#philip greenlief

[dustedmagazine]

Kyle Bruckmann / Tim Daisy / Philip Greenlief / Lisa Mezzacappa — Semaphore (Relay Recordings)

Tim Daisy photo by Ken Vandermark/ Kyle Bruckmann photo by Peter Gannushkin 

SEMAPHORE :: Kyle Bruckmann / Tim Daisy /Phillip Greenlief / Lisa Mezzacappa (relay 033) by Timothy Daisy // Relay Recordings

Semaphore is the latest manifestation of the enduring musical connection between Kyle Bruckmann and Tim Daisy. They live a half-continent apart in San Francisco and the Chicago area, and they might not get together for years. But when they do, they not only pick up where they left off, but keep the conversation growing.

The two men’s association originated when Bruckmann, who plays oboe and English horn, started the band Wrack in 2002. This was right around the time that he left Chicago, where he had been the city’s first-call double reeds improviser for half a dozen years, for San Francisco, where he still resides. That might seem like a weird time to start a band, but Bruckmann wasn’t leaving because of problems with Chicago’s music scene. Quite the contrary, he had some unfinished business, including a determination to write and perform music that combined classical forms with new jazz, and he knew a circle of Chicago-based musicians whose skills and aptitudes made them perfect for the project. One of them was Daisy, who at the time was best known as the drummer in a variety of projects led by Ken Vandermark and Dave Rempis, but who was also striking out on his own as a leader. He brought propulsion, swing, formidable improvisational chops, and a cornucopia of ornamental sounds to the combo’s distinctive chamber music-meets-muscular jazz sound. 

Wrack finished strong in 2014 with the record …Awaits Silent Tristero’s Empire, but Bruckmann and Daisy kept renewing their connection every few years.  Semaphore flips the Wrack script by having Daisy head out to Bruckmann’s turf to play with some Bay Area improvisers, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa and tenor saxophonist Philip Greenlief, and adds chapters to it by having the two men split the writing. Both leaders like to fit a lot of action into a composition. Bruckmann’s “No Mean Feat,” which opens the album, features Daisy sizzling on cymbals while Mezzacappa manages the momentum by alternating ascending phrases with sudden rests. The composer and Greenlief strike a balance of muscularity and astringence that brings to mind Prince Lasha and Sonny Simmons without sounding much like them. After building tension, the group expends it with a surging groove and sequential horn solos. Then comes another rest, followed by an intricate pas de deux between oboe and bass, and then the piece resolves with a sauntering ensemble passage reminiscent of the Vandermark 5 c. Acoustic Machine. 

Next up is Daisy’s “Big Horse Lounge,” which opens with a splendidly grouchy-sounding synth line played by Bruckmann, and then eases into a sequence of time-free, muted exchanges by continuously shifting subgroups of the quartet. That dissolves into a charge led by Greenlief’s rippling, high-register attack and fueled by the combustible Mezzacappa-Daisy team. Players drop in and out, and velocity subsides, before the whole ensemble reconstitutes for a voltage-illuminated finale that imagines Brown Rice-era Don Cherry dabbling in gamelan sounds. 

Each of the five pieces that follows explores, with varying degrees of expansiveness and pith, a variety of musical territories. This music is packed with event and transformation, as though its makers knew that they had to get a lot said before parting ways again. But the music never feels gratuitously crammed; in fact, its fluid transitions between sections is part if its appeal. With Semaphore, Daisy and Bruckmann have forged a distinct new group identity by exploring new instrumental and personnel combinations while reaffirming the interest in intricate composition that they have shared since the first Wrack CD.

Bill Meyer

[performamagazine]

Rashaun Mitchell & Silas Riener with Philip Greenlief: New Work. Fieldwork Marfa Antelope Hills Land. 2017. photo: Jessica Lutz, courtesy: Marfa Live Arts

How does the body register the space between places? This question is a preoccupation of both choreography and minimalist art. The experience of some distances exceeds their measurement, like the 2000-mile trip from Brooklyn to Marfa, Texas.  Three weeks ago, I traveled to the tiny West Texas town (population: 1,981) for Marfa Sounding: Anna Halprin, a three-day program (May 26–28) honoring the Northern California-based choreographer. The journey took me around 14 hours: two New York subway lines, a New Jersey Transit train, two flights, and a 200-mile drive. But the full enormity of the distance didn’t strike me until my flight’s final descent into El Paso. Roused from a catnap in my window seat, I snapped open the hot shade to reveal an area of gently gridded desert as far as I could see. A few minutes later, sparse shrubs and low-lying buildings zoomed into view. After landing, I jumped in my rental car and set off, amid the hardness of the Chihuahuan desert landscape’s flat-topped mountains and arid expanses  Although Marfa’s outsize presence in the art world has been crafted by Donald Judd, this feeling of venturing to the edge where nature and culture met, felt in line with Halprin’s work of translating personal sensation to movement. 

Wendy Vogel muses on Marfa Sounding: Anna Halprin over at Performa Magazine.  Read the full story here. 

