May 3 - 1926: Herbert Blau; 1949 Larry Ochs
Both who we were able to see at NMA 1987 Philadelphia, the former in a panel which I was able to record from the audience and the latter within ROVA Saxophone's wonderful concert later put to y2b
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Blau
Herbert Blau has quite a curious biography which starts with a degree in chemical engineering but winding up as being a “theoretician of performance” which is such a fancy word for “critic” that I might wind up using it for myself as well, though “chief describer” kind of fits me as well.
Anyway we got to hear Blau at a session during the NMA Philadelphia 1987 festival and though I haven’t yet transcribed this one, I did record it from the audience.
Herbert Blau, lecture; panel with Don Shewey, Arthur Sabatini, and Roger Oliver
Schubert Theatre, Philadelphia College of the Arts
part 1
part 2
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Larry Ochs 1949, Buffalo, New York
Another performer who we got to see at NMA 1987 was the ROVA Saxophone Quartet, featuring Larry Ochs.
ROVA Saxophone Quartet: The Unquestioned Answer (For Charles Ives)
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The ROVA Saxophone Quartet too, did their usual genre-defying miracles in The Questioned Answer, a carefully honed improv structure whose lucidity equaled its virtuosity. The moment when the music paused for Jon Raskin to play a fateful quotation from Ives's The Unanswered Question was my candidate for most magical moment of the week.
- Kyle Gann, "Quiet Heroics", Village Voice, November 10, 1987
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And the Wikipedia site gives us a nice link to a ParisTransAtlantic magazine interview from 2008:
https://www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine/interviews/ochs.html
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