Tag Archives: music

New Release “ToNow” on Clean Feed Records

CF478CD-COVER
I am very excited to announce the release of my new record “ToNow” on Clean Feed Records. (Purchase your copy below or on the music page) We celebrated the release with a show at Black Iris Gallery (321 W. Broad St. Richmond, VA) on Wednesday May 9th. The show was also an art opening for some of my paintings.

ToNow is a contribution in music to the protests that took place at Standing Rock for much of 2016-2017 and remains ongoing. Four songs represent four different aspects: “Plains” (the landscape), “Stand” (Standing Rock reservation), “Red, White, Yellow” (colors on the reservation flag) and “Cantapeta Creek” (the epicenter of the protests). ToNow is meant to be listened to as a suite, continuing the through-compositional voice heard on Bury My Heart (2016), inspired by the events in Dee Brown’s book of the same name.

On the Title:
ToNow comes from something that my daughter said to me one day, “No dada not today tonow”  and I thought that was brilliant. It applies to my thoughts on the events at Standing Rock and a lot of other current issues. We can’t wait until tomorrow or even today, things need to happen ToNow.

On the Recording:
I would send some pictures or links to stories to try to have the musicians coming from a similar place emotionally when we would go to play it on a particular take. That’s the most important thing–trying to capture what the piece is and the emotion of what you’re playing.

On the Cover:
The cover is one of my paintings that happened to be finished on Columbus Day. I like the idea of the colors falling down and there being no stars. It means many different things to many different people.

Personnel:
Cameron Ralston, bass
Jason Scott, saxophone
Bob Miller, trumpet
Scott Clark, drums & compositions
Alan Parker, guitar
Tobin Summerfield, guitar

Thank you all for your support and I look forward to sharing more with you soon….

ScottClark ToNow

$14.00

Upcoming RVA Shows

I am very excited to have a string of great concerts coming up in the next week and a half.
First, Thursday 4/20 at Vagabond in RVA.  My great friend and amazing musician Scott Burton has put together a night of music he’s calling Small Talk.  He describes it as follows:
“Small Talk is a new free musical improvisation series from Scott Burton featuring chance encounters between creatives. The idea is simple: 2 short sets of musical small talk, and 1 set where all the players come together for a longer conversation. You get to eavesdrop!”
Small Talk #1 will be:
Set 1: Guitarists Scott Burton and Toby Summerfield
Set 2: Drummer Scott Clark and Guitarist Alan Parker
Set 3: All of the Above
(more info here https://www.facebook.com/events/1404305372965670/)
(Vagabond 700 E. Broad St. 10pm Free)


Then on Friday 4/21 Cary Street Cafe presents RVA Jazz Night.  This show will feature 3 amazing groups in one night.  First Scott Burton’s new Kessel Quartet will be performing the music of guitarist Barney Kessel.  Next, my group the ScottClarkEnsemble will be performing some new music fresh to everyone.  Finally, Charles Owens will have his quartet performing music from his new release “As One” (https://charlesowens.bandcamp.com/album/as-one).  Special thanks to Jeremy Simmons for helping set up this great night of music at one of Richmond’s staple music venues.  (more info here https://www.facebook.com/events/255989714809070/)
(Cary St. Cafe 2631 W. Cary St. 10pm $10)

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Finally, Thursday 4/27 the great Chicago saxophonist Dave Rempis will be in town performing two sets at Candela Books and Gallery in Richmond (214 W. Broad St. 7pm $10).  The first set will be of Dave’s work for solo saxophone, followed by a collaboration of a trio featuring Dave, myself and the great guitarist/composer Toby Summerfield.
Dave is on a tour that he describes as follows:
“Prolific Chicago-based saxophonist Dave Rempis (Rempis Percussion Quartet, Ballister, Rempis/Abrams/Ra, The Engines) will undertake a sprawling solo journey around the United States this spring, developing repertoire for his first solo release scheduled on Aerophonic Records this fall, while also working to strengthen the informal networks that connect, inform, and sustain the improvised music scene throughout the U.S. Each concert on the trip will involve a solo set, as well as a collaboration with one or more locally-based musicians in every city he visits.  The working title of this ambitious project is Lattice.”

