June 10, 1981 - NMA San Francisco - Day 4
Ingram Marshall ● KPFA ● Laurie Spiegel ● Davey Williams and LaDonna Smith ● Jim Pomeroy ● Peter Gena ● George Lewis Ensemble ● Birthday: Thomas DiMuzio
There was a (mostly) full evening concert recording free to stream at this location on archive.org posted by the Other Minds organization. No downloads available but there is a full url for all five performances (Spiegel, Smith-Williams, Pomeroy, Gena-Kubera and George Lewis) and as well as one url for each separate performance, all which are attached to the below informations.
The evening concert (5 parts):
https://archive.org/details/NMA_1981_06_10
LaDonna Smith and Davey Williams
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Carl Stone and Bill Fontana on KPFA
Robert Stearns, chair New Music Alliance - election and goals
Audium Theatre presents sound sculptured space with 136 speakers
Ingram Marshall Poor People’s Music
Meet the Composer - organizational meeting
Laurie Spiegel acoustic adaptations of The Unquestioned Answer (for solo harp) and The History of Music in One Movement (for solo piano)
Davey Williams and LaDonna Smith TRANS
Jim Pomeroy Hat Dance
Peter Gena and Joseph Kubera Beethoven in SoHo for Two Pianos and Electric Bass
George Lewis Ensemble - Atlantic - work for synthetizer and three trombones
Fortuitous birthday celebration today as he’s based in San Francisco: Thomas DiMuzio performed at NMA Montréal Musiques Actuelles 1990 in a quartet with David Rokeby, Don Ritter and choreographer Leslie-Anne Coles and this was the bilingual program presented for the occasion:
DiMuzio is still creating and you can catch up by checking out his own webpage: http://www.thomasdimuzio.com/
Or of course, go one step further to his bandcamp offerings!
https://thomasdimuzio.bandcamp.com/
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June 10, 1981 New Music America San Francisco - Day 4
Morning New Music Alliance Session
Robert Stearns chair [election and discussion of goals and aims] Exploratorium
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Ingram Marshall Poor People’s Music
Palace of Fine Arts (and maybe “Fog Tropes”)
*
From Joe Franklin’s memoir Settling Scores – note: I couldn’t find mention of Fog Tropes being performed at NMA81 in the official program… it did get performed at NMA85 in Los Angeles, though.
Most of the performances featured on the program were held at "non-traditional" venues or certainly in unique settings. For example, Ingram Marshall's beautiful piece titled Fog Tropes was performed along the waterfront of San Francisco Bay, a collage of recorded sounds from the maritime areas of San Francisco shimmered across the water and right into one's living room. I began to envision performances in somewhat similar settings along the historic waterfront and Olde City sections of Philadelphia. I looked forward to 1982 when the festival would be held in Chicago.
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Afternoon Session: Meet the Composer [organizational meeting]
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KPFA Live Radio Broadcast no. 4 KPFA Folio magazine notice:
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Laurie Spiegel
https://archive.org/details/NMA_1981_06_10/NMA_1981_06_10_A_ed.wav 23:06
The Unquestioned Answer, arranged for solo harp
The History of Music in One Movement, arranged for solo piano
Recording of The Unquestioned Answer
Recent interpretation of the same work by Quinta (endorsed by LS)
Program essay by Laurie Spiegel
♪
Davey Williams and Ladonna Smith TRANS
Japan Center Theatre - From archive.org, an actual performance recording, described as “two distinctly avant-garde improvisations” 22:59
https://archive.org/details/NMA_1981_06_10/NMA_1981_06_10_B_ed.wav
We lost Davey Williams in 2019. Obituary and photo from The Wire magazine:
https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/essays/davey-williams
Tribute at Subtropics Festival’s website:
https://subtropics.org/ST25/davey-williams/
Wikipedia with a partial though still lengthy discography:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davey_Williams_(musician)
Roulette’s awesome memorial tribute concert, postponed to March 13, 2023 due to COVID. Worth the wait: George Cartwright – Saxophone; Chris Cochrane – Electric Guitar; Andrew Drury – Drums/Percussion; Judy Dunaway – Amplified Tenor Balloon; Bruce Golden — Multi-Percussion; Susan Hefner – Movement; Shelley Hirsch — Voice; Evan Lipson – Double Bass; Clifford McPeek — Trumpet, Conducting; Ann Rupel – Electric Bass; Elliot Sharp – Electric Guitar; LaDonna Smith – Violin; Jack Wright – Saxophone
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Jim Pomeroy (As “B. Lands Noke”) Flute Trio, Hat Dance
Actual recording from the performance 13:12
https://archive.org/details/NMA_1981_06_10/NMA_1981_06_10_C_ed.wav
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Peter Gena Beethoven in SoHo with Joseph Kubera
Actual performance recording free to stream courtesy of Other Minds
https://archive.org/details/NMA_1981_06_10/NMA_1981_06_10_D_ed.wav
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George Lewis Ensemble
Atlantic for synthesizer and three trombones
Actual performance recording stream provided by Other Minds organization
https://archive.org/details/NMA_1981_06_10/NMA_1981_06_10_E_ed.wav
Han Reitziger: Um, Joe McPhee, his solo saxophone piece…
Charles Amirkhanian: Very nice.
Han Reitziger: …was, was very nice.
Charles Amirkhanian: Extremely lyrical.
Han Reitziger: Extremely lyrical.
Charles Amirkhanian: And yet he was exploring all the outer reaches of the instrument.
Han Reitziger: Um, yeah.
Charles Amirkhanian: And doing it in a way which was ah, pretty – I’ve never heard that done quite that way.
Han Reitziger: No, no, it’s very special. Ah, another thing which was very nice was a piece Atlantic of George Lewis. It’s ah, at low register, I think it was a bass or so, was a Bflat what he was playing, I’m not exactly what…
Charles Amirkhanian: Three tenor trombones.
Han Reitziger: Oh. It was, it was great what he was doing. Well, he had very good players also.
From KPFA’s Morning Concert with Charles Amirkhanian June 18, 1981 San Francisco
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Side event: Martin Kalve, electronics and John Holland, composer/performer at the Ear Inn