The Pagemeister Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 New York's own noise godfathers Sonic Youth will collaborate with former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones and mixed-media composer Takehisa Kosugi, for Merce Cunningham's 90th birthday celebration on April 16. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/02...production.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrycja Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 I can't wait to hear how this turned out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirchzep27 Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 thats cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mightyzep247 Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 I went lest night. I don't know if it's just me, but I didn't get it. It sounded like they gave Kosugi a bunch of random stuff to make noise with and he told JPJ and Sonic Youth to make a lot of noise and get some feedback. I guess Merce Cunningham's thing is having people dance wierd to noise. It was great if you're into that but for me, a huge Zeppelin fan who paid $60 to see JPJ play some music, I was kinda disappointed. After the show I waited around to see if I could possibly meet JPJ but had no luck. It wasn't the best night for me, as I also spent a half an hour driving around trying to find the Physical Graffiti building to find out that it no longer exists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterMcLov1n Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 I went lest night. I don't know if it's just me, but I didn't get it. It sounded like they gave Kosugi a bunch of random stuff to make noise with and he told JPJ and Sonic Youth to make a lot of noise and get some feedback. I guess Merce Cunningham's thing is having people dance wierd to noise. It was great if you're into that but for me, a huge Zeppelin fan who paid $60 to see JPJ play some music, I was kinda disappointed. After the show I waited around to see if I could possibly meet JPJ but had no luck. It wasn't the best night for me, as I also spent a half an hour driving around trying to find the Physical Graffiti building to find out that it no longer exists. It exists, there's a clothing shop called "Physical Graffiti" there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyV Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 I went lest night. I'm going tonight and looking forward to it! I'll be curious to see if my reaction is similar to yours. It wasn't the best night for me, as I also spent a half an hour driving around trying to find the Physical Graffiti building to find out that it no longer exists. What did you hear about it? As far as I know it's still on St. Mark's Place i.e (8th Street) between 1st Avenue and Avenue A; I just passed by there a few months ago and didn't hear about anything happening to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyV Posted April 18, 2009 Share Posted April 18, 2009 Hi all- I went last night to the Merce Cunningham show. It was very interesting and very cool- both the show itself and the panel discussion afterward. It was great to see Jonsey playing in person. I will write up a post later to share my experience along with some pictures of the venue, set pieces, and JPJ himself. I had hoped to do it this morning but won't be able to get to until later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninelives Posted April 18, 2009 Share Posted April 18, 2009 Hi all- I went last night to the Merce Cunningham show. It was very interesting and very cool- both the show itself and the panel discussion afterward. It was great to see Jonsey playing in person. I will write up a post later to share my experience along with some pictures of the venue, set pieces, and JPJ himself. I had hoped to do it this morning but won't be able to get to until later. I bet it was great to see him. Look forward to hearing more about the show Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ro_a Posted April 18, 2009 Share Posted April 18, 2009 It exists, there's a clothing shop called "Physical Graffiti" there. It's on Saint Marx ST. edit: didn't read all the posts. redundant. my bad edit: 96-98 ST. Mark's place Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mightyzep247 Posted April 18, 2009 Share Posted April 18, 2009 I was looking for Physical Graffiti and I drove around St. Marks Pl. but It wasn't there. At the address (96-98 St. Marks Pl.), there was a lot that looked like there was something there but it got taken down and now there is a small building there, but it's mostly empty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternal light Posted April 18, 2009 Share Posted April 18, 2009 I went lest night. I don't know if it's just me, but I didn't get it. It sounded like they gave Kosugi a bunch of random stuff to make noise with and he told JPJ and Sonic Youth to make a lot of noise and get some feedback. I guess Merce Cunningham's thing is having people dance wierd to noise. It was great if you're into that but for me, a huge Zeppelin fan who paid $60 to see JPJ play some music, I was kinda disappointed. After the show I waited around to see if I could possibly meet JPJ but had no luck. It wasn't the best night for me, as I also spent a half an hour driving around trying to find the Physical Graffiti building to find out that it no longer exists. This was intended to be primarily a dance event to honor Merce Cunningham's work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninelives Posted April 19, 2009 Share Posted April 19, 2009 I was looking for Physical Graffiti and I drove around St. Marks Pl. but It wasn't there. At the address (96-98 St. Marks Pl.), there was a lot that looked like there was something there but it got taken down and now there is a small building there, but it's mostly empty. Was the whole building gone or just the store Physical Graffiti? