Concertimento

BAM, BANG, BOOM (156.12) - This piece was written on the side stage at Brooklyn Academy of Music while I was working on a commercial shoot, my day job for 13 years. Such a beautiful psycho-acoustic location. It is the second movement of a long, long series of works entitled "Porch Music" that runs some 13 movements in various combinations of the quintet:  trumpet, clarinet/bass clarinet, vibraphone, viola, cello. This work is in three movements, classical style but written in free jazz minimalist fashion. Also the day this was written was the day Steve Ben-Isreal died, famous poet from the Rzewski works so the third movement includes a quote from 'Coming Together' originally narrated by Ben-Isreal. We did a shared a bill once at the Poets' Vision Fest, part of the Vision Festival - I played with my tuba trio, Andrew Barker and Ron Caswell. We had to climb through the second story window to the fire escape and climb back into the garden. I remember B...

CWQ in ACTION!!!!!                         https://soundcloud.com/amishrecords/charles-waters-quartet-central                                           http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI9Q-iJLafI

http://www.torontosummermusic.com/index.php/festival-tickets/shuffle/july-24-assemblage-duo/

Blues for Elliott Carter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Carter This quartet is one of my obsessions with certain small chamber ensemble groupings - I think Carter would dig it! I remember once opening a facsimile of Carter's notebooks - they reminded me so deeply of my own notebooks that it was like opening a holy manuscript with flames shooting towards my brain - I closed the Carter notebook immediately! But not with some satisfaction of the universal collective unconscious. I saw many of his world premieres at the end of his life - incredible small group pieces. I do indeed think Carter had the blues, cheers to the long life! Can someone play this? Love....

https://soundcloud.com/nurecords-1/concertimento-24-bass-clarinet

Mahayana Motet (for solo keyboard) (2012) - This work will be premiered May 9, 2013 in New York City with Anti-Social Music, an amazing crew! I'm preparing the final notes on this piece - writings that have influenced the writing of this work. Very excited to hear this work, a world premiere! "We Have One Mind (The One We Share). Changing Things Radically, Then, Is Simple." - John Cage Book of Days.  Three Thoughts from Master T'an Hsu Commentary on Heart Sutra : "The name Avalokitesvara comes from the ground causes of Bodhisattva's Dharma practice while on an island, perceiving the sounds of the world, rooted in time as they are, rising and falling with the ebb and flow of the ocean. From the sound of the tide rising and falling, the Bodhisattva attained enlightenment, perfectly and completely comprehending the Dharma of birth and non-birth." "There are two kinds of hearing: one comes and goes in response to stimulation, the other funct...

https://soundcloud.com/nurecords-1

Writing a piece to be played only on 2/29 every four year? So someone please get ready for 2/29/12 and program this bad boy. Very reasonable rental fee! This was written especially for Anti-Social Music!

"Clarinetto" from Williamsburg Concerto #6 Part III [Solo Clarinet, Trumpet, French Horn, 2 Violin, 2 Viola, 2 Cello] (11/6/2005). This piece is the finale of the two-hour triptych Williamsburg Concerto #6. Editing for performance Fall 2011.

Gold Sparkle Band Reunion Concert 2004 - Existentialist Church, Atlanta GA  Andrew Barker - drums & percussion Andrew Burnes - Fender Bass Rob Mallard - tenor saxophone & flute Chris Riggenbach - Double Bass Roger Ruzow - trumpets Charles Waters - alto saxophone, clarinets, piano (Recording - Jeff Rackley) Gold Sparkle Band, in all of its incarnations, has recorded massively. We are a sonic octopus! Of the official releases, compilations, solo projects, other bands, cassettes, vinyls, the recordings number into the hundreds. And yet perhaps some of the finest work of the group has not been heard in many years. Now, as we are in the process of trying to listening to our archives, we are learning and growing and hearing exciting things all over. This recording in shows the group at the 10 year make showcasing compositions and an amalgamation of both of our early bass players. So this Sparkle Sextet group plays what we have always done best - compositions for improvisors - a c...

