Jarvis and Friends, Volume 2

Jarvis and Friends, Volume 2 – Composers Concordance Records: COMCON0053


Art by Mark Kostabi

Liner Notes on NAXOS:
Jarvis and Friends Volume 2 is the second release in a series of CDs comprising collections of mostly improvised duos. Volume 2 includes bass trombone, electric guitar, multiple percussion, mallet percussion, drum set and vocals. As before, Peter Jarvis has teamed up with some of the finest musicians in the world, including David Taylor (bass trombone and vocals), Gene Pritsker (electric guitar), Kevin Norton (vibraphone and percussion) and Payton MacDonald (marimba.) Peter Jarvis is playing marimba, multiple percussion and drum set. The volume includes both improvisations and composed pieces. The artwork is by Mark Kostabi.

Tracks:
David Taylor – Bass Trombone and Vocals, Peter Jarvis – Percussion
1. Windswept Voices for Bass Trombone, Vocals and Percussion (2018) – David Taylor (14:43)

Kevin Norton – Vibraphone & Percussion, Peter Jarvis – Marimba and Drum Set
2. Getting Started (2018) – Norton/Jarvis (improv.) (3:21)
3. Knots (2018) – Kevin Norton (2:40)
4. Peaceful Anarchy (2018) – Kevin Norton (0:37)
5. Preliminary Issues (2018) – Kevin Norton (0:24)
6. Urgency (2018) – Kevin Norton – (0:35)
7. Structures 2, Opus 82 (2018) – Peter Jarvis (4:54)

Gene Pritsker – Electric Guitar, Peter Jarvis – Drum Set
8. Time and Again, Opus 78 (2018) – Peter Jarvis (3:28)
9. The Worst Enemy to Creativity is Self-doubt 1 – Pritsker/Jarvis (improv.) (2:33)
10. The Worst Enemy to Creativity is Self-doubt 2 – Pritsker/Jarvis (improv.) (1:37)
11. Unstable Behavior in Paintings (2018) – Gene Pritsker (3:58)

Payton MacDonald – Marimba, Peter Jarvis – Drum Set
12. Forever Hidden, Forever in Plain Sight (2018) – Payton MacDonald (4:52)
13. Interlude 1 (2018) – MacDonald/Jarvis (improv.) (0:44)
14. Having Fun (2018) – MacDonald/Jarvis (improv.) (4:59)
15. Interlude 2 (2018) – MacDonald/Jarvis (improv.) (0.51)
16. Impulsive Energy (2018) – MacDonald/Jarvis (improv.) (3:10)
17. Interlude 3 (2018) – MacDonald/Jarvis (improv.) (0:15)
18. Naturally (2018) – MacDonald/Jarvis (improv.) (3:25)
19. Interlude 4 (2018) – MacDonald/Jarvis (improv,) (0:41)
20. Structures 1, Opus 81 (2018) – Peter Jarvis (3:11)

About the Music:
All of the improvisations are unrehearsed collaborations.
The following notes were written by the composers.

Structures 2, Opus 82 – Peter Jarvis (BMI)
Structures 2 (Opus 82) was completed on May 23, 2018. It was composed for and is dedicated to Kevin Norton.  I composed the piece for inclusion on my CD Jarvis and Friends, Volume 2. Structures 2 is comprised of notated music and improvisation.

Time and Again, Opus 78 – Peter Jarvis (BMI)
Time and Again, for electric guitar and drum set was completed on March 23, 2018 and is the third piece for this combination of instruments that I composed for my friend Gene Pritsker. Time and Again is dedicated to Mark Kostabi and it was inspired by his painting of the same name, which he did for me.  – Peter Jarvis

Unstable Behavior in Paintings – Gene Pritsker (BMI)
I wrote a piece for bendir & drum set, for Peter Jarvis and Glen Velez, called ‘Recrudescence’. When I was writing my new piece for electric guitar and drum set I decided to re-imagine this music, leaving the drum set part as is and using the notation of the bendir to create the guitar part. Recrudescence means the revival of material or behavior that had previously been stabilized, so this made sense to me, I am reusing material that has already been written, Recrudescence is also usually defined as the recurrence of symptoms, so the musical material being the symptom that is requiring in the new composition. The word behavior struck me as well, and I decided to go to the visual arts and fine paintings that deal with reoccurring behavior, I found that many paintings dealt with unstable behavior, and researched 26 of this paintings. I also made a movie slide show that goes with these paintings.  – Gene Pritsker

Forever Hidden, Forever in Plain Sight – Payton MacDonald (ASCAP)
I wrote Forever Hidden, Forever in Plain Site for my friend Peter Jarvis on the occasion of his recording. I was honored to be a part of the project and wanted to create a new piece. The piece is dedicated to Matt Marks, a friend of mine who passed away around the time Peter and I were making the recording

