18.oktobrī plkst.19:00 Reformātu baznīcā Vecrīgā (Mārstaļu ielā 10) pirmo un vienīgo reizi kopā vienā kvartetā spēlēs nu džeza (nu jazz) un brīvās improvizācijas meistari, spožie mākslinieki Jons Raskins, Stens Sandells, Tims Pērkiss un Vladimirs Tarasovs.
Viņu eksperimenti un novatoriskās idejas ir atstājušas dziļas pēdas džeza attīstībā, bet meistarība bijusi paraugs un iedvesmas avots daudziem pasaulē atzītiem mūziķiem.
Šis īpašais koncerts, kurā skanēs elektroakustiskās improvizācijas, tiks ierakstīts.
Ideja izveidot šo kvartetu radās saksofonistam Jonam Raskinam. Viņš jau iepriekš neskaitāmas reizes dažādos projektos ir spēlējis kopā ar Vladimiru Tarasovu, Timu Pērkisu un/vai Stenu Sandellu.
“Šiem lieliskajiem mūziķiem vienmēr ir daudz ideju un enerģijas. Viņi virtuozi paplašina savu instrumentu valodu, pārfrāzējot improvizācijas un kompozīcijas attiecības. Šī pieeja ļauj mūziķiem saskanīgi mijiedarboties uz skatuves,” stāsta Jons Raskins.
Kvarteta sastāvs:
Džons Raskins (ASV), saksofons
Stens Sandells (Zviedrija), klavieres
Tims Pērkis (ASV), electronics
Vladimirs Tarasovs (Lietuva), perkusijas
Ar leģendāro perkusionistu Vladimiru Tarasovu, kuru džeza mūzikas cienītāji zina jau kopš viņa piedalīšanās slavenajā padomju Ganelina trio 70.gados, Raskins pirmo reizi spēlēja kopā 1983.gadā Rīgas Džeza festivālā. Abi kļuva par labiem draugiem, un kopā ir īstenojuši spilgtus muzikālos projektus. Ar Timu Pērkisu Džons sāka sadarboties 80.gadu vidū grupā “The Hub” – pirmo dzīvo digitālās mūzikas grupu, kurā darbojās komponisti, improvizētāji, dizaineri, datortehnikas un programmnodrošinājuma izstrādātāji. Pirmie projekti ar Stenu Sandellu radās tikai 2014.gadā – Raskinu iespaidoja viņa darbs un īpašā pieeja mūzikai, tādēļ pianists un komponists tika uzaicināts pievienoties jaunajam sastāvam.
Raskina, Sandella, Pērkisa un Tarasova koncerts būs spožs un neaizmirstams notikums Rīgas mūzikas dzīvē. Visu, ko uz skatuves paveic šāda līmeņa mūziķi, jau sen ir pāraudzis viena žanra robežas, ir ārpus jebkādiem šabloniem un nosacījumiem.
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On October 18 at 19:00 in the Reformed Church in Old Riga (Mārstaļu 10) for the first time and for one evening only – on one stage will be the Raskin-Sandell-Perkis-Tarasov quartet – masters, pillars and prominent figures of new jazz (nu jazz) and free improvisation.
Experimenters and innovators who had a huge influence on the jazz scene, teachers of many famous musicians.
This will be a special concert - electroacoustic improvisation and studio recording.
Quartet line-up:
Jon Ruskin, saxophone, USA
Sten Sandell, piano, Sweden
Tim Perkis, electronics, USA
Vladimir Tarasov, percussion, Lithuania
The concert of the Raskin-Sandell-Perkis-Tarasov quartet will certainly become a bright and unforgettable event in Riga’s musical life.
It does not fit into narrow genre boundaries, because everything that musicians of this scale do on stage has long gone beyond any templates and conventions.
Jon Raskin:
This is a special group and I’m very excited to be playing with Vladimir Tarasov, Tim Perkis, and Sten Sandell. They are pioneers and innovators in their approach to music expanding the language of their instruments and redefining the nexus of improvisation and composing. By composing I mean the ability to hear, support, and add to the ideas that are being created by each other. This allows for fluidity of form and flow in the interactions of the players.
Vladimir and I first met and played together in 1983 in the Riga Jazz Festival when the Rova Saxophone Quartet and The Ganelin who were performing there had a chance to play together. This working relationship and friendship has carried on through the years through many different situations.
This is also true with Tim Perkis whom I met in the mid 80’s through “The Hub” (the first live computer music band whose members were all composers, improvisers, designers and builders of their own hardware and software). During the Covid lockdown we kept connected by weekly sessions over the internet to help ease the isolation of that period.
Sten Sandell started coming to San Francisco around 2014 and he did a solo piano project at Center for New Music which I was curating and we had a chance to play together. I was immediately fascinated with his work with language and ways of approaching music which was related to my interests and concerns. When Tim moved to Gothenburg, Sweden recently he started a working relationship with Sten so it was very natural to bring us all together for this concert.
