Tag: improv

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS! (Photo taken in Mexico City, Mexico)

Greetings and Happy Holidays to you all! Wishing everyone a wondrous holiday season and a prosperous and positive 2019.  2018 has been some year on the world stage with a swift wind change right in politics around the world.  Watching the news makes everything seem grim or how it all is coming to a dismal end.  Climate change notwithstanding, there is still lots of positivity around the world.  People trying to enjoy and simplify their lives as best they can.  I spent most of the autumn in amazing cities: Seattle, San Francisco, Long Beach, Rome, Venice, Krakow, Poland and Mexico City. Everywhere the similar thread was so many homeless among the opulence. Affluent folk peering in at the lives of people either catering to their whims or somehow superficially related to outside perceptions. Yet I also met people happy with their lives as is. Content. At peace. No longer searching if they ever were.  Except for music, maybe, in time of need. I was amazed to discover in Mexico that anyone can sing with Mariachi musicians and people DO when they are sad or full of heartbreak over jilted lover. This is how normal folk come out to relieve themselves of the pain of loss and more, in community. One example of how it is still a big beautiful world out there and if you can, go out and taste it.

After all this moving around, I’m firmly planted back in NYC for sometime and so much good stuff is coming up.  January is chock full of goodies including the Herbie Nichols Centennial Celebration at The Stone that I’m honored to curate + my Mutations for Justice project is on the Winter JazzFest January 12th 2019 at SOB’s. Before we hit 2019, please join me at the 55BAR for the last performance of the year: at the 55BAR with Old Songs, New Skin. Come and join us for a toast to kissing 2018 goodbye!

DEC 27 Old Songs, New Skin
FV – voice, compositions
Marika Hughes – cello
Darius Jones – alto saxophone
55 Bar
55 Christopher Street
7-9PM
No Cover, 2 drink minimum

Old Songs, New Skin!(Marika Hughes, FV, Darius Jones)

Seriously though,  sending the best wishes for a safe, fun and rewarding holiday season + a spanking new and prosperous 2019. I am so grateful for everyone’s support this year of the music and projects I’m involved in and coming out to shows. I could not do what I do without working with and in front of great people.  Incredible to be on record with Marc Ribot, Nicole Mitchell and my own SoundNoiseFUNK in 2018, amazed that all of these projects were well received by music lovers as well as the critics.

Thank you, thank you friends!
In gratitude,
Fay

 

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Dear Friends!

Happy Halloween which with all that is happening around us, seems the most benign of holidays as the horrors around us are real.  Difficult to feel inspired and positive some days yet being creative continues to feed a sense of solidarity and community and a place to release what I’m feeling in a way an audience can hear it.  I’m back a few days from the West Coast – first at Earshot Jazz Festival & Cornish School for the Arts and then in residency at University of California at Irvine.  Throughout performance, talks and instruction I kept informing as much as I could about freedom from within, expansive thinking and taking social responsibility in these times.  Not everybody has a comment to make or cares to but if you have something to share, then do so – because we all need to hear it.  No matter how strong my words were, the feedback that came my way from the audience was they needed to hear these thoughts, they needed to know that their thoughts and feelings are not alone out here.  Be brave and do it!

As November approaches and the midterm elections are upon us do your civic duty and vote.  I’m voting early as I’m out of town on Election Day. We need to turn this around.  To that end – here is a Video I made called Sleep On It, mainly about Brett Kavanaugh but…well check it out here.  The Pacific Ocean was the inspiration for the video too.

