July 8, 2022 • 30 mins
The pandemic tore apart the ability for people to collaborate on music. But it also forced artists to work together in other ways. One local musician and educator seized the opportunity to change how music is written and performed.
Trombonist Paul Fleming started a new local nonprofit during the pandemic. Renew Music is seeking to present classical, brass and jazz in ways that are more accessible to people. That’s while maintaining musical integrity and encouraging audience members to participate in how music affects them.
Paul explains the mission of the nonprofit plus his goals as a musician and educator to transform how we experience new and different forms of music. Visit https://www.renewensemble.org to learn more.
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Episode Transcript
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Unknown (00:00):
The global pandemic tore apart the ability for
(00:02):
people to collaborate on music,but it also forced artists to
work together in different ways.
One local musician and educatorsees the opportunity to change
how music is written andperformed. And he did that
during the pandemic. It's a it'sa very rewarding feeling, being
able to train other people tohear things thoughtfully and
intentionally for what they are,instead of just saying, you
(00:26):
know, knee jerk, good or bad, orweird or gross, or, you know,
does this does this sound likeLeonard Skinner? Renew music is
Paul Fleming's brainchild. A newlocal nonprofit renew music is
seeking to present classicalbrass and jazz in ways that are
more accessible to people.
(00:47):
That's while maintaining musicalintegrity and encouraging
audience members to participatein how the music affects them.
(01:18):
For this week in Reno News, I'mBob Conrad with this is
reno.com. Today's guest on theshow is Paul Fleming, a local
musician and educator. Tell meor tell us about renew music,
are you the executive director,so I'm the I'm the president and
one of the founders of renewmusic. We are as of March of
(01:41):
this year, a 501 c threenonprofit based in Washoe
County. Our mission is to createand perform new music,
particularly musicthat's written by local
composers and pieces that are oflocal interest.
Basically, we want to highlightthe creative side of classical
(02:04):
music that's being created todayin our area. What prompted you
to start renew music given thatReno kind of already in some
ways has a rich history ofclassical music and symphonic
and orchestral? Yeah, I'm fromhere, I went to school, here in
in, in Reno er,when I left town, I lived in
(02:26):
Boston for about a decade forgrad school and then continuing
on on after that Boston as well.
As you know, a lot of othertowns in the United States have
a very rich new music culture.
I got the taste for partneringwith composers and being part of
(02:47):
that creative process. When Iwas in Boston, I met a lot of
other people who felt the sameway. When I moved back here in
2017. I was hoping to continuethat on.
And, you know, I was playing aton I was I was active in the
performing scene, but I didn'thave the connections that I had
(03:13):
grown used to having.
And I've met a lot of peoplearound town that felt the same
way. You know, there areobviously some excellent,
excellent orchestras and groupsin town. There's the Reno
Philharmonic, the Reno chamberorchestra, the Reno jazz
orchestra, the list goes on.
But, and the Philharmonicespecially, is really, really
good at premiering andperforming new works. But there
(03:36):
wasn't really any group in townthat was hyper focused, giving
me Paul the opportunity to workface to face with a composer
that I could speak with and kindof bounce ideas off of.
(03:57):
I am friends with several peoplewho are in the jazz scene. And
so we formed a brass quintettogether the Reno modern brass,
one of the performers at thetime. Now he's in LA. He is a
jazz performer, Brandon Sherman.
And he wrote us a couple ofpieces. And he put us in touch
with a couple of other jazzplayers. And that's kind of
where we found our niche.
(04:21):
Because there are a lot of jazzmusic writers in our town. And
we just said, Hey, will youwrite us a brass quintet?
The more we did it, the more wefound that this was something
that was valuable and rewardingto us personally. And the people
who came to our audiences agreedwith what we saw, which is this
(04:43):
is something new, this issomething real, this is
something interesting andrelevant. And it basically
turned into an entireorganization because we wanted
to have access to grant moniesthat would fund larger long term
projects.
What makes you different fromwhat's already happening? I'm
(05:03):
not 100% clear on that just yet.
So there are two main thingsthat differentiate us from other
music organizations we callourselves contemporary
classical,also known as new music, but the
term new music has such a broaddefinition. But the thing that
renewed does to differentiateitself from other organizations,
(05:25):
number one, the people that wework with, we commissioned
composers that are from aroundReno to write for traditional
chamber ensembles, BrassQuintet, string, quartet solos,
small chamber works.
Nobody else in town is doingthat at the hyperlocal level
(05:49):
that we're doing.
Why? Why is that important?
If feel that Reno as a city hasan identity, we see it through
events like our town, BurningMan.
You know, Hot August Nights, therodeo things like that.
(06:14):
As a music, as a classicalmusician, I should say
specifically, because the jazzscene I feel is fairly well
developed. As a classicalmusician. We, we don't have that
identitythat the other artistic forms
have. And so we're able to kindof celebrate
(06:36):
that side of music making.
