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Author: cotfg_iv4ico

  • Sarah Ann Phillips – COTFG Interview Series

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    Sarah Ann Phillips

    BIO

      Music had been the constant thread through the life of performer/composer and singer/songwriter, Sarah Ann Phillips. The youngest of four, Sarah was the only of her siblings who sustained her piano lessons. Her love of the piano and natural affection for classical music put her on track to pass the auditions for Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (Dallas).  After high school, she was accepted into the Music Therapy program at Loyola University of New Orleans, but changed her major to Music Composition. She earned her Bachelors of Music, then set off to California Institute of the Arts, where she earned a Masters of Fine Arts in the Performer/Composer program. Adventures in her musical career paved a way for commissions by new music ensembles, studio recordings, artist residencies, and festivals, which has led to travels nationally and internationally. She currently creates, works and lives in Austin, TX. 

    See Sarah Ann Phillips YouTube Channel

    COTFG: What are your musical or general artistic influences for your historical works and/or your current projects?

    After contemplating which composers have influenced me most, I must say that it has been my teachers who have had the greatest impact on my musical influences. I’ve had many music teachers so I can’t get to them all, but I will mention a few. My piano teacher during my formative years, Chris Duncan (Dallas), taught more than piano technique. She prepared all of her students for music theory state exams and local piano competitions. My high school piano teacher, Eva Flowers (Dallas) was such a kind and loving person to all of her students while upholding rigorous training in scales, scrupulous fingerings, and subtle pedal techniques. At Loyola University of New Orleans, my composition professor, Jimbo Walsh, not only showed me the building blocks of composition but modern tonalities, the art of improvisation, and a belief in my musical talents. In graduate school, Wadada Leo Smith (Association for the Advancement of Creative Music), taught me systemic improvisation, extended techniques, collaborative composition, and his notation system, Ankhrasmation.

    Lastly, I’d like to mention my father, who recently passed away from Alzheimer’s. He was not a musician, but he felt music deeply and was always supportive in my musical endeavors. He inspired the title, Future Wonders, which later became my first chamber ensemble piece. He also gave me the idea for an album title, Common Music for the Outsider. I may never complete the album, but I will forever hold onto the concept and ideal, closely in my inner musings.

    The catalyst for my current project is Covid-19. It is a piece titled Music-21, written for solo cello and to be played by Henna Chou (Austin). Each section will be recorded using differing, specified parameters and then recorded in layers to create a cello section effect.  A narrative-based piece, comprised of written and improvised parts, it is structured in three movements: magnitude, solitude, and lassitude. Music-21 is a work in progress, so more info will be posted as the project unravels on my Instagram page, @pharas_phrequency.

    COTFG: What other ways of expression do you hope to explore using recorded video or live streaming? Building YouTube page & IG pages

    The pandemic has forced many of us to spend more time at home and without public performances, it has been a great catalyst for beginning the process of finally getting to work on my Youtube channel. Since my employment is related to music publishing, copyright, and artist social pages, creating a Youtube page with good visuals and links, has become more crucial in my budding entrepreneurial mind. My Youtube channel continues to be a work in progress.

    I have not experienced live streaming yet, but I did create two Instagram pages, during the early days of pandemic boredom. I create short videos and pattern-based images using my iPhone. One of the pages is a visual art page (@socialpostingslab) and the other is a playful page where I create selfie videos (@pose.n.publish). The next step would be for me to create music or sound effects for those videos, but that is for another future time.

    COTFG: What have you been listening to lately?

    Honestly, I’ve been a news junkie this past year, plus the occasional audiobook or podcast about intuition, meditation, and self-awareness. There is one podcast I would recommend, especially for composers looking for a good laugh; it’s called, Obscure Music History. In general, though, I listen to a variety of music, but here are some recent selections. As a counterbalance to the constant stream of news I have been feeding myself, I started listening to a lot of reggae, via recommendations from friends on Facebook. One of my favorite recommendations was Righteous Wave Movement, a modern reggae fusion group (righteouswavemovement.bandcamp.com).

    What seems to be a nostalgia for listening to CD’s, I recently pulled out a CD from my personal collection, by a friend of mine and drummer/composer, Rich West. The album is called Mayo Grout’s Know Universe. Rich West has released several albums (groutmusic.bandcamp.com), working with musicians in the L.A. Jazz and improv scene.  I also listened to another CD from my collection by Japanese artist Toru Takemitsu, In Autumn Garden. If I were to listen to my favorite piano players, I would listen to Sun Ra, Muhal Richard Abrams, Cecil Taylor, and Matt Shipp.  

    COTFG: What does experimental/avant-garde mean to you? 

    This is a great question. As a general statement, I would define it as not the mainstream; against the stream, that which pushes boundaries and is unorthodox in regards to established practices. More specifically though, experimental and avant-garde have different connotations, for me personally. I associate avant-garde as a part of the lineage of Jazz. Experimental is music created using electronic sounds, synths, etc. Of course, people have different definitions, depending on one’s background and musicologists may not agree with me. I considered looking up the definitions, but I decided to keep my answer personal and authentic.