More about Dave Rempis can be found below or at http://daverempis.com

Saxophonist, improviser, and composer Dave Rempis has been an integral part of the thriving Chicago jazz and improvised music scene since 1997.  With a background in ethnomusicology and African studies at Northwestern University, including a year spent at the University of Ghana, Rempis burst onto the creative music scene at the age of 22 when he joined the well-known Chicago jazz outfit The Vandermark Five. This opportunity catapulted him to notoriety as he began to tour regularly throughout the US and Europe, an active schedule that he still maintains to the present day.  At the same time, Rempis began to develop the many Chicago-based groups for which he’s currently known, including The Rempis Percussion Quartet, The Engines, Ballister, Rempis/Abrams/Ra, Wheelhouse, Triage, The Rempis/Rosaly Duo, and  The Rempis/Daisy Duo.  Other collaborations have included work with Paul Lytton, Axel Dörner, Fred Anderson, Peter Brötzmann, C. Spencer Yeh, Hamid Drake, Steve Swell, John Tchicai, Roscoe Mitchell, Kevin Drumm, Paal Nilssen-Love, Nels Cline, and Joe McPhee.  Rempis has been named regularly since 2006 in the annual Downbeat Critics’s Poll as a “rising star” on alto saxophone, and as a “rising star” and “established talent” on baritone saxophone.  In 2013, he started his own record label, Aerophonic Records, to document this ongoing work. 

Rempis’ musical expression draws on a number of touchstones.  While heavily improvisational in nature, his Greek ethnicity, studies in jazz and ethnomusicology, an appreciation for the philosophical underpinnings of contempory composition, and a love for unforgivingly strident yelps, screeches, and squeals that can encompass the ever-evolving state of human depravity all inform his work. 

Aside from his role as a musician and composer, Rempis has worked tirelessly as a presenter.  Since 2002, he’s organized and produced a weekly series of improvised music at Chicago’s Elastic Arts Foundation.  He was a founding member of Umbrella Music, and one of the lead producers and curators of its annual festival in Chicago from 2006-2014, and served as the business manager of the Pitchfork Music Festival from 2005-2016.  He currently works with the Hyde Park Jazz Festival.

Thanks for your support and more soon……

 

New Music….Clark:Rempis:Roebke Live at The Hungry Brain


I was lucky enough to travel to Chicago in mid 2014 to play and hear some great music. This recording is a documentation from that trip and a set that I played at the Hungry Brain featuring the great saxophonist Dave Rempis and the great bassist Jason Roebke. It was an honor to get to play with both of these musicians. You can find out more information about these musicians on their websites and see all of the great music that they have available.
Dave Rempis: www.daverempis.com
Jason Roebke: www.jasonroebke.info

Thank you for your support

more soon…..

Nick Millevoi Desertion Trio w/ScottClark6tet

I’m very excited about this show coming up on Sunday January 29th at The Camel in Richmond.  We’ll be welcoming Nick Millevoi Desertion Trio to town…and my new ensemble, the ScottClark6tet will be opening.
I’ve known Nick for years having opened up for some of his other projects (notably Many Arms).  The Desertion Trio features Kevin Shea on drums and Johnny DeBlase on bass.  This is a truly special group of musicians, and I’m very excited to have them coming through Richmond.

Nick Millevoi’s Desertion Trio w/ScottClark6tet
The Camel 
1621 W. Broad St., Richmond, VA 23220
$7adv $10 door
Doors open at 7pm
(Facebook event link here Nick Millevoi’s Desertion Trio w/ScottClark6tet)

Here is a short description of Nick and his band:
Desertion Trio is the newest project from intrepid Philadelphia-based guitarist/composer Nick Millevoi, exploring the sonic space between Neil Young’s expansive work with Crazy Horse, late 60s free jazz, and the NY Downtown scene. Millevoi’s Desertion Trio features Johnny DeBlase of Sabbath Assembly and Zevious on bass and Kevin Shea, best known for his work with jazz assassins Mostly Other People Do The Killing and Talibam!, on drums.

Nick’s resume includes playing John Zorn‘s Bagatelles with the Hollenberg-Millevoi Quartet, playing guitar with Chris Forsyth and the Solar Motel Band live and on the group’s critically acclaimed The Rarity of Experience, and co-leading noise jazz trio Many Arms, who released two CDs on John Zorn’s Tzadik label. Nick’s music has been released by labels such as Tzadik, New Atlantis, Gaffer, and The Flenser, and has been reviewed by Pitchfork, SPIN, NPR Music, The Onion AV Club, Wire magazine, and many others.

In May 2015, Shhpuma, part of the Clean Feed label, focused on releasing music that goes “beyond, below and above the jazz realm,” released the debut record by Desertion, featuring bassist Johnny DeBlase, keyboardist Jamie Saft, and drummer Ches Smith. In a track premiere for NPR Music, Lars Gotrich said Desertion “hits the sweet spot between Neil Young’s exploratory Crazy Horse jams and a spaghetti western soundtrack,” and Aquarium Drunkard said, “Desertion is well worth getting lost in.”