Structures 1, Opus 81 – Peter Jarvis (BMI)
Structures 1, (Opus 81) was completed on May 13, 2018 (Mother’s Day) and is lovingly dedicated to my mom, Lenore Jarvis. It was composed specifically for virtuoso Payton MacDonald with the intention of including it on my CD Jarvis and Friends, Volume 2. The piece includes notated music and improvisation, which is a passion Payton and I share.  We recorded the piece, during July of 2018.  – Peter Jarvis

Biographical Information:
Performers:
Peter Jarvis:
Peter Jarvis (b. 1959, Hackensack, New Jersey) is a percussionist, drummer, conductor, composer, music copyist, print music editor, and college professor. He is Director of New Music at William Paterson University. He teaches percussion and chamber music at William Paterson University, Connecticut College and Bergen Community College in New Jersey. He is an Associate Director of the Composers Concordance and has over 100 compositions.

Over the decades, he has performed popular and unpopular music with equal enthusiasm. He has performed as a soloist, chamber player, Broadway musician and as conductor/player with numerous chamber music ensembles, orchestras, and choruses.  The proliferation of percussion literature is extremely important to Jarvis, and nearly 100 solo pieces have been composed for him, which he has performed on multi percussion, timpani, vibraphone, marimba, solo snare drum and drum set composed for him.

He has been nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for “Best Score” as part of the composing team for major Hollywood films.
As a conductor, he has appeared with the Saint Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, The New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, Composers Concordance, and many other groups. He records extensively as a soloist, chamber musician and conductor and his compositions are heard on several labels.  His compositions are published by Calabrese Brothers Music LLC, Indian Paintbrush Productions and L-T Music Publishing and he is a member of BMI. – From Wikipedia

Payton MacDonald:
Payton MacDonald is a musician, filmmaker, and ultra-endurance cyclist. He explores the frontiers of art in a variety of settings, from Carnegie Hall to remote wilderness locations. He spent his early years drumming along with jazz records, while exploring the Rocky Mountains near his home in Idaho by foot, bicycle, and skis. Eventually he was shaped into a percussionist who plays marimbas, snare drums, bicycles, plants, pots and pans, and anything else that might produce an interesting tone. Along the way Payton discovered Indian classical music, and after 20 years of studying that ancient music he now sings it in concert halls, yoga centers, and ashrams. Payton studied music formally at the University of Michigan (BFA) and Eastman School of Music (MM and DMA), as well as with the legendary Gundecha Brothers (Dhrupad vocal) and Pandit Sharda Sahai (tabla). He teaches music at William Paterson University, and tours nationally and internationally as a percussionist, singer, and speaker.

Kevin Norton:
Kevin Norton was born in Brooklyn and raised in Staten Island, NY. Studies at Hunter College introduced Kevin to Milt Hinton and after a short period, Kevin began to perform with Milt Hinton, eventually recording The Judge’s Decision with a quartet led by Milt. After getting his Masters Degree from Manhattan School of Music, he became very active as a percussionist in New York, especially taking part in the blossoming downtown New York City scene. This lead to him playing with Fred Frith‘s band Keep the Dog, which also included harpist Zeena Parkins and saxophonist John Zorn. However, he longed to return to his jazz roots and began to play with downtown outsiders Phillip Johnston and Joel Forrester and their co-led band, the Microscopic Septet (and later Johnston’s Big Trouble, with two CDs on Black Saint). Too numerous to list here: Kevin played with many musicians on the downtown scene but eventually concentrated on his own compositions and own ensembles For Guy Debord (in nine events) is a composition for quintet and woodwind soloist (originally Anthony Braxton) based on the texts of the radical French philosopher whose thought proved central to the riots of Paris, 1968. Change Dance (Troubled Energy) draws its inspiration from another radical political activist, Kathy Change (born Kathleen Chang). Both suites are approximately an hour in duration. In 2006 Mr. Norton premiered Water and Fire Suite, commissioned as part of the national series of works from Meet The Composer Commissioning Music/USA. He has led and/or co-led about 20 critically acclaimed recordings, many of them making year-end “Best of” lists. His recording, Time-Space Modulator, integrates intricate, notated composition work with the deep improvisatory skills of Kevin, Tony Malaby, Dave Ballou and John Lindberg. Norton has also played with many highly esteemed European improvisers such as Paul Rogers, Joëlle Léandre, John Tilbury, Paul Dunmall and Frode Gjerstad. (Gjerstad and Norton formed TiPPLE with guitarist David Watson: a cooperative, free improvising trio that has released 3 CDs as of 2015) For about ten years, Mr. Norton was Anthony Braxton‘s main percussionist in both the “ghost trance” phase and the “standards” phase, plotting out the course for all percussionists who followed him. Other great American masters Kevin has performed and/or recorded with include John Lindberg, Connie Crothers, James Emery, Scott Robinson, Nick Didkovsky, Steve LaSpina, Marshall Allen, Kazzrie Jaxen, Peter Zummo, Henry Grimes and poet/activist John Sinclair. In June of 2002, Kevin Norton was a resident composer at the prestigious MacDowell Colony. Norton worked closely with composer Pat Irwin on the animated television show, Roco’s Modern Life for the Nickelodeon network (approximately 1993-1996). Norton composed the original soundtrack for the movie Anna May Wong: In Her Own Words (2013). Recent recordings include John Zorn’s Nosferatu (2012), Tipple’s No Sugar on Anything (2014), John Lindberg’s BC3 Born in an Urban Ruin (2016), Kevin Norton’s Breakfast of Champignon(s) Staten Island: All that is solid melts into air (2017). He has served on the faculty of several schools including the University of Maryland and is currently on the faculty of William Paterson University (Jazz Studies Program).