    Connect with and find out more about Sarah Ann Phillips at:

    – Instagram page: @pharas_phrequency
    – Youtube channel

    – Selected Discography: Sound for the Organization of Society (Interval Mechanic, Research of an Aesthetic, Coming Full Circle)
    on Spotify, iTunes, Youtube

    – Fear is not the State of Civilized People, Daren Burns on Bandcamp

  • Gahlord Dewald – COTFG Interview Series

    Photo credit: Mira Steinzor

    Photo credit: Mira Steinzor

    Gahlord Dewald is a double bassist and electronic musician based in New England. His work encompasses free improvisation, notated compositions, and experimental music practices rooted in the physicality of sound and his instruments.

    He is a musical collaborator, working with Toussaint St. Negritude in Jaguar Stereo!, Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti in The Yes &, performing with singer/songwriter Ariel Zevon, and a frequent collaborator in many ad hoc improvisation/noise shows throughout New England and beyond. He is also a co-founder of Community of Sound, an experimental music incubator in Burlington, Vermont.

    COTFG – What were your musical or general artistic influences for your historical work or current projects?

    I’m influenced by exploring sound textures. The materials I work with—double bass, electric bass, a variety of electronic things—are the core inspiration along with a feeling of “Hey, what happens if I do this?” For example, on my recent album Coherent Light Enclosed Without, I’m drawing inspiration from how the sound of the double bass works in an incredibly reverberant real world space, a space that is itself situated in the real world with sounds inside and outside that make their way in.

    I’m also inspired by how people organize themselves around sound in terms of listening/participating as well as in terms of making and distributing sounds in the world. People like Sun Ra or Paul Robeson starting labels so that they can make and distribute their work helps me look beyond the usual status-driven signifiers attached to record labels. The commercial organization of Wu-Tang Clan helps me understand different ways of realizing collaborative work. The old school punk/DIY/thrift ethos of endless touring in a van a la Fugazi or The Minutemen is an inspiration for reaching every person that I can with whatever resources I have. Musically, I’m inspired by Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti’s use of extended techniques for string instruments, I’m constantly trying to translate what she’s doing on viola to something I can do on the double bass to expand the range of sounds available to me.

    Without these kinds of inspirations it would be easy to lose sight of why I make these sounds: to help connect and situate us together in the physical world.

    What other ways of expression do you hope to explore using recorded video or live streaming ?

    I’m sort of torn about livestreaming. On the one hand, much of what I do relies on acoustic space or materials and might involve incredibly small sounds. These things don’t survive the compression algorithms well. But on the other hand, it’s so nice to see and hear people; the digital distribution of live performance has been a vast improvements for some accessibility challenges.

    I’ll keep trying though, we’ve got lots of time left before live performance is going to be safe. I guess I need to figure out what we’re experiencing together in digital performance. I have a feeling that some of Arthur Jaffa’s ideas can help here.

    What have you been listening to lately?

    So many things! I’ve been using the pandemic to listen more, here are just a few:

    Kahil El’Zabar’s America the Beautiful on Spiritmuse Records: I had the chance to catch El’Zabar live with David Murray on Juneteenth in 2019 at Light Club Lamp Shop in Burlington (a venue supportive of creative music that didn’t make it through the pandemic). His music feels directly charged, the kind of spirit I want to take forward into the world. The layers and textures of sound on this are a force to be reckoned with.

    Paul Robeson (all the recordings): I’ve loved Robeson’s voice since I was very young. When I’m making sound as a bassist it’s his voice that I’m holding in my mind as an aspiration. His spirit, organizing capacity, and use of technology as a performing medium (he gave some of the earliest “livestreaming” performances!) have also been getting me through. Recent scholarship by Dr. Shana Redmond has been focused on his work and that’s been great reading to go along with the sound.

    Maria Chavez’s EMPAC Sessions 2 on Bandcamp: There aren’t many documents of Chavez’s work; these just came out. Her manipulation of time (musical/metaphorical/real) and the textures within the work are intriguing and something that I hope everyone makes time to hear.

    What does experimental/avant-garde mean to you?

    At one of the last shows I played before the pandemic hit, my collaborator Toussaint introduced our set by saying “What we are going to do here is called ‘free improvisation’ or, in any other place in the world, is simply called ‘making music.’”

    I acknowledge the utility of the term “experimental music” but it often excludes more than it connects. Now’s a good time to start dismantling this sort of language, which is mostly about marketing. The conversation inside the marketing department is something like, “Well we got country, jazz, rock, R&B, classical, and then all this stuff we don’t know how to make money with.”

    In our capitalist system, the “experiment” is more of a business market-fit exercise. As a result, “experimental/avant-garde” most often means something marketed to a mostly white, mostly upper class (or middle class aspiring to upper class, but wealthy enough that college is a given, for example), and probably cis-man audience.

