JumbieRecords

2 Premieres from Imaginary Homeland (May 18)

Well, our spring tour to Michigan may have been sadly canceled by New York's final blizzard of the season, but Imaginary Homeland is still looking forward to some hot musical happenings.

Our new piece "Ides Plus Two" was written for the occasion of our planned appearance at Detroit's Max M. Fisher Music Center -- 2 days after the Ides of March, which was St. Patrick's Day (the piece has a fiddling sound that owes a bit to the Irish among others).  Instead, it will get a delayed premiere at Barbes in Brooklyn, on May 18th.

The same show will feature the premiere of a second new tune (!! haven't done that in a few years), just hammered out in a frenzy by yours truly.  This one plays with a laid-back swing feeling overlaid with a 12/8 clave feel, and a smattering of double-time rhythms.  The name?  I have no idea.  Come to the show and find out!

This and more music, with Mark's rockin' African drumset, Marlene's lovely violin, and Matt's irrepressible bass will be on hand in the intimate and eminently listenable music room at Barbes in Park Slope Brooklyn.  Please join us!

-David Rogers

Friday, May 18, 7 pm: Brooklyn, NY
Imaginary Homeland  at Barbès
376 9th St at 6th Ave. (Park Slope, Brooklyn)
718-965-9177
Tickets $8
Directions

A Day in the Life of a Composer

Just read Annie Gosfield's "Composer House Arrest" on the perils and joys of writing, and trying to finish, a musical composition.  (Thanks to Terry for sending)

What a treat!  An article that actually talks about the real life of artists (both an honest depiction of the creative process... and the temp jobs, self-marketing, and grant-hoop-jumping that occupy most of our time!), and not just the same old journalistic tropes about "tortured inspiration" and "hot new young talent" that are the subject of 99.99% of all arts journalism.

This was in the NY Times new "composers" blog "The Score."  So, a piece of evidence in favor of "old media" jumping into the blogging game.  (Now, if we could just get the Times to put these pieces in the paper too!)

Here's an excerpt:

Many people think that all composers are dead men with puffy white hair. It’s not true. There are plenty of us that are showing signs of life, we’re just sequestered at home trying to find time to apply for grants, answer e-mail, chase down payments, send out scores, and maybe even write music. We can only fulfill the romantic image of a tortured composer at work after we’ve tackled mounds of administration and paperwork. I value every moment that I spend writing music, and recognize the fact that it takes a lot more than inspiration to get there.

At first glance my job might appear monotonous: every day I sit in the same spot, adding, subtracting, and moving notes around. I affectionately refer to the high-pressure periods before a deadline when I rarely leave my apartment as “composer house arrest.” But even on days when cabin fever sets in, and I feel the solitary twinge of working alone at home, I remind myself that each day brings a new artistic challenge. The compositional process itself is always different, and each piece is a new creature, inspired by my current state of mind (and the sounds that inhabit it), and by the performers for whom I am composing.

-David Rogers

African Xylophone Piece at Carnegie Hall

On February 16, Bernard Woma's original composition "Gyil Nyog Me Na (Gyil Mambo)" will be heard in an orchestral arrangement, presented by Carnegie Hall in Zankel Hall. The piece, originally a virtuosic solo on the gyil xylophone of Ghana, West Africa, has been arranged for orchestra by Jumbie composer David Rogers. The piece was commissioned and will be performed by chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound (hailed as "the future of classical music" by The New York Times). Their programming ranges from modernist titans like John Adams and Conlon Nancarrow to orchestral arrangements of non-classical composers like Frank Zappa and electronica pioneer Aphex Twin.       

Listen here to the original solo xylophone version of Woma's piece.

Herald's Film Score "Journey to Justice"

from Jumbie Journal, October 2005

Journey to Justice, a newly produced documentary, tells the powerful story of Howard Triest. As a teenager he escaped the Nazi domination of his home in Munich to later return as an American soldier involved in the liberation of Buchenwald and the rescue of his grandmother from Theresienstadt. Acting as the interpreter for the psychiatrists at the Nuremberg Trials he interviewed the Nazi high command responsible for the deaths of his parents and close relatives.

Jumbie partner Terry Herald, an experienced film composer, created the original music for the documentary. Producer Steve Palackdharry relied on Herald's music to express the poignancy of the inevitable partings, the urgency of the flight from Nazi persecution and the eventual sense of triumph and reconciliation that Howard experiences. Employing a wonderful cast of musicians including Ann Lemke on English Horn, Jumbie artist Sonia Lee on solo violin and Lindsay Papke on piano and a string ensemble, Herald had a broad palette of timbres to paint an emotionally complex picture. His haunting "Howard's Theme" ties the film together with a sense of the loneliness Triest experienced while still conveying hopefulness.

An independent film, Journey to Justice has been submitted to the Chicago Film Festival, with plans to submit to both the Berlin and Munich film festivals. A New York premier is currently in the works.

Find out more about the film at JourneyToJusticeFilm.com