Rick Parker/Li Daiguo & ScottClarkOther4tet @ Balliceaux

Join us for a special night of music, on Wednesday August 3rd, as we welcome the duo of Brooklyn’s Rick Parker and China’s Li Daiguo to Richmond for a great night of music at Balliceaux. The ScottClarkOther4tet will be opeing (featuring Cameron Ralston, Bob Miller, Alan Parker and Scott Clark).
Doors open at 9:30 and the show is free….
Balliceaux: 203 N. Lombardy St Richmond, VA 23220

Read more about Rick and Li below…they are touing in support of their new record and this is really something that you don’t want to miss. (you can hear a sample of what they do here…..https://youtu.be/yayQMF6LyeU)

ABOUT LI DAIGUO AND RICK PARKER
Sounds of the trombone, cello, pipa human voice and a variety of electronic remedies are conjured to form the psychoacoustic duo of Brooklyn’s Rick Parker and China’s Li Daiguo. “The sounds that the two create together are uncategorizable, a fluid blend of past and future, traditional and modern. They move from the ambient to the abstract, with folk-like acoustics colliding strangely with sci-fi electronics.” (Shaun Brady). With performances and recording sessions over the last 2 years in both NYC and Dali, a small city in southwest China, Parker and Li will release their debut record, Free World Music, on Brooklyn’s eleven2eleven record label in June 2016.

Their unlikely collaboration began in 2014 with Parker’s visit to Li’s current hometown of Dali where they performed and recorded. Later that fall, Li travelled to NYC where they spent another day in the recording studio and performed concerts at Manhattan Inn and Trans-Pecos presented by Lucas Ligeti’s Pigeon Culture. Their performance in Philadelphia presented by Fire Museum was also named a 2014 Best Performance in Philadelphia by Ken Weiss in Cadence Magazine. In the summer of 2015, they were invited to take part in a week long composition residency at COART in Lijiang, China which culminated in a concert of the music they created together during that week.

Both musicians have shaped their own successful careers on their own. Li Daiguo is a major figure in the experimental traditional music world in China and abroad. The multi-instrumentalist has performed solo concerts on cello, pipa, throat singing and beat boxing at Paris Cite De La Musique, Sonic Protest Festival France, Culturescapes Arts Festival in Switzerland, World Sacred Spirits Festival in India as well as festivals all over China. He has also composed for the Guangzhou Modern Dance company, Guangzhou Ballet company, Nobu Khan Malaysian Butoh Dance festival and has released numerous recordings on his own.

Combining jazz, experimental, electronic and rock, Rick Parker casts a broad net with his trombone playing augmented by electronics and synthesizers. His music has been described as “an expressive new-breed fusion, informed by a few generations of downtown experimentation.” Nate Chinen, New York Times. He leads/co-leads several groups including: jazz quintet, the Rick Parker Collective; Little Worlds a trio dedicated to the performance of Bela Bartok’s Mikrokosmos and 9 Volt with Eyal Maoz. These groups have 5 releases on labels including OutNow Recordings, Fresh Sound New Talent and eleven2eleven. Parker has worked with a large cross section of notable musicians including Tim Berne, Mingus Big Band, Charli Persip, Frank Lacy, Ravish Momin’s Tarana, Super Hi-Fi, Tim Kuhl, Beninghove’s Hangmen, hip hop legends the Wu Tang Clan, Ghostface Killah, DMC and mexican pop stars Ximena Sariñana and Natalia LaFourcade.

Upcoming ScottClark4tet Concerts

I am very excited to announce a few concerts that are coming up this month for my group the ScottClark4tet.

First we will be playing at Balliceaux, in Richmond, on February 16th with the Brian Jones Trio. This concert will feature music from our new release on Clean Feed Records “Bury My Heart” as well as some other SC4tet standards. The Brian Jones Trio will be playing some Brian Jones originals, as well as some standards and a number of other things. Brian’s bands are always amazing and you will not want to miss this. (more info here)

The following week we have two great shows. First on Wednesday, February 24th we will be performing the “Bury My Heart” suite at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts Millennium Stage in Washington DC. Doors for this concert open at 5:30pm and the show will start right at 6pm. Concerts at the Millennium Stage are free and open to the public.