    “Experimental” might easily include someone like John Cage yet exclude someone like Charlie Parker or Ornette Coleman, include someone like Conlon Nancarrow yet exclude someone like Cecil Taylor, celebrate Philip Glass yet reduce to a footnote someone like Julius Eastman or Yoko Ono. In these ways, the genre categories don’t really help us be together and experience sound together—which isn’t surprising given the term used by institutions to describe all of this is “market segmentation.”

    A more inclusive approach is to recognize that experimentation is a creative practice—we try things, we hear if they work (whatever “work” might mean in our specific contexts). We might focus our experimentation on different parameters of sound/performance/organization/production. Through experimental practices we can find new ways of solving problems together.

    You can find out more about Gahlord’s work at : https://gahlorddewald.com and https://gahlorddewald.bandcamp.com

  • Time Comes Undone

    2020 has been difficult for everyone we know in some way or another. This month we are absolutely devastated by passing of our friend and supporter, Nari Salter Mann.

    Nari was a writer, photographer and musician who had volunteered with COTFG since its earliest days. Many of us shared great times with her in Austin, Tx and elsewhere around the country. This post is named after her blog.

    Nari’s friends may share their memories, events, vignettes, music, and photos relating to Nari on her Tribute page.

    In the spirit of her generous way of life, her friend Chris Lilly has created this GoFundMe page.

    Nari’s friends Joanna Thomas White and Ned Raggett are working together to create a compilation album including some of her favorite bands and musicians she knew personally. The proceeds will go to charities she supported. If you would like to help in any way, please feel free to email joannatwhite@gmail.com.

    Thank you Nari for all the lives you have touched with your wisdom, friendship and kindness. We would not have made it this far without you and we will never forget you.

  • Andrea Cortez – COTFG Interview Series

    Andrea Cortez, MM, MT-BC, is a board certified music therapist who uses the power of music to create positive change in the listener.

    andrea cortez.jpg

    Her work focuses on how rhythm, harmony, and other elements of sound can help improve the health of our mind, body and spirit. She is also a sound artist, composer and sound meditation teacher. In addition to working individually with people, her work explores the relationship between the elements of music and the natural world. She incorporates playing music with both animals and plants demonstrating the presence of music as a fundamental structure found in nature. She is owner of Mind Body Music Center, a sound therapy studio, where she is based in Austin, TX.

    COTFG – Do you think of yourself as a therapist or musician?
    Andrea Cortez – I definitely think of myself as a therapist first. I never really considered myself an entertainer, mostly because I have introverted tendencies. If it weren’t for my love of music, I wouldn’t put myself in performing situations.

    Growing up music was always a personal and introspective experience and it was my safe haven from the world. I think this is why I became a music therapist, because it was part of my journey in learning how to navigate the world around me and in me. So I would say I really don’t fit into the music entertainment category although I am performing in a way as I play for groups of people. In this case I guess I don’t feel like a performer. I feel more like I am creating a space with the listeners, inviting them to participate, and connecting to what it is that they may need. I remember when I was studying music therapy my professor said something that really stuck with me. He said that we would need to be proficient at several roles, being a therapist, a musician, and a scientist. When you mix those together you are able to explore some very interesting perspectives on music.

    What are your influences for your recent work?
    Connecting to Nature has influenced my work. This year I released recordings of harp and plant generated music. And the more I explored nature the more I could see that these are not separate. If you break down sound into its fundamental elements you find frequency, rhythm, melody, harmony, and silence. These are elements that are present everywhere in the living world. So there is music in nature and there is nature in music. I am seeing that many people want to connect more to nature, especially now during this difficult period of social separation. We are looking for ways to connect to life and to be hopeful. I think both music and nature help us to do that. And this is what I aim to do, to express the therapeutic qualities of music and nature so that others can feel relief from stressful times.

    What have you been listening to lately?
    I guess it’s not surprising that lately I have been listening to nature sounds as well as capturing field recordings around my neighborhood. Behind my house is a pond that seems to be a lively ecosystem of insects and animals. The frogs there are my favorite. They have an interesting way that they synchronize their sounds together. I recorded them and they will be featured on my upcoming album.

    All artists are missing the live connection but I would assume your practice has suffered even more so. What ways of expression and connection do you hope to explore using recorded video or live streaming?
    This year was a difficult transition of moving all my work to video recording and livestream. There is an added benefit of experiencing live vibrations and being in the same room as the instruments being played. But I have managed to still offer sessions and sound meditation classes online while maintaining a high quality of sound for the listeners which is very important for this work. I use instruments that produce a wide range of overtones and I want to transmit as much of that sound as I can online. I have received positive feedback that my live streams are helping people to feel less stressed, more grounded, less anxious, more peaceful, and calm. So I plan to continue to offer virtual sound therapy sessions and livestream events as a resource of wellness and mental health support for people. I also have had the opportunity to meet people outside of Austin, which has been a positive outcome of having more of a virtual presence online.

    Find out more at MindBodyMusicCenter.com or on Andrea’s Instagram.