Sunday, December 12, 2010

More on the CMS Archive Project

Have you received volume 1 of the Creative Music Studio Archive Selections?

If so, please send Karl Berger and Ted Orr an email message (creativemusic@verizon.net) and say, "I got my volume 1."

Also, it would be a big help if you could respond to Karl's Thanksgiving message (see the post below), and let him know whether or not you can attend CMS day at Columbia University next April. Even if you can't, just drop a Karl a line and say, "Wish I could be there; I think it's a terrific idea."

The CMS Archive Project offers you a chance to capture and, if you were there, relive the sounds that made the Creative Music Studio such an extraordinary musical community. There's never been another place like it.

"The collection is unique in its artistic scope: an international treasure, featuring some of the most outstanding and ground-breaking composers/performers in World Jazz, World Music, New Music." From the liner notes to Creative Music Studio Archive Selections, volume 1.

Peace,

Bob

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Letter from Karl Berger; CMS Day at Columbia

UPDATE (February 20, 2011):

Hi, All. Although Karl mentions below that there were tentative plans afoot for a CMS party and festival in Woodstock on April 18, those plans have been scrapped. There will be no CMS events in Woodstock on April 18.

April 18 will be the first of a series of CMS-style workshop performances at The Stone in NYC. Stay tuned to CMS Update at http://arborville.com for more information on that series.
***********************
Dear Friends,

It is a long time since the CMS days, yet it feels just like yesterday. It's been great to reconnect with so many of you, as we strive to complete the CMS Archive Project. Over 100 tapes have been re-mastered by Ted Orr, with more than 300 to go. It is exhilarating to listen to all this music in the process. There is truly nothing like this anywhere else.

I'm writing to share some great news:

SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2011 WILL BE 'CMS DAY' AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN NEW YORK. Throughout the day, four panels will explore the oral histories and musical implications of the Creative Music Studio. Our desire is to involve as many of you as possible (and not just those who live in New York), sharing your CMS Stories and memories, which will be recorded and used for an upcoming book as part of the CMS Archive Project.

On Sunday, April 17, 2011 I will lead a Student Ensemble from the Columbia Jazz Studies Program in a concert at Columbia University's Miller Theater, reminiscent of our orchestra sessions at CMS in Woodstock and around the world. And, depending on your response, we might conclude the weekend with a CMS Party-Festival on Monday evening, April 18, 2011 in Woodstock, where all of us can get another wonderful chance to play together again.

If we are to preserve the spirit of CMS, time is of the essence. We all are growing older, but hopefully our fond memories of CMS are not. We need your active help to keep the CMS spirit and legacy alive. Please help to:

  • Connect us with all former participants at CMS
  • Join our membership/subscription program
  • Pass the membership/subscription info on to your contacts and friends
  • Lead us to radio and press contacts in your area
  • Be in touch with your personal ideas and suggestions on how we can re-invigorate CMS.
Once again, we're facing enormous financial pressure and cannot rely on outside support. We've tried grants and fundraising without much success. So now it's time to turn to you; we need to make it happen ourselves. If your time at CMS gave you something unforgettable, now is the time to give thanks by giving back to CMS, helping support the Archive Project as described above. With your renewed energy, the CMS spirit and legacy will live on.

I am eager to hear from you soon.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Karl Berger
creativemusic@verizon.net
http://www.creativemusicstudio.org/

Saturday, November 06, 2010

CMS Day at Columbia U

This just in:

Karl Berger writes:

April 16, 2011 is CMS Day at Columbia University in New York City, with all-day panels exploring the “Oral History” of CMS and its participants. I hope that you will be able to participate and/or contribute to the life-changing stories surrounding the CMS legacy. More news on this to come.

Thanks. with music always,
Karl Berger

--
Creative Music Studio
POB 671
Woodstock, NY 12498
www.creativemusicstudio.org

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Don Cherry on Albert Ayler

If you're at all acquainted with what it was that made the Creative Music Studio a unique community, you'll know something about how important a figure Don Cherry was in CMS's history and development.

And if you're at all familiar with Don Cherry's stature in creative music, you're likely to find his monolgue on his first meeting with Albert Ayler fascinating, as I did.

Don Cherry on Albert Ayler, on YouTube

Monday, June 28, 2010

Different Music V; CMS Goes to Turkey

On Saturday, July 3, at the Colony in Woodstock:

CMS Goes to Turkey!

