Anna Webber's explorations of just intonation in a quintet of New York improvisers, with Webber herself on tenor sax & flutes, Adam O'Farrill on trumpet, Mariel Roberts on cello, Elias Stemeseder on synthesizer and Lesley Mok on drums, her approachable compositions blurring the lines between tuning systems while focusing on fascinatingly exotic tonal combinations.
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Sample The Album:
Anna Webber-tenor saxophone, flute, bass flute
Adam O'Farrill-trumpet
Mariel Roberts-cello
Elias Stemeseder-synthesizer
Lesley Mok-drums
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Includes a color booklet.
UPC: 7640120194079
Label: Intakt
Catalog ID: ITK407.2
Squidco Product Code: 34508
Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2024
Country: Switzerland
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold 3 Panels
Recorded at Oktaven Audio, in Mount Vernon, New York, on December 5th and 6th, 2022, by Ryan Streber.
"Flutist, saxophonist and composer Anna Webber is a central figure in the New York jazz scene and is considered one of the most innovative musicians of the younger generation with a surprising range of activity. Her work has been hailed as "visionary and compelling" in the intersection of avant-garde jazz and new classical music, and her previous albums have ranked at the top of various jazz album best lists (including the NPR Jazz Critics Poll and the New York Times). In 2020 she was voted the best "Rising Star" flutist in the Downbeat Critic's Poll and in the 2023 poll she's listed in 5 seperate categories. In 2021, she was named a Berlin Prize Fellow and each of her records features musicians at the forefront of the intersecting worlds of improvised music and contemporary classical composition. With Adam O'Farrill, Mariel Roberts, Elias Stemeseder and Lesley Mok, Anna Webber's new band Shimmer Wince brings together the most innovative voices on the American jazz scene."-Intakt
"Anna Webber is well liked here at FJB, and it's easy to see why. Her compositions vary per project, but have an intriguing mix of autre jazz and autreclassical aesthetics - along with her own personal fascinations. Shimmer Wince grooves, but it grooves over alluringly repetitive, minimalist-informed charts. She is considered a "central figure in the New York jazz scene," and her downtown roots are showing.
This quintet sounds bigger than a quintet. It's only the prescribed five people - Webber on tenor and flutes, Adam O'Farril, trumpet, Mariel Roberts, cello, Elias Stemeseder, synths, and Lesley Mok, drums - but the arrangements, orchestration, and performance create a sense of depth, moment, and theatrics. Storytelling. Specific instruments are used to amplify this. The cello, for example, shapes the envelope of the sound in a unique way, as does the synth. But the voice is the ensemble. There's almost an element of sound design to the compositions, here. The group creates an ecosystem with all the implied structure, process, and mutuality. The instruments are tiered and stacked so that the ensemble floats through its subsets over time, but never stops laying ground. The forest-trees relationship is very cool. Every individual line is worth focusing on, but they disappear into the whole and we only gain by their confluence.
The liner notes tell us that these are explorations in just intonation, something I find very interesting in the abstract (really, I've read books about temperaments), but I have a hard time pointing to any portion of the music and saying, "There it is!" But the outcome speaks for itself. As with Pauline Oliveros - another just intonation advocate - Webber draws you in with an ensemble that is somewhat more harmonious than you find in nature, except that she's using "natural" tuning relationships to achieve it."-Gary Chapin, The Free Jazz Collective
Includes a color booklet.
