s premier gig:

A soft focus high-definition wide-angle shot of a short excerpt
from the 1/9/9 premier of HiTEC at the New Hazlett Theater:

For the HiTEC movie that also features Ian Page’s
The End of Television project + Sound/Unsound Trio & the Valentine Trio:

The 1st day of HiTEC @ the Visionary Arts Festival
(& days leading up to it):

The Nerve, (500 Dargan St.)
Donations accepted.

Pittsburgh composer/performers Ben Harris and Kerrith Livengood have formed The Outer Circle, a new group dedicated to improvisation and the open work. The group will give its inaugural concert on Friday, December 4 at The Nerve. Also in The Outer Circle are Aaron Brooks, Chuck Corey and Brandon Masterman. For their premiere performance The Outer Circle will perform music by Stockhausen, Marcus, Kim, Melissa St. Pierre, Kurt Koteheimer, Morton Feldman, David Bernabo, Aaron Brooks, Nathan Hall, and Pauline Oliveros.

Grey Box Theatre
3595 Butler Street, Lawrencville

Tickets: $5 students & artists  $10 all other
Ticket sales are cash only at the door the evening of the performance.

The ever-provocative Eclectic Laboratory Chamber Orchestra is backwith another genre-bending program.  This time ELCO blurs the lines between composer and performer, between composition and improvisation, and between “classical” and “popular” with three exciting, grooving modern classics:  Terry Riley’s In C, Frederic Rzewski’s Les moutons de Panurge, and Elliott Sharp’s SyndaKit.  Meridian Dreams, an ambient/trip-hop electronica project spearheaded by well-known producer/engineer Rae DiLeo, will provide a unique opening set.

The three pieces on ELCO’s set showcase noted American master composers whose work represents three distinct approaches to combining composed music with the influences of rock and jazz.  In C, by Terry Riley, inaugurated the genre known as minimalism with its unabashed tunefulness and relentless pulse.  Les moutons de Panurge, by Frederic Rzewski, takes its title from a novel by the French satirist Rabelais, and is a witty exploration of the limits of virtuosity.  SyndaKit, by Elliott Sharp, explores the relation between the group and the individual musician in a piece that nods equally to the composers studies with Morton Feldman and his days in the punk clubs of New York.

Rae DiLeo, who performs as Meridian Dreams, will be perform an opening set with video artist Hans Jensen.  Rae has performed throughout California and the southwest and has been a studio engineer for artists from Henry Rollins to Filter to Grandmaster Flash.

For additional information or to reserve a ticket contact elco.events@gmail.com or call 412-608-6120.
Visit us on the web at twitter.com/ELCO_concerts or join our Facebook fan page.

Two progressive jazz legends from the Chicago area – Hamiet Bluiett and Kahil El-Zabar – will take the stage in a duo format on Thu., Nov. 19 at Istanbul Cafe (formerly Your Inner Vagabond), 4130 Butler St. in Lawrenceville at 8 p.m. The concert is open to all ages, and the opening act is Ben Opie (of Opek and Thoth Trio). Tickets are $15 at the door, or $10 in advance from these outlets: Paul’s CDs, Caliban Books, Dave’s Music Mine, and The Exchange Squirrel Hill.

Baritone saxophonist is known for co-founding the St. Louis-based Black Artists Group. He moved to New York City in 1969 and played with Charles Mingus and Sam Rivers, then founded the acclaimed World Saxophone Quartet (with Oliver Lake and Julius Hemphill) in 1976.

World Saxophone Quartet’s Pittsburgh concerts include an appearance at the Three Rivers Arts Festival in the early ’90s, and center stage at the packed Jazz Poetry fest on the North Side in 2007. Bluiett has recorded for such labels as India Navigation, Black Saint, Soul Note, and Justin Time, as well as major label Elektra/Nonesuch (with World Sax).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamiet_Bluiett

Kahil El-Zabar is a percussionist from Chicago who was the chairman of the AACM (which also spawned the Art Ensemble of Chicago) in the early ’70s. Soon after, he founded both the Ritual Trio and the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, both of which continue to this day. El-Zabar has also played with artists ranging from Dizzy Gillespie and Steve Wonder to Paul Simon and Nina Simone. He has recorded for such jazz labels as Sound Aspects, CIMP, Silkheart and Delmark. The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble has made several Pittsburgh appearances: Three Rivers Arts Festival (in the late ’90s), the Warhol Museum in 2007, and Carnegie Mellon University in 2008.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahil_El%27Zabar

Usually I put up a “highlights of the week” type post on Thursday or Friday, but this week you want to know about Tuesday.  This Tuesday, October 6, you can start out downtown listening to  Thoth (comprising Ben Opie, Paul Thompson, and David Throckmorton) at the Backstage Bar beginning at 5 p.m. Then shoot over to the North Side Shore to catch Diamanda Galas at the New Hazlett Theater courtesy of The Warhol’s Off the Wall series. More details and links are on the Events Calendar.