Then on Friday, February 26th we will be performing the suite again, but this time in NY at the ShapeShifter Lab. This show is especially exciting as we will be sharing the stage with Nate Wooley and his Quintet. Nate has been a big source of inspiration for me over many years and it was a great honor to have our new record released the same time, on the same label, as his Quintet’s new record. If you’re not familiar with Nate’s music, or if you haven’t heard his latest record on Clean Feed Records, I truly encourage you to find out more info on him. (here is a great place to start http://natewooley.com) (also, more on Nate’s new record here Nate Wooley on Clean Feed Records and Nate Wooley Store)
This is an early show with sets at 7pm and 8:15pm $10.

Thank you all for your support and we hope to see you at one of these shows….

Tuesday, February 16th
ScottClark4tet & Brian Jones Trio @ Balliceaux
203 N. Lombardy St Richmond, VA
9pm $5

Wednesday, February 24th
ScottClark4tet @ Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Millennium Stage
2700 F St NW, Washington, DC 20566
6pm Free

Friday, February 26th
ScottClark4tet & Nate Wooley Quintet @ ShapeShifter Lab
18 Whitwell Pl, Brooklyn, NY 11215
7pm & 8:15pm $10

(If you haven’t picked up your copy of our new record…you can do so here https://scottwclark.com/listen/ or on the previous post below)

ScottClark4tet “Bury My Heart” on Clean Feed Records

I am very excited to announce that the ScottClark4tet record, “Bury My Heart”, has been released on Clean Feed Records. As some of you may know, I have been working on this suite of music for quite some time and I am really looking forward to sharing this work with everyone. The music is inspired by my research into my own ancestry as well as certain events from Native American history.

ScottClark4tet: Bury My Heart
1) Broken Treaties
2) Wounded Knee
3) Little Crow’s War
4) Big Horn
5) Sand Creek
6) Remembrance

ScottClark4tet:

Cameron Ralston- bass

Jason Scott- saxophone

Bob Miller- trumpet

Scott Clark- drums

Featuring JC Kuhl -bass clarinet & Bryan Hooten- trombone on “Broken Treaties”

ScottClark4tet: “Bury My Heart”

The title of this recording isn’t a mere literary reference (to “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”, by Dee Brown). Just like the novel, the music inside is a tragic and soulful portrait of one of the darkest pages of human history and particularly the United States past (with effects continuing to present day): the Native-American genocide. Created by jazz drummer and composer Scott Clark, himself of Native-American descent, it has the form of a suite but none of its formal, classical, aspects. The approach is irreverent, visceral, raw and urgent, further developing the unique style of this incredible musician coming from the vibrant scene of Richmond, Virginia. This is downbeat music, very much connecting to the inner feeling of that musical language called jazz, and we do feel the pain, but there’s no negativity on it. As Brian Edward Jones writes in the liner notes, remembering Albert Ayler, «music is the healing force of the universe». And what heals us is the freshness, the novelty and the creativity of this magnificent opus. Here is a masterpiece, not just another jazz album.

–Clean Feed Records

Some information on the songs and what inspired them.
Broken Treaties
It is estimated that there have been over 500 treaties entered into with Native Americans by the United States. It is also estimated that of those 500 treaties, nearly all of them were broken at some point in their history. Many times, the violation of these treaties led to most of the hostilities that erupted between Native Americans and the white settlers that the treaties were with.

Wounded Knee
On December 29, the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry surrounded a band of Ghost Dancers under Big Foot, a Lakota Sioux chief, near Wounded Knee Creek and demanded they surrender their weapons. As that was happening, a fight broke out between an Indian and a U.S. soldier and a shot was fired, although it’s unclear from which side. A brutal massacre followed, in which it’s estimated 150 Indians were killed (some historians put this number at twice as high), nearly half of them women and children. The cavalry lost 25 men.

The conflict at Wounded Knee was originally referred to as a battle, but in reality it was a tragic and avoidable massacre. Surrounded by heavily armed troops, it’s unlikely that Big Foot’s band would have intentionally started a fight. Some historians speculate that the soldiers of the 7th Cavalry were deliberately taking revenge for the regiment’s defeat at Little Bighorn in 1876. Whatever the motives, the massacre ended the Ghost Dance movement and was the last major confrontation in America’s deadly war against the Plains Indians.
(*history.com staff http://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/wounded-knee)

Little Crow’s War
Throughout the late 1850s, treaty violations by the United States and late or unfair annuity payments by Indian agents caused increasing hunger and hardship among the Dakota. Traders with the Dakota previously had demanded that the government give the annuity payments directly to them (introducing the possibility of unfair dealing between the agents and the traders to the exclusion of the Dakota). In mid-1862, the Dakota (led by Little Crow, Thaóyate Dúta) demanded the annuities directly from their agent, Thomas J. Galbraith. The traders refused to provide any more supplies on credit under those conditions, and negotiations reached an impasse.