Get additional information at The Free Jazz Collective
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Anna Webber "Reedist Anna Webber, a Brooklynite by way of British Columbia, is one of the most exciting new arrivals on the New York avant-garde jazz scene in the past couple years. Her second album, SIMPLE, demonstrates the inextricable link between her improvising and her compositions; her detail-rich writing recalls the work of elders as disparate as Tim Berne and Henry Threadgill, and her busy motion evokes a fizzy sort of exhilaration.-Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader Anna Webber is an integral part of a new wave of the Brooklyn avant-garde jazz scene. A saxophonist and flutist who strives for the unexpected, she has furthermore consistently proven herself to be a unique and forward-thinking composer with releases such as 2014's SIMPLE (Skirl Records) and 2013's Percussive Mechanics. Binary, the follow-up to SIMPLE which features bandmates John Hollenbeck and Matt Mitchell, further establishes Webber as a compelling improvisor and composer." ^ Hide Bio for Anna Webber • Show Bio for Adam O'Farrill "Adam O'Farrill is a trumpet player and composer from Brooklyn, NY. As a trumpeter, he has performed and/or recorded with artists such as Rudresh Mahanthappa, Mary Halvorson, Arturo O'Farrill, Mulatu Astatke, Brasstracks, Stephan Crump, Onyx Collective, Anna Webber, and Samora Pinderhughes. As a composer and bandleader, he has led the quartet, Stranger Days, comprised of Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, Walter Stinson, and Zack O'Farrill. Their eponymous debut (2016, Sunnyside Records) was inspired by film and literature, while the follow-up album, El Maquech (2018, Biophilia Records) covered everything from Mexican folk music to Irving Berlin, as well as O'Farrill's original compositions. Both were critically acclaimed, with the New York Times writing of the first release, "Marshaling a sharp band of his peers, Mr. O'Farrill establishes both a firm identity and a willful urge to stretch and adapt.". The latter album was listed as one of the best jazz albums of 2018 by the NPR Jazz Critics Poll, The Boston Globe, and Nextbop. Adam's newest project, Bird Blown Out of Latitude, is an electro-acoustic nonet, playing original music inspired by the feeling of being pushed off a perceived path. O'Farrill comes from a rich musical background, with his grandfather being the Afro-Cuban-Irish composer and arranger Chico O'Farrill, his father being the cultural boundary-pushing composer and pianist Arturo O'Farrill, his mother Alison Deane being a classical pianist and educator, and his brother Zack O'Farrill being a drummer, composer, and educator. Adam is of Mexican, Cuban, and Irish heritage on his dad's side, and Eastern European Jewish and African-American on his mom's side. This, combined with growing up in a place of immense cultural diversity, has shaped his tendency to break stylistic borders within not only his original music, but also in terms of who he works with a sideman. O'Farrill was subject of an article in Jazztimes entitled, "Adam O'Farrill Does Not Play Latin Jazz", where he spoke about the unfair treatment and pigeonholing of Latinx musicians. Adam made his professional recording debut on Chad Lefkowitz-Brown's debut album, Imagery Manifesto, in 2013. In 2015, he appeared on two critically acclaimed records; Rudresh Mahanthappa's Bird Calls and Arturo O'Farrill's Cuba: The Conversation Continues. Adam toured internationally with Mahanthappa's band from 2014 to 2017, performing at the Newport Jazz Festival, Chicago Symphony Hall, North Sea Jazz Festival, Cape Town International Jazz Festival, and more. In 2016, in addition to releasing Stranger Days, O'Farrill appeared on Stephan Crump's album, Rhombal, also garnering acclaim. Other projects he has recorded include Stimmerman (eponymous debut), Olli Hirvonen's New Helsinki, Gabriel Zucker's Weighting, and Onyx Collective's Lower East Suite Part One. Adam will also be featured on upcoming albums from Mary Halvorson, Anna Webber, Raf Vertessen, Thomas Champagne, and Idan Morim. Adam studied at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, and obtained his Bachelor of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music. He's studied trumpet with Jim Seeley, Nathan Warner, and Thomas Smith, and composition with Reiko Fueting and Curtis Macdonald. In 2014, O'Farrill won 3rd place honors at the Thelonious Monk Institute Jazz Trumpet Competition. He was also a recipient of the ASCAP Herb Albert Young Jazz Composer Award in 2013. ^ Hide Bio for Adam O'Farrill • Show Bio for Mariel Roberts ""Trailblazing" cellist Mariel Roberts (Feast of Music) is quickly gaining recognition as a deeply dedicated interpreter and