Backstage Bar

Thoth comprises Ben Opie: reeds; Paul Thompson: bass; David Throckmorton: drums.

It really is a great weekend for Pittsburgh’s new music scene, and Im not just saying that. IonSound Project makes their New York debut on the Phoenix Concerts on Friday night at 8 p.m. in the Church of Saint Matthew and Saint Timothy, so if you’re in the New York area and reading this, come out and support IonSound. And just because we’re exporting one of our finest new music groups for the weekend, it doesn’t mean there isn’t some excellent music to be heard in the Burgh. Loop 2.4.3 plays at Garfield Artworks Friday at 10 p.m., and Friday afternoon also marks the beginning of a two-day Sounds of Africa Music Festival at Chatham University. The festival will explore contemporary African composition through panel discussions and performances. You can find out about the local concerts on the Events Calendar.

*Garfield Artworks*

Doors open at 10 pm. Admission is $7. The concert is open to all ages.

Brooklyn world-fusion group Loop 2.4.3 returns to Pittsburgh, showcasing music from *Zodiac Dust *(their Independent Music Award-Nominated New CD) at , 4931 Penn Avenue, immediately after October’s First Friday art gallery crawl.

Find out more about this show.

A quick reminder about tonight’s concert by Lukas Ligeti with his spastic art-jazz-rock trio HYPERCOLOR on Wednesday, September 23 at Garfield Artworks, 4931 Penn Ave. Doors are at 8 pm and admission is $7. For all the details, see Manny’s post below.

And though it’s a secondary part of the festivities, a short documentary I scored will premiere during Pittsburgh Center for the Arts’ opening for Tim Kaulen, their new Artist of the Year. The film is Virgil Cantini: the Artist in Public by Will Zavala of Pittsburgh Filmmakers. It examines the work of Virgil Cantini, founder of Pitt’s Department of Studio Arts and prolific creator of public art. You’ve seen Canitini’s sculptures if you’ve spent any time in Pittsburgh, even though you might not have known whose they were. The film will loop, along with three other documentaries, in the video room at PCA. The opening takes place at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts on Friday, September 25 from 5:30–8 p.m. There’s a suggested donation of $5 and PCA members get in free. So come to the PCA opening and check out the documentaries as well.

Brooklyn world-fusion group *Loop 2.4.3* returns to Pittsburgh, showcasing music from *Zodiac Dust *(their Independent Music Award-Nominated New CD) at *Garfield Artworks*, 4931 Penn Avenue, immediately after October’s First Friday art gallery crawl – on Fri., Oct. 2. Doors open at 10 pm. Admission is $7. The concert is open to all ages.

In the tradition of sonic innovators like Steve Reich, Konono N°1, Moondog, and Radiohead, Loop 2.4.3’s new album flows through a vast array of sounds and rhythms across the nine tracks on *Zodiac Dust*. Their first CD, Batterie, was said to “reinvent percussion” (Fresh Air, NPR). Their new CD, nominated for album of the year at the Independent Music Awards, adds piano, voice, strings and two instruments of their invention, the Rose Echo and eLog, both to be featured at the upcoming performance.

Well known for their live shows, recent Loop 2.4.3 performances have been described as “Transportive” (Boston Phoenix), “Intricate and energetic” (The New York Times), “Mesmerizing…stunning” (Time Out Chicago), “a hard driving set” (Alex Ross, the New Yorker), and “a mind-blowing show” (Sean Boyd, Art Farm Recordings). The intimate space at Garfield Artworks is ideal for the group’s percussion-centric, visually exciting performances.

Hailing from Michigan and arriving in Brooklyn via New Haven and Seattle, Loop 2.4.3 has spent the last five years alternately traveling and working in a Bed-Stuy loft space, focused on writing, improvising and creating their own style. They have performed with Clogs, Newband (Harry Partch Ensemble), Daphnis Prieto, Belle Orchestre, the Books, Evan Ziporyn, Sufjan Stevens, Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond, the Decemberists), Joe Morello, their late mentor Robert Hohner, dancer/choreographer Alan Good, director John Jeserun, as soloists with the Brooklyn Philharmonic at the BAM Opera House, and at Times Square as a collaboration with Robert Indiana, Michael McKenzie and Teresa Smith. The group has toured internationally and performed for radio, theater, and television, including footage for The Learning Channel and MTV, and appearances at the Sydney Festival, the London Jazz Festival, Merkin Hall, and the Japan Society (NYC) among others. Please visit http://www.loop243.com.