The Quartet had a great time at the Stone last Friday night. One very pleasant surprise was the very healthy turnout we had for our set. I was stunned and amazed to see almost every chair filled and, best of all, I wasn't on a first name basis with everyone there! =)
Seriously, though, we had a great set and the people seemed to enjoy the music. I deliberately decided to forego rehearsal and bring only sketchy, open-ended music rather than my more tightly structured stuff because I knew Brad Jones and Chris Dingman would really dig in to material like this. They didn't disappoint in the least. Best of all, no one was thrown by one of my favorite things to do on the bandstand, which is to "call audibles". I like to shift the set list around, or start a new tune before the current one is done (sometimes only giving SOME players this information).
Now I've known Damion Reid for a long time, but we rarely play together (I've got to fix that!), so it was a real treat to have him with us at the Stone on Friday. I think he was the one who got the most "off the paper" instructions during the gig and his playing was just amazing. Loose and open, but always ALWAYS grooving! I'm already thinking of a Taylor-Jones-Reid trio project in the near future.
So that's about it for now. Thanks to everyone who came out to share music with us. There are some cool things coming up in the fall that I'll let everyone know about very soon!
This fall Mapleshade Records is rereleasing my debut CD, QuietLand, which has been out of print for a long time! On August 29th, the Mark Taylor Quartet will be performing at the Fabulous Jalopy Theatre to celebrate the release and I hope to see you there!
From the Mapleshade website: Out-of-print for almost a decade, I was reminded during a recent listening session why I had to get QuietLand re-pressed. Mark’s super-soulful solos during our Ebony Brass date prompted this, our first jazz French horn session. He assembled an inspired quintet: acclaimed pianist Myra Melford; historic NY bassist Fred Hopkins, Warren Smith's masterful percussion; and Steve Berrios’ passionate drumming. Mark’s striking originals are built on beautiful harmonic textures that leave lots of room for these great players to make each song their own. The sweet airiness of Warren’s silvery triangles and vibes, framed by the soaring soprano purity of the background vocalise are audiophile treats. Cadence summed it up perfectly: “Taylor’s sound is big, rounded and versatile...smooth flowing lines but they never quite go in the direction that the listener expects...This is a strong session with plenty to offer.” (#05232)
QuietLand Quartet at the Fabulous Jalopy Theatre last night
We had a great show at the Jalopy last night and a nice number of people showed up to share the evening with us and violinist Charlie Burnham's fantastic group.
I didn't realize it until we were well into the show, but I've NEVER really performed the music from that CD. It was all written and recorded in the mid-90s, but the CD took a couple of years to drop and I guess I was into some other stuff by then. What was interesting for me as the composer was that this music has a pace of its own and I had to learn to respect that. What I mean is that this music needed to develop, breathe and "open up" at a much slower and more organic speed than I'm used to allowing. Now that I think about it, the recording session was much the same way...
It was really interesting to be on stage and constantly have to remind myself to "let it be. Everything will be fine" - and it was. Chris, Keith and Tomas really started to get inside these tunes and open them up. I'm really looking forward to playing some of the same material in October on the AACM concert.
Mark Taylor - Horn/Composer
Chris Dingman - Vibraphone
Keith Witty - Bass
Tomas Fujiwara - Drums
&
Muhal Richard Abrams / Fred Anderson (Duet)
The Community Church of New York
40 East 35th Street
(Bet. Madison and Park Avenue)
New York City
General Admission $25
Seniors/Students $12 with currently valid I.D.
 THESE EVENTS ARE MADE POSSIBLE WITH PUBLIC FUNDS FROM THE NEW YORK STATE COUNCIL ON THE ARTS (A STATE AGENCY), GRANTS FROM THE PHAEDRUS FOUNDATION, AND THE AARON COPLAND FUND FOR MUSIC.
...any music writers / bloggers interested in attending (and, of course, writing glowing reviews of all involved, especially me) drop me a pm or email.
Mark Taylor Launches the At What Age Project at Kickstarter.com
Here's the latest news! I'm finishing off my third CD. A project titled "At What Age". It features my new quartet with some special guests contributing poetry and other instruments and lots of new music by yours trul...y. I'm even bringing out the Mellophone on a couple of pieces! You know you don't want to miss that!
To make this happen, I'm partnering with Kickstarter.com, a great website that makes funding the project surprisingly easy and painless (I get 100% of the money raised, minus the fee Amazon charges to process credit cards). The more help I can get, the more I can guarantee that this thing will be done right: from recording, mixing, and mastering, to pressing amazing looking CDs, to hiring a publicist to really get the album out there.
So, follow the link, read all about this amazing project (watch my video!?!) and become a part of making "At What Age" a reality.
Just sending out a little mini-newsletter to say hello and keep you up on the MarkMusiK happenings!