And when you when you Commissionworks, talk about that process
and why that's important tosupport what you're doing and
local musicians. A lot of it isjust relationship building, we
go to performances of otherpeople's works. We show up to
(06:59):
jazz events, and we meet thejazz musicians, the former grad
students, the people who are newinto town, who are writing
music, and we just start theconversation with them.
We have a friend who just movedto Reno from the Midwest, his
name is Jonathan Sokol, you'llhear him on the July 27,
(07:21):
Sculpture Garden event. He was acomposer. He changed careers.
One thing led to another hemoved out to Reno. He went to a
philharmonic concert or menoPhilharmonic concert and
introduced himself around toLaura Jackson, the conductor and
a few other people. And he saidwe'd like to, I'd like to get
(07:43):
involved in the composingcommunity, and they directly
referred them to us. We struckup a conversation and now here
he is part of our circle.
Another way that wefind composers to perform is
just hey, I like your style. Ilike your music. Have you ever
written a string quartet before?
(08:03):
Usually the answer is no. We saywell, you know what, this is a
great testing ground for us,which is another hallmark of
ours. We're not afraid to trynew things, and to go out on a
limb for people that we love,but have not necessarily heard
their classical portfolio.
(08:26):
You're not just limited toclassical however,
there is a concert that we'redoing it on July 20, at Cypress
with what we're calling theRenew Jazz Ensemble, which is
the same instrumentation as theMiles Davis birth of the cool
(08:47):
album. It's a couple ofsaxophone this trumpet,
trombone, French horn tubarhythm section, and this is
going to become one of our mainflagship ensembles. The idea
here is and we are playing manyof the pieces from the birth of
the cool album as well as piecesby composer Paul Johnston, who
(09:08):
is from the Midwest.
The idea there is thatwe don't want to box ourselves
in too much to classical music.
A lot of the works as I'vementioned several times already.
The works that we can that wecommission are by classic jazz
(09:28):
performers. And this is justanother way of us saying listen,
we are new music, but we'renot elitist in a way that we're
keeping one sub genre of art outof our large umbrella.
There was a man thewas the president of the New
(09:50):
England Conservatory for a whileGunther Schuller who coined the
term third stream relating tokind of middle of the line
genre.
of music between classical andjazz. Some of our work, I think
veryappropriately fits into that
very middle of the Line Road.
And we're very happy to occupythat space.
(10:12):
I, I'm a longtime. Some peoplewould say, drummers aren't
musicians.
But I'm I'm a longtime playerwill say that to avoid any
arguments about whether drummerscan be musicians, I have never
in my life, heard of classicaland jazz blending. Why have I
(10:36):
not heard about this? I thinkthat
I think that in the classicalworld, in the jazz world, too,
there's a lot of gatekeeping.
There's a lot of purists. Andthere are a lot of norms that if
you go to a jazz show, this ishow you're supposed to act, and
(10:58):
this is what you're supposed tobe hearing. Same goes for
classical. I think there's a lotof parallels in those two
worlds, as far asthis is how it is.
But isn't jazz it at least theformation, the early years of
jazz being born out of, youknow, Ragtime, and
Civil War era, music or marchesand then kind of coming into its
(11:24):
own in New York City? Isn't thatalways been sort of about
breaking those norms, anddefying them in some way?
And I'm gonna, I'm gonna getmyself in trouble here. I think
that the origins of jazz, yes.
But, but we've become locked.
It's become co opted byacademics. And it's been taken
(11:46):
over by, as I said, already,just purists. I think that the
and we did we actually did animprovisation seminar just a
couple of weekends ago withTristan Sessler, and we actually
got into it. Pretty deepconversation about, yeah, we're
(12:06):
improvising. We're creating aswe go along. There are many,
many rules. There's a form andthere's a style. And there is
there. I mean, there are rightnotes and there's right times
and wrong times to play a note.
And if you show up to,you know, a blues session, and
(12:27):
you start playing, just kind ofweird out there shit, like,
I don't know, maybe I'm certainit might go over well, but there
are there are rules. And thereare more rules now than there
probably were back in the 1920sand 1930s, when the genre was
first kind of coming into itsown.
(12:49):
Yeah. So what are those rules?
And why do they need to befollowed?
And why? Questions above mypaygrade but
take a 12 bar blues, right?
Sure. There's a formyou guys swing it? Yeah.
You can choose to play the bebopscale, you can choose to play
(13:14):
the blues scale, you can chooseto draw if you're feeling weird,
you could choose to take someTriton subs every once in a
while a little, a littlediminished scales. But there's a
menu of options.
And if you're with the rightgroup, or if you have enough
experience, you can bend thoserules. But it always exists
(13:37):
within this form.
This structure this styleyou can't slow down speed up the
tempo on any tune, unless youhave pre arranged it otherwise,
you know, like there's there'sabsolutely freedom. There's
absolutely improvisation butlet's define improvisation for a
little bit you knowPeriod End of sentence
(14:05):
I was waiting for you to defineimprovisation.
