ONE-TWO-THREE-GO!
Concert #1
Sunday, October 7, 2001 at 4:30 PM===================================================================================
DAVID FIRST'S UNIVERSARY ORCH
"Inadequate Responses to Grace and Grief"
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David First
guitar, vocalsBob Hoffnar
pedal steel guitarJane Scarpantoni
'cello===================================================================================
an afternoon of drones, melodies, improvs, and songs
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Hello.
Two weeks ago at this very time my wife Patricia and I were having a ceremony in our home. We had been forced to leave during the 9/11 horror for over a week and upon returning we felt compelled to do something for those who died, and to begin to reclaim and renew our home and neighborhood. Some of you may have been there.
Now, here, two weeks later I feel able to play music but not necessarily "perform". I imagine that if one were a physician or a chef or an actor that one would still do one's job quite similarly as before - albeit with a heavy heart. But as a creative artist I feel quite confused. I certainly don't feel like dusting myself off and say, "Ok, now, where were we?" And yet, I feel totally unable to even begin to think about how to absorb and reflect what happened. That seems impossible - it would, to me, imply that it was fathomable. It'll come through, no doubt, in every thing I do for the rest of my life, but it's way too early to use as creative fodder.
Yet, I know what I don't want to do. I don't want to be intricate, clever, entertaining, stylish, intellectual, contrived, egocentric, and about a million other adjectives that I generally try to avoid anyway. But especially now…
So, I think today's presentation should be considered something between a ceremony and a concert. It's a testing of the equipment to see what works. So much has gone on since the time I started thinking about what I wanted to do today that I don't even remember the plan. But when I finally got to a place where I could think again, the things we are going to do today are what I came up with.
I'm not sure exactly why - I'm trusting my instincts on this one - but everything we are doing today is in some form of "D" key. Maybe it's my way of guaranteeing that this isn't a "concert". I mean, if it were, wouldn't that be a really bad idea? So I have chosen a few pieces, songs, and improvisational approaches from amongst the materials that I've developed as a performing musician. A couple are fairly recent. One is from perhaps almost 15 years ago (that Jane has now played in three different contexts - including the original). And one may be traced back - in one form or another - to my earliest youthful experiments with drones all those many years ago.
Even though this event was set and fellow players decided many weeks ago, I couldn't have picked better circumstances and people with whom to have made this tenuous initial step. Patrick Grant - who I only recently met when he asked us to participate in this series - has been very supportive and a pleasure to work with. And Jane and Bob are both sensitive, thoughtful people who I am proud to call my friends.
Thanks for coming.
df
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David First (composer/guitarist) has been called "a fascinating artist with a singular technique" by Alex Ross of the New York Times, and "a bizarre cross between Hendrix and La Monte Young" by Kyle Gann in the Village Voice. Regarding the New York production of his opera, The Manhattan Book of the Dead, Mr. Gann wrote: "The music grew and grew in scintillating, illusionary beauty long past the point at which you thought it could still surpass itself." First was also recently proclaimed the "next big thing in guitar gods" in Time Out NY by music critic K. Leander Williams.
He has had his music performed in New York at Experimental Intermedia, The Kitchen, La MaMa, Roulette, Merkin Hall, Exit Art, The Knitting Factory, Tonic, The Anchorage, Bang on a Can Festival, the Cooler, and CBGB's. He has also had his music presented at Podewil, the USArts Festival, and at the Institut Unzeit (Berlin) as well as at De Ijsbreker (Amsterdam), the Heidelberger Festival for Experimental Music and Literature (Heidelberg), ZwischenTone Festival (Köln), The Impakt Festival (Utrecht), Het Apollohuis (Eindhoven), and The Spoleto Festival (Charleston, SC).
First has presented sound installations at Kunstforeningen (Copenhagen), the Uppsala Konstmuseum (Uppsala), Exit Art (New York), and (in collaboration with visual artist Patricia Smith) Studio Five Beekman (NYC).
He has received grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Phaedrus Foundation, Casio Inc., the Yamaha Communications Center and was a nominee for the Cal Arts/Alpert award in 1994. He has been commissioned to compose works for Joseph Celli, Joseph Kubera, Lois Svard, Thomas Buckner, Essential Music, and others. As a performer, Mr. First has played and recorded with artists William Hooker, Jin Hi Kim, Ulrich Krieger, and Marc Ribot as has led numerous ensembles including the World Casio Quartet, the Koan Pool, and Joy Buzzers. He has two CD recordings on O.O. Discs as well as works on the CRI, Aerial, Homestead, and EMF labels.
