It’s pretty staggering to think of a concert series lasting a quarter-century, especially considering the vicissitudes of new and experimental music programming, but this fall marks the 25th concert season of Interpretations, a new music and creative improvisation series curated in part by vocalist Thomas Buckner and the Mutable Music imprint. Buckner’s connection to avant-garde composition and free music goes back at least to the early 1970s, when he ran the 1750 Arch concert series in Berkeley, as well as the 1750 Arch Records imprint (with releases by Gerald Oshita, Roscoe Mitchell, David Rosenboom, Infinite Sound, and many others). Buckner returned to his native New York in 1983, and began the Mutable label in 2000. Interpretations is an appropriate moniker, considering the fact that improvisation and new music composition sometimes appear like different branches of the same tree.
Buckner’s connection to the Chicago axis of free music is made clear from the series’ first concert of 2013, featuring solo and ensemble music from pianist and Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) founder Muhal Richard Abrams (pictured). Improvising composers such as reedman Yusef Lateef and percussionist Adam Rudolf will have their works performed by the Momenta String Quartet (Emilie-Ann Gendron, violin; Adda Kridler, violin; Stephanie Griffin, viola; Michael Haas, cello), and works by Walter Marchetti, Annea Lockwood, Gene Coleman, JG Thirwell, Pauline Oliveros, Anthony Braxton, and Joan LaBarbera will be performed in a variety of instrumental and vocal settings. Look out for bassist James Ilgenfritz’ solo and chamber interpretations of new and historical compositions from the books of AACM-ers and industrial musicians alike, an evening which also features the music of Oliveros and Marchetti. Excepting January, the concerts will be monthly, starting on September 26, 2013 with Abrams and closing on April 24, 2014 with music from electronics artist Tom Hamilton and reedman-composer Ned Rothenberg. All concerts will take place at Roulette in Downtown Brooklyn, a large-scale venue for left-field music.
Schedule:
09.26.13 - Muhal Richard Abrams solo / ensemble
10.17.13 - Gene Coleman // Momenta string quartet
11.13.13 - Anne LeBaron // Ross Bolleter with Tos Mahoney
12.12.13 - James Ilgenfritz // Reineir Van Houdt
02.20.14 - Bruce Gremo // Joan LaBarbara
03.20.14 - Thomas Buckner: Works by Tim Brady, Eric Griswold, John Encarnacao, Annea Lockwood
04.24.14 - Tom Hamilton // Ned Rothenberg
• Interpretations: http://www.interpretations.info
• Mutable Music: http://mutablemusic.com
• Roulette: http://roulette.org
More about: Muhal Richard Abrams, Thomas Buckner, Yusef Lateef