The Legendary Creative Music Studio Featured at Istanbul Festival*

Sneak Preview Performances during the "The Different Music Festival" @ The Colony Café in Woodstock NY, July 3rd, features -Steve Gorn, Ingrid Sertso, Karl Berger, John Lindberg, Tani Tabbal, Ted Orr-the legendary CMS World Jazz Orchestra - CMS Funk All Stars - Blue Food/Futu Futu soloists.

Woodstock's legendary Creative Music Studio will be the center of an unusual 11-day festival in Istanbul,Turkey, at the end of July, with a sneak preview for area music lovers at the Colony Café in Woodstock, Saturday July 3rd, 7:30pm.

Turkish melodies will guide much of the improvisatory explorations that CMS is known for: exciting ensembles from Trios, Quintets to the legendary 18 piece CMS World Jazz Orchestra led by Karl Berger, take part in this festive evening, where every player is a soloist, including special guest Steve Gorn, bansuri flute, performing with Ingrid Sertso, vocals, CMS founder Berger, piano/vibes, John Lindberg, bass, Tani Tabbal, drums. The evening also includes the CMS Funk All Stars, led by Ted Orr and featuring the “Duchess of Funk” Alana Orchid and members of Blue Food and Futu Futu, plus CMS Orchestra Soloists.

Proceeds for the Colony Cafe event will benefit the CMS Archive Project. Tickets are $ 25, students/seniors $ 20, CMS members/subscribers free.

For more information on CMS, the Woodstock concert event and the Turkish fetsival, contact Stanton Warren at 845 679 8847.

Why Turkey? CMS, known internationally as the birthplace of the contemporary world music movement, has always considered Turkey the Ground Zero of World Music, with influences converging from Asia, Africa and Europe. Several Turkish musicians were regulars at the CMS Woodstock campus in the 70s and 80s, notably composer/saxophonist Ismet Siral. The Istanbul event is dedicated to Ismet Siral and CMS. Therefore the title ISCMS Festival .

The Turkish festival features 11 days of workshops and concerts. Some of what will be performed on July 3 at the Colony Café will be performed 4 weeks later in Istanbul by a host of international and Turkish performers and an international student body.

The Creative Music Studio, founded in 1971 by Karl Berger, Ingrid Sertso and Ornette Coleman, was the pre-eminent institution for world music and avant-garde jazz. Credited as the birthplace of World Jazz, the Creative Music Studio featured some of the world's most renowned improvising musician/composers. The CMS community now exists as a remarkable network of creative musicians all over the world.

The Creative Music Studio Archive Project started two years ago: CMS collaborates with Columbia University's Center for Jazz Studies in preserving its tape collection and providing first-person accounts of this exiting period of the development of free and world jazz. Among the extraordinary artists included on these recordings: Don Cherry, Anthony Braxton, Leo Smith, Sam Rivers, Ed Blackwell, Foday Suso, Abdullah Ibrahim, Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Cecil Taylor, Jimmy Giuffre, Frederic Rzewski, Steve Lacy, Carla Bley, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Paulo Moura, Nana Vasconcelos, Pauline Oliveros, Karl Berger, Trilok Gurtu, Steve Gorn, Ismet Siral, Fred Frith, Oliver Lake, Lee Konitz, Leroy Jenkins, George Lewis, Olu Dara and many other stellar talents (for more info, visit http://www.creativemusicstudio.org/. and http://www.myspace.com/cmsarchive . CMS has had a major impact on improvising musicians across several generations" ... The Jazz Times.

Karl Berger at the Stone

We missed this one, folks. . . or were you there?

Karl played at The Stone in NYC on June 27.

It was "a CD release concert, with world-premiere performances of compositions/improvisations from Karl's Tzadik Release 'Strangely Familiar', introspective 'Miniatures for Piano Solo' (Tzadik Records)." http://www.thestonenyc.com/calendar.php?month=0

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Vision Festival XV 2010

It seems that the bigger Vision Festival gets, the fewer CMS alums I see in the lineup! The festival is huge this year. It includes once-upon-a-time CMS folks Hamid Drake, Joseph Jarman (natch), Marilyn Crispell, Wadada Leo Smith--that's all that I could recognize from the schedule.

Good to see former Detroiters Gerald Cleaver and Salim Washington in the schedule.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Were You at CMS?

Karl Berger and the folks at the Creative Music Studio would like to get your postal address.

Karl says:

To all CMS Participants of the 70s and 80s:

Please send us your postal mailing addresses by return mail, if you have not done so already.
We want to send you the first CMS Archive Selection CD.

With music,
Karl Berger

Send your postal (snail mail) address to creativemusicstudio@gmail.com .

