Here’s something that could be the next step in music: having artists from different locations meeting on a stage either in person or via the internet.A pair of concerts in Amherst and Zurich are presented here with half the ensemble being “live” at the theatre, and the other part showing up on a screen. What makes it even more interesting is that the music is fairly open and free.
For the Amherst concert, Marty Ehrlich/as-bcl, Jason Robinson/ts-fl and Bob Weiner/dr are in Massachusetts while Nicole Mitchell/fl, Michael Desson/tb, Myra Melford/p and Mark Dresser/b “phone it in from San Diego, CA. The Zurich concert has MatthiasZiegler/fl with Gary Hemingway/dr teamed up 6000 miles away with the same San Diego quartet. The pieces are freely expressed compositions, with an amazing amount of interplay as on Mark Dresser’s “For Instance, Today” and “SubTeleToning.” Hemingway’s “3 Stories” lets the composer do some communication with the sticks, and after awhile, you don’t even notice the mixing of media. It’s quite a fascinating thing to see; these artists are really forced to listen to each other, and the interplay is quite inspiring. Who says “you had to be there”!
Pf Mentum dvd