So, it sounds like we have asyou come together you have to
have some kind of agreement orcertain sort of basic ground
rules to do. I mean, when wecommissioned a classical
composer to write us a brassquintet, there is sometimes
(14:26):
improvisation, there issometimes non traditional
notation.
But what we usually find when wespeak to those those musicians
that are outside the classicallytrained world is a type of
harmonic language thatis different and it's usually a
(14:46):
lot more accessible and listenerlevel. A lot of the songs
especially you know, TristanSelzer is written as a couple of
quintets and I mentioned earlierBrandon Sherman. He's written us
Do quintets that are incrediblycomplex, but also very song like
and have a flow to them.
(15:10):
Which I really love, and whichis one of the reasons why I
really love to talk to thoseother people because they they
might be thinking about themusic as something listenable?
You know, whereas classicalcomposers, a lot of them are
like, Okay, we're gonna, we'regoing to try, you know, this 12
tone series, and we're going totry a little, you know, we're
(15:31):
going to do this or do that. Andit's going to be cool. It's
going to be interesting. Itmight also be a little bit too
cerebral for for certainaudiences. Yeah, that makes
sense. And I would, I would echothat some of what I hear coming
out of these genres is perhaps alittle bit cerebral. You
(15:51):
mentioned Miles Davis, andyou'll be performing his work.
Thank you for doing that.
I don't consider thatnecessarily, too cerebral. That
to me is, again, as a longtimeperformer.
It's somewhat accessible. And infact, when I, when I put on jazz
(16:13):
for my wife, who doesn't, she'snot a fan of jazz by any
stretch, but when I put onsomething that I think would
grab her, or that she would beable to kind of hum along to
Miles Davis would be a goodpick. Yeah, and especially the
birth of the cool album, we justgot the charts. And so we've all
been working on our own toprepare for this set. And it's,
(16:37):
I mean, it is composition,written by Miles Davis. And if
anybody says that Miles Davis isa songwriter and not a composer.
Do you know like, that's, that'sthe kind of elitist elitism that
we're trying to dispel. Becausehe didn't compose in the way
that we may have alwaysunderstood composition to have
(17:01):
occurred, he did it kind of inhis own way, right? I mean, you
look atyou look at kind of blue, right,
and its head solos head,this album of which you're going
to hear a lot of tracks on thebirth of the cool album, it's
very much composed. I'm playingthe tuba part. And there's
(17:23):
there's notes every measure it'snot just play these changes,
play those changes, play thehead, go on to the next song,
it's, it's there. And you followfrom measure to measure in a in
a way that a lot of his otherstuff?
Well, I think necessarily sowith a nine piece ensemble, it
he had to he had to write outstuff for me or else I wouldn't
(17:45):
know what to do. So in additionto commissioning works, and I'm
on your I'm looking on yourwebsite, and you have easily a
dozen, if not more, works thatyou've commissioned. Talk about
those some you've mentioned,Brandon Sherman, and Tristan
cells aretalking about some of the other
ones. So one of the big thingsthat we did during COVID. And
(18:06):
this was one of our boardmembers, passionate project, his
name is Jason from he recentlymoved to Portugal.
He had the idea foronline only offering, you know,
COVID times. And so wecommissioned many, many short
works that lasted a minute ortwo. And we just put out a call
(18:30):
to composers both locally andinternationally. And so on the
on our YouTube channel, you'llsee a healthy mix of fat, you
know, people people from rightaround Reno as well as people
from Brazil and China andScotland, places like like that,
(18:52):
and that we recorded in our ownhome. And so this was just you
know, we wanted to givecomposers an opportunity to
write and be heard, and we inturn gave them professional
level recordings.
But also, considering we can'twe can't do quintet performances
right now. We can't have liveconcerts. Another thing that we
(19:15):
did that was kind of along thesame vein, which is started last
year, bringing it back this yearon the 27th of July, our
sculpture garden, individualmusicians posted around
different places along a publicpark. Oh, wow. This year, we
have booked the River Schoolfarm which is along the Truckee
River. Okay. How many people aregoing to be a part of this?
(19:36):
They're going to be sixperformers, and six composers
who are writing piecesspecifically for this event. And
so some of the composers ornames that most are hopefully
most if if not check them out.
Of the listeners of this show.
No BS you Bell. Larry EngstromJohn Paul Porat.
(20:00):
I'm and they're writing piecesspecifically for this event. So
last year, we were able tocommunicate with the composer's,
here's where I'm going to bestanding, this is what it's
going to be looking like. Andmaybe there's a little bit of
bird call, maybe there's alittle bit of space left open
for people to actually hearwhat's going on around us.
(20:22):
Jonathan Sokol, who I mentionedearlier, is writing a piece for
all of the performers together.
