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| Battle Trance | Mark Clifford |
Extreme New York tenor saxophone quartet Battle Trance, led by virtuoso sax experimentalist Travis LaPlante and including longtime Bay Area resident Matt Nelson, makes its Bay Area debut with a complete performance of its acclaimed new recording, Palace of Wind, out on New Amsterdam Records. Battle Trance explores densely layered sound worlds with extended techniques and circular breathing, creating “a floating tapestry of fascinating textures made up of tiny musical motifs, and a music that throbs with tension between stillness and agitation, density and light” (The New York Times). The Dirty Snacks Ensemble, led by Oakland composer and vibraphonist Mark Clifford, opens the evening, with lush pop-inflected chamber music that combines thoughtfully-constructed long form compositions with far-ranging improvisational possibility, informed by influences ranging from Kool Keith to Bela Bartok.
Mark Clifford’s Dirty Snacks Ensemble
Kristina Dutton, violin
Steven Lugener, reeds
Martin Mcginn, piano
Mark Clifford, vibraphone
Scott Brown, bass
Geneva Harrison, drums
Battle Trance (NYC)
Travis LaPlante, tenor saxophone
Pat Breiner, tenor saxophone
Matt Nelson, tenor saxophone
Jeremy Viner, tenor saxophone
Mark Clifford is a vibraphonist, composer, and percussionist living in Oakland CA. Since moving to the Bay Area in 2009, Mark has become deeply involved in the creative music scene has performed in a wide variety of groups including Aram Shelton’s Sound Quartet, the Oakland Active Orchestra, sfsound group, DRMS, Aaron Novik’s Cosimo Lissy, the Dominique Leone band, Jordan Glenn’s Beak, Denny Denny Breakfast and Bells Atlas. Mark’s own group, the Dirty Snacks Ensemble, releases its debut recording in 2015. Mark Graduated with a B.M. in classical percussion performance from the Lamont School of Music, where he studied Percussion under CSO master percussionist John Kinzie, and Jazz theory and composition under pianist Eric Gunnison. Mark also studied percussion and marimba at Japan’s Nagoya University with Tomomi Sugo, and has studied vibraphone with two of his greatest heroes, Steve Nelson and Matt Moran.
http://www.markcliffordmusic.com/
Existing in the cracks between contemporary classical music, avant-garde jazz, black metal, ambient, and world music, Battle Trance is an ensemble that pushes four tenor saxophonists to the limit, shedding new light on the saxophone as an ensemble instrument. The players use circular breathing to build continuous, hypnotic waves of sound; multiphonics layer to create intricate textures that seem to come from an ancient time; and blisteringly fast lines seem to liquefy into each other. Unorthodox articulations and unusual fingerings are also part of the vast sonic vocabulary that the members of Battle Trance have painstakingly mastered. Members of Battle Trance have performed with Tune-Yards, Little Women, Tim Berne, Gerald Cleaver, Michael Formanek, Trevor Dunn, Ingrid Laubrock, Rafiq Bhatia, Ches Smith, Steve Lehman, Mat Maneri, John Hollenbeck, Tyshawn Sorey, Peter Evans, and many others.
http://newamrecords.com/battle-trance-palace-of-wind/