Opening the show will be my new group called the ScottClark6tet.
The group features some of my favorite musicians.
Cameron Ralston-bass
Jason Scott-saxophone
Bob Miller-trumpet
Alan Parker-guitar
Tobin Summerfield-guitar
Scott Clark- drums
We will be playing all new music written for this band…and I couldn’t be more excited and honored to get to play with this group.

We’d love to have you come join us for this great show…..

won’t you join us?

ScottClark4tet “Bury My Heart”

ScottClark4tet BuryMyHeart cover CF 347

I know that in today’s culture it’s become “on to the next thing”. In music it’s the same way, “on to the next record”. Not many people want to know what you did but rather, “what are you doing?” There are some elements of that which I agree with, however last November I released a record on Clean Feed Records called “Bury My Heart”. Some of you may have heard the record or maybe saw a show, but after a recent concert performing the suite from that record, I feel that it is just as relevant today as it was the day that I started writing the music. I want to thank everyone that has checked out the record, and the inspiration/stories behind the music, as well as all the musicians that have played the suite with me live or on the record itself. (and also a special thank you to Pedro Costa at Clean Feed for helping get the record out into the world).
If you would like to check it out, you can find the music on my website as well as on Clean Feed’s site.
I am working on new music for this project…which I look forward to sharing with you soon. In the meantime, thank you all for your support and a special thank you to the people that I get to make music with for being so giving of their time and talents to make this music come alive and have the impact that it has had.
more soon…..

 

Exciting Upcoming Concerts…


For many years now I’ve been working (along with many other people) to try to bring world class musicians to our city to perform and connect with what we’re doing here in Richmond.  A lot of that wouldn’t be possible without the support of Chris Bopst at Balliceaux, Lucas Fritz at The Camel and The Broadberry and recently the Black Iris Gallery and their Tiny Bar Sessions.  (there have also been many other great venues and supporters of shows over the years….Tony Garcia and Darryl Harper at VCU, Gallery 5, Commercial Taphouse, ForInstance Gallery, Black Hand Coffee, Hardywood Brewery and many many many others!).

There are two shows coming up that I am very excited to be bringing to Richmond.  First is the group Friends and Neighbors joining us all the way from Norway on Friday, September 2nd at Black Iris Gallery.  Doors for the show open at 8:30pm and music starts right at 9pm.  Tickets are $10
Quoting from their website: “Friends & Neighbors represents a new generation of bands from the Norwegian jazz-scene. The music can be described as energetic and melodic free jazz inspired by musicians like Ornette Coleman, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders and John Carter. On their debut album ”No Beat Policy”, Friends & Neighbors have created an authentic and acoustic atmosphere that refers back to the political roots of free jazz. Through original and strong compositions, this has resulted in a band sound with strong identity, crystal clear presence and personality.”

Being able to have an international jazz group playing in our city is a great thing…and I hope that you will come and support them and the music.
Find out more about them here:  Friends and Neighbors
Also hear their most recent release on Clean Feed Records here: http://cleanfeed-records.com/product/hymn-for-a-hungry-nation/

The second show is the group Battle Trance led by the great saxophonist/composer Travis Laplante.  This show will also be taking place at the Black Iris Gallery on Wednesday, September 7th (doors at 8:30pm music at 9pm. Tickets $10) Battle Trance’s new record “Blade of Love” was just released and it is a truly amazing record.
More on the group and the new record via their site:

“Blade of Love is the new album from tenor saxophone quartet Battle Trance. The follow-up to their widely acclaimed debut Palace of Wind (2014), Blade of Love is an elemental composition that aims to fulfill the tenor saxophone’s expansive potential as an ensemble instrument. Working within the intimate intersection of the human body/breath and the saxophone, Blade of Love is a spiritual and enigmatic work with a deep emotional resonance. 

Since forming in 2012, the four saxophonists in Battle Trance (Travis Laplante, Patrick Breiner, Matt Nelson, Jeremy Viner) have spent hundreds of hours deepening their musical connection with each other, maturing as an ensemble through relentless touring everywhere from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, Montreal to Vancouver, and most places in between. 

The three movements of Blade of Love were composed by Battle Trance leader Travis Laplante and recorded by the group in a wooden room with soaring ceilings in the Vermont forest, after spending two years of rigorous rehearsals working to perfect the array of extended techniques, both virtuosic and primal, required to bring the challenging piece to life. 