Things have been really humming along the last few weeks with several gigs and recording projects just completed or happening in the very near future. In fact, the last few weeks have been spent in rehearsal for a very special recording project with Joe Daley. If you ever get the chance to hear Joe play tuba or euphonium, ESPECIALLY if it’s his own music, don’t miss it! We rehearsed a suite Joe has composed based on his interpretations of the “Seven Deadly Sins” and, earlier this week, spent two days in the studio recording it. The music is amazing and the band is an incredible aggregation of top-notch players as you’re likely to find anywhere. Besides, where else are you going to hear bass sax, CONTRA-bass sax AND contrabass sarrusophone on the same record? On October 16 the Mark Taylor Quartet performed a well received set on the AACM concert series here in midtown Manhattan. We played 5 of my pieces and my bandmates Keith Witty, Chris Dingman and Tomas Fujiwara really outdid themselves. With several of my heroes and mentors in the audience, I’m afraid I let my nerves get the best of me a few times, but we received and warm and appreciative response from those in attendance. Watch my YouTube channel for video clips from the concert.
The following night, I had the pleasure of performing at Iridium once again with the Jessica Jones Quartet. As usual Candace Jones kept the audience in rapt attention as the band performed a set of original tunes (mostly), many of which were written by Jessica especially for Candace.
Coming up on Monday November 9th, I have a concert at Local 269 with Warren Smith’s new brass project which we’ll repeat on Friday the 13th in Syracuse and the following night (Saturday the 14th) will be my second performance with the SWIPE Cartel Composer’s Collective at Ibeam in Brooklyn. We’ll be playing two of my compositions as well as several pieces by other members of the ensemble. Come on out to Brooklyn for this gig, folks and bring some friends! Ibeam is a fantastic, intimate room to listen to music and is another great example of musicians taking responsibility for creating opportunities to present their work. Also, December 3-5 I’ll be playing with Golden Boy – the Art Blakey Tribute at Iridium.
I know what you’re really asking, though. You want to know how the Kickstarter project is coming, right? Well, with just under 70 days left in the project we’ve raised $275 toward the $5,000 goal. So – if you haven’t pledged, drop by the Kickstarter page at: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...-horn-and-mell and take a look at the project and the various participation levels and jump in with both feet! Also, please spread the word and let people know what we’re doing here. If you know people who are fans of creative, independent art, tell them about Kickstarter. It’s a great way for people who want to get directly involved to support the art and artists than move them.
I guess that’s about it for now. There are a couple of interesting things on the horizon for early next year, so check the website or my Facebook page if you just can’t wait for the newsletter to find it’s way to your inbox!
Bright Moments, Mark! You certainly appear to be very busy! Lots of French horn-centric activity in Seattle the past few weeks. :-D The Julius Watkins Jazz French Horn Festival at Cornish College was awesome and Tom Varner's Tentet at the Chapel Performance Space was superb, featuring music from the brand new Heaven and Hell CD on Omni Tone. We are so happy to have Tom here in the Pacific Northwest! He killed with WACO (Washington Composers Orchestra) too. Unfortunately, I missed him with the Jim Knapp Orchestra, though I'd been planning to go to that show too. Too much music, too little time, as the ol' cliche goes... The latter two shows were part of the Earshot Jazz Festival, which is still rollin' big time, Trio 3 tomorrow!
Say "hi" to Joe for me, please.
Last edited by Bill Barton; November-5th-2009 at 07:02 PM.
Bright Moments, Mark! You certainly appear to be very busy! Lots of French horn-centric activity in Seattle the past few weeks. :-D The Julius Watkins Jazz French Horn Festival at Cornish College was awesome and Tom Varner's Tentet at the Chapel Performance Space was superb, featuring music from the brand new Heaven and Hell CD on Omni Tone. We are so happy to have Tom here in the Pacific Northwest! He killed with WACO (Washington Composers Orchestra) too. Unfortunately, I missed him with the Jim Knapp Orchestra, though I'd been planning to go to that show too. Too much music, too little time, as the ol' cliche goes... The latter two shows were part of the Earshot Jazz Festival, which is still rollin' big time, Trio 3 tomorrow!
Say "hi" to Joe for me, please.
Hi Bill,
I'm sorry I couldn't make it out for the JWFest. I REALLY wanted to come, but you know how it is, life happened...
I was talking to Vincent Chancey the other day (at Joe Daley's record date) and he was telling me what a great hang it was. I'm glad you were there to check it out. Tom certainly seems to have carved out a real niche for himself there, and I'm glad. He certainly deserves more attention than he has gotten to date.
I'm very happy to have so much activity right now and, hopefully, it'll keep going for a while. I have high hopes for the Kickstarter project and have even been doing some voiceover work lately! There are a couple of other surprises up my sleeve for early next year, too.
Thanks for dropping by my thread, it's been getting dusty in here...
Thanks, guys! I was really happy with the gig and especially thrilled that it was "videoded" for us. There are four more tunes to put up, but I thought I'd ration them out a little...
Ron, I'll mention Bill Molenhog to Chris next time I talk to him.
Linear Mode
