Two Compositions (Now Available!)

These two pieces represent the main result of my work as a composer/performer during the course of 2012, inasmuch as the distinction between that and my work as a songwriter, producer, arranger, session musician, etc retain any meaning as I continue.

Both are also incredibly personal pieces, reflecting some ongoing attempts over the last several years to unpack my identity as black, mixed and queer. I don't want to draw a diagram here, but the spoken texts which bookend "Articulate" are just a few of the many brilliant writings author James Baldwin contributed to the dialogue on race and oppression and identity in the form of essays and fiction alike. It was under the spell of his classic "The Fire Next Time" that I wrote the rest of the text. The aphorisms which make up the "Earthseed Songs" are taken from a spiritual text which appears in author Octavia E. Butler's "Parable of the Sower" and "Parable of the Talents." Butler is known for being one of the first prominent women of color writing in science fiction, and her writing has always managed to deftly mix speculative concerns with real life ones, asking just the right questions of characters and readers alike. Each of these statements, written by the books' primary protagonist, is intended as a statement of resilience and preparation against an oppressive world that isn't too far removed from our own, and their austerity made them a pleasure to work with.

Musically, these pieces both represent the work I've been attempting with loose organization of time and also of trying to maximize the sound of a small chamber ensemble. I was fortunate to be able to work with such great musicians in realizing both of these pieces originally, who were willing to, with the barest minimum of rehearsal, give an excellent performance of some complex music. Since then we've had the chance to iron out some details and polish these pieces into something really special. I'm very pleased to be able to present this recording to you, having captured both compositions in top form.

Much thanks to Ben Klein, Anne Rhodes and Brian Slattery for their playing, Lou Guarino Jr. for his time and recording expertise, James Baldwin and Octavia Butler for having written at all, and everyone who gave me feedback from the first performances.

Two Compositions is dedicated to James Baldwin and Octavia Butler. 
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In other news, Mal Blum released her latest album, Tempest in a Teacup, last week. I recorded some accordion and backing vox for the track The Difference back in November 2011, and I'm super pleased to hear the final result. The whole album is super well written and sounds gorgeous, with Mal really flexing the muscles of her craft in some subtle and gorgeous ways. Check it out at the above link!

Finally, two upcoming shows. I'll be doing a reading with Brian Slattery on Saturday, May 18th at Books and Co. in Hamden, CT (on Whitney Avenue.) Start time is 7PM. He'll be reading again from Lost Everything, with musical accompaniment from myself and a few other players. And on June 5th I'll be performing an An Historic solo set, opening for songwriter Diane Cluck at Neverending Books. Doors at 7PM, Music starts at 8, $10. Facebook Event Here.

As always, stay tuned.

Insert Stravinsky Joke Here:

Happy Spring, apparently!

A streak of shows coming up in the second half of April that are very dear to me.

First, An Historic (as a duo with Carl Testa) is performing at Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn alongside Kings and Karen and the Sorrows on April 15th. The show starts at 8 and we're on first, and the other two acts feature seriously inspired songwriting and arranging inspired in great ways by the stamp of classic country music. The evening finishes off with a great big "Old-Fashioned Goodtime Country Music Hootenanny Jamboree" featuring members of all the performing acts. Should be a fun one. (For those keeping score, Kings features the talents of baritone Robert Maril, of Rhymes with Opera, who sang the role of "1" in my opera Red Giant last year.)

Next, on April 25th (notice the corrected date), I'm performing in a duo with Kryssi Battalene AKA noise/ambient artist Colorguard. I'm really excited to be playing this set as Kryssi and I have talked about doing this for a long time and it's finally coming to fruition. Doing electronic/electroacoustic music live more often is one of the goals I've had as I've been re-thinking my electronic project, so for this set I'm signifying some of that reflection by going by a shortened moniker, GZARA. The set is in support of Impatience Machine, a quartet featuring electronics, brass and percussion, which features another Rhymes with Opera colleague, Ruby Fulton. The show also features a set by Birth of Flower, an excellent post-punk-ish local band. That show is at Taco Hut HQ, 265 Orange St in New Haven, at 7:30PM.

Then, I'm performing an evening of Kurt Weill's music with the Cygnet Sisters and Doctor Caterwauls on April 27th. This is a concert I've wanted to do for many years, and it has come to fruition with possibly the perfect group of musicians to do so - The Cygnet Sisters, Anne Rhodes and Zohra Rawling, and Dr Caterwauls, which will on this occasion feature Keith Yarborough filling out the low end on tuba. I'll be singing a handful as well and the evening should be a complete blast. The venue is in Hamden, CT, at the home of Christina Crowder, who has been running an excellent series of concerts there - email for more information at doctors.caterwaul@gmail.com. Start time is 8PM.