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercurious Posted April 19, 2009 Share Posted April 19, 2009 This was intended to be primarily a dance event to honor Merce Cunningham's work. No, that's not Merce Cunningham's style. This was a new work, not an honorarium. The MErce Cunningham Dance Company will be touring the world with it this spring/summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternal light Posted April 19, 2009 Share Posted April 19, 2009 No, that's not Merce Cunningham's style. This was a new work, not an honorarium. The MErce Cunningham Dance Company will be touring the world with it this spring/summer. Of course. This was intended to be primarily a dance event to honor present new work by Merce Cunningham's. Cunningham's latest work, Nearly Ninety, which premieres on his birthday this Thursday at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, reflects his ongoing commitment to innovation and collaboration. NEW YORK, NY.- Merce Cunningham, one of the most influential artists of our time, will celebrate his 90th birthday on Thursday, April 16. Cunningham has been at the forefront of the American avant-garde for more than 60 years. His collaborations with artistic innovators across disciplines—including Robert Rauschenberg, John Cage, and Radiohead—have yielded an unparalleled body of contemporary movement, music, and visual art. An active choreographer at 90, Cunningham continues to mentor artists around the world and to create new work guided by the fundamental principles of experimentation and chance. Cunningham's latest work, Nearly Ninety, which premieres on his birthday this Thursday at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, reflects his ongoing commitment to innovation and collaboration. Alongside the over 150 choreographic works and 800 site-specific "Events" that Cunningham has created to date, this new work stands as testament to his creative spirit and extraordinary vision. Milestones from Cunningham's career include the following: Cunningham began his professional modern dance career in 1939, at the age of 20, with a six-year tenure as soloist in the Martha Graham Dance Company. In 1944, Cunningham presented his first solo performance with his lifelong partner and collaborator, John Cage. In the course of their work together, the two explored the decoupling of music and dance, and the use of chance procedures in creating works of art. Cunningham formed the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in the summer of 1953. The original Company included Carolyn Brown, Viola Farber, Paul Taylor, and Remy Charlip. Robert Rauschenberg served as the Company's first Artistic Director, and the décors he created for MCDC's early performances informed his groundbreaking "combines." Jasper Johns became the Company's Artistic Adviser in 1967. Cunningham helped develop the revolutionary software program DanceForms to use in his choreography in 1991. During the 2002–2003 season, MCDC celebrated its 50th anniversary by presenting Split Sides, a new work with music by Radiohead and Sigur Rós. Cunningham launched the webcast series Mondays with Merce in early 2009, offering audiences unprecedented access to his studio and creative process (www.merce.org/mondayswithmerce.html). On April 16, 2009, Cunningham's 90th birthday, MCDC will debut Cunningham's newest work, Nearly Ninety, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The evening-length piece features new music commissioned from and performed Led Zeppelin's legendary multi-instrumentalist John Paul Jones, mixed-media sound composer Takehisa Kosugi, and indie rock band Sonic Youth, as well as multi-level structural décor by architect Benedetta Tagliabue and costumes by acclaimed Italian fashion designer Romeo Gigli. Following the premiere, Nearly Ninety will be presented in Madrid, London, Paris, Berkeley, California, and Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. artdaily.org Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercurious Posted April 19, 2009 Share Posted April 19, 2009 The reviews are in! While some didn't appreciate the noise composition by Jones, Sonic Youth and Takehisi Kosugi (Merce Cunningham's musical director), others felt they were getting a glimpse into the distant future. I wasn't there, but I wish I had been, as from all I've read and heard about this, Jonesey this weekend was part of a great musical expedition into the unknown. NYPress at the gala opening night: "a pretty incredible evening, certainly one to be remembered." http://www.nypress.com/blog-3916-merce-cel...t-bam-gala.html "My friend, a dancer, described it as 'futuristic classicism' and that could explain why so many old moneybags had their fingers in the ears and acted like they'd just suffered through 90 minutes of hell." Merce takes a bow: http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/04/merce..._no_longer.html The New York Times absolutely loved it. "The music, composed and