And I have no idea what it'sgoing to sound like. But that's
that's kind of the point is tojust show up, and expect to hear
something that you've neverheard before. And I know I've
mentioned this on the podcast inthe past under various
(20:43):
discussions related to arts. ButI don't think we're very, in
general as a populace, very welleducated. As to arts and music.
We, you know, we go to aconcert, we pay our 50 bucks to
see our favorite artists, weexperience it, we rock out,
(21:04):
whatever. That's it.
What you're talking about is amuch deeper level of experience
relating to music. If you thinkabout classical music, well,
most of the music that you thinkof when you think of Symphony is
150 200 years old.
At one point, Mozart was writingsymphonies. And people showed
(21:28):
up, and they listened to it. Andthat was new music. And if he
played one of his throwbacks,and one of his concerts, people
were like, Hey, let me hear yournew stuff.
There are bands that we checkout, you know, any, any of the
old old timer bands that you'llgo to the GSR and watch? Or, you
(21:50):
know, playing Hot August Nights,you don't, you don't necessarily
want to hear the new stuff. Butthere's a lot of bands out there
that are putting out amazingmusic right now that people are
excited to hear. And they can'twait to hear their new albums.
And if Beyonce puts out a newtrack, it's going to be a number
one, that day, people are goingto be singing along to it by the
(22:12):
end of the night.
And why not? This other type ofmusic?
Why can't we be excited andcurious to hear something that
is written today.
And so I think part of that iswhat we're actively trying to
fight against isthe expectations, the norms, the
(22:33):
gatekeeping.
The idea that I don't like newclassical music, because it is
weird, or off putting or overlycerebral.
In our events, you're going toshow up and you're going to get
(22:53):
a drink, and you're going to sityour kids at the kids table that
has art, and you're going tohear some newly written music by
highly trained academics, or atleast highly
practiced professionals.
And some of it some of its gonnabe weird. Some of its gonna be
like, Oh,but the way that it's framed, at
(23:14):
least this is our hope, the waythat it's framed. You're gonna
say, oh, yeah,I get where they're coming from.
Or this is different. And I likeit. That's, that's the that's
the feeling that we're trying tocreate with this organization.
(23:35):
So don't expect Beyonce, butexpect an experience that
deserves perhaps discussion. Andit perhaps deeper meaning than
you would get from your localtop 40 Your pop artist? I mean,
yeah. If if it's if you showedup to our performance, and you
(23:59):
stayed through the whole thing.
Cool. If you stayed through thewhole thing and liked a couple
of pieces,and maybe didn't like a couple
of the other pieces. Yeah. Thankyou for being there. Thank you
for giving it a try.
(24:21):
I think what some people misswith art, and I'm
differentiating art from music.
What we know as music here alittle bit is that it's not
meant necessarily to be liked.
It's meant in a lot of cases, orat least the end result is
to generate a lot of discussionperhaps or talk or controversy.
(24:45):
Yeah. And I'm, I'm a, by de I'man elementary music teacher. We
haven't mentioned that yet. Iteach at at a public elementary
school by day.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We need those. When I came backto Reno, I was lucky enough to
play with the Reno Philharmonicin the second trombone position,
(25:07):
and on my right was LeonardNighthold, who was playing
principal trombone at the time.
And Andy Williams on my otherside playing bass trombone. My
two of my mentors and two of mygreatest influences Andy
(25:28):
Williams was my high school bandteacher, Leonard Nighthold, I
student taught under him, andhow, how many people in life get
a chance to sit in between twoof their greatest mentors in
life. And I know that that storyrepeats itself over and over and
over again, for any musicianthat you talk to.
(25:51):
That someone out there has ledthem to, to the place where they
are.
But I digress. What was Isaying? I talked about my
teacher, music teacher. And soyou know, we have we have
listening all the time overHalloween, we play, you know?
Dadda, Dadda, Dadda Dadda Daddadata data?
(26:16):
The piece from the oh, why am Iblanking on the name of it. But
anyways, it comes up time andtime again. And musical history
someone on someone who'slistening is going to be asked
that piece.
We don't ask did you like it?
Did you not like it? That's notthat's not something that you
asked to an elementary schoolkid.
(26:37):
You ask, what did you notice?
How did it make you feel? Draw apicture of what you were
hearing? Do you have questions?
I think that the approach tolistening or experiencing any
art of any kindthat you haven't experienced
(26:59):
before, should beginwith the questions of how did it
make you feel? What were youimagining? Instead of was this
good? Or was this bad? Did theyrock out?
And man, I've played some newstuff. I listened to a lot of
(27:21):
new music and I play a lot ofnew music from my elementary
kids. And I am shocked by theby the openness once they're
trained to listen with openears.
How many my kids are like yeah,that's cool. What is that? I'm
gonna listen to it in my houselike it's
(27:43):
you know, no, it's not Party inthe USA. This is something else
and they're still into it. Tolearn more about renew music
visit renew ensemble.org takingus out this week is another
piece commissioned by renewmusic. This is called Rancho
Santa fell by Andrew Conrad norelation to me. It just
performed on cello by EileenBrunel?