Finally on April 30th Dr. Caterwauls will be teaming up with Tyler Bussey for the last time in the foreseeable future, as Tyler prepares to move west. The show will be at Cafe Nine as part of the Drink Deeply series. Start time is 9PM, and there's one other act to be announced - naturally, most of us will be backing Tyler up on a few of his originals as well as some arrangements of folk tunes.

Stay tuned for more info, including the release of a recording of two compositions from last year - Articulate, with Ben J.M. Klein and Earthseed Songs with Anne Rhodes and Brian Slattery.

Last Minute Shows

A few very-recent additions to my schedule happening this weekend. Large Objects is performing as a trio (Klein/Matlock/Rhodes) at La Paloma Sabanera in Hartford tomorrow, Saturday the 23rd at 7:30PM. On Sunday the 24th, I'm accompanying the duo of Kyoko Kitamura and Anne Rhodes at Downtown Music Gallery in NYC at 7PM, as they lead a workshop and performance of some of Anthony Braxton's Ghost Trance Music and Language Music system as well as some original compositions by the two.

Another recently-added date is April 4th at 7:30, at Yale Hillel - I'm performing on Accordion with the Yale Klezmer Band, pairing tunes with readings by Yiddish scholar Ken Frieden from his book "Classic Yiddish Stories." Further info TBA.

Finally, a pertinent announcement from Joey Molinaro. Joey completed a successful Kickstarter campaign recently to raise money for this release, attempting a new model of DIY commissioning. Here's his blurb about it:

As for future releases, I would like to announce the official selections for my Analog DIYalog vinyl recording project, whose scores range from meticulously-notated malevolence to improvisatory sketches. Look for the record to drop in 2014:

Lucio Menegon- Improvisation as an Analogy for Two Parties that Don’t Speak the Same Language
Dylan Hawkes-Glenn- HEXAKOSIOIHEXEKONTAHEXAPHOBIA
Chris Kincaid- Etude 1
Amy Mills- Port Chester Noise: Satan’s Dungeon
Dave Scanlon- Short Exercise #1
Joe White- Ritalin
Tim Byrnes- Untitled
Eleonor Sandresky- Etude
Adam Matlock- GwWick
Epistasis- Horror In Fidelus
Christien LeDroit- Wandering the Threshold of Delirium

And last but not least, for now, a recent cover I recorded of a Peter Hammill tune "Too Many of My Yesterdays"


Upcoming, a few Dr. Caterwaul's appearances in CT and an An Historic set in NYC with Carl Testa, and on, and on.

the Capital "C" Composer mask...

If you've been with me up to this point you may know that I attempt to wear several masks/hats as a means of dividing my creative output - sometimes as a songwriter, sometimes doing electronic music/production, sometimes as a performer/side-person for other people's music. Even as the lines between those categories blur and fluctuate somewhat regularly, each of them seems to get their moment over the course of a span of time. Coming up, then, is a streak of stuff related to my composition work...

First, tomorrow, March 4th, 8PM at Cafe Nine in New Haven, I'm the featured musical guest on Chris Arnott's "Get to the Point" storytelling series. I'll be performing a new work along the lines of the "Drama mit Musik" style works that have appeared sporadically throughout my composing/performing career (see THIS and THIS among them). This one will be entirely solo and acoustic, and I'll leave it at that. The series has been a joy every time I've been and if you live in the area you owe it to yourself to check this series out.

Then Next Sunday, March 10th, Matlock/Rhodes/Slattery returns to perform the Earthseed Songs on the second installment of the Sharon Arts Series, at the Sharon Arts Gallery in Peterborough, New Hampshire. As it is on a Sunday, doors are at 5:30 PM. The bill also includes Banjo Assault, the duo of Tom Crean and Matt Robidoux, as well as the duo of Miss Olivia Kennet and Ted Lee, and a performance by Mysterybear and Greg Kowalski.

Finally, on March 17th, Rhymes with Opera's second annual Salon will be happening down in Baltimore at the City Arts Gallery (440 East Oliver St, Baltimore, MD 21202). It's a brunch potluck so everything gets underway at 2PM. I won't be there, alas, but they are performing an excerpt of "Red Giant," the opera I composed for them last year, and if you live in the area you should definitely go check it and the rest of the program out.

In the midst of all that I'm submitting a few compositions to other performers/ensembles soon, for which I'm extremely excited. More on THAT as the details solidify.

Happy Spring, everyone!

Briefly:

Tonight, I'm sitting in with Kindred Queer for the first time since November. We're opening for Rabbit in the Rye, a bluegrassy trio from upstate New York. The show will be at The Outer Space in Hamden, CT at 8PM. Progressive folky stuff, lots of harmonies on both ends. I'm pretty excited for this show. The core trio of KQ will be augmented by banjo, mandolin and bass as well as my contributions which will be a first for the group.

