In their signature charming, dapper, and talented style, The Westerlies dropped by our studios during their holiday visit to Seattle for a video shoot here in our studios. Please enjoy this assortment of videos featuring music by Andy Clausen (trombonist with the goldenrod shirt/navy jacket!), Charles Ives, and Wayne Horvitz.
Why not make it your New Year’s resolution to listen to more new music? This week is packed with innovative contemporary music performances to start your year off right!
Universal Language 21st Century Music Project’s “Inception”
It’s a new year and a new music organization is taking root in Seattle. This year marks the inaugural season of the Universal Language 21st Century Music Project, which is pushing the boundaries of contemporary music in Seattle and beyond. For the first concert of their 2015 season, they are premiering new works by composers Wayne Horvitz and Sean Osborn.
Horvitz is a composer who has performed throughout the world as an improviser on both piano and electronics, while Osborn is a critically acclaimed clarinetist whose music uses extended clarinet techniques to create a unique new genre-bending sound.
The performance is this Friday, Jan. 9 at 7:30 p.m. at Velocity Dance Center on Capitol Hill.
Seattle Composers’ Salon’s New Music Holiday Office Party
Celebrate the city’s bustling contemporary music scene in style this weekend at the Seattle Composers’ Salon’s New Music Holiday Office Party.
Seattle Composers’ Salon is dedicated to supporting new music by regional composers and performers. At informal gatherings twice a month, the Salon features new works and works in progress by local composers and performers. This weekend’s gathering will feature music by Neil Welch, Cole Bratcher, Ivan Arteaga, and Matthew James Briggs.
The performance is this Friday, Jan. 9 at 8 p.m. at the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford. The concert will be preceded by a New Music Holiday Office Party from 6:30 to 8 p.m., where composers, performers, and audience members are invited to visit, share CDs, enjoy snacks, and listen to live music performed by cellist Carson Farley.
Town Music Presents Third Coast Percussion
Third Coast Percussion is a Chicago-based group that marches to the beat of its own drum. The ensemble is dedicated to exploring all of the far-reaching possibilities of percussion through unique instrumentation and the integration of new media in performances. This weekend, the quartet is coming to Seattle to perform a colorful program of percussion works by David T. Little, Tan Dun, and John Cage. (Yes, John Cage.)
Third Coast Percussion will perform Little’s “Haunt of Last Nightfall,” a piece which laces together pre-recorded heavy metal sounds with live percussion. Also on the program is Cage’s “Credo in Us,” a wartime piece written after the attacks on Pearl Harbor. The quartet will also be joined by guest cellist Joshua Roman to perform Dun’s “Elegy: Snow in June,” a piece which was written to commemorate the 1989 massacre in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
The performance is this Monday, Jan. 12 at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall Seattle. If you can’t make it to the concert, don’t fret: we’ll be live broadcasting this performance on Second Inversion!
Club Shostakovich Celebrates 50th Anniversary of String Quartets No. 9 and 10
Come lift a glass to Dmitri Shostakovich this weekend as Trio Pardalote celebrates the 50th anniversary his 9th and 10th String Quartets. Though the pieces originally premiered in Moscow in 1964, Trio Pardalote is recreating this historic event a little closer to home.
The trio—composed of violinist Victoria Parker, violist Heather Bentley, and cellist Rowena Hammill—will be joined by violinists Blayne Barnes, Natasha Bazhanov, Artur Girsky, and Mikhail Shmidt to present Shostakovich’s 8th, 9th, and 10th String Quartets. Guests are invited to enjoy the drama and passion of some of Shostakovich’s most exciting string compositions, which were written during a time of great political unrest in the Soviet Union.
The performance will be followed by a late night jazz set with Quartet Royale featuring pianist Wayne Horvitz, vocalist Jimmie Herrod, bassist Geoff Harper, and drummer Eric Eagle.
The performance will take place at the Royal Room this Friday, Nov. 7 at 8 p.m.
Seattle Rock Orchestra Presents a Police Tribute
It’s been nearly 30 years since the critically acclaimed British rock band the Police broke up, but none of us could ever forget classics like “Roxanne” and “Every Breath You Take.” Instead of early awaiting another sold-out reunion tour, you can catch some of your favorite Police tunes this weekend when Seattle Rock Orchestra presents a Police tribute night at the Moore Theatre.
It’s everything you love about the punky 80s power quartet, except for expanded into a 50+ piece orchestra featuring vocalists David Terry, Erin Austin, Andrew Vait, and Annie Janzter. Come witness as some of Seattle’s top classically-trained musicians pay tribute to one of the greatest punk, reggae, jazz-infused rock bands the 80s had to offer.
Renowned Seattle folk artist Naomi Wachira is the opening act. A Kenyan-born musician who grew up singing gospel in a traveling family band, her music is deeply influenced by both her African roots as well as her experience living in the Pacific Northwest.