(29:45):
That's it for this week in Renonews, please visit us online at
this as reno.com If you'reenjoying the show and podcast
please give us a review on yourlocal podcast player so more
people can find the show. Thankyou for listening
The global pandemic tore apart the ability for
(00:02):
people to collaborate on music,but it also forced artists to
work together in different ways.
One local musician and educatorsees the opportunity to change
how music is written andperformed. And he did that
during the pandemic. It's a it'sa very rewarding feeling, being
able to train other people tohear things thoughtfully and
intentionally for what they are,instead of just saying, you
(00:26):
know, knee jerk, good or bad, orweird or gross, or, you know,
does this does this sound likeLeonard Skinner? Renew music is
Paul Fleming's brainchild. A newlocal nonprofit renew music is
seeking to present classicalbrass and jazz in ways that are
more accessible to people.
(00:47):
That's while maintaining musicalintegrity and encouraging
audience members to participatein how the music affects them.
(01:18):
For this week in Reno News, I'mBob Conrad with this is
reno.com. Today's guest on theshow is Paul Fleming, a local
musician and educator. Tell meor tell us about renew music,
are you the executive director,so I'm the I'm the president and
one of the founders of renewmusic. We are as of March of
(01:41):
this year, a 501 c threenonprofit based in Washoe
County. Our mission is to createand perform new music,
particularly musicthat's written by local
composers and pieces that are oflocal interest.
Basically, we want to highlightthe creative side of classical
(02:04):
music that's being created todayin our area. What prompted you
to start renew music given thatReno kind of already in some
ways has a rich history ofclassical music and symphonic
and orchestral? Yeah, I'm fromhere, I went to school, here in
in, in Reno er,when I left town, I lived in
(02:26):
Boston for about a decade forgrad school and then continuing
on on after that Boston as well.
As you know, a lot of othertowns in the United States have
a very rich new music culture.
I got the taste for partneringwith composers and being part of
(02:47):
that creative process. When Iwas in Boston, I met a lot of
other people who felt the sameway. When I moved back here in
2017. I was hoping to continuethat on.
And, you know, I was playing aton I was I was active in the
performing scene, but I didn'thave the connections that I had
(03:13):
grown used to having.
And I've met a lot of peoplearound town that felt the same
way. You know, there areobviously some excellent,
excellent orchestras and groupsin town. There's the Reno
Philharmonic, the Reno chamberorchestra, the Reno jazz
orchestra, the list goes on.
But, and the Philharmonicespecially, is really, really
good at premiering andperforming new works. But there
(03:36):
wasn't really any group in townthat was hyper focused, giving
me Paul the opportunity to workface to face with a composer
that I could speak with and kindof bounce ideas off of.
(03:57):
I am friends with several peoplewho are in the jazz scene. And
so we formed a brass quintettogether the Reno modern brass,
one of the performers at thetime. Now he's in LA. He is a
jazz performer, Brandon Sherman.
And he wrote us a couple ofpieces. And he put us in touch
with a couple of other jazzplayers. And that's kind of
where we found our niche.
(04:21):
Because there are a lot of jazzmusic writers in our town. And
we just said, Hey, will youwrite us a brass quintet?
The more we did it, the more wefound that this was something
that was valuable and rewardingto us personally. And the people
who came to our audiences agreedwith what we saw, which is this
(04:43):
is something new, this issomething real, this is
something interesting andrelevant. And it basically
turned into an entireorganization because we wanted
to have access to grant moniesthat would fund larger long term
projects.
What makes you different fromwhat's already happening? I'm
(05:03):
not 100% clear on that just yet.
So there are two main thingsthat differentiate us from other
music organizations we callourselves contemporary
classical,also known as new music, but the
term new music has such a broaddefinition. But the thing that
renewed does to differentiateitself from other organizations,
(05:25):
number one, the people that wework with, we commissioned
composers that are from aroundReno to write for traditional
chamber ensembles, BrassQuintet, string, quartet solos,
small chamber works.
Nobody else in town is doingthat at the hyperlocal level
(05:49):
that we're doing.
Why? Why is that important?
If feel that Reno as a city hasan identity, we see it through
events like our town, BurningMan.
You know, Hot August Nights, therodeo things like that.
(06:14):
As a music, as a classicalmusician, I should say
specifically, because the jazzscene I feel is fairly well
developed. As a classicalmusician. We, we don't have that
identitythat the other artistic forms
have. And so we're able to kindof celebrate
(06:36):
that side of music making.
And when you when you Commissionworks, talk about that process
and why that's important tosupport what you're doing and
local musicians. A lot of it isjust relationship building, we
go to performances of otherpeople's works. We show up to
(06:59):
jazz events, and we meet thejazz musicians, the former grad
students, the people who are newinto town, who are writing
music, and we just start theconversation with them.