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

John Lindberg at The Stone in NYC, May 13

I wish I could be there. I met John at the Creative Music Studio when he was just 17. What a force in creative music he has become. Gotta love that brash continuance

Check him out if you're in the neighborhood.

John Lindberg At The Stone

Thursday, May 13, 2010

The Stone, New York City
2nd Street at Avenue B

8 pm
John Lindberg Solo Bass Performance

10 pm
John Lindberg’s TriPolar
w/ Don Davis & Kevin Norton


http://www.johnlindberg.com/


In brash continuance of over thirty years of presenting solo bass performances, Lindberg will be playing a set of works, both old and new, energy-filled and spirit-driven, as always.

Solo bass discography:

Comin’ and Goin’ – Leo Records (1979)
Luminosity: Homage to David Izenzon – Music & Arts (1996)

TriPolar is Lindberg’s exhilarating current “working band” and features new works by the leader as well as extraordinary contributions by the composer/performers Don Davis (reeds) and Kevin Norton (percussion).

Their recently completed album is:

(a)live at Roulette NYC – jazzwerkstatt Records (2010), scheduled for a fall release.
Lindberg has released over fifty albums as leader/co-leader.


Video link to excerpt from recent live performance:
http://www.youtube.com/user/lindymgmt#p/a/u/1/TzaR1RJUK4Q

The Stone
2nd Street at Avenue B
http://www.thestonenyc.com/

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Tom Djll on Anthony Braxton

Check out Tom Djll's excellent post on his encounters with Anthony Braxton and other characters (including moi truly) at CMS. It's worth the trip.

Maybe if we stay tuned, we'll find out what happened to parts two and three.

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Ornette Coleman Receives Honorary Doctorate (Obama, too)

Ornette Coleman and Barack Obama both received honorary doctorates during the 2010 University of Michigan commencement ceremony on May 1--Ornette's in music, the president's in law.


It's a good thing that those who bestow the degree didn't know that when asked why he never came up to teach at the Creative Music Studio (even though he was a cofounder), Ornette's response was, "Well, you know, then people would think I know something!" (from Music Universe, Music Mind, page 26)

Thursday, March 18, 2010

“Different Music Festival”--Gala!

Gala Music and Dance night to benefit the CMS Archive Project, and Celebrate the Launch of the First Series of Archive CDs

(WOODSTOCK NY) March 10. On Saturday, March 20, the legendary CMS Orchestra will be the center of the first “Different Music Festival” in 2010 at the Colony Café in Woodstock NY., followed by a funk-intensive dance party with the amazing BLUE FOOD Band.

The proceedings will start at 7 PM with small group improvisations and compositions, featuring saxophonist/flutists Peter Buettner and Don Davis, trumpeter Bob Selcoe, vibist Karl Berger, vocalist Ingrid Sertso and surprise guests.

The CMS Orchestra conducted by Karl Berger, always good for exciting and deeply emotional statements, will follow at 8:30 PM. The CMS Orchestra is a glamorous group of jazz soloists, contributing to a unique and enlightening listening experience.

Around 10 PM the dance floor is open to the music of Blue Food, a Woodstock funk institution which began in the late eighties as a funk outgrowth of the worldbeat group Futu Futu and whose main songbook comes from the legendary James Brown saxophonist and band director, Pee Wee Ellis. Blue Food features Paul Henderson, trumpet, Otto Kenrtrol, bari sax/flute, Peter Buettner, tenor/alto sax, Jack Ryon, tenor sax, Ted Orr, guitar, Mike Colletti, bass, and Tony Parker, drums. They will appear with an extended ensemble, utilizing players from the CMS orchestra. 98% funk, 2% jazz.

Suggested contribution of admission is $20, with $15 for seniors and students. All proceeds go to support the CMS Archive Project ( see CreativeMusicStudio.org ).

CMS members/subscribers (see the "Archive Subscription" post below) enjoy free admission.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

More News on CMS Archive Subscriptions

This is an update to the February 12 post below, "CMS Archive Recordings: You Can Subscribe!"

There is now a discount available to those who were CMS participants during the years 1972-1984.

Read on:

Great News: Subscriptions to the CMS Archive Selections Available Now

Listen to great music and help support the Creative Music Studio Archive Project.

As many of you know, the Creative Music Studio is digitally remastering its archive of hundreds of hours of never-heard-before music, featuring important artists from Anthony Braxton, Nana Vasconcelos, Jimmy Giuffre, and George Lewis to Frederic Rzewski, Ed Blackwell and many others ( see www.creativemusicstudio.org )

The project is being funded primarily by CMS fans, friends, musicians and colleagues all over the world. By becoming a subscribing CMS member, you can directly support the CMS Archive Project. That's good. What's even better is that you'll get an advance copy of each recording before it's released to the public. ( Vol.1 is scheduled to be released on April 1 by Planet Arts Records.)