Blade of Love’s central focus is on the physical and spiritual intersection of the saxophone and the human body. The saxophone is one of the few instruments that literally enters the body of the person playing it, and Blade of Love is a medium for this sacred meeting place, with each member of Battle Trance using the saxophone as a vessel for the human spirit. 

Singing has an inherent power, but that power is heightened in the context of Blade of Love. At times, the four players sing while exhaling through the saxophone tubes, using the instrument’s keys to shift the timbre of their voices. Laplante also integrates non-traditional mouth articulations, using the saxophone as a resonant chamber for these inventive sounds.”

You can purchase your copy of their new record at the show and also hear a sample of the music via the bandcamp page here: https://battletrance.bandcamp.com/album/blade-of-love

These two shows are just the most recent, in a long list of shows, that will pass through Richmond.  I hope that you will come support the music and help to continue to make Richmond a destination for other musicians to stop at and share their music with us.

For both of these shows my group, the ScottClarkOther4tet, will be opening.  For the show on September 2nd the 4tet will be playing music that we’ve been working on over the past few months, stemming from some of my early compositions.  For the show on September 7th we will be performing the suite “Bury My Heart” from our most recent release on Clean Feed Records.  This will be the first performance of the suite with guitarist Alan Parker, and I am very excited to share this music with you.  If you haven’t already heard the record you can hear it here (https://cleanfeed-records.com/product/bury-my-heart/) and I will also have hard copies for sale at both shows.
ScottClarkOther4tet

As always, thank you for all of your support….

more soon…..

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.

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

Parallax

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…..

New Recording….coming soon

 

image © ScottClark

image © ScottClark

I’m very excited to be going into the studio this week to record some music that my band (ScottClark4tet) and I have been working on for quite some time now.  The music was inspired in part by some of the events described in Dee Brown’s book “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” as well as many other books describing the history of Native Americans, and their dealings with white settlers and politicians.  This music has been a great source of inspiration to me, and the musicians in the band have really made this music come to life over the past few months.  I am really looking forward to recording this music and I am planning for debut of the suite sometime this November.

On November 29th of this year, there will be a remembrance of  the Sand Creek Massacre (one of the main events that inspired this music and spawned much of my personal study on the subject).  It is described by the National Parks Service as “…one of the most emotionally charged and controversial events in American history, a tragedy reflective of its time and place.”  

More from the National Parks Service website about Sand Creek (http://www.nps.gov/sand/historyculture/index.htm)
     “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 noncombatant 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.

Since the barbarism of November 29, the Sand Creek Massacre maintains its station as one of the most emotionally charged and controversial events in American history, a tragedy reflective of its time and place. The background of the Sand Creek Massacre lay in a whirlwind of events and issues registered by the ongoing Civil War in the East and West; the overreactions by whites on the frontier to the 1862-63 Dakota uprising in Minnesota and its aftermath; the status of the various bands of Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians relative to each other as well as other plains tribes; the constant undercurrent of threatened Confederate incursions; and the existing state of politics in Colorado including the intrigues of individual politicians in that territory. Perhaps most important, the seeds of the Sand Creek Massacre lay in the presence of two historically discordant cultures within a geographical area that both coveted for disparate reasons, an avoidable situation that resulted in tragedy.”

This music and these events don’t just exist in a vacuum.  Many of these topics still are being dealt with today.  From the debate over the Washington Redskins team name (http://cnn.it/1vtPsZQ) (also, read the comment section to see more) to History Colorado’s (the Colorado Historical Society) dealing with the upcoming remembrance of the Sand Creek Massacre (http://bit.ly/1kivPyK) or to all of the many events happening in and around the Native American community (http://bit.ly/1sLRAYA) there is a lot going on right now.  I don’t claim to be an expert on all of the inner workings of what is happening now, or what has happened in the past.  I have however been deeply affected by what I have learned and how it informs my own life.  Through my research and through this music, I hope to share a part of my dealings with these subjects with as many people as I can.  I also know that this is just the beginning of a lifelong search for more knowledge and understanding.

I am very grateful to Spacebomb Studios for allowing us to record in their great studio and specifically to Trey Pollard, Matthew E. White, Pinson Chanselle, Cameron Ralston and the rest of the Spacebomb family for helping me to realize this recording. I look forward to sharing this music with as many people as possible and as soon as possible. Most importantly, I can not thank the guys in the band (Cameron Ralston, Bob Miller and Jason Scott) enough for being so giving of their time over the past few years….and also to everyone along the way for all of your support.  THANK YOU!!

more soon…..