We have a friend who just movedto Reno from the Midwest, his
name is Jonathan Sokol, you'llhear him on the July 27,
(07:21):
Sculpture Garden event. He was acomposer. He changed careers.
One thing led to another hemoved out to Reno. He went to a
philharmonic concert or menoPhilharmonic concert and
introduced himself around toLaura Jackson, the conductor and
a few other people. And he saidwe'd like to, I'd like to get
(07:43):
involved in the composingcommunity, and they directly
referred them to us. We struckup a conversation and now here
he is part of our circle.
Another way that wefind composers to perform is
just hey, I like your style. Ilike your music. Have you ever
written a string quartet before?
(08:03):
Usually the answer is no. We saywell, you know what, this is a
great testing ground for us,which is another hallmark of
ours. We're not afraid to trynew things, and to go out on a
limb for people that we love,but have not necessarily heard
their classical portfolio.
(08:26):
You're not just limited toclassical however,
there is a concert that we'redoing it on July 20, at Cypress
with what we're calling theRenew Jazz Ensemble, which is
the same instrumentation as theMiles Davis birth of the cool
(08:47):
album. It's a couple ofsaxophone this trumpet,
trombone, French horn tubarhythm section, and this is
going to become one of our mainflagship ensembles. The idea
here is and we are playing manyof the pieces from the birth of
the cool album as well as piecesby composer Paul Johnston, who
(09:08):
is from the Midwest.
The idea there is thatwe don't want to box ourselves
in too much to classical music.
A lot of the works as I'vementioned several times already.
The works that we can that wecommission are by classic jazz
(09:28):
performers. And this is justanother way of us saying listen,
we are new music, but we'renot elitist in a way that we're
keeping one sub genre of art outof our large umbrella.
There was a man thewas the president of the New
(09:50):
England Conservatory for a whileGunther Schuller who coined the
term third stream relating tokind of middle of the line
genre.
of music between classical andjazz. Some of our work, I think
veryappropriately fits into that
very middle of the Line Road.
And we're very happy to occupythat space.
(10:12):
I, I'm a longtime. Some peoplewould say, drummers aren't
musicians.
But I'm I'm a longtime playerwill say that to avoid any
arguments about whether drummerscan be musicians, I have never
in my life, heard of classicaland jazz blending. Why have I
(10:36):
not heard about this? I thinkthat
I think that in the classicalworld, in the jazz world, too,
there's a lot of gatekeeping.
There's a lot of purists. Andthere are a lot of norms that if
you go to a jazz show, this ishow you're supposed to act, and
(10:58):
this is what you're supposed tobe hearing. Same goes for
classical. I think there's a lotof parallels in those two
worlds, as far asthis is how it is.
But isn't jazz it at least theformation, the early years of
jazz being born out of, youknow, Ragtime, and
Civil War era, music or marchesand then kind of coming into its
(11:24):
own in New York City? Isn't thatalways been sort of about
breaking those norms, anddefying them in some way?
And I'm gonna, I'm gonna getmyself in trouble here. I think
that the origins of jazz, yes.
But, but we've become locked.
It's become co opted byacademics. And it's been taken
(11:46):
over by, as I said, already,just purists. I think that the
and we did we actually did animprovisation seminar just a
couple of weekends ago withTristan Sessler, and we actually
got into it. Pretty deepconversation about, yeah, we're
(12:06):
improvising. We're creating aswe go along. There are many,
many rules. There's a form andthere's a style. And there is
there. I mean, there are rightnotes and there's right times
and wrong times to play a note.
And if you show up to,you know, a blues session, and
(12:27):
you start playing, just kind ofweird out there shit, like,
I don't know, maybe I'm certainit might go over well, but there
are there are rules. And thereare more rules now than there
probably were back in the 1920sand 1930s, when the genre was
first kind of coming into itsown.
(12:49):
Yeah. So what are those rules?
And why do they need to befollowed?
And why? Questions above mypaygrade but
take a 12 bar blues, right?
Sure. There's a formyou guys swing it? Yeah.
You can choose to play the bebopscale, you can choose to play
(13:14):
the blues scale, you can chooseto draw if you're feeling weird,
you could choose to take someTriton subs every once in a
while a little, a littlediminished scales. But there's a
menu of options.
And if you're with the rightgroup, or if you have enough
experience, you can bend thoserules. But it always exists
(13:37):
within this form.
This structure this styleyou can't slow down speed up the
tempo on any tune, unless youhave pre arranged it otherwise,
you know, like there's there'sabsolutely freedom. There's
absolutely improvisation butlet's define improvisation for a
little bit you knowPeriod End of sentence
(14:05):
I was waiting for you to defineimprovisation.
So, it sounds like we have asyou come together you have to
have some kind of agreement orcertain sort of basic ground
rules to do. I mean, when wecommissioned a classical
composer to write us a brassquintet, there is sometimes
(14:26):
improvisation, there issometimes non traditional
notation.
