The Wire Salon: An Audience With Terry Riley
For this special edition of The Wire Salon, the composer of such landmark minimalist works as In C and Rainbow In Curved Air talked live on the Café Oto stage with The Wire's Tony Herrington about his life and work, from his early 60s tape loop and trance music experiments and collaborations with La Monte Young, through to his current project, which looks to expand on the legacy of Riley's guru, the great Hindustani singer and teacher Pandit Pran Nath. The discussion was followed by an audience Q&A session.
click here to listen to the interview and findmore info
Jazz breaking news:
Captivating Minimalism, Ragas And Spiritual Jazz From Terry Riley, George Brooks And Talvin Singh
Friday, 05 November 2010 09:30
It would have been Pran Nath's 92nd birthday on Wednesday and, to celebrate the music of the singer, the great minimalist composer Terry Riley made a very rare appearance in London as part of a short tour with saxophonist George Brooks and Asian Underground innovator Talvin Singh, during the London International Festival of Exploratory Music at Kings Place.
A concert of ragas, typically slow alap variations of the form, the concert started some half-an-hour late which seemed to increase the already heightened air of anticipation in the completely sold-out Hall One. Riley who turned 75 earlier this year, a kindly smiling presence on stage with his long white beard, twinkly spectacles and red robes, played mostly piano with some pitch bend keyboards later and sang in the most delicious deep Hindustani classical manner, particularly in the second half of the concert. When the trio moved into deep spiritual territory on songs billed as 'The Ecstasy' and 'Waltz of The Insomniacs', the concert took on a further dimension and was so jazz-inflected that at times it was like listening to music inspired by the Eastern-influenced period of John Coltrane.
Riley's trademark interlocking patterns coupled to the wonderfully searching full bellied tone of Brooks especially on the tenor saxophone and Singh's metrical alchemy on tabla seamlessly moved into areas that belied their method, a stoned soul picnic of the senses. It's no wonder that bands such as The Necks and Portico Quartet draw so much inspiration from Riley. For him to perform such a concert in tribute to his great guru Pran Nath also showed the dignity of the whole concert. Let's hope it was recorded.
- Stephen Graham
click here to read the 5 star review in Jazzwise magazine of Terry's concert at Kings Place in London with George Brooks and Talvin Singh
click here to read a great review/article of Terry's work with The Kronos Quartet & Wu Man on The Cusp of Magic release
Contrasts, Transitions & Connections ~ Magic! at Billy's Bunker
Review: Banana Humberto
Pure, exhilarating joyousness, the kind that hits you when making music is the happiest thing you can do in the world and you're doing it head on. Terry plays here with the bassoonist Paul Hanson, the electric violist Tracy Silverman (remember? from John Adams' Dharma at Big Sur?) and Paul Dresher's Electro-Acoustic Band, Bay Area-based. Their music...what can I say, beyond my personal report of being grabbed, shaken, tickled and desensitized? Terry is mostly at the piano, motivated into cadenzas compounded from Eastern scales and polyrhythmic patterns, now and then slowing to a blues moment and, in a dazzling finale, a stupendous plunge into deep, rich Latino coloration. It seems to be Terry himself, reminiscing at Mach 10, on everything great and good and colorful that has ever crossed his horizon, and daring us all to come along. It tells us all that, at Terry Riley's age and beyond, the power to be delighted, and to pass it on, is one of the greatest possessions we can hold onto. --Alan Rich, LA Weekly 2/27/2008
Review: Atlantis Nath - click here for more info
TERRY RILEY – ATLANTIS NATH
Terry Riley [voice, piano, synthesizer, midi realization] – Luc Martinez [recording & sound design on Mosque, sound design on Ascención Final Chord Rising, field recordings from India, mix and mastering] – Frederic Lepée acoustic fretless guitar and acoustic percussion on Only a Day, conducting on Remember This] – John Deaderick [spoken text on The Crucifixion of My Humble Self] – The Nice Opera String Quartet [on Remember This] – Adolf Woelfli [text of The Crucifixion of My Humble Self] – Chris Harvey [illustrations & design]
Mosque and Ascención Final Chord Rising composed by Luc Martinez. Wedding Song co-composed by Terry Riley and Luc Martinez. The rest of the pieces composed by Terry Riley.