On August 17, 1862, one young Dakota with a hunting party of three others killed five settlers while on a hunting expedition. That night a council of Dakota decided to attack settlements throughout the Minnesota River valley to try to drive whites out of the area. There has never been an official report on the number of settlers killed, although in Abraham Lincoln’s second annual address, he noted that not less than 800 men, women, and children had died.Over the next several months, continued battles pitting the Dakota against settlers and later, the United States Army, ended with the surrender of most of the Dakota bands. By late December 1862, soldiers had taken captive more than a thousand Dakota, who were interned in jails in Minnesota. After trials and sentencing, 38 Dakota were hanged on December 26, 1862, in the largest one-day execution in American history. In April 1863, the rest of the Dakota were expelled from Minnesota to Nebraska and South Dakota. The United States Congress abolished their reservations.
(*Wikipedia contributors. “Dakota War of 1862.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia)

Big Horn
At mid-day on June 25, Custer’s 600 men entered the Little Bighorn Valley. Among the Native Americans, word quickly spread of the impending attack. The older Sitting Bull rallied the warriors and saw to the safety of the women and children, while Crazy Horse set off with a large force to meet the attackers head on. Despite Custer’s desperate attempts to regroup his men, they were quickly overwhelmed. Custer and some 200 men in his battalion were attacked by as many as 3,000 Native Americans; within an hour, Custer and all of his soldiers were dead.

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also called Custer’s Last Stand, marked the most decisive Native American victory and the worst U.S. Army defeat in the long Plains Indian War. The demise of Custer and his men outraged many white Americans and confirmed their image of the Indians as wild and bloodthirsty. Meanwhile, the U.S. government increased its efforts to subdue the tribes. Within five years, almost all of the Sioux and Cheyenne would be confined to reservations.
(*history.com staff http://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/battle-of-the-little-bighorn)

Sand Creek
At dawn on November 29, 1864, approximately 675 U.S. volunteer soldiers commanded by Colonel John M. Chivington attacked a village of about 700 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians along Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado Territory. Using small arms and howitzer fire, the troops drove the people out of their camp. While many managed to escape the initial onslaught, others, particularly non-combatant women, children, and the elderly fled into and up the bottom of the dry stream bed. The soldiers followed, shooting at them as they struggled through the sandy earth. At a point several hundred yards above the village, the women and children frantically excavated pits and trenches along either side of the streambed to protect themselves. Some adult men attempted to hold back the Army with whatever weapons they had managed to retrieve from the camp, and at several places along Sand Creek the soldiers shot the people from opposite banks and brought forward the howitzers to blast them from their improvised defenses. Over the course of eight hours the troops killed around 200 Cheyenne and Arapaho people composed mostly of women, children, and the elderly. During the afternoon and following day, the soldiers wandered over the field committing atrocities on the dead before departing the scene on December 1 to resume campaigning.
(National Park Service http://www.nps.gov/sand/historyculture/index.htm)

Remembrance
Much of what we consider the “history” of Native Americans is still being felt to this day. There are still fights over land rights at Wounded Knee, there are still people fighting to have the United States honor treaties that were entered into many years ago, there are still conflicts about how the upcoming Sand Creek Massacre anniversary is being portrayed and there still remains fallout over the Dakota Wars and their aftermath. There are still many conflicts and issues that exist on reservations today including extreme poverty, illness, little or no access to health care etc. However, despite what would at first appear to be all negative stories, there are many hopeful ones as well. Native culture remains vibrant and efforts to bring back native languages are spreading throughout the country. There are many tribes that are continuing efforts to reclaim land that was lost and more awareness is being spread to the modern day reality of many Native Americans. It’s important to remember the past and see how it informs our present. It’s also important to see the beauty that exists in Native American culture and to help focus on the positives that do exist today.

New Band (Parallax) with Jeb Bishop, Bryan Hooten, Cameron Ralston, Bob Miller, Jason Scott and myself

I’m really excited to announce a new group called Parallax made up of many great Richmond musicians and the great trombonist Jeb Bishop from North Carolina. The group features Cameron Ralston-bass, Jason Scott-saxophone, Bob Miller-trumpet, Bryan Hooten-trombone, Jeb Bishop-trombone and myself on drums. We will be playing our first show on Tuesday August 12 at Balliceaux in Richmond, VA. The show starts at 9:30pm and it’s free.
I hope that you’ll join us for a great night of new music featuring compositions by Jeb Bishop and myself.