Gene Pritsker:
Composer/guitarist/rapper/Di.J./producer Gene Pritsker has written over seven hundred compositions, all of his compositions employ an eclectic spectrum of styles and are influenced by his studies of various musical cultures. He is the founder and leader of Sound Liberation; an eclectic hip hop-chamber-jazz-rock-etc. ensemble and co-director of Composers’ Concordance and Eclectic Music eXtravaganza. Gene’s music has been performed all over the world by many ensembles and performers, including the Adelaide Symphony, MDR Symphony, China Philharmonic Orchestra, Brooklyn, Shanghai and Berlin Philharmonic. Soloists Sarah Chang, Anne Akiko Meyers, Tim Fain, Simone Dinnerstein and Lara St. John.  He has worked closely with modern jazz great Joe Zawinul and has orchestrated major Hollywood movies, Including ‘Cloud Atlas’, for which he also composed his ”Cloud Atlas Symphony’. The New York Times: audacious…multitalented.” The Music Connoisseur: ”dissolving the artificial boundaries between high brow, low brow, classical, popular musics and elevates the idea that if it’s done well it is great music, regardless of the style or genre”. Classical Music Sentinel:  “His expressive reach is so wide as to encompass everything from ethno/techno, rock/jazz fusion, classical opera and more, and it all seems to be effortlessly integrated within his anima and comes out through different facets of his persona. You could almost see him as a modern day renaissance man.
http://www.genepritsker.com/

David Taylor:
Receiving B.S. and M.S. degrees from The Julliard School of Music, David Taylor
started his playing career as a member of Leopold Stowkowski’s American
Symphony Orchestra, and with appearances with the New York Philharmonic
under Pierre Boulez. Simultaneously, he was a member of the Thad Jones Mel
Lewis jazz band, and recorded with groups ranging from Duke Ellington to The
Rolling Stones. He has also recorded numerous solo CDs on the following labels:
Koch, New World, ENJA, DMP, Tzadik, CIMP, PAU, and TLB. Mr. His two new
releases in 2018 on TLB are: And If All Were Dark, and Atomic Bomb Blues.

Mr. Taylor performs recitals and concerti around the world: from Lincoln Center in
NY to the Musikverein in Vienna and Suntory Hall in Japan. In addition to his own
compositions, he has been involved in dozens of commissioning projects for solo
bass trombone collaborating with composers including Alan Hovhaness, Charles
Wuorinen, George Perle, Frederic Rzewski, Lucia Dlugoszchewski, Eric Ewazen,
Dave Liebman, and Daniel Schnyder. He has appeared and recorded chamber
music with Yo Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, and Wynton Marsalis and performs with
the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, the Mostly Mozart Festival
Orchestra, Orpheus, and the St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra. Throughout his
career, Taylor has appeared and recorded with major jazz and popular artists
including Barbara Streisand, Miles Davis, Quincy Jones, Frank Sinatra, and
Aretha Franklin. Mr. Taylor has won the National Academy of Recording Arts and
Sciences Most Valuable Player Award for five consecutive years, and has been
awarded the NARAS Most Valuable Player Virtuoso Award, an honor accorded
no other bass trombonist. He has been a member of the bands of Gil Evans,
Thad Jones-Mel Lewis, Jaco Pastorius, Charles Mingus, JJ Johnson, Joe
Henderson, George Russell, Michelle Camillo, Bob Mintzer, Dave Matthews,
Dave Grusin, Randy Brecker, and the Words Within Music Trio (Daniel Schnyder,
David Taylor, Kenny Drew Jr., and B3*. He has performed on numerous
GRAMMY Award winning recordings.

David Taylor is also on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and
Mannes College. He plays Edwards bass trombones, and Griego/Taylor
mouthpieces exclusively.