But what we usually find when wespeak to those those musicians
that are outside the classicallytrained world is a type of
harmonic language thatis different and it's usually a
(14:46):
lot more accessible and listenerlevel. A lot of the songs
especially you know, TristanSelzer is written as a couple of
quintets and I mentioned earlierBrandon Sherman. He's written us
Do quintets that are incrediblycomplex, but also very song like
and have a flow to them.
(15:10):
Which I really love, and whichis one of the reasons why I
really love to talk to thoseother people because they they
might be thinking about themusic as something listenable?
You know, whereas classicalcomposers, a lot of them are
like, Okay, we're gonna, we'regoing to try, you know, this 12
tone series, and we're going totry a little, you know, we're
(15:31):
going to do this or do that. Andit's going to be cool. It's
going to be interesting. Itmight also be a little bit too
cerebral for for certainaudiences. Yeah, that makes
sense. And I would, I would echothat some of what I hear coming
out of these genres is perhaps alittle bit cerebral. You
(15:51):
mentioned Miles Davis, andyou'll be performing his work.
Thank you for doing that.
I don't consider thatnecessarily, too cerebral. That
to me is, again, as a longtimeperformer.
It's somewhat accessible. And infact, when I, when I put on jazz
(16:13):
for my wife, who doesn't, she'snot a fan of jazz by any
stretch, but when I put onsomething that I think would
grab her, or that she would beable to kind of hum along to
Miles Davis would be a goodpick. Yeah, and especially the
birth of the cool album, we justgot the charts. And so we've all
been working on our own toprepare for this set. And it's,
(16:37):
I mean, it is composition,written by Miles Davis. And if
anybody says that Miles Davis isa songwriter and not a composer.
Do you know like, that's, that'sthe kind of elitist elitism that
we're trying to dispel. Becausehe didn't compose in the way
that we may have alwaysunderstood composition to have
(17:01):
occurred, he did it kind of inhis own way, right? I mean, you
look atyou look at kind of blue, right,
and its head solos head,this album of which you're going
to hear a lot of tracks on thebirth of the cool album, it's
very much composed. I'm playingthe tuba part. And there's
(17:23):
there's notes every measure it'snot just play these changes,
play those changes, play thehead, go on to the next song,
it's, it's there. And you followfrom measure to measure in a in
a way that a lot of his otherstuff?
Well, I think necessarily sowith a nine piece ensemble, it
he had to he had to write outstuff for me or else I wouldn't
(17:45):
know what to do. So in additionto commissioning works, and I'm
on your I'm looking on yourwebsite, and you have easily a
dozen, if not more, works thatyou've commissioned. Talk about
those some you've mentioned,Brandon Sherman, and Tristan
cells aretalking about some of the other
ones. So one of the big thingsthat we did during COVID. And
(18:06):
this was one of our boardmembers, passionate project, his
name is Jason from he recentlymoved to Portugal.
He had the idea foronline only offering, you know,
COVID times. And so wecommissioned many, many short
works that lasted a minute ortwo. And we just put out a call
(18:30):
to composers both locally andinternationally. And so on the
on our YouTube channel, you'llsee a healthy mix of fat, you
know, people people from rightaround Reno as well as people
from Brazil and China andScotland, places like like that,
(18:52):
and that we recorded in our ownhome. And so this was just you
know, we wanted to givecomposers an opportunity to
write and be heard, and we inturn gave them professional
level recordings.
But also, considering we can'twe can't do quintet performances
right now. We can't have liveconcerts. Another thing that we
(19:15):
did that was kind of along thesame vein, which is started last
year, bringing it back this yearon the 27th of July, our
sculpture garden, individualmusicians posted around
different places along a publicpark. Oh, wow. This year, we
have booked the River Schoolfarm which is along the Truckee
River. Okay. How many people aregoing to be a part of this?
(19:36):
They're going to be sixperformers, and six composers
who are writing piecesspecifically for this event. And
so some of the composers ornames that most are hopefully
most if if not check them out.
Of the listeners of this show.
No BS you Bell. Larry EngstromJohn Paul Porat.
(20:00):
I'm and they're writing piecesspecifically for this event. So
last year, we were able tocommunicate with the composer's,
here's where I'm going to bestanding, this is what it's
going to be looking like. Andmaybe there's a little bit of
bird call, maybe there's alittle bit of space left open
for people to actually hearwhat's going on around us.
(20:22):
Jonathan Sokol, who I mentionedearlier, is writing a piece for
all of the performers together.
And I have no idea what it'sgoing to sound like. But that's
that's kind of the point is tojust show up, and expect to hear
something that you've neverheard before. And I know I've
mentioned this on the podcast inthe past under various
(20:43):
discussions related to arts. ButI don't think we're very, in
general as a populace, very welleducated. As to arts and music.
We, you know, we go to aconcert, we pay our 50 bucks to
see our favorite artists, weexperience it, we rock out,
(21:04):
whatever. That's it.
