First, we go proto-punk. Before The Sex Pistols, or The Ramones, there was A Band Called Death. That's the name of a new music documentary coming to the Triad this weekend. Our Technical Producer Eddie Garcia explores the musical and personal relationships of the Hackney Brothers with Charlotte film maker Jeff Howlett. Next Peter Kairoff is back at the keyboard with Frederick Chopin's Romantic piano music. Hear how it evokes early Italian opera, the expressive nature of the serenade, and so much more. And we wrap up today's program at… Elsewhere. That's Greensboro's living museum, and it's the site of an amazing musical experiment. What would happen if you composed a piece of music using nothing but found objects, polled your audience on how your piece should be performed, and then invited the room full of non-musicians to perform your work? Southern Constellations fellow Andrew Raffo Dewar will answer that question and everything else you ever wanted to know about Material Music.
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A Band Called Death
Before The Clash, The Sex Pistols, or The Ramones, there was A Band Called Death. That's the name of the new music documentary co-directed by Charlotte, North Carolina filmmaker Jeff Howlett.
The film explores the musical and personal relationships of the Hackney Brothers and their proto-punk band Death. The band formed in a Detroit bedroom in the early 70s. The brothers recorded an album in 1974 that collected dust until being released in 2009. Howlett's film traces the brothers' journey from obscurity to critical success – a journey that took over 30 years.
You can see the film for yourself in Greensboro, at the Geeksboro Coffeehouse Cinema, July 19th through the 25th. Jeff Howlett will be doing a Q&A at the 5 and 7pm screenings on July 20th. You can find a screening near you on the film's website, and the film is also available on iTunes, VOD and for digital download now. Triad Arts Weekend Technical Producer Eddie Garcia spoke with Jeff via phone from his office in Charlotte.
To listen to mp3s of the Hackney brothers' work, click here.
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Kairoff at the Keyboard
Chopin's music may not sound experimental to our ears today—although David Ford says it's always had an improvisational character to his ears—but the fact is that he was a musical experimenter who definitely pushed the envelope pianistically. Prior to Chopin, and etude was just a little piano study mostly for practicing piano technique. Chopin brought us the concert etude, a staple in the piano rep today. While he didn't invent the Polonaise and Mazurka he is the composer who recast the polish folk music into piano form and catapulted both of them into the world arena.
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Elsewhere's Southern Constellation Artist Andrew Raffo Dewar
To see more of Andrew's visual scores click here.
Southern Constellations is a National Endowment for the Arts funded curatorial project now in its first season at Elsewhere, Greensboro's living museum. The fellowship program brings six dynamic artist teams from across our region for special residencies at Elsewhere that explore experimental art in the South. Composer, soprano saxophonist, ethnomusicologist, educator, and arts organizer Andrew Raffo Dewar is the fourth of six Southern Constellations fellow artists to work on site at Elsewhere.
The Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts in New College and the School of Music at the University of Alabama has spent the past two weeks at Elsewhere creating a graphic and tactile score entitled “Material Music.” Last week it was performed by audience members, and we sample from it in today's show.
When you think of Western Classical Music, you might picture a series of dots and lines on a page. But for decades composers have experimented with graphic notation. Early American examples include Earl Brown's “December 1952”: an abstract image of lines interpreted by musicians, and John Zorn's 1970s “Theatre of Musical Optics” presented found objects in time to create “music without sound”. Dewar continues this type of experimentation with his work at Elsewhere.
You can hear Andrew Raffo Dewar's graphic score "Material Music" performed by local musicians at Elsewhere on Friday night, July 19th at 8:00 pm. And tonight from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm it's a meet and greet at Elsewhere with Atlanta-based Southern Constellation fellow conceptual artist Nikita Gale.
*We've posted pictures of Dewar's graphic scores, and we want your participation as well! Grab your friends, some instruments, and record your own interpretation of Andrew's music. Send the audio from your performance to triadarts@wfu.edu. We'll post it on our website. In the meantime, Elsewhere is an amazing place. Go check it out.
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