First has been featured in numerous publications. There are chapters about his music in the books American Music in the Twentieth Century (Gann/Schirmer) and La Musica Minimalista (Antognozzi/Edizioni Textus) as well as articles in Keyboard Magazine, Guitar Player, Atlantica, and MusicTexte. There are articles written by him published in MusicTexte and Arude.
Mr First's most recent projects include A Bet on Transcendence Favors the House - a large scale drone piece for mixed ensemble and computer (various presentations/locations), the music for Optic Fever - a multi-media production created and directed by Theodora Skipitares (LaMaMa Annex Theater), and the Universary Orch - a new ensemble he has formed to present his latest experiments in drones and song structures. A CD of this music entitled Universary will be released in the fall of 2001.First has also been active as a producer/arranger (on CD's by singer/songwriter Stephanie St. John and the pop band, Nova Social, an experimental music DJ on radio station WBAI, and music curator, presenting musical events at HERE, Context Studios, bOb, Exit Art, and the Soho Arts Festival for which he organized the programs Sensual Intelligence and Swirled Music. In July of 2001 Mr. First was awarded the Neupauer Conservatory's (Phila.) highest honor - the Order of the Shield - for his achievements in the world of music.
Bob Hoffnar (pedal steel guitar) studied composition with Pandit Pran Nath & Lamonte Young and pedal steel with Buddy Charleton (Earnest Tubb's steel player). He graduated from the Purchase Conservatory of Music in 1998 with a BFA in composition. While at Purchase his private composition teacher was Richard Cameron Wolf. At Purchase he ran a for-credit workshop on improvisation with musicians in the Dance Dept.
Hoffnar's compositions include music for film such as a soundtrack for Blue Productions full length independent film Nailed and the Video Art piece I Remember in collaboration with Seougho Cho, commissioned by the Sonic Circuits Music Festival with funds from the Jerome Foundation. Both of these projects were done using the pedal steel as the primary or only sound source.
He is a full time working pedal steel player. Recent performance credits include the Pedalsteel Rediscovered concert for 3 pedal steel guitars at The Museum of Musical Instruments, Brussels; Duets for Steel Guitar and Cello with Jane Scarpantoni performed at the New Music on Sixth street festival at Galapagos, Brooklyn and at The Den in Manhattan; These Are No Ordinary Mortals, compositions-improvisations by Michael Evans at Roulette NYC; New Music for Theremin, compositions by David Simons at the Museum of Musical Instruments, Brussels; and The Birth Of George opera by David Simons and Lisa Karrer performed at La Mama NYC. Currently, being recorded is a CD release, A Bet on Transcendence Favors the House by David First, performed at Merkin Hall NYC; numerous Conductions with Butch Morris; and as a player in Cobra by John Zorn at the Knitting Factory.
He has worked with the following pop artists including: Lloyd Cole, The Band, The Candybutchers, Debbie Davies, Guster, and with Johnny Dowd. In Country Music, he has performed with Patsy Montana, Chris Wall, Hasil Atkins, The Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, Jack Grace, and The Ghostrockets.
A few of the bands he is currently playing in are with Amy Allison (singer-songwriter), HEM and J.C. Hopkins (swing jazz)
Jane Scarpantoni ('cello) is a composer, arranger and performer who has been involved for many years with the downtown music scene, playing at such venues as P.S.122, The Knitting Factory, Tonic, The Kitchen and Roulette.
She has also performed live with a wide variety of popular artists, including Beck, Sinead O' Connor, Moby, Lou Reed and Morphine. In addition to her numerous recording credits, which include Reed, Patti Smith and Tricky, she is a ten-year member of John Lurie's Lounge Lizards. She began playing with David First in the early 80's.
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Is New York the most beautiful city in the world?
It is not far from it.No urban nights are like the nights there.
I have looked down across the city from high windows
...it is then that the great buildings lose reality
and take on magical powers.Squares and squares of flame
set and cut into the ether.Here is our poetry,
for we have pulled down the stars to our will.-- Ezra Pound, 1913