by Mike Telin
When NoExit celebrated jazz great Eric Dolphy back in 2012, the Ensemble’s artistic director Timothy Beyer said that although Dolphy is best known for his contributions in the jazz world, his music transcends that idiom. “His is a unique voice in American music, one that defies categorization.” On Saturday, April 29 at 8:00 pm at Heights Arts, No Exit will present the first of three concerts that will once again pay tribute to Eric Dolphy. The program will be repeated on May 13 at SPACES and on May 27 at The Bop Stop.
“When we did that first series of concerts dedicated to Dolphy we were just dipping our toe in the water,” Beyer said during a recent conversation. “But this program not only takes a deeper look at his music, it emphasizes his living legacy.” The concerts will include Dolphy’s Hat and Beard, arranged by Andrew Rindfleisch, Serene and Out There, arranged by Bobby Selvaggio, and a collage of Dolphy’s music titled Late Lunch, arranged by Greg D’Alessio, as well as the premieres of original works by Paul Epstein, Timothy Beyer, and James Praznik.
In addition to NoExit’s regular personnel — violinist Cara Tweed, violist James Rhodes, cellist Nicholas Diodore, pianist Nicholas Underhill, flutist Sean Gabriel, clarinetist Gunnar Owen Hirthe, and percussionist Luke Rinderknecht — the concert will feature special guests: drummer Dustin May, trumpeter Scott McKee, and saxophonist Bobby Selvaggio.
“Eric Dolphy is a singular presence in the music world,” Beyer said. “The more I’ve been thinking about and listening to Dolphy’s music, the clearer it becomes that he wasn’t just ahead of his time, but he was truly of another place. He’s often associated with jazz, and for good reason, but ultimately that was his launching point to something else. That’s why I think his music is as much akin to avant-garde classical music as it is to jazz.”
Prior to the 2012 performances, we spoke to alto saxophonist, composer, arranger, and educator Bobby Selvaggio and asked him to give his thoughts on cross-genre collaborations.
“I wanted to do something a little different for this project, so I arranged Dolphy’s Out There more like a Bartók string quartet where the alto sax is treated as a second violin. But this idea of collaborating across musical styles is happening more and more. It’s something that I have talked to Nick and Cara about in the past, and it’s something they have been thinking about as well. Although there have been crossover attempts where jazz musicians were doing classical type things for years — all the way back to the 40’s and 50’s — this idea of having everyone join together is really important in this day and age. A leading reason behind this NoExit project was to arrange pieces that would require improvisation. It’s been exciting to do that with classical musicians. Improvisation is not just a jazz thing, it’s important to music in general.”
Published on ClevelandClassical.com April 28, 2017.
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