What you're talking about is amuch deeper level of experience
relating to music. If you thinkabout classical music, well,
most of the music that you thinkof when you think of Symphony is
150 200 years old.
At one point, Mozart was writingsymphonies. And people showed
(21:28):
up, and they listened to it. Andthat was new music. And if he
played one of his throwbacks,and one of his concerts, people
were like, Hey, let me hear yournew stuff.
There are bands that we checkout, you know, any, any of the
old old timer bands that you'llgo to the GSR and watch? Or, you
(21:50):
know, playing Hot August Nights,you don't, you don't necessarily
want to hear the new stuff. Butthere's a lot of bands out there
that are putting out amazingmusic right now that people are
excited to hear. And they can'twait to hear their new albums.
And if Beyonce puts out a newtrack, it's going to be a number
one, that day, people are goingto be singing along to it by the
(22:12):
end of the night.
And why not? This other type ofmusic?
Why can't we be excited andcurious to hear something that
is written today.
And so I think part of that iswhat we're actively trying to
fight against isthe expectations, the norms, the
(22:33):
gatekeeping.
The idea that I don't like newclassical music, because it is
weird, or off putting or overlycerebral.
In our events, you're going toshow up and you're going to get
(22:53):
a drink, and you're going to sityour kids at the kids table that
has art, and you're going tohear some newly written music by
highly trained academics, or atleast highly
practiced professionals.
And some of it some of its gonnabe weird. Some of its gonna be
like, Oh,but the way that it's framed, at
(23:14):
least this is our hope, the waythat it's framed. You're gonna
say, oh, yeah,I get where they're coming from.
Or this is different. And I likeit. That's, that's the that's
the feeling that we're trying tocreate with this organization.
(23:35):
So don't expect Beyonce, butexpect an experience that
deserves perhaps discussion. Andit perhaps deeper meaning than
you would get from your localtop 40 Your pop artist? I mean,
yeah. If if it's if you showedup to our performance, and you
(23:59):
stayed through the whole thing.
Cool. If you stayed through thewhole thing and liked a couple
of pieces,and maybe didn't like a couple
of the other pieces. Yeah. Thankyou for being there. Thank you
for giving it a try.
(24:21):
I think what some people misswith art, and I'm
differentiating art from music.
What we know as music here alittle bit is that it's not
meant necessarily to be liked.
It's meant in a lot of cases, orat least the end result is
to generate a lot of discussionperhaps or talk or controversy.
(24:45):
Yeah. And I'm, I'm a, by de I'man elementary music teacher. We
haven't mentioned that yet. Iteach at at a public elementary
school by day.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We need those. When I came backto Reno, I was lucky enough to
play with the Reno Philharmonicin the second trombone position,
(25:07):
and on my right was LeonardNighthold, who was playing
principal trombone at the time.
And Andy Williams on my otherside playing bass trombone. My
two of my mentors and two of mygreatest influences Andy
(25:28):
Williams was my high school bandteacher, Leonard Nighthold, I
student taught under him, andhow, how many people in life get
a chance to sit in between twoof their greatest mentors in
life. And I know that that storyrepeats itself over and over and
over again, for any musicianthat you talk to.
(25:51):
That someone out there has ledthem to, to the place where they
are.
But I digress. What was Isaying? I talked about my
teacher, music teacher. And soyou know, we have we have
listening all the time overHalloween, we play, you know?
Dadda, Dadda, Dadda Dadda Daddadata data?
(26:16):
The piece from the oh, why am Iblanking on the name of it. But
anyways, it comes up time andtime again. And musical history
someone on someone who'slistening is going to be asked
that piece.
We don't ask did you like it?
Did you not like it? That's notthat's not something that you
asked to an elementary schoolkid.
(26:37):
You ask, what did you notice?
How did it make you feel? Draw apicture of what you were
hearing? Do you have questions?
I think that the approach tolistening or experiencing any
art of any kindthat you haven't experienced
(26:59):
before, should beginwith the questions of how did it
make you feel? What were youimagining? Instead of was this
good? Or was this bad? Did theyrock out?
And man, I've played some newstuff. I listened to a lot of
(27:21):
new music and I play a lot ofnew music from my elementary
kids. And I am shocked by theby the openness once they're
trained to listen with openears.
How many my kids are like yeah,that's cool. What is that? I'm
gonna listen to it in my houselike it's
(27:43):
you know, no, it's not Party inthe USA. This is something else
and they're still into it. Tolearn more about renew music
visit renew ensemble.org takingus out this week is another
piece commissioned by renewmusic. This is called Rancho
Santa fell by Andrew Conrad norelation to me. It just
performed on cello by EileenBrunel?
(29:45):
That's it for this week in Renonews, please visit us online at
this as reno.com If you'reenjoying the show and podcast
please give us a review on yourlocal podcast player so more
people can find the show. Thankyou for listening
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