Thursday 8 October 2009, 8pm
Duets with Japanese guitarist Kazuhisa Uchihashi and New York based vocalist Shelley Hirsch.
Kazuhisa Uchihashi was a founding member of the groundbreaking group Altered States and was also a member of the equally crucial and internationally renowned Ground Zero with Otomo Yoshihide. He has played with everyone from Fred Frith to Peter Brötzmann and Derek Bailey.
Shelley Hirsch’s approach to vocal improvisation is completely unique she has been a major figure in the New York scene playing with John Zorn, Christian Marclay, Aki Onda and many others.
SHELLEY HIRSCH / KAZUHISA UCHIHASHI - Duets
“One of the best pairing of personalities that one could imagine, Hirsch and Kazuhisa show all their magnificent talent in a flawless live recording. The American vocalist is her usual self, her interpretation ranging from one genre to another with a fantasy and an intelligence that are rare to see nowadays; her technical ability is well known, so is the sense of humour that she always puts in front of us, a trademark for which Shelley is recognizable at the first note she hits. Uchihashi Kazuhisa complements her in stunningly perfect fashion, accompanying and counterpointing through a fresh sense of technical abandon that never cancels the simple beauty of the "gesture of playing". His use of delays and effects to reach different timbral zones is a perfect balance to Shelley's crazy yet lucid evolutions. And when they try to subvert "In a sentimental mood" with their cross between anarchy and loving homage, well - I think that the circle is closed. This is a masterpiece.” (review on CD: Shelley Hirsch / Kazuhisa Uchihashi Duets. Innocent, ICR-008, 2002.)
KAZUHISA UCHIHASHI: GUITAR
A pioneering Japanese guitarist, Uchihashi is involved in a wide variety of musics, but still retains a commitment to free improvisation.
Born in 1959 in Osaka, Uchihashi began to play the guitar at age 12, playing in various rock bands, though he later studied jazz. In 1988 he joined the band the First Edition, and in 1990 formed the ground-breaking group Altered States with Yasuhiro, a band that has toured internationally for more than a decade with an accompanying onslaught of compact-disc and video-tape releases. He was also a member of the equally crucial and internationally renown Ground Zero with Otomo Yoshihide from 1994 through 1997. He has been in demand as a guest on dozens of records, not only in Japan, but in the U.S.A. and Europe, collaborating with musicians of the callibre of Fred Frith, Shelley Hirsch , and Frank Hautzinger.
Other musicians with whom he has worked on the international scene include Hans Reichel, Roger Turner, Heinz Ditsch, Helge Hinteregger, Barre Phillips, Kang Tae Hwan, Leo Smith, Peter Brötzmann, Jon Rose, Lauren Newton, Eugene Chadbourne, Derek Bailey and Elliott Sharp.
Uchihashi’s work as an organiser is substantial. In addition to being the musical director for the Osaka theatre group Ishin-ha, he has held improvisation workshops (a project known as New Music Action) throughout Japan, as well as in Europe, and has created his own label, Zenbei, to offer a platform to new music. More widely known is the fact that he has curated and managed his own festivals, including the Osaka-based, but international- in-scope Beyond Innocence festival for the last ten years.
‘this gentle and accomplished player is able to reel out riffs in a variety of rock and country styles, as well as play excellent versions of mainstream jazz standards’ (Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide, 2009)
LINKS
http://homepage.mac.com/innocentrecords/
http://www.japanimprov.com/kuchihashi/index.html
SHELLEY HIRSCH
Shelley Hirsch is an award winning, critically acclaimed vocalist, composer, and storyteller whose mostly solo compositions, staged multimedia works, improvisations, radio plays, installations and collaborations have been produced and presented in concert halls, clubs, festivals, theaters, museums, galleries on 5 continents as well as on radio, television and film worldwide.
She has recorded over 70 Cds including her solo recordings, duos recordings w/ David Weinstein, Jon Rose and Uchihashi Kasuhisa,, as vocalist with September Band and X- Communication and as vocalist on recordings by Butch Morris, Billy Martin, Jim Staley, John Zorn, Elliot Sharp, Nicolas Collins, Richard Teitelbaum, Alvin Curran, Raz Mesinai, David Watson, David First etc. She has improvised with Christian Marclay, Aki Onda, Anthony Coleman, Joey Baron, Fred Frith, Ikue Mori, Okkyung Lee, Bruce Andrews, Lee Renaldo, Shahzad Ismaily, Roger Turner, Chris Cutler, Arnold Dreyblatt and has collaborated on projects with visual artists Jim Hodges, Barbara Bloom, and Ursula Scherrer and Christian Marclay. Hirsch was recently music director, composer performer for Zoe Beloff’s Psychopathological Musical in 2 parts,” part of Beloffs 3D film installation “The Somnambulists.”
LINKS
