Oregon Music News

Michelle Medler, Mary Sue Tobin, Chelsea Luker, Mieke Bruggerman...the Quadraphonnes

The Quadraphonnes, Portland’s all-female sax quartet, will present “Tone-Color-Melody,” an event that may prove to be the singular musical event of the year. The show is Saturday, November 6 at the Alberta Rose Theatre. Doors 7pm, show is from 8-10pm. Advance Tickets or 503-719-6055, or the Alberta Rose Theater’s box office.$12 advance, $15 day off show. Special $8.00 tickets for students. When ordering tickets for students say the secret code word ‘student.’” Tickets can be picked up at will-call with student ID. Minors allowed with parent or guardian.

It will premier original compositions enhanced by multi-media artworks. Music, film, dance and visual arts will be combined to deepen cross-disciplinary relationships in the Portland art community, broaden audience exposure, and expand saxophone literature.

It features The Quadraphonnes with rhythm section and members of Portland Cello Project performing new works by local composers Andrew Durkin (Industrial Jazz Group), Andrew Oliver (Kora Band, Bridgetown Sextet, Devin Phillips Quartet, Andrew Oliver Sextet), Eric Allen (Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble), and Sarah Ann Phillips (Sound for the Organization of Society). The event will also feature performances of compositions by Scott Stobbe, David Liebman, Astor Piazzolla, Moondog, and Philip Glass enhanced by the paintings of Chad Hensel, rare film by Harry Smith, live interpretive painting by Nick Wagner, and dancers.

But let’s let Mary Sue Tobin, one of the Quadraphonnes, tell you all about it…and let you in on a secret about a new Indie-Jazz hang at the end.

Here’s the program:

Premiering newly commissioned compositions for sax quartet + members of The Portland Cello Project, percussion, rhythm section and media: Andrew Oliver’s “Banker’s Trust” inspired and shown with a photo journal essay by Henri Cartier-Bresson + compositions from Andrew Durkin (Industrial Jazz Group) and Eric Allen (Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble)

Pairing music and dance: Astor Piazzolla’s “Tango Suite” with live tango dancers + Scott Stobbe’s Balkan inspired compositions, written for the Quadraphonnes, with live belly dancing.

Pairing music and film: Philip Glass’s “Sax Quartet” with the seminal and rare Harry Smith film, “Early Abstractions” + LA/NewOrleans based alternative notation composer Sarah Phillips’ “Four Corners”, commissioned for the Quads, with an original short film.

Pairing music and art: Dave Liebman’s sax quartets with the paintings of Chad Hensel.

The entire performance will be documented by additional artists: Nick Wagner/live interpretive paintings, Courtney Erskine/photographic stills, Nancy Breaux/video and Dave Caldwell/live audio.

This note from Andrew Oliver showed up in my mailbox:

Hello from Brussels

Things are going nicely over here in Europe, I’ve had some great gigs in Ireland and Holland with Matthew Berrill and Chad McCullough and this week I’m in Belgium with Todd Bishop’s group.

I wanted to let everyone know that I’m honored to have been commissioned by the Quadraphonnes Sax Quartet to write a new piece which will be performed next Saturday, Nov. 6 at the Alberta Rose Theatre in Portland as part of their multi-media concert tone-color-melody. It’s based on a photo essay by the great French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson about a New York office building in the 1960′s. The photos will be projected during the performance of the piece.

I wish I could be there!