"CMS Archive Selections" will issue two recordings per year for a total of 12.
The first volume, with music by David Izenzon, solo and in trio with Ingrid Sertso and Karl Berger, Oliver Lake and the CMS Orchestra, and Foday Suso with the Mandingo Griot Society, featuring Hamid Drake and Adam Rudolph is ready now. Subsequent releases will feature rare CMS performances by Anthony Braxton, Jimmy Giuffre, Nana Vasconcelos, Frederic Rzewski, Karl Berger, and many others.

For the basic membership/subscription of $60 per year, you'll receive 2 volumes of the CMS Archive Selection CDs annually, as well as regular updates on the Archive Project, and notices/discounts on CMS events and workshops, including Oral History events and music online.

For the premium membership/subscription of $95 per year you'll receive, in addition, full access, by password, to the Online Archive, including webstreams of unreleased tracks and videos, new "oral history" events, blogs and new concert recordings, and your name will be listed in the booklets of upcoming CMS Archive Selection CDs as a sustaining member.

CMS Participants of the archived times (1972-1984) will get the membership / subscription reduced further to $50 for the basic and $80 for the premium membership/subscription. Archive engineer Ted Orr will be loading up new streaming music each month for premium members to enjoy, as well as some free bonus downloads.

Musicians may also become Active Members by participating in concerts benefiting the CMS Archive Project. Participants in CMS Archive concerts also earn reductions in studio fees for recording, editing, mixing, mastering projects of their own at Woodtsock's Sertso Studio ( Ted Orr, chief engineer).

Your membership is the only way we can digitize and distribute music from the Archive, music that's historically important and great to listen to. Your patronage will ensure that the music of CMS will remain vibrant and available to fans and students around the world. And time is of the essence here: it is now or never to
preserve the rich oral histories of the Creative Music Studio.

All additional contributions are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law: the Creative Music Foundation, Inc is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.

Please help keep the music of CMS alive by becoming a member today. If you subscribe before March 31, you will receive a limited edition advance copy signed by Karl Berger, and your name will be listed in upcoming CD liner notes as one of the special members that helped in the initiation of the CMS Archive Selection Series.

Please make checks payable to CMS (or Creative Music Studio) and send to CMS, POB 671, Woodstock N.Y. 12498. Your membership includes shipping/handling costs. Or simply make your pledge by email to creativemusic@verizon.net, stating your postal mailing address.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Omar Faruk Tekbilek on Link TV

I came across this great Link TV interview of Omar Faruk Tekbilek.

Omar Faruk and his brother Haci, along with Ismet Siral and Murat Verdi, were part of the CMS Turkish connection that thrilled so many CMS participants in the early eighties.

In Music Universe, Music Mind, Adam Rudolph refers to the Sufi/Mandingo melding of musics that he and Hamid Drake enjoyed with the Turkish musicians as "magic moments."

Our friend Dost Kip from Istanbul has been working to put together a film about the CMS Turkish connection and has also managed to put together at least one CMS-style workshop in Istanbul.

I haven't heard from Dost in quite a while, so I'm not sure how things are going over there. If you're in Istranbul, be sure to look him up and tell him I said hey.

Friday, February 12, 2010

CMS Archive Recordings: You Can Subscribe!

Listen to great music and help support the Creative Music Studio Archive Project

As many of you know, the Creative Music Studio is digitally remastering its archive of hundreds of hours of never-heard-before music, featuring important artists from Anthony Braxton, Nana Vasconcelos, Jimmy Giuffre, and George Lewis to Frederic Rzewski, Ed Blackwell and many others ( see www.creativemusicstudio.org )

The project is being funded primarily by CMS fans, friends, musicians and colleagues all over the world. By becoming a subscribing CMS member, you can directly support the CMS Archive Project. That's good. What's even better is that you'll get an advanced copy of each recording before it's released to the public ( Vol.1 April 1, Planet Arts Records ).

"CMS Archive Selections" will issue two recordings per year for a total of 12. The first volume, with music by David Izenzon, solo and in trio with Ingrid Sertso and Karl Berger, Oliver Lake and the CMS Orchestra, and Foday Suso with the Mandingo Griot Society, featuring Hamid Drake and Adam Rudolph is ready now. Subsequent releases will feature rare CMS performances by Anthony Braxton, Jimmy Giuffre, Nana Vasconcelos, Frederic Rzewski, Karl Berger, and many others.