Artwork:
Mark Kostabi:
Artist and composer Mark Kostabi was born in Los Angeles in 1960 to Estonian immigrants. Raised in Whittier, California, he studied drawing, painting and music at California State University, Fullerton. Kostabi moved to New York in 1982, and by 1984, emerged as a leading figure in the East Village art scene where he cultivated a provocative media persona by publishing self-interviews reflecting on the commodification of contemporary art. By 1987, his work was widely exhibited in New York galleries as well as prominently throughout the United States, Japan, Germany and Australia. He inspired extensive international press coverage in 1988 when he founded Kostabi World, his Manhattan art studio, which employs numerous painting assistants and idea people. Beginning in the early 1990s Kostabi’s work has been widely exhibited throughout Italy. Kostabi established a second home in Rome in 1996. Dividing his time between Rome and New York enabled him to dramatically enhance his presence in the Italian art scene.

Kostabi produces a cable TV show, The Kostabi Show, where noted art critics and celebrities compete to title his paintings for cash awards. From 2000 to 2010 he wrote an advice column for artists, Ask Mark Kostabi, for Artnet.com.
Kostabi has designed album covers for Guns ‘N’ Roses (Use Your Illusion) and The Ramones (Adios Amigos), Jimmy Scott (Holding Back The Years), Seether (Holding Onto Strings Better Left to Fray) and numerous products including a Swatch watch, a Bloomingdales bag, Alessi vases, Rosenthal espresso cups, and a Giro d’Italia pink jersey.
 
Kostabi is also known for his many collaborations with other artists including Enzo Cucchi, Arman, Howard Finster, Tadanori Yokoo, Enrico Baj and Paul Kostabi. 
 
Kostabi has performed concerts internationally both as a soloist and with other musicians including Ornette Coleman, Jerry Marotta, Tony Levin, Tony Esposito, Mark Egan, Tommy Campbell, John Lee, Paul Kostabi, Greesi Desiree Langovits, Gene Pritsker, David Taylor, Peter Jarvis, William Schimmel, the Composers Concordance String Orchestra and the Coro Polifonico “S. Francesco d’Assisi” di Terni. His compostions have also been performed independently by Rein Rannap, Kristjan Jarvi, Kathleen Supove, Absolute Ensemble, Maano Manni, Marko Martin, Ralf Taal, Delilah Gutman and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. His music has been performed in Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and the Estonia Concert Hall. His CDs include I Did It Steinway, Songs For Sumera, New Alliance, Kostabeat and Grace Notes.
 
Kostabi is the subject of numerous documentary films, most notably Bottom Line: The Kostabi Phenomenon directed by Peter Bach, Con Artist directed by Michael Sladek, and Everyone – Jedermann directed by Paul Tschinkel. Full Circle: The Kostabi Story, directed by Sabrina Digregorio, My Italy, directed by Bruno Colella. Kostabi has a prominent role in the Emmy award winning documentary The Art of Failure: Chuck Connelly Not for Sale directed by Jeff Stimmel.
Retrospective exhibitions of Kostabi’s paintings have been held at the Mitsukoshi Museum in Tokyo (1992) and the Art Museum of Estonia in Tallinn (1998). The famous Italian art historian and curator, Vittorio Sgarbi, curated a vast exhibition of 150 Kostabi paintings at the Chiostro del Bramante in Rome in 2006. Kostabi’s work is in over 50 permanent museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the National Gallery in Washington D.C., the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome and the Groninger Museum in Holland.
 
His permanent public works include a mural in Palazzo dei Priori in Arezzo, Italy, a large bronze sculpture in the central square of San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy, a bronze portrait of Pope John Paul II in Velletri, Italy and large bronze sculpture, Eternal Embrace, in Largo Villa Glori, Terni, Italy.
 
Kostabi has been profiled on 60 Minutes, Eye to Eye with Connie Chung, A Current Affair, Nightwatch (with Charlie Rose), The Oprah Winfrey Show, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, Nonsolomoda, West 57th, Between the Keys, CNN, MTV and numerous television programs throughout Europe and Japan. In print he has been featured in The New York Times, People, Vogue, Architectural Digest, The Face, Playboy, Forbes, New York Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph, Domus, Corriera Della Sera, Panorama, Artforum, Art in America, ARTnews, Flash Art, Arte, Arte In and Tema Celeste. The many books published about Kostabi include Sadness Because the Video Rental Store Was Closed, Kostabi: The Early Years, Conversations with Kostabi, The Rhythm of Inspiration, Mark Kostabi and the East Village Scene 1983-1987 and Mark Kostabi in the 21st Century.

Produced by Peter Jarvis
Recording Engineer and mixer tracks 1 – 11: David Kerzner
Recording Engineer and mixer tracks 12-20: Daniel Iucci
Mastering: David Kerzner
Recorded at William Paterson University
Recorded and Produced 2018-19
Art by Mark Kostabi