Jazz
United States
The Renga Ensemble
Nejlepší skladby od interpreta The Renga Ensemble
O umělci The Renga Ensemble
Rodné město
Chicago, IL, United States
Vznik
April 2013
Žánr
Jazz
Between 2000 and 2012, Chicago clarinetist, composer, improviser, and bandleader James Falzone revealed an expansive artistic imagination on eight recordings released by his Allos Documents label, including two albums by his Middle Eastern-informed Allos Musica group and three by his shimmery avant jazz quartet KLANG, but Falzone's next project would prove to be one of his most ambitious undertakings to date.
Falzone conceived an all-reeds sextet, emphasizing a full range of clarinets but also including saxophones, that would perform and record his compositions penned with some very specific group members in mind. In April 2013 he assembled these musicians -- some of the most acclaimed reed players in creative improvised music -- to participate in the project, which he named the Renga Ensemble after a Japanese form of poetry, hundreds of years old, in which poets write collaboratively in pairs or small groups. To join him in the Renga Ensemble, Falzone (playing B-flat and E-flat clarinets) chose three leading artists from the Chicago avant jazz community -- scene veteran and driving force Ken Vandermark (B-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, baritone saxophone), Keefe Jackson (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, contra B-flat clarinet), and Jason Stein (bass clarinet) -- as well as two highly regarded reedmen from opposite coasts: New York City's Ned Rothenberg (B-flat clarinet, alto saxophone) and Berkeley, California's Ben Goldberg (B-flat clarinet, contra E-flat alto clarinet).
The Renga Ensemble played shows at the three Chicago venues, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Hideout, and the Elastic Arts Foundation, immediately before recording their debut album, The Room Is, with engineer Greg Norman on April 12, 2013 at Chicago's Steve Albini-founded Electrical Audio studio. With the title of the album (and five of its compositions) drawn from a haiku by poet Anita Virgil, The Room Is was produced straightforwardly, with the group members sitting in a circle recording straight to tape, sans overdubbing. Consistent with its renga poetry theme, the album -- melding jazz and contemporary improvisational vocabularies with elements of modern classical chamber music -- afforded ample opportunity for the musicians to express their unique personalities while ultimately building a singular group identity from their distinct individual contributions. The Room Is was the tenth release from Allos Documents, and arrived on February 24, 2015. ~ Dave Lynch