PORCH MUSIC [clarinet, trumpet, vibraphone, viola, cello]-as in written on the front porch. I have always loved being on the porch, I certainly grew up on my grandmother's frontporch in Chadbourn, NC - just sitting, watching the trains come and go, talking to everyone walking or driving by, drinking coffee and reading the paper. The piano was inside next to the porch, so I'd always run in and play a little and then come right back. And nights on the porch, well, thats mostly heaven! And sitting on the porch through a rain storm is a koan unto itself! This piece is a very recent instant construction type piece written on my front porch in Brooklyn on Fourth of July with words by the poetic godfather Steve Dalachinsky music by me- lets play this thing!

CIVITAS (2011) FOR ENSEMBLE For John Zorn 2 Flutes  Clarinet (Bb) Bass Clarinet (Bb) Piano Vibraphone Drums+Percussion Barely Audible (clarinet, vibraphone, piano, drums) Chicago Presto (two flutes, clarinet, bass clarinet) Motor Grid (flute, bass clarinet, vibraphone) pgh (vibraphone, piano, percussion) Philly Phantasia ( two flutes, piano, drums) This small collection of works was composed while traveling through the rust belt wasteland of beautiful Old America USA. Cold and quiet takes the shape of most of these works, meant to be played with a large dose of improvisation in spirit if not indeed! And Spacious! I love taking the music on the road - everything is transformed. And Geography and Music so intertwined. I knew of a composer once who wrote a single short piece that was performed by an orchestra in all 50 states - seems amazing. But for me I'd write 50 single pieces for each orchestra - its just the way I roll! Enjoy, play from the heart, dig the transf...

 This piece "WatersWorks" for chamber orchestra is scored for: Flute, Clarinet/Bass Clarinet, Bassoon, Trumpet, Tuba, Vibraphone, + Strings. The photos are of the 'core' collection of notes, all written in shorthand notation on one piece of large staff paper folded 8 times producing 16 sections. As usual I was busy working my day job but had to continue - I kept this paper in my pocket until I finished all of the sections - many of them 'waters' references. As per usual with many of my scores this work was written throughout the city in many diverse locations - from the Ava Simon Reading Room at the Guggenheim to Ave A, down to the East River and over the Bridges. I orchestrated 10 movements, recorded 8 and and now finishing the cycle. The music wrote itself, but the orchestration took over one year of tinkering, making lists of combinations, re-working, finalizing this special orchestra. This was also difficult because this work is intended as an examination...

Happy Summer! This is part I - Remix coming shortly! http://soundcloud.com/nurecords/waters-solstice

This is one of my new solo pieces for clarinet/video from a collection entitled "Jesus Songs". An  elevation of the Particle Music works and a concentration and distillation of that process.

First Heard : Matthew Shipp & William Parker " Zo" In school we never "heard " new music - only reading history of these - a truly imaginary music! But after school I really began to educate myself as a listener of music - very powerful. I was very comfortable imagining the sound without hearing it - a skill that has served me well as a composer. After school I moved to Atlanta and almost immediately formed Gold Sparkle Band an avant jazz group. Playing, composing and very deeply trying to find my way in this world.  Around this time, 1994-95, was the beginning of the third- wave of free jazz. We followed the happenings-mostly pre- Internet in 'zines and especially on the radio. We all knew Vandermark in Chicago and the development of that scene. And in NYC  I started to hear about a piano and bass duo featuring Matthew Shipp and William Parker that had made a recording of the  Gershwin  classic "Summertime", but yet to hear the recording. Of co...

 My own private Ives, Charles that is!I have deep sympathy for composer Charles Ives, especially the pseudo-tragic part about keeping a day job (profoundly profitable one too!) and composing, raising a family, dealing with the stresses of the city. So holiday time can often be composing time, a faint break in an otherwise hectic routine. This work "Memorial Day" from Summer 2005. Before my son Felix was born I begin writing in a wholly new, obsessively far-reaching type of way. As composers we are creators of sound and that summer I was getting to the very root of my own creativity - pro-creation! So I wrote my own private Ives, perhaps it was 'method composing" and some if it was certainly "in order to survive" composing. And part of it was surely outsider compulsion of following the mythical path of enlightenment. So, this new recording, featuring pianist/composer Mick Rossi, who also produced these recordings, is giving your ears and eyes a sample of my ...

Another postcard score to FREAK YOUR MIND!!!!! Its a loop piece!