Highly respected drummer and
prolific composer Bobby Previte continues his Terminals trilogy with Rhapsody,
an acoustic song cycle on the subject of transit and migration. Subtitled
Terminals Part II: In Transit, Previte's newest work is scored for acoustic
sextet and features fellow composer-improvisers guitarist Nels Cline, harpist
Zeena Parkins, pianist John Medeski, alto saxophonist Fabian Rucker, and
vocalist/er hu player Jen Shyu. This latest major work, released on
RareNoiseRecords in February 2018, comes on the heels of Previte's powerful
November 2016 RareNoise release, Mass, a nine-part work scored for choir, pipe
organ and heavy metal trio.
In 2015, Previte was awarded the Greenfield Prize for Music
at the Hermitage Artist Retreat to create a new work. Rhapsody is the result.
Rhapsody had its world premiere on April 21, 2017 at New College in Sarasota,
Florida. "The Greenfield Foundation not only commissioned the work, but
gave me a residency at the Hermitage to write it, 20 paces from the Gulf of
Mexico," says the composer. "It was a rapturous place to write, and
to be.
Beginning from the point of view of a passenger sitting
comfortably in an airplane, Rhapsody twists, turns, and migrates until the
passenger arrives in the dead of night at an unfamiliar shore. As Previte
proposed in his artist's statement for Rhapsody: "What is the experience
of being in transit? Separated from your home but not yet at your destination,
you are neither here nor there, confined with strangers in an intimate
environment for a predetermined amount of time, uncomfortable, yet somehow
free. To travel is to be bound with these strangers by faith-faith in the
vessel which carries you, faith in the people who operate it, and ultimately,
faith in the strangers waiting at your destination."
"I began thinking about the fact that I come from a
family of immigrants. My mother was born in Sicily because my grandmother,
pregnant with my mother, was denied entry into the United States and sent back;
and how there are people today, trying to escape far worse situations, being
denied asylum."
Rhapsody is perhaps Previte's most ambitious work to date in
that it marks his debut as a lyricist. "The lyrics are really at the
center of this piece. Having composed only instrumental music my entire life,
writing words was quite terrifying. There is no hiding behind abstract sounds,
no equivocating. The words are there and have an obvious meaning to everyone.
They are tangible, and very real. You cannot walk back from them. You have to
own them, fully."
Rhapsody is the second in a three-part series exploring the
experience of travel. Terminals Part I: Departures, was a set of five concertos
written for the visionary percussion group SO Percussion and five master
improviser soloists. Terminals Part I: Departures premiered at Merkin Hall in
New York City in 2011, and the recording was released on Cantaloupe Music in
2014.
Rhapsody is a compelling, thought-provoking work that places
vocalist Shyu in the role of narrator and showcases brilliant solos by each
member of the sextet. Says Previte, "This ensemble of found objects, of
musicians thrown together and forging new relationships in this instrumentation
of chance, mirrors the experience of movement, of migration, of whom you may
find yourself next to, of venturing into the unknown because you cannot stay
where you are."
And while three of the musicians in the ensemble have had a
wealth of experience in electric settings - Nels Cline with Wilco, The Ring
Nebula Project, The Nels Cline 4, and his longstanding Nels Cline Singers; John
Medeski with Hudson, MadSkillet and the longstanding trio Medeski, Martin &
Wood; Zeena Parkins with Gangster Band, Phantom Orchard, and Zeena and the
Adorables - Previte chose to focus strictly on the acoustic side of their
playing. "In a way, it's easier to write electric music when you have
geniuses like that in the band," says Previte. "You can just write
'Nels Cline solo, 15 minutes' and you get a brilliant 15 minute electronic
piece that you 'wrote.' But each acoustic guitar note dies away in seconds.
Then what? As for John Medeski, of course he's a master organist, but he's such
a beautiful piano player that I thought it would be cool to just let him play
the piano for a change. Ditto for Zeena. I wanted to hear her on acoustic harp,
no electronics. She's awesome on acoustic harp."
Previte had similar accolades for the remaining members of
his Rhapsody ensemble: "Fabian Rucker is my favorite young sax player and
all around sound guru. He took the music and brought it into the street. And,
by the way, Fabian mixed the album, too. And finally, what to say about Jen
Shyu? Jen lifted the vocals, and so the entire ship, up to a higher plane. She
is mesmerizing. I couldn't even have begun the piece without Jen."
Meanwhile, the ever-restless, ever-creative Previte is
already making plans for his Terminals Part III: Arrivals. "It might be
for baritone voice and So Percussion on four analog sythesizers and taiko
drums. Then again, it might be a 6-LP set where each record is myself solo,
performing live on a different instrument, one on which I have limited skills,
(i.e., an instrument I am 'visiting'). Then again, it might be neither of
these. Or somehow, both of them."
Stay tuned. Until then, join Previte and his intrepid crew
on Rhapsody.
TRACKS
1. Casting Off
2. All The World
3. The Lost
4. When I Land
5. The Timekeeper
6. Coming About
7. All Hands
8. Last Stand / Final Approach
9. I Arrive
All music composed, arranged, and conducted by Bobby Previte
Published by RareNoisePublishing (PRS)
Produced by Bobby Previte
Executive Producer for RareNoiseRecords: Giacomo Bruzzo
Recorded April 24, 25, 2017 at Figure 8 Studios, Brooklyn,
NY, by Eli Crews
Mixed by Fabian Rucker at Three Horses in a Wood, Claverack,
NY
Mastered by Horst Pfaffelmayer at Gold Chamber, Austria
Cover Image: Untitled #188, 2016 © Simon Johan
Graphic Design: Graham Schreiner
Rhapsody was commissioned by the 2015 Greenfield Prize for
Music at the Hermitage Artist Retreat
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