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New York, NY: Underground Legend of Avant Jazz in Residency at the Stone
WILL CONNELL RESIDENCY poster by John Pietaro
As winter descends over Alphabet City, the homeland of radical arts welcomes one of its own in a special week-long residency. Multi-reedist Will Connell Jr came of age in the 1960s as an invaluable part of Horace Tapscott’s organization and the LA Black Arts movement, and has stood as an underground giant of NY’s Free Jazz and New Music circle since ‘75. He will be featured at The Stone during Christmas week. The music will be an amalgam of Connell’s more than half-century as a performing artist: compositions ranging from those associated with Tapscott to his latest works. The variety of sounds embody Connell’s stage and studio life; his resume sports gigs with Cecil Taylor, Sam Rivers, David Murray, William Parker, Charles Gayle, Chico Hamilton, and Anthony Braxton. A core downtown figure, Connell also engaged James Chance, Minor Threat, Black Flag and Ryan Adams in creative endeavors—a performance pedigree ranging from hip Jazz to New Thing to No Wave. From basement clubs to the Newport and Moers festivals to nation-wide TV broadcasts. The musical fabric Connell brings to the Stone also includes his work as a music copyist, laying down the score for Ornette Coleman’s “Skies of America”, the World Saxophone Quartet and many of Motown LA’s best. Known as an understated, quiet giant of the music, Will Connell’s voice is best heard through his alto saxophone, bass clarinet and flute, drenched in the rich tapestry.
The program at the Stone will open on December 23 with two powerful sets by Will’s 13-piece band, the Dark Tree Ensemble. This collection of works, “World Peace, With or Without People: Music from the Legacy of Horace Tapscott”, is split between LA compositions and those from Will’s nearly 40 years in NYC. This world premiere, featuring Tapscott’s brilliant music in perspective and also as a reference for Connell’s own compositions, promises to be historic and serves as a statement for these years of ongoing global conflict.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day the club is dark, but the residency continues from the 26th through the 28th. The focus will be on Connell in collaboration with other artists of note including Vincent Chancey, Connie Crothers, Jorge Sylvester, many more, in large assemblages and intimate combos. The sounds range from free to world music, new composition to latter-day Beat poetry to exploratory visions. And so goes the art of Will Connell Jr.
Event: WILL CONNELL RESIDENCY
When: December 23, 26, 27, 28, 2014
Place: The Stone
Ave C @ 2nd Street, New York, NY 10009 (212) 473-0043 www.thestonenyc.com
Admission: $15.
RESIDENCY CALENDAR:
TUESDAY 12/23:
–8 pm
World Peace, With or Without People: Music from the Legacy of Horace Tapscott, performed by the Dark Tree Ensemble – Music from the Los Angeles experience.
Will Connell (reeds, flute, compositions), Fay Victor (voice), Andrea Wolper (voice), Rosi Hertlein (violin, voice), Ras Moshe (soprano sax), Hayes Greenfield (alto sax), Matt Lavelle (flugelhorn, alto clarinet), Vincent Chancey (French horn), Steve Swell (trombone), Jesse Dulman (tuba), John Pietaro (vibes, percussion), Larry Roland (bass), Jeremy Carlstedt (drums, percussion)
–10 pm
World Peace, With or Without People: Music from the Legacy of Horace Tapscott, performed by the Dark Tree Ensemble – New Music in New York.
Will Connell (reeds, flute, compositions), Fay Victor (voice), Andrea Wolper (voice), Rosi Hertlein (violin, voice), Ras Moshe (soprano sax), Hayes Greenfield (alto sax), Matt Lavelle (flugelhorn, alto clarinet), Vincent Chancey (French horn), Steve Swell (trombone), Jesse Dulman (tuba), John Pietaro (vibes, percussion), Larry Roland (bass), Jeremy Carlstedt (drums, percussion)
THURSDAY 12/26:
–8 pm
I.C.E. : Improvisational Composers Ensemble
Rocco John Iacovone (alto & soprano saxophones, compositions), Will Connell (alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute), Ras Moshe (tenor and soprano saxophone, flute), Sana Nagano (violin), Rich Rosenthal (guitar), Phil Sirois (bass), John Pietaro (percussion), TBA (drums)
–10 pm
Sadhana
Will Connell (alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute), Vincent Chancey (French horn), Max Johnson (bass), Jeremy Carlstedt (drums)
FRIDAY 12/27:
–8 pm
Jazz & Poetry Choir Collective
Golda Solomon (poetry), E.J.Antonio (poetry), Phylisha Villnueva (poetry), Rosi Hertlein (violin), Will Connell (reeds), Larry Roland (bass, poetry) Michael T.A.Thompson (conductor, percussion)
–10 pm
TranceFormation
Connie Crothers (piano), Andrea Wolper (voice, poetry), Ken Filiano (bass), Guest Poet: Golda Solomon
SATURDAY 12/28:
–8 and 10 pm
Jorge Sylvester’s ACE (Afro-Caribbean Experimental) Collective
Jorge Sylvester (alto saxophone, compositions), Nora McCarthy (poetry, compositions), Will Connell (bass clarinet, Donald Nicks (electric bass), Kenny Grohowski (drums), Special Guest—Marvin Sewell (guitar)
BIO:
The son of a violin prodigy deprived of the profession by racist politics, Will Connell Jr became aware of both music and the struggle for justice as a child of the ‘40s. Jazz served as a source of art and great pride for the African American community, and its impact on Connell was nothing short of visceral: “I heard Billie Holiday at 17. Tears ran down my face like Niagara Falls”. That same year, 1956, Connell joined the US Air Force, serving some nine years. In between tours he purchased an alto saxophone but didn’t dedicate himself to music until surviving a chemical blast that blinded him for several days. Lying in an Air Force hospital in darkness, Connell vowed that if he regained his eyesight, he’d formally study this art that had driven him so deeply. This and the gnawing outrage about the military’s treatment of Black servicemen led to his decision re-join civilian life. Studies at LA City College (Dolphy’s alma mater) led to years of close work with Horace Tapscott wherein Connell served as reeds player and music librarian and copyist. The Tapscott organization was LA’s paramount arm of the Black Arts Movement and its immersion into African American culture and liberation had a lasting impact on Connell. By 1975 Connell relocated to NYC’s Lower East Side where he remains till today. Through the decades he has performed or recorded with such luminaries as, Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, William Parker, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Chico Hamilton, Pharoah Sanders, Butch Morris, Roy Campbell, Sam Rivers, Steve Swell, Billy Bang, Henry Threadgill, Oliver Lake, Daniel Carter, and many others. He also engaged in extensive projects as music copyist, most notably Ornette Coleman’s ‘Skies of America’ as well as for David Murray’s Big Band, the World Saxophone Quartet and a bevy of R & B and pop artists ranging from Michael Jackson and Roberta Flack to Stevie Wonder and Simon & Garfunkel.
Will Connell has been a deeply relevant part of this rather unclassifiable musical genre which prides itself on free improvisation as much as post-modern composition, global sounds and the bite of revolutionary politics. Usually preferring to be a member of a band as opposed to its leader, Connell may be the last of the modest greats. Having served as guest curator at the Stone in 2012, which brought him some note, and featured earlier this year in the Arts for Art organization’s series, and as a member of the Veterans of Free on the Tribute to ‘New York Eye & Ear Control’ concert in June, this master of the New Jazz now takes his rightful place at front and center.
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