Hailed by Chamber Music magazine for “pioneering achievements of the highest order,” the PRISM Quartet partners with (le) poisson rouge in New York City to present the next installment of Heritage/Evolution, a groundbreaking project featuring world premieres of new works composed and performed by today’s most inventive jazz saxophonists. This time around, Heritage/Evolution spotlights saxophone luminary Joe Lovano, who will join PRISM as a soloist in his new work, “Super Sonix.” The program follows the PRISM Quartet’s prior Heritage/Evolution collaborations with Ravi Coltrane, Steve Lehman, Dave Liebman, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Greg Osby, Chris Potter, Tim Ries, and Miguel Zenón, and the release of the Quartet’s critically acclaimed recording, Heritage/Evolution, Volume 1 on Innova. ...
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Hailed by Chamber Music magazine for “pioneering achievements of the highest order,” the PRISM Quartet partners with (le) poisson rouge in New York City to present the next installment of Heritage/Evolution, a groundbreaking project featuring world premieres of new works composed and performed by today’s most inventive jazz saxophonists. This time around, Heritage/Evolution spotlights saxophone luminary Joe Lovano, who will join PRISM as a soloist in his new work, “Super Sonix.” The program follows the PRISM Quartet’s prior Heritage/Evolution collaborations with Ravi Coltrane, Steve Lehman, Dave Liebman, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Greg Osby, Chris Potter, Tim Ries, and Miguel Zenón, and the release of the Quartet’s critically acclaimed recording, Heritage/Evolution, Volume 1 on Innova.
Joe Lovano: “‘Super Sonix’ is inspired by and dedicated to the genius and Third Stream pioneer Gunther Schuller, as well as modern jazz master Ornette Coleman, both of whom I’ve been associated with. I will also be drawing from my personal experiences playing within some great saxophone sections: The Woody Herman Band, Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, Carla Bley Band, and The Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra. ‘Super Sonix’ is a piece which will explore the natural beauty found in the harmolodic rhythmic tapestry of improvised music. I will be joining the PRISM Quartet on tenor, alto, G mezzo, and baritone saxophones, as well as drums, oriental gongs, and percussion.”
The program includes the world premiere of “Forbidden Drive” by 2016 Pew Fellow Matthew Levy, PRISM’s tenor saxophonist and resident composer. Featuring Lovano as a soloist, “Forbidden Drive” is named after and inspired by a seven-mile trail that runs along the Wissahickon Creek in Philadelphia's historic Wissahickon Valley Park. The PRISM Quartet will also present the world premiere of “Refraction” by Reiny Rolock, winner of the annual PRISM/Walden School Commissioning Award, and a repeat performance of “Night Music” by Emma O’Halloran. O’Halloran, an Irish composer completing doctoral studies at Princeton University, composed “Night Music” during a recent PRISM Quartet residency with Princeton's renowned composition department.
These concerts conclude the second phase of the Heritage/Evolution project, and will culminate in a new recording, Heritage/Evolution, Volume 2 (2018), featuring performances and compositions by Ravi Coltrane, Potter, Lovano, and Levy on the PRISM Quartet’s recently launched label, XAS Records, distributed worldwide by Naxos USA.
The ongoing Heritage/Evolution project offers a growing collection of distinctive pieces—a new fabric of saxophone repertoire—that draws on the instrument's cross-cultural heritage. The works blend jazz with Western classical music (including spectralism) as well as South Indian classical, Latin American folkloric, Bulgarian, and Romani musics, and more. PRISM has long kept new music at the forefront of its programming; Heritage/Evolution carries this mission forward, with collaborations that continue to defy expectations.
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