[emphaticsyllable]

the gaze up and down one wants to be the object bring me your regard

[catsynth-express]

David Pate & Steve Cohn / Manul Override / Ornettology at the Make-Out Room

As we busily prepare for the next Vacuum Tree Head show this coming Tuesday, I find myself looking back at my last show with a very different band, Manul Override earlier this month at the Make-Out Room in San Francisco.  It was the subject of a recent CatSynth TV episode.

The evening began with an improvised set featuring saxophonist David Pate with keyboardist Steve Cohn.

Then it was time for Manul Override’s debut show.  This was a new group I put together with my friend and collaborator Serena Toxicat on voice and former Surplus-1980 bandmate Melne on guitar.

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We had a lot of fun on stage, and the energy spread to the audience, with dancing and meowing all around (all of our tunes had at least some connection to cats).  I was particularly happy with the opening incantation, which featured a French rendition of Serena’s ode to the goddess Bast, and our 1980s-pop-style tune “Goodnigobbles”, which also featured Serena seductively delivering lyrics and spoken words in French.  Melne had a chance to show her versatility throughout the set, including our extended funky jam in the middle of the set.  As with all new musical projects, this is a work in progress, figuring out what works for us and what doesn’t, and how to make each show better than the previous one.  But it was also fun visually, with our fashion statements, cat ears, and Melne’s lighting.

The final set featured Ornettology, a project led by guitarist and composer Myles Boisen.  As the name suggests, the group is inspired by the music of Ornette Coleman, and reimagines many of his compositions.   He was joined by a stellar cast of local musicians including Steve Adams and Phillip Greenlief on saxophones, John Haines on drums, Safa Shokrai on bass, and John Finkbeiner.

The band delivered a truly dynamic performance that featured some of Ornette Coleman’s more familiar tunes, including “Ramblin'” and “Mob Job” There were some great solos from each of the members of the group as well.  You can hear some of Philip Greenlief and Myles Boisen soloing in our video.

The last few shows I have played at the Make-Out room always have a great audience – full houses that seem to appreciate having live music, whether they came to hear the specific artists or just happened to drop by.  A few in the latter category seemed to quite enjoy our Manul-Override set, signing Serena’s leg cast (she had an unfortunate accident a couple of weeks before the show) and taking selfies with us.  It was a fun night of music all aroundl.

David Pate & Steve Cohn / Manul Override / Ornettology at the Make-Out Room was originally published on CatSynth

[teamwerk]

Real Live Flesh - Deerhoof/Fred Frith+Philip Greenlief: The Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA [January 28th, 2011]

Like you, when I was younger, I used to get dropped off at shows by my parents. This would usually consist of me begging to get out of the house as soon as possible so that my friends and I could stake out the best spot in the room. Now that I drive myself to shows, and now that my enthusiasm is somewhat more relaxed, I find myself walking in the door either after the opener has started, or just a couple of seconds before the house lights go out. For this particular January evening, my company and I waltzed in with five minutes to spare. I had seen Fred Frith perform solo before, and was curious to see how a reed player would complement his music. HARSH/AMBIENCE Frith offered for our eardrums roughly thirty minutes of harsh ambient sound. "Harsh ambience?" you may be thinking, but if you've heard any recent works by Frith, you'd know just the thing I'm talking about. Frith (on electric guitar) and his duet partner Philip Greenlief (on saxophone) improvised continuous noise, which never offered up a "legitimate" climax, but progressed without an end in earshot. Every ninety seconds of the performance shifted slightly from its preceding moments, changing like a plot line cutting corners.  At times there was too much of a beat for what one would categorize as noise. Other times there was so much music in the music, noise would be the last category you would think of. Frith and Greenlief used just two instruments (or parts of their instruments-- Greenlief played just his reed and mouthpiece at one point) for the entire set, yet there were moments when it sounded as if three or four more players accompanied them. Audience participation consisted of taking in the sounds, absorbing the subtle grooves, and being repeatedly transported to unique places. SYNCOPATED/POWER I wondered how Deerhoof would pull off a live show. Some of their studio work displays such intense syncopation that it seems an unenviable task to re-produce live. But not only are they capable, in their live performance, of breaking the barriers of the studio setting, they do so with fun at their fingertips and pleasure at the backs of their throats. Although they exude a delightful amount of pleasant tones, they also have their beautifully harsh moments: playful breakdowns of Boredoms-style punk rock and riff-heavy interludes that suggest their Spirit Genre might actually be metal.  Not only does Deerhoof produce eargasmic sounds, their presence on stage beams powerfully. Frontwoman Satomi Matsuzaki came onto the stage with a smile across her lips and glitter over her eyes, dancing through the first song between vocal parts. Greg Saunier, a furious blur of limbs when drumming, broke up sets with hilariously stilted Thank You speeches meant to take up time as everyone switched their instruments around. From this always charming stage presence, Deerhoof projected a balanced mix of their old and new material, and kept up impeccable energy through three encores for their hometown audience. It was a performance I'll long remember, so grateful to be there in the presence of this talented, enduring band.  -Aves Ps. Photo taken by Victoria Smith for SFcritic.