performed by John Paul Jones, Takehisa Kosugi and Sonic Youth (Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley), sounds now like a rock musician’s worst hangover, as if the pot and the kettle were calling each other every color under the sun before settling down and breeding a whole tribe of tintinnabulations. One powerful guitar chord out of the blue happened on Thursday to coincide with the most electrifying gear change in the Goggans-Squire duet, but even such moments are mere effects." http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/18/arts/dan...nted=2&_r=1 Is space travel really yesterday's glamor party? An odd arts vulture take: http://www.artsjournal.com/tobias/2009/04/...old_master.html "Bionic Theater" by NY Times blog "The Moment": http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04...-ninety-at-bam/ Lots of good stuff, and pics at the Sonic Youth forum: http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/showthrea...7546&page=2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercurious Posted April 19, 2009 Share Posted April 19, 2009 Here's a good one from a choreographer who loved the tension between "the industrial and the organic.": http://reflectionsondance.blogspot.com/200...ety-at-bam.html Lots of great pics at Brooklyn Vegan http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2009..._cunningha.html Jonesy That's Cunningham musical director Takehisi Kosugi with Jones on the platform. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ro_a Posted April 19, 2009 Share Posted April 19, 2009 ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternal light Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 Merce Cunningham's latest production at BAM, Nearly Ninety, with musicians John Paul Jones and Sonic Youth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyV Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 My wife & I went to the Merce Cunningham show on Friday night. I went in really with no expectations on what I was going to hear as this was a dance project first- I had some inklings though that it would be on the abstract side. It was a sell-out crowd and there was a really nice buzz as people milled about outside the BAM theatre where the performance was happening. It was what you'd expect from an arts scene crowd, although I did see one young man wearing a '77 tour t-shirt. On the outside wall of the Opera House enscribed up on the side of the building there is a list of esteemed composers like Mozart & Wagner- it was cool thinking of that list with JPJ being in similar company (not on the same level, but cool nonetheless). The show starts with an empty stage and a blank screen/cyclorama about 2/3 of the way back on the stage. The music begins, right off the bat sounding very abstract. Actually, "abstract" would be an understatement; I actually this sounded more like an abstraction of a abstraction if that makes any sense. The music sounded like random noise to a certain extent, as it wasn't clear what instrument or instruments were making the sounds. Since Merce Cunningham's collaborative & life partner was John Cage this music instantly made sense. (I recalled John Cage from a music class I took in college as modern/abstract/deconstructionist and for putting machine screws & bolts on piano strings when played to change the sound.) It wasn't clear exactly who was playing when except for the percussion, so I couldn't tell if it was John Paul Jones who started off. I did get my first glimpse of him in silhouette against the scrim/cyc with light projected from behind- his profile and movements totally recognizable. Interestingly, the dancers and the music did not seem to be in sync, and the times when they were it seemed to be by chance. This was confirmed at the panel discussion later, and is a characteristic of Cunningham's work I was told. There were moments where the music stopped but the dancers continued in silence, obviously moving to their own internal metronome and not relying on the musicians at all. I read somewhere that the dance company got introduced to the music rather late in the process. As the show progressed with little in the way of discernible melody lines or percussive movements but rather more like an extended version of the middle of "Dazed and Confused" or Pink Floyd's "Echoes", I did get a little yearning at times for a kind of narrative or arc. However, I enjoyed the challenge of continuing to focus and enjoying each moment, movement, and note as a new single experience. I did keep wanting to see more of the musicians than we did, as the scaffolding-stairway tower that they were on was mostly behind layers of screens/scrims for the 1st act. In the second act the scrims were gone, but the tower rotated around in such a way that John Paul Jones was almost facing upstage away from the audience, with Sonic Youth more easily visible. The fan in me wished I could have had a clearer view of him performing but that was okay. If this were done traditionally JPJ would have been in an orchestra pit and I wouldn't have seen him at all performing the music. Following some peculiar noises of metal screws rolling around in a tray, Sonic Youth's major movement in the 2nd act was pretty cool. It was a build-up of frenzy with a great sense of urgency. One of the guitarists was even using a bow on his guitar! The last half of the 2nd act was clearly John Paul Jones's score and was the most melodic of the