The performance will take place this Saturday, Nov. 8 at the Moore Theatre. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the performance begins at 8 p.m.
Music of Remembrance Presents Schoenberg’s “Verklärte Nacht”
This weekend marks the 76th anniversary of the tragic Kristallnacht, a massacre against Jews throughout Germany and Austria carried out by Nazi military forces. In honor of the those innocent civilians who lost their lives in these devastating attacks, Music of Remembrance is presenting a performance of Arnold Schoenberg’s “Verklärte Nacht” (“Transfigured Night”), a tender and romantic string sextet.The performance will also be the world premiere of Spectrum Dance Theater choreographer Donald Byrd’s new dances for the enchanting piece.
“Verklärte Nacht” was inspired by Richard Dehmel’s poem of the same name, which tells the story of a woman and her lover walking through a shadowy forest on a moonlit night. The woman confesses to her lover that she is pregnant with another man’s baby, and her lover accepts and forgives her. Schoenberg’s composition captures the grave sorrow of the woman’s confession, the calm and thoughtful reflection of her lover, and the bright, hopeful acceptance of her secret.
The concert will also feature works by Dutch composers under Nazi occupation as well as a medley of songs from cabaret shows staged by prisoners at Terezin, a ghetto and concentration camp in the Czech Republic during World War II.
The performance will take place at Benaroya Hall this Sunday, Nov. 9 at 4 p.m.
We’ve written about the Seattle-born/NYC-based brass quartet The Westerlies before in our first ever video premiere feature. Now we have a spotlight on their May release of Wayne Horvitz’ music – Wish the Children Would Come On Home, for which their Official CD Release Party is Friday, August 8 at the Royal Room.
So, why Wayne Horvitz? (Why NOT Wayne Horvitz is really a better question, but…) Andy, Willem, Zubin, and Riley are long acquainted with Wayne as a teacher, mentor, and friend from their growing up in Seattle, but Horvitz actually approached THEM about doing the album in early 2013. He recognizes all of the musicians as “technically excellent, theoretically sophisticated, mature beyond their years, astute, perceptive, and self-aware.”
Jazzy sonorities and harmonies combined with a composed structure give this album that quality of “it has a little something for everyone” – the Westerlies chose a broad range of Horvitz’ music to arrange and record, including jazz tunes, film music, and classical chamber pieces. Now, none of these pieces were originally composed for brass, so the Westerlies had the extra task of doing the arrangements. Horvitz praises the fact that “they sound like a band, not a brass ensemble” despite “the way they have manufactured a kind of limitation, simply by creating a quartet with 2 trumpets and 2 trombones. Within all the bounty of their collective backgrounds, they have created a band that is a real hassle! No rhythm sections, no chordal instruments, and music that is sometimes fiendishly difficult.” I couldn’t agree more. The textures and sounds created sound like much more than the sum of its parts (which are all great!).
The music on this album ranges from sultry (Please Keep That Train Away From My Door), lulling (Waltz from Woman of Tokyo), bombastic (The Band With Muddy), nostalgic (Triads totally has a Renaissance quality to my ears), goofy/playful (The Barbershop), free and experimental (Interludes), and smoky (The Store, The Campfire).
Keep an ear out for Andy, Willem, Zubin, and Riley’s voices on the Second Inversion stream! As we incorporate this disc into our programming, you’re likely to hear one of them introduce the tracks on this album. In the meantime, mark your calendar for the show nearest you on their WA, OR, and CA tour.
You can purchase Wish The Children Would Come On Home at The Westerlies’ Store.
Hello, world. Do you know The Westerlies? Here’s a warm introduction, if not. They’re a brass quartet based in New York, but all four musicians are Seattle natives and longtime friends, and “dedicated to the cultivation of a new brass quartet repertoire that exists in the ever-narrowing gap between American folk music, jazz, classical, and indie rock.”
We are thrilled here at Second Inversion to present the video premiere of The Westerlies’ “Sweeter than the Day” from their album Wish The Children Would Come On Home: The Music of Wayne Horvitz. The album, which Horvitz produced, was recorded in August 2013 and was recently released by Songlines Recordings. In between takes, they shot this video outside the studio on Lopez Island, one of the most peaceful and relaxing places in the Northwest, especially on these clear, summer evenings (yes, we have them and yes, I’m giving away one of our best Northwest secrets).
The Westerlies will be all over the west this summer in CA, OR, WA, and Vancouver BC. Upcoming Seattle performances to note:
Friday, June 27, 8pm @ Seattle Art Museum (Opening for HUMAN FEEL)
Sunday, August 3, 8pm @ Café Racer (Curating the Racer Sessions)
Friday, August 8, 8pm @ Royal Room (Official CD release party!)
Monday, August 25, 8pm @ Good Shepherd Center (Album Release Tour)
Stay tuned for more Second Inversion coverage of this talented, innovative ensemble!
Photo: Adam Guy