For the basic membership/subscription of $60 per year, you'll receive 2 volumes of the CMS Archive Selection CDs annually, as well as regular updates on the Archive Project, and notices/discounts on CMS events and workshops, including Oral History events and music online.

For the premium membership/subscription of $95 per year you'll receive, in addition, full access, by password, to the Online Archive, including webstreams of unreleased tracks and videos, new "oral history" events, blogs and new concert recordings, and your name will be listed in the booklets of upcoming CMS Archive Selection CDs as a sustaining member.

Your membership is the only way we can digitize and distribute music from the Archive, music that's historically important and great to listen to. Your patronage will ensure that the music of CMS will remain vibrant and available to fans and students around the world. And time is of the essence here.

All additional contributions are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law: the Creative Music Foundation, Inc is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.

Please help keep the music of CMS alive by becoming a member today. If you subscribe before March 31, you will receive a limited edition advance copy signed by Karl Berger, and your name will be listed in upcoming CD liner notes as one of the special members that helped in the initiation of the CMS Archive Selection Series.

Please make checks payable to CMS (or Creative Music Studio) and send to CMS, POB 671, Woodstock N.Y. 12498. Your membership includes shipping/handling costs. Or simply make your pledge by email to creativemusic@verizon.net, stating your postal mailing address.

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Lisle Ellis, Bass and Circuitry

Lisle Ellis is active as an acoustic and electronic musician, visual artist, and a lecturer in creative process and jazz history. As a bassist/composer/improvisor he has performed and recorded with many of the world's foremost muscians in the field of jazz, improvised, creative and new and experimental musics. Currently living in New York City, Ellis leads his own ensemble whose music often reflects his interest in electronic music and its applications in improvisational contexts as well as his ongoing relationship with the acoustic bass.
From http://www.lisleellis.com

Lisle Ellis was living in the San Francisco area when I interviewed him for the book Music Universe, Music Mind. But it turns out that for a lot of musicians who head out West (or start out West--Lisle's roots are in Vancouver), the magnetism of New York is just too strong to resist.

I found out that Lisle had moved to New York by coming across a little article about him in the magazine Electronic Musician (Murphy, Bill Pro/File: Lisle Ellis - Bass and Circuitry
Electronic Musician 25:6 (June 2009) p. 22.).

From the article:

New York City has always been a hotbed of experimentation, especially when it comes to avant-garde jazz. For bassist Lisle Ellis, who has worked with certified heavyweights (Cecil Taylor, Paul Bley) and contemporary rebels (John Zorn, Peter Brotzmann), the legacy of the city's arts and music scenes has been a near-constant source of inspiration going back to the late '70s, when he lived in the city and studied at the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock.

I consider Lisle's account of his Cecil Taylor experience at CMS to be one of the high points of Music Universe, Music Mind.

Saturday, February 06, 2010

Usula Oppens Wins Grammy

Pianist Ursula Oppens, who was a strong figure in CMS's "classical avant garde" contingent, won the Grammy for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (Without Orchestra) for her album Oppens Plays Carter.

She has received two Grammy nominations prior to winning in 2010.

Ursula and Frederic Rzewski were collaborators at CMS, and she continues to perform Rzewski's music.

Congratulations, Ursula Oppens

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Cyro Baptista Workshop in NYC

Very Special Workshop at THE STONE in NYC

The Stone (corner of avenue C and 2nd st. NYC) Monday January 18, 2010, 7PM to 9PM.

No advanced tickets! Get there early to reserve a spot!!

Not just for percussionists but open to all musicians, Cyro will work with the participants using their hands, feet and voice, clapping, stomping and singing with the objective of acquiring polyrhythmic awareness. Starting with basic rhythms and getting into more complex patterns, the students will develop their perception and musical intuition both individually and as an ensemble.

This is part of The Stone's special series dedicated to contemporary music practice. In the interest of updating and supplementing contemporary music education, The Stone initiates a special series of workshops, lectures, seminars and Q&As on a variety of fascinating subjects by some of the world's most unique, cutting edge musical thinkers. Made available to musicians, students, critical thinkers and the general public at affordable prices, all curricula will be decided by the musicians themselves and presented at the Stone at 7pm every Monday night.


For More Information about this Special Workshop, Click Here!

Check out Cyro on the web:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cyro+baptista
http://www.myspace.com/cyrobaptista
http://www.facebook.com/people/Cyro-Baptista/670532192