Next up is the Personality Swap (round 3) at Panopoly Performance Gallery, a neat event curated by cellist Valerie Kuehne. It involves getting a bunch of performers together and having them play material by each other. Other performers include Carrie-Ann Murphy, The Sneaky Mister, Alyson Greenfield, Gelsey Bell and Baxton. Quite literally anything could happen as I know very little about any of these performers, and I suppose that's part of the appeal. Wednesday, February 27th, 8PM.

There's a VERY interesting thing coming up at Cafe Nine - the Get to the Point storytelling series, hosted by Christopher Arnott, is a monthly series focusing on narratives and the art of how they are conveyed. I will be the musical guest for the March installment, dusting off an idea that was once pretty central to my creative output - I'll leave it ambiguous for now, but the date is Monday, March 4th at 8PM at Cafe Nine, and it's free!

Finally, the Seicremllams tape is now available! Get it HERE or find me at one of these shows or others on the sidebar! The run is super limited so don't wait as long to get it as I did to release it. Here's a fuzzy picture of the production line:

Happy New Year!

Hello All. Doing my best to be stoked about the range of possibilities on the horizon in the New Year. I've recently updated my performance schedule (in the tab along the top and in the sidebar to the right) with a bunch of things coming up for the rest of January and February. Among other things, Dr. Caterwauls is quite busy, finding that guitarist Chris Cretella's talents are put to good use with us. We'll also be performing with various bassists (notably Gary Velush and Mike Tepper, both active in various Connecticut projects) in some of the upcoming gigs, which include this Thursday in Hartford for our first time, this Sunday in Bridgeport CT and next Wednesday in Hamden, returning for a third time to Best Video which has always been a wonderful spot to play. See performances for details. We're also quite pleased to be returning to the Black Rock Rocks fundraiser on February 9th at the Acoustic Cafe in Bridgeport, with Cygnet Sister Zohra Rawling lending us her glorious coloratura soprano on some points during our set.

I'm also very pleased to announce that the An Historic trio, featuring Brian Slattery on Fiddle and Carl Testa on bass, will be performing at an installment of Carl's Uncertainty Series on February 7th at Taco Hut HQ in New Haven, alongside Jessica Pavone and C.J. Boyd, both composers and instrumentalists doing solo sets. More details on that as it approaches.

Next, the New Year brings some instances of me acting something like a "regular composer," i.e. writing stuff for other ensembles/performers. I've submitted one piece for the duo of Charlie Rauh and Concetta Abatte - details TBA on when that will be performed. And work is underway for pieces for the new music ensemble First Construction, as well as for the excellent grindcore violinist Joey Molinaro. Stay tune for information about those performances as they break.

Finally, I wanted to remind everyone of the digital release of the Seicremllams EP, available HERE. And leave you all with a streaming link to a recent composition I wrote, performed by Large Objects, a new music/improv quartet also featuring Anne Rhodes, Ben Klein and Maura Valenti. This is from our debut performance back in December.

Seicremllams EP Released...Digitally...

Hey all. Hope the season isn't too stressful so far. I'm here to mention that I've gotten sick of sitting on it, and have released the Seicremllams EP by An Historic - digitally, anyway.



I had been hoping to save it and release the tape and digital versions concurrently, but long story short there have been a series of unforeseen delays with the artwork that have prevented me from releasing the physical version as planned. So, rather than let it collect dust on my hard drive for over a year (like last year's Cutoff split did), I've decided to get the songs out there into the world. Seicremllams is intended to be a companion EP to an upcoming full length release (Small Mercies, recorded this summer and in the final stages of mastering right now), providing alternate versions of some of the tunes that will be on that release. This was my most focused experiment in home-recording yet, being almost completely done in two day-long sessions, so my usual desire to nit-pick to death was held back. The sound quality is a little raw but is cleaner than previous self-recorded releases, a bit more spare in the arrangements, and despite having some vocal and instrumental overdubs I think gets pretty close to my live sound, which is something previous releases have not been able to do - every song was built around a single take of vocals and accordion recorded simultaneously, and every other layer was shaped around that foundation.

The photo currently serving as artwork was shot and tweaked by Rowan Bee, from a series of photos taken at the end of last year:

So at the moment, the EP is available on my bandcamp page digitally for free/p.w.y.c. download, or streaming. I've set up a pre-order option, so if you have a cassette player and want the tape (but also want to hear it NOW NOW NOW) you can pre-order the cassette release (only 95 available) which will also guarantee you a copy of the tape when it is released, one way or the other, sometime early next year. (If necessary, I'll make my own artwork, although in this case I was hoping for some more competent artwork to include with this release.)

A Happy New Year to you all!