 |
 |
 |
 |
Jazz Police
Home  SF Bay Area Premiere of Howard Wiley & The Angola Project's 12 Gates to the City at Intersection for the Arts
Save on Hotels  and
Cruises 
|
 |
|
|
|
|
"I know from listening and working with him [Coltrane], that he is, he plays SO much, and he has, a big, as we say, a bag, not a bag of tricks, but a bag of ideas that he has" - Eric Dolphy |
|
 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Premiere of Howard Wiley & The Angola Project's 12 Gates to the City at Intersection for the Arts |
|
|
|
Written by Ronaldo Oregano
|
|
Saturday, 26 January 2008 |
 Howard Wiley
On February 5, Howard Wiley will debut The Angola Project's 12 Gates to the City in its entirety at Intersection for the Arts, where he is currently Composer in Residence. 12 Gates to the City was jointly commissioned by New York City's Meet the Composer and Intersection for the Arts, and is comprised of 12 new pieces, one for each of the twelve gates. Once again, Wiley has taken the music of Angola State prison and its surrounding area as his primary inspiration. "If you look at American musical expression, black musical expression, from Ledbelly - who was once a prisoner at Angola himself - to John Coltrane, you'll hear that it goes hand and hand with gospel and religious music. In fact the only music that Angola inmates are allowed to perform is gospel/Christian music. So this suite is heavily influenced by gospel music from the late 1940s through the late 1960s, along with plantation music and ways of expression." The performance at Instersection for the Arts will be recorded for release in 2008.
Born in Berkeley, California, Howard Wiley displayed the seeds of his musical talent at a very young age. Wiley found himself playing in the most nurturing of all environments for young African American musicians; the church. Throughout the history of jazz, the church has been root and center of the community, giving musicians, worshipers, and preachers alike the freedom and comfort to express themselves in the celebration of life. Wiley’s music is a direct reflection of his youth which gives his music a level of simplicity, honesty and integrity. He has developed into a very complete artist in the sense that he possesses a great awareness of the past while he continues to make statements and ask questions into the future.
 Wiley has recorded and performed with the likes of Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Dayna Sean Stephens, Lavay Smith, and Norman Brown as well as receiving numerous awards and accolades from the Thelonious Monk Institute, including MVP honors for the Grammy All-American Jazz Band and the Berklee College of Music Scholarship Award. As a member of Lavay Smith’s band, and gigging in the New York scene, Howard Wiley has been seen and heard all over the country. The Los Angeles Times writes, “The soloing from Howard Wiley is first rate.” Dan Quolette of Down Beat Magazine says, ““Much has been written about the twenty-something crew of musicians heralded as the new keepers of the jazz flame. Well make way for a representative of the next generation”. And Lavay Smith adds, “Howard Wiley is the future of jazz...he knows the history of jazz and uses his knowledge to create his own unique and exciting style.”
The Angola Project project features Wiley investigating the roots and legacies of African American prison spirituals - encompassing folk, blues, and gospel - with a focus on the songs and stories from the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana, from the 1950s onward. Pairing original compositions with Howard's arrangements of traditional songs.
Tuesday February 5, 2008 World Premiere of Howard Wiley & The Angola Project's Twelve Gates to the City - A Meet The Composer Commissioning Music/USA commission
8pm, $10-$25/ sliding scale. Over a year in the making, Wiley takes raw musical forms such as blues, field shouts, gospel, and spirituals as both conceptual and inspirational foundation, combining refined musical tones with coarse, raw musical textures and blends classical instrumentation and musical articulation with voicings inspired directly from communities of untrained and largely unrecognized musicians. The result is a profound, moving aural experience.
Intersection for the Arts is San Francisco's oldest alternative art space (est. 1965) and has a long history of presenting new and experimental work in the fields of literature, theater, music, dance, and the visual arts, and also in nurturing and supporting the Bay Area's cultural community through service, technical support, and mentorship programs. Intersection provides a place where provocative ideas, diverse art forms, artists, and audiences can intersect one another. Intersection for the Arts is located in San Francisco's Mission District, at 446 Valencia Street, between 15th and 16th Streets. For tickets and more information visit www.theintersection.org. |
|
 Friday, 25 July 2008
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Support our live jazz coverage. Visit our sponsors. If you plan to shop amazon.com or download iTunes, click through here:
|
|
|
 
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