Some good news: SoundNoiseFUNK’s Wet Robots is up for grammy consideration in the Best Jazz Vocal Album Category! If you’re a NARAS member, please consider voting and/or spreading the word.  Special thanks to the spectacular cellist Tomeka Reid for spearheading the push to get more creative music on the Grammys.  This wouldn’t have happened without her nudge and work. Here’s a link to the album via band camp – thank you!

https://fayvictorssoundnoisefunk.bandcamp.com/album/wet-robots

Some very special news: I’m honored to curate a four day celebration for the life of pianist/composer Herbie Nichols Centennial at the Stone in January 2019.  Herbie Nichols would have been 100 years old on January 3 2019 and I can’t wait for this special presentation of his music which includes the Jazz Composers Collective, my Herbie Nichols SUNG project, an evening of Solo Recitations and Roswell Rudd’s Trombone Tribe playing mainly Herbie Nichols compositions I want this to be a great festival and also document each night for future jazz fans in general and Nichols’ fans in particular to have access to.  To that end, I’m asking for a little help and started a GoFundMe Page. Please take a look and give what you can.  I thank you in advance for your support.

https://www.gofundme.com/support-herbie-nichols-celebration&rcid=r01-154091913395-aac83f914e5f4aea&pc=ot_co_campmgmt_w

On the Road in November 2018

NOV 6 – Romaeuropa Festival w Daniele del Monaco & Marc Ribot (Rome, Italy) + Recording

NOV 20 – Krakow Jazz Autumn w ReddeeR – (Krakow, Poland)

NOV 29 – 55BAR w Herbie Nichols SUNG, NY NY

Coming UP in December 2018

DEC 19 – Arete – DUO with Val-Inc!! Double Bill w Gabriel Zucker CD Release  (Brooklyn, NY)

DEC 21 – Greater Calvary Baptist Church w SoundNoiseFUNK (NY, NY)

DEC 27 – 55BAR w Old Songs, New Skin (NY, NY)

Full details on the performance page of the FV website.
Thanks for reading,

Fay

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CREATIVE IMPROVISATION WORKSHOP IV by Fay Victor
Four TUESDAYS: September 18, 25; October 2, 9 2018
12 Hours over 4 weeks
6-9PM each session

I BEAM
168 7th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(between 2nd & 3rd Avenues)
+
FINAL Concert @ IBEAM
for all the participants
SUNDAY, October 14th @5PM
Sign-up to hold your spot – lessons@fayvictor.com
signup & payment due by
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Course fee: $250.00
(Payable by Paypal, Zelle or by Check)
Course fee: $250.00 

About the Creative Improvisation Workshop

Vocalists will learn, discover and explore their voices, leaving the course with tangible tools for improvising inside, outside, alongside songs and beyond with an improvising vocalist with over 15 years of experience as an improvisor performing with everyone from Marshall Allen (Sun Ra) to Dr. Randy Weston with Anthony Braxton, Archie Shepp, Roswell Rudd, Misha Mengelberg, William Parker and Wadada Leo Smith in between.

During the CREATIVE IMPROVISATION WORKSHOP you’ll experience how to develop language, listen, and interact with instrumentalists as an improvisors cultivating your own creations within an improvised context.  The course will feature instrumentalists to work with participants during the course, also a group for the final concert.

A Testimonial
“The Creative Improvisation Workshop allowed me to step out of my mind and into the depths of my feelings. What I’ve learned most from the experience is that being in the moment, both still and actively listening, brought out my true artistic expression. Fay provided a foundation for us in the form of technique and improvisational language. But, the heavy focus that I normally apply to my singing was lessened because I was trusting in the moment. As a result, the technique and language followed. I encourage all singers to jump into the experience, step out of their norm and find their whole creative selves. Sharing this experience with other women also added a spiritual element that is not always present in traditional jazz workshops.I am looking forward to the next time.”

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Dear Friends,

In December 2017, I opened up the Evolving Series Festival (by Arts for Art) with a new project called Mutations for Justice (Mantras for Change). I wanted to write small pieces (composed and text-based) about the political reality we’re all in right now. As an information drenched society – I wanted the texts to be repetitive, like a meme. easily subliminal perhaps leading to change.  This is ambitious of course but the fear of other words taking over makes me dream even bigger and feel even stronger that these words must be said. Simply.

That concert in December with bassist Luke Stewart and drummer Michael Vatcher was a great start – so many things went well. Our next outing is on the Vision Festival 23 adding to the trio trumpeter Jaimie Breezy Branch with a bunch of new music I’ve written for the occasion as well.