Jon Raskin, expert of various saxophones, electronics and concertina, is best known as a co-founder of the famous Rova Saxophone Quartet in which he plays baritone and alto saxophones. Rova has released more than 40 albums and toured many countries. At Rova’s invitation, the legendary trio of Vyacheslav Ganelin, Vladimir Chekasin and Vladimir Tarasov made its historic US tour. In 2007, the quartet performed with Tarasov and Swiss percussionist Fritz Hauser at the Vilnius Jazz festival.
Raskin studied composition and saxophone, and at the beginning of his career played in the new music ensembles directed by John Adams and Barney Childs. In the 1970s, he served as music director of the Tumbleweed Dance Company and helped found the Blue Dolphin Alternative Music Space and Farm project in San Francisco.
The saxophonist is active as a composer, has received commissions from various organisations and ensembles, and has composed music for theatre, film and dance companies.
He has recorded with the Anthony Braxton Quintet, Tim Berne, Phillip Gelb, Dana Reason and Pauline Oliveros, JR Quartet (with Liz Allbee, George Cremaschi, and Gino Robair), the FPR Trio (with Frank Gratkowski and Phillip Greenlief), and has released personal albums. Raskin’s other groups include The Out Of Bounds Trio (with Tim Bulkley and Safa Shokrai), a duo with drummer Jon Bafus, the projects 2+2 (with Ph. Greenlief) and The Long Table (with Ph. Greenlief, John Hanes, Dan Seamans and John Shiurba).
Sten Sandell is a prominent voice of Swedish improvised music: keyboardist, also playing piano, organ and electronic instruments, producer, Doctor of Philosophy. For his contributions in music, he was endowed with the Swedish Royal Academy of Music’s Jazz Award in 2012.
Sandell has collaborated with Scandinavia’s leading improvisers Emil Strandberg, Paal Nilssen-Love, Johan Berthling, Sven-Åke Johansson, Mats Persson, Sofia Jernberg, Carl-Axel Dominique, Mats Gustafsson, Raymond Strid, world celebrities Evan Parker, Chris Cutler, etc. He is involved in projects with visual artists, dancers, writers.
Tim Perkis is considered one of the most exciting masters of the live electronic and computer sound, and a prominent figure on the improvised and electronic music scene. Over a career spanning decades, he has collaborated with hundreds of musicians, including many of the leading figures in free improvisation from the US and Europe.
He has formed a number of ensembles, including FuzzyBunny, Splendor Generator, League of Automatic Music Composers, The Hub, Rotodoti and Natto Trio. He and The Hub were presented with the GigaHerz Award for excellence in electronic music by the Karlsruhe (Germany) Centre for Art and Media.
Improvisers are attracted by his intellectuality and openness to the ideas of his collaborators. Perkis has performed and recorded with pianist Chris Brown, saxophonist John Butcher, guitarist Fred Frith, percussionist Gino Robair, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and many other celebrities. His works have been performed in avant-garde venues in North America, Europe and Japan.
Perkis has designed displays for science and music museums in San Francisco, Toronto, Seattle, assisted various institutions as a media consultant. He is renowned as an inventive developer of video and audio equipment. His articles have appeared in The Computer Music Journal, Leonardo, and Electronic Musician. He is composer-in-residence at Mills College in Oakland.
Percussionist, composer and visual artist Vladimir Tarasov has left a strong imprint on jazz and academic music. He composes for orchestras, films, theatre, and has been a member of the Lithuanian Composers’ Union since 1991.
Tarasov came to Lithuania in 1968 from Arkhangelsk. In 1971, he became a member of the Ganelin Trio, recorded 34 albums with the Trio, and in 2017 was awarded the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Art for the creation of the Lithuanian Jazz School.
The musician has collaborated with many performing arts representatives and institutions, including the Stuttgart State Theatre, the Majestic Theatre of the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, and the Josef Nadj Centre Choregraphique National in Orléans. In 1999-2002, he was the head of the Russian Drama Theatre of Lithuania, directing productions there.
Since 1991, Tarasov has been participating in solo and group exhibitions of visual art, creating audiovisual installations, for which he often finds themes during his travels to exotic countries. He has shown his works at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Venice Biennale, EXPO-2008 in Zaragoza, Bass Museum of Art in Miami, Kulturhuset in Stockholm, major Lithuanian exhibition venues and other art centres.
He has taught and given seminars at the Bremen School of Music, the Podewil Art Centre in Berlin, the Orléans Academy of Fine Arts, the University of California, the University of the Pacific, the art academies of Düsseldorf and Vilnius, and other schools.
Tarasov regularly takes part in theatre, jazz and visual art projects in France, Italy, Germany, Russia, USA and other countries. He has organised numerous projects with Lithuanian and foreign literary artists.
The percussionist has collaborated with Andrew Cyrille, Rova Saxophone Quartet, Anthony Braxton, Lauren Newton, Butch Morris, Thomas Stanko, Didier Petit, Mark Dresser, Gyorgy Szabados, Masahiko Satoh, Kazutoki Umezu, Anatoly Vapirov, and other prominent improvisers and jazz musicians.
Tarasov’s talent as a composer and improviser is best revealed in his solo percussion projects. His discography includes dozens of solo albums. For his contribution to Lithuanian jazz, he has been honoured with the Vilnius Jazz Award and the Grand Prix of the Birštonas Jazz. He has shared his life and creative experiences in several books.
