Muhal Meets The Warriors Part 1/4

01/24/2012

Leading up to the April 28th premiere at Montgomery County Community College of a new piece written by Muhal Richard Abrams for Bobby Zankel's Warriors of the Wonderful Sound, music writer Shaun Brady (JazzTimes, Philadelphia City Paper, Philadelphia Inquirer) will be contributing a series of blog posts about the project. This is the first installment of Brady's four-part series.

Different Than The Different: Bobby Zankel and the Warriors of the Wonderful Sound meet Muhal Richard Abrams

On April 28 at Montgomery County Community College, Bobby Zankel’s big band the Warriors of the Wonderful Sound will premiere a new piece written for the ensemble by legendary pianist/composer Muhal Richard Abrams. Recently, at his West Philadelphia home, Zankel discussed the warriors’ ten-year history, his own life in music, and the excitement of commissioning new music from one of jazz’s most ground-breaking figures.

The Warriors of the Wonderful Sound were first assembled in 2001 for a fledgling jazz festival called Collective Voices. “I’ve always tried to surround myself with the best musicians I can, which usually means older musicians, the guys who know things I don’t know,” Zankel says. The Warriors, on the other hand, largely consisted of the most promising members of Philadelphia’s young modern jazz scene, who were looking to Zankel for wisdom and guidance. “In this situation I was the old head. I’ve watched the guys mature. It’s been a great growing experience for everybody.”

Over the next decade, the band would take the minute stage at Philly’s Tritone to wrestle with Zankel’s intricate compositions. On February 2nd they’ll take that stage again to pay tribute to the great saxophonist Sam Rivers, who passed away at the end of 2011. In the past, Zankel has written or arranged music in honor of other lost mentors, including Bill Dixon, Edgar Bateman, Sid Simmons and George Russell. For Rivers, who he knew and admired for forty years, he’s arranged a new version of the saxophonist’s best-known tune, “Beatrice.”

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ANW Goes To New York

12/26/2011

APAP | NYC 2012, an annual event hosted by the Association Of Performing Arts Presenters that features several days of music showcases and panel discussions with leading artists and voices from the contemporary performance arts world, happens in New York City from January 6-10.

On January 5, Ars Nova Workshop's Founder/Artistic Director Mark Christman will participate in a workshop hosted by JazzTimes magazine as part of their DIY Crash Course program. Along with representatives from International Music Network, BOOM Collective, Revive Music Group and Unlimited Myles, and moderated by music writer Jim Macnie (Down Beat, Village Voice), Mark will be part of the “New Models For Jazz Performance and Touring” workshop. Click here for more information about the workshop and JazzTimes' DIY Crash Course, and be sure to RSVP on Facebook.

Also in conjuction with APAP, the Jazz Journalists Association (JJA) is hosting a Mini-Conference called Media For Audience Development featuring a series of panel discussions on building new jazz audiences using new media. On January 8, Mark will be participating in the Going Local: Getting Coverage In Local Media panel with JJA President and music writer Howard Mandel, The Local East Village editor Daniel Maurer, CapitalBop editor-in-cheif Giovanni Russonello and TimeOut New York music editor Steve Smith.

Also, Winter Jazzfest 2012 is happening in New York City that weekend. On Friday, January 6 and Saturday, January 7, dozens of performances will take place at multiple venues, including sets by Tyshawn Sorey's Oblique, Nels Cline Singers, Jason Ajemian's Highlife, Bill Laswell, Mostly Other People Do The Killing, and David Murray's Cuban Ensemble. If you go, keep an eye out for Mark!

If you're not able to make it, don't fret: ANW has plenty of jazz coming your way in 2012. We'll be kicking off the New Year on January 19 at The Rotunda with a performance by Nate Wooley Quintet Alpha. Have a great New Year's celebration, and we'll see you there!

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Happy Holidays!

12/22/2011

We hope you and your families have a great holiday, and we wish you a wonderful New Year! As 2011 comes to a close, we ask you to consider making a gift to Ars Nova Workshop:

Please consider a gift of:
$25 and say This Is Our Music
$100 and say We Travel The Spaceways
$500 and be one of our Unit Structures

Before we march into 2012, and ANW's exciting upcoming season of jazz and experimental music in Philadelphia, we'd like to thank you for all your support this year. Thank you. Without your generous contributions, we wouldn't have been able to present nearly 40 concerts in 2011, including our three-day Composer Portrait: Fieldwork series, our five-day AACM: Great Black Music Festival, and the unprecedented three-day series with Instant Composers Pool Orchestra. 

Those were some of our favorite music moments of the year, and there are plenty more coming! We have big plans for 2012 and beyond, including bigger and better music festivals, visual arts exhibits, and the launch of the ANW archival record label. 

In the meantime, ANW's season begins on January 19, 2012 with the Philadelphia debut of the Nate Wooley Quintet Alpha. Please check out the rest of our 2012 season here, and we'll soon be announcing several more concerts, including a duo that's literally going to knock your socks off. Here's a hint: Philadelphia pianist + Dutch drummer.

Your contributions will help us to bring these and more creative music performances to Philadelphia in the years to come, so please give, and give generously!

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Spring 2012

12/07/2011

Ars Nova Workshop's 13th year is coming soon! We wrapped up our 2011 season in late-November with two maximum capacity concerts by Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog and a double-header with Jason Adasiewicz's Rolldown and the Claudia Quintet + 1. Thanks to everyone who came out to support ANW this year, and we wish you all a wonderful holiday season.

ANW kicks off its 2012 season on January 19th with the Philadelphia debut of the Nate Wooley Quintet Alpha at The Rotunda. In a review of the quintet's recent Brooklyn performance, The New York Times' Nate Chinen wrote that Wooley's “an improviser with a tactile, patient, interrogatory approach to his craft.” We hope you'll join us for this first concert of the new year, and Wooley's first Philadelphia appearance since last March, when he played Vox Populi with C. Spencer Yeh, Paul Lytton and Ben Hall.

Below you'll find a summary of ANW's early 2012 concert schedule. Keep an eye on our website, because we'll be announcing a few more dates very soon. For more information, and to purchase tickets, please refer to the event pages on our website. Happy holidays, and we'll see you on January 19th!

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Ars Nova Workshop is a Philadelphia nonprofit jazz and experimental music presenting organization.  As a facilitator between artists and their audiences, Ars Nova Workshop works to inform, inspire and challenge listeners in order to elevate the role of jazz, improvisation and experimental music in contemporary culture.

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Music is the Healing Force of the Universe

"When there is chaos, which is now, only a relatively few people can listen to the music that tells of what will be. You see, everyone is screaming 'Freedom' now, but mentally, most are under a great strain." -Albert Ayler