performer of contemporary music. Recent performances have garnered praise for her "technical flair and exquisite sensitivity" (American Composers Forum), as well as her ability to "couple youthful vision with startling maturity". (InDigest Magazine). She holds degrees from both the Eastman School and the Manhattan School of Music, where she specialized in contemporary performance practice while studying with Alan Harris and Fred Sherry. Mariel is a performer of international reach who has played throughout the US and Europe appearing both as a soloist and with ensembles such as Signal, Wet Ink Ensemble, Dal Niente, SEM Ensemble, the NouveauClassical Project, and the Wordless Music Orchestra. Mariel's premeire solo album, nonextraneous sounds, was released on Innova Records in September 2012. The record, consisting of brand new works commisioned by Mariel, received high accolades from sources such as TimeOut NY, TimeOut Chicago, The American Composers Forum, New Sounds with John Schaefer, and WQXR radio." ^ Hide Bio for Mariel Roberts • Show Bio for Elias Stemeseder "Elias Stemeseder: Born in Salzburg, Austria in 1990, Elias lived in Berlin from 2010 and moved to New York in 2015. Besides his main instrument, the acoustic piano, he also plays synthesizers. He performs in a variety of musical idioms ranging from the song-oriented music of Jim Black's trio to contemporary classical pieces by John Zorn to the electric music of Eyebone. Current projects include collaborations with John Zorn (John Zorn's Bagatelles), the Greg Cohen Quintet, Philipp Gropper's "Philm", Jim Black's "Malamute" Anna Webber's "Percussive Mechanics", Robert Landfermann Quintet and "OTIS+WEDDING". Elias Stemeseder has performed solo concerts at the Nuoro Jazz Festival (IT), Haus Der Berliner Festspiele (DE), 12points Festival Dublin (IRL) and Südtirol Jazzfestival (IT). He leads a Berlin - based quartet with Eldar Tsalikov, Igor Spallati and Ugo Alunni and co-leads the bands Jagged Spheres (with Anna Webber and Devin Gray) and Eyebone (with Nels Cline and Jim Black). Since 2008 Elias has been working extensively with the American drummer Jim Black. The Jim Black trio (with Thomas Morgan on double bass) has released the critically acclaimed recordings Somatic and Actuality on the German label Winter&Winter Recordings and The Constant on the Swiss label Intakt Records. In 2013, Elias formed the collective trio "Eyebone" with Jim Black and guitarist Nels Cline, in which he plays the Wurlitzer piano and bass synthesizers. Elias has received scholarships and grants from SKE/austro mechana and BKA Österreich Kunst und Kultur." ^ Hide Bio for Elias Stemeseder • Show Bio for Lesley Mok "Lesley Mok is a percussionist and interdisciplinary artist who works in sound, installation, film, and theater. Interested in the ways social conditions shape our beings, Lesley's work focuses on overacting humanness to explore ideas about alienness and privilege. Their work draws from queer and feminist art practices, Chinese philosophy, Caribbean folkloric musical traditions, futurist perspectives, and ancestral knowledge. Their ongoing explorations with composition and improvisation are most notably documented in their ten-piece improvising chamber ensemble, The Living Collection (American Dreams Records). Other recent works include stilled leaf-chatter (2022), bird in its chest (2022), pooling light (2021), but I forced to mind my vision of a sky (2020), and she smashed the enclosure (2020). In addition to their own work, Lesley can be heard in Myra Melford's Fire and Water, David Leon's Bird's Eye, Anna Webber's Shimmer Wince, the percussion co-operative The Forest, and co-led projects tombstar and vehicle / passenger. Lesley's work has been recognized by the ASCAP Foundation, Roulette Intermedium, and the Asian American Arts Alliance, and has been performed by International Contemporary Ensemble, Metropolis Ensemble, and JACK Quartet. They have collaborated with Tomeka Reid, Fay Victor, William Parker, Cory Smythe, Jen Shyu, Myra Melford, Isabel Crespo Pardo, edi kwon, Zekkereya El-margharbel, David Leon, Doyeon Kim, Adam O'Farrill, and others." ^ Hide Bio for Lesley Mok
1/17/2025
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1/17/2025
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1/17/2025
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1/17/2025
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
1/17/2025
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
Track Listing:
1. Swell 9:39
2. Wince 8:46
3. Fizz 11:33
4. Periodicity 1 7:56
5. Squirmy 11:25
6. Periodicity 2 5:37
7. Shimmer 7:28
Intakt
Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Quintet Recordings
Jazz & Improvisation Based on Compositions
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