Happy New 2018 everyone and welcome to the NEW FV website. Take a look around and let me know your thoughts! More additions to come including the Discography page, the SOUNDCLOUD Page and more…

2017 has been an insane and difficult year to put it mildly. Politically the country seems on a downward trajectory.  Difficult to keep up with this current administration and it’s antics on a day to day basis and I know so many of us are feeling this way. Natural disasters around this country (Puerto Rico) that reveal the deep infrastructure problems we’re facing and how global warming is encroaching and we see it coming now, most of us anyway.  White supremacy is openly on the march and a personal tragedy for me  and for many fans of jazz and improvised music:  the great trombonist Roswell Rudd – a dear friend and mentor –  left us just over a week ago, succumbing to prostate cancer.

EMBRACE a record on Rare Noise Records was released in November 2017. Here’s a Kevin Whitehead’s NPR Review for Terry Gross’s Fresh Air:

There was an incredible amount of GOOD stuff to be grateful for in 2017. Many NEW happenings and collaborations in NEW Spaces.  I’m especially happy with the amount of composing I’ve been doing, which I’ll share publicly soon in a number of forms.  One of them is the New Blues, a group I’ve been quietly developing with Steven Bernstein (trumpet), Sean Conly (double bass) and Marika Hughes (cello).  I’m composing most of the book for the group and look out for the New Blues to perform this music and more in New York City in Spring 2018. I’ll attend the prestigious Yaddo Corp for 6 weeks starting later this month to compose a large piece based on the life and death of my mother.

A major change to move from mainly being part of a writing partnership to work on my own compositional voice.  No worries there though – Jochem van Dijk are working out the details of a new project that will be a follow up to 2014’s Neighborhood Dynamics, a piece Jochem and I composed for an Anthony Braxton/Tri-Centric Foundation Commission in 2014 on gentrification in Bedford Stuyvesant.

Here are some other highlights from an amazing performing year:

Martine Syms’ ‘Incense, Sweaters and Ice –  6 week exhibition @ MOMA
(performed in the piece as well as gave an artist talk during the exhibition)

Nicole Mitchell’s Maroon Cloud – NATIONAL SAWDUST & NM Ensemble at the STONE

Randy Weston’s 91st Birthday celebration DUO – JAZZ STANDARD
(Performing a poem of Jayne Cortez)

Performed and Recorded with Marc Ribot for his Songs for Resistance project

Became a Alpert/Yaddo Fellow

Performed in London for the first time  – @ The VORTEX

Workshop Facilitator for the Vancouver International Jazz Festival

Performed with Archie SHEPP @ DIZZY’S CLUB COCA COLA (Roswell Rudd Tribute)

w SEXMOB – The Revolution Will Not Be Televised @ SYMPHONY SPACE

FV’s SoundNoiseFUNK played CapitalBOP in DC and recorded Wet Robots for ESP-DISK

55BARMonthly Residency featured guests in 2017 such as Marika Hughes, Darius Jones, Marvin Sewell, Marty Ehrlich, Aruan Ortiz, Anthony Coleman, Michael Attias, Sam Newsome and more

Went into the Studio with Ivo Perelman

EMBRACE was released on Rare Noise Records, GLORIOUS RAVAGE was released on New Amsterdam Records and NEW YORK – St. JOHANN (ReDDeer) was released on Evil Rabbit Records.

Part of the We Have Voice Collective
I’ve been fortunate of have been able to put my head together with an amazing group of incredible musicians to create the Open Letter for equity in the music industry for a music world without sexual harassment and gender discrimination. Join us and sign the letter. Go even further and share the letter! We have 671(!!) signatures from around the world. Spread the word.
 http://www.wehavevoice.org/

#WeHaveVoice Collective: Ganavya Doraiswamy, Tia Fuller, Maria Grand, Okkyung Lee, Linda May Han Oh, Nicole M. Mitchell, Kavita Shah Music, Tamar Sella, Sara Serpa, Jen Shyu, Rajna Swaminathan, imani uzuri, Fay Victor

Thank you for reading WELCOME to the New FV SITE and a Happy Healthy 2018!
Wishing you and your Peace, Light and Love!

Fay