night which came as a bit of a sonic relief, especially after the rocking/frenzied noise of Sonic Youth that dominated the 1st half of the 2nd act. It started with a heavy drone series of notes (instantly familiar in sound & feeling to any Zeppelin fan) and had a nice higher tone melody of notes that played over top. These movements helped bring the show to a satisfying conclusion, musically speaking. As a music fan, I enjoyed the exploration and listening/watching to see how it worked with the dance. I couldn't do this every week, as I think at some point you just really need a melody, but every once in a while a journey like this is definitely worthwhile. The panel discussion after the show was really cool, as we moved closer to the stage and sat about 6 rows back. We heard from all of the collaborators about how they got involved, what was their vision etc. I have some audio & video from John Paul Jones when he first started to speak- I will try and get that up on YouTube soon. John Paul Jones discussed how he approached his score. It was written to be played on a bass guitar and run through a computer. He would then use the computer to programatically transform the sound into something else not recognizable as a bass guitar per se (although once or twice during the show I think heard something reminiscent of one...). He talked about a special pedal he had that he called the "dice" pedal or button that would be kind of a gamble during the performance. He would hit it and the computer would randomize whatever sounds that came out, and he would have to try and catch up to what the sound was and what it was doing to the other parts of his score. He said it was actually pretty scary, especially if he didn't like or was able to get into the sound that was happening- you could always hit the dice button again but it was no guarantee that you wouldn't end up worse off. This fascinated me as he confirmed that the music he was playing in large parts ended up as random as it sounded. He even talked about how the run order of the musical pieces changed from Wednesday's final dress rehearsal to Friday's nights performance (the 2nd one). I'm still trying to figure how you make that happen with a score that you wrote out and then watch it go out the window so to speak; John Paul Jones seemed happy with the approach, journey, exploration, and sheer adventure of it all. When the collaborators were asked if they had a narrative in mind for their work, the moderator of the discussion said that Merce didn't have one as he doesn't work that way, the set-piece architect of the tower did, and John Paul Jones offered up that while he didn't have a narrative for the piece his working title for it as he wrote it was "Forever 29". One amusing moment- when the architect was speaking about her narrative, she kept talking about "a stairway" and "stairways", which provoked a few chuckles in the audience. I think her inspiration and referencing was completely coincidental, but it did raise a smile on my part anyway. There was a Q&A session- no one asked John Paul Jones about Led Zeppelin or the Secret Project or anything else. To be honest, even though the fan in me would have loved to heard something about it I was glad no one did as it would have been unseemly in that venue I think. I would have loved to have gotten an autograph or a better picture than I did (see below) but it would have been a push and not in keeping with the spirit of the event. In the lobby I was talking to a gentleman who asked JPJ a question- we got into discussing Zeppelin and he said that he saw them at Madison Square Garden in 1977 for his very first concert! Lucky guy- I'm totally envious as missed Zeppelin by only a few years. A really great night- I'm totally glad I was there to check it out! Some pictures... Brooklyn Academy of Music List of famous composers on the outside wall (decent company for Jones to be in I thought...): Picture of the set: Curtain call (that's JPJ all the way at the right on the end): Panel Discussion Shot of JPJ (sorry it's so blurry!): Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninelives Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 Great review TonyV!!!! Sounds like an interesting show and what a treat to have a Q&A as part of the event. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ro_a Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 Thanks for taking us along, Tony V. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyV Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 Great review TonyV!!!! Sounds like an interesting show and what a treat to have a Q&A as part of the event. Thanks! It was definitely a treat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyV Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 Thanks for taking us along, Tony V. You're welcome- it was my pleasure! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercurious Posted April 21, 2009 Share Posted April 21, 2009 Thanks for the great in depth review, Tony! Sounds like an incredible evening! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyV Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 Thanks for the great in depth review, Tony! Sounds like an incredible evening! Appreciated. And thank you for all of the cool info you posted too- made the whole event more of a shared experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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