Early Music

PRODUKTBESCHREIBUNGEN
KURZBESCHREIBUNG
Spooky Actions is a New York based jazz and new-music ensemble whose diverse recordings include the music of 20th century composer Anton Webern, interpretations of Native American music, and most recently, early music from the 2nd century BC through the 1500 s. Their unique and compelling sound is being met with critical acclaim and widespread interest.

The band was founded in 1997 by John Gunther (sax, clarinet, & flute) and Bruce Arnold (electric processed guitar). The two musicians, both professors at New York University, jammed and felt an immediate musical affinity. When they both started bringing in classical music to improvise over, they were inspired to start making their own transcriptions of early and modern classical music and to create a series of recording projects.

I ve often thought of music as a vessel of the human spirit, a message in a bottle that can travel across an ocean of time, and deliver a note from Bach, or Charlie Parker. So writes John Gunther in his essay for their latest release Early Music; Perhaps embedded in the intervals and sequences of the melody and rhythm are the thoughts and emotions of the composers themselves; he continues. Thus he states the raison d être for Spooky Actions, and its continued mining of diverse repertoire for examination and re-interpretation.

The name Spooky Actions is derived from a comment by Albert Einstein, in which he noted that certain seemingly unrelated objects could nevertheless exert a powerful influence upon each other. He called these relationships spooky actions at a distance. Spooky Actions, the band, certainly personifies this concept, showing how vivid and accessible improvisations can be derived from music that is often thought of as etched in stone.







BIOGRAPHIE DER MITWIRKENDEN
Guitarist Bruce Arnold has developed an extensive reputation as a composer and guitar virtuoso. His works are an original juxtaposition of 20th Century twelve-tone compositional methods and jazz improvisation techniques. In reviewing Mr. Arnold in The Los Angeles Times, Jazz critic Don Heckman wrote Arnold s music never loses its contact with jazz and he deserves credit for his effort to expand the potential of the jazz palette. and The New York Times has written that Bruce Arnold could be the ultimate crossover musician. He has played with such diverse musicians as Stuart Hamm, Peter Erskine, Joe Pass, Joe Lovano, Randy Brecker, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and performs frequently with the Absolute Ensemble under the baton of Kristjan Järvi. Mr. Arnold is also the first guitarist to take full advantage of Supercollider, an object-oriented computer software program developed for digital sound processing, in live performance.

As an educator, Mr. Arnold has taught at some of the most prestigious music schools in America, including the New England Conservatory of Music, Dartmouth College, Berklee College of Music, Princeton University, New York University, New School University, City College of New York. Mr. Arnold is also the director of the New York University Summer Guitar Intensive, a program focusing on advanced improvisational skills. Of the hundreds of summer guitar courses offered in colleges nationwide, this is the only one