There will be a special set with my group the ScottClark4tet to open the night.

Thank you to everyone for your support…and I hope to see you there

Parallax w/ScottClark4tet
Tuesday August 12th
Balliceaux
203 N Lombardy St, Richmond, VA 23220
9:30pm Free

more soon…..

AZUL & ScottClark4tet @ Balliceaux 9/18

I hope you’ll join us at Balliceaux on September 18th when we share the stage with AZUL. AZUL features Brian Caputo on drums, Greg Howard on chapman stick and John D’earth on trumpet. I’ve heard some of their music and it is truly special music by truly amazing musicians. We can’t wait to share the stage with them. Here is just a small taste from one of their first shows…..

The show starts at 9:30pm and is free.

The ScottClark4tet is Cameron Ralston on bass, Jason Scott on sax, Bob Miller on trumpet and myself on drums.

AZUL & ScottClark4tet
Wednesday September 18th
Balliceaux
203 N. Lombardy St
9:30pm FREE

more info can on AZUL can be found on Greg Howard’s webpage
http://www.greghoward.com/azul/

https://www.facebook.com/events/199738680204594/

…..more soon

Exciting Shows On The Horizon

There are some great shows on the horizon for the 4tet….with some amazing musicians from both in and out of town. First on Tuesday March 27th we will be sharing a bill at Balliceaux with the duo of drummer Brian Jones and saxophonist JC Kuhl. Next we return to the Commercial Taphouse on Sunday April 1st for a free show.

Then 2 big shows later in the month of April. First, on April 12th at The Camel, we will be playing with New York’s amazing Endangered Blood made up of Trevor Dunn-bass, Jim Black-drums, Chris Speed-sax and Oscar Noriega-sax.
The following week we’ll be sharing the stage with a trio of great musicians from Chicago and Switzerland featuring Josh Berman– cornet, Fred Lonberg-Holm– cello, and Christoph Erb– saxophone. This show will be happening at FORInstance Gallery on April 19th.

On May 15th we will be performing for the Listening Room series at the Firehouse Theater with Richmond’s Near Earth Objects.
And then on May 22nd at The Camel, we will be releasing our first album. For that show we will be sharing the stage with more great musicians from Chicago. This time it will be the duo of Tim Daisy- drums and Jeb Bishop- trombone.

I know it’s a lot of music in a short time (not to mention all of the other great music that is always happening in RVA!) but it’s exciting to have such great musicians from out of town interested in coming to Richmond to share their music.

We’re also working out a small tour in May in support of the album….stay tuned for details on that.
Thanks to everyone for their support and come support live music!

Mon March 26 :: SCUO @ The Camel 9:00pm 1621 W. Broad St
Tue March 27 :: ScottClark4tet w/ Brian Jones/JC Kuhl duo @ Balliceaux 10pm 203 N. Lombardy St.
Sun April 1 :: ScottClark4tet @ The Commercial Taphouse 11 N. Robinson St. 9:30pm
Thurs April 12 :: ScottClark4tet w/Endangered Blood (Trevor Dunn, Jim Black, Chris Speed, Oscar Noriega) @ The Camel 1621 W. Broad St. 9:00pm
Thurs April 19 :: ScottClark4tet w/Josh Berman, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Christoph Erb @ FORInstance Gallery 107 E. Cary St 7:30pm
Wed May 9 :: ScottClark4tet @ Elm Bar 372 Elm St New Haven, CT 9:00pm
Thurs May 10 :: ScottClark4tet w/ Grass Roots (Darius Jones, Chad Taylor, Alex Harding, Sean Conly) @ IBeam 168 7th St Brooklyn, NY 8:30pm
Tue May 15 :: ScottClark4tet w/Near Earth Objects @ The Listening Room at Firehouse Theater 1609 W. Broad St 7:30pm
Tue May 22 :: ScottClark4tet cd release w/Tim Daisy & Jeb Bishop duo @ The Camel 1621 W. Broad St. 9:30pm
Sun June 10 :: ScottClark4tet @ The Commercial Taphouse 11 N. Robinson St. 9:30pm

Scott Clark: Percussionist // Composer // Improviser

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