Mutation:  the changing of the structure of a gene, resulting in a variant form that may be transmitted to subsequent generations, caused by the alteration of single base units in DNA, or the deletion, insertion, or rearrangement of larger sections of genes or chromosomes.

What is the Mutations for Justice Project?

Mutations for Justice are a series of small composition mantras or ‘memes’ out of the need to articulate political ideas in a minimalist repetitive framework further developed through improvisation. Chanting and utilizing protest music as a mutable entity to change how we see. Words and music written by Fay Victor, these pieces will mingle with a fantastic group of improvisors adding their personal spin on the Mutations. This performance is the beginning of a developing project for Victor, who plans to write Mutations for Justice pieces throughout the Trump Administration as a document to memory of living in this time. The culmination of Mutations For Justice will be a recording project of 40 pieces in 2020.

Mutations for Justice – Vision Festival 23
Fay Victor – voice, compositions
Jaimie ‘Breezy’ Branch – trumpet
Luke Stewart – double bass
Michael Vatcher – drums
7:00PM
SAT May 26 2018
http://roulette.org/
Tix: www.artsforart.org
Full ? here: https://youtu.be/z-PP0UrYIes

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Cover for the new Espdisk Release WET ROBOTS, design by Diane Kirschief

The idea of developing an avant-garde ‘dance’ group has been on my mind for sometime. I love dance music, was a club head myself (even a member of the legendary Paradise Garage).  As an improvisor I’ve wanted to develop a project that you can move to while still enabling deep improvising spaces to play in. In thinking about this for a few years – the idea of what that group looked very different.  Then there was the beginning of the SoundNoise Trio that inadvertently lead to an avant project….from the kernel comes out a new corn.

I started SoundNoise with drummer/percussionist Reggie Nicholson and soprano saxophonist Sam Newsome in 2015 as an open exploration that hit hard our first time out. As SoundNoise performed, I thought about how to pursue improvisation at the core of the group while keeping a pulse in the music that was organic and alive.  Arriving at SoundNoiseFUNK (the addition of guitarist Joe Morris), a funk-driven free improvisational unit with a penchant for exploring this and more sonic terrain while keeps the groove going. SoundNoiseFUNK has performed on the Vision Festival, Capital Bop (Wash. DC), New Revolution Arts, the Arts for Art InGarden Series and most recently at the WinterJazzFest 2018 where Downbeat magazine had this to say about the group’s performance:

“…while Morris astounded with his staccato runs, sounding at times like a cross between Johnny Smith and James “Blood” Ulmer, and Newsome showcased his expansive vocabulary, alternately making his straight horn sound like a digeridoo, a duck call, a fuzz guitar, it was Victor’s finesse, ferocity and freestyle abandon that led the way. Watch for the upcoming debut recording on the ESP-Disk label by this extraordinary musical collective.”-Bill Milkowski, Downbeat Magazine

I am very excited about the group and project…look forward to sharing the music with you all. And keep your eyes on the FV gig pages as the SoundNoise TRIO will hit the road in Fall 2018!

Personnel:
Fay Victor – voice, text, conceptualist
Sam Newsome – soprano saxophone
Joe Morris – electric guitar
Reggie Nicholson – drums
Recorded August 4, 2017 at Park West Studios
RELEASE DATE: JUNE 29 2018

“If jazz is the sound of surprise, this album startles – a sonic funhouse of left turns.  The band floats in its own space, untethered by a bass. Morris’ guitar moves like a snake. Newhouse keens, taps, sighs on the straight horn. Nicholson makes his percussion set-ip a skittering, rattling thing. Then there is Fay her voice…as attuned to unfettered expression as Albert Ayler’s tenor.”

-Bradley Bambarger
From the liner notes of Wet Robots
Read complete review here: http://downbeat.com/news/detail/winterfest2
Learn more at www.espdisk.com

SoundNoiseFUNK w Reggie Nicholson, FV, Joe Morris & Sam Newsome after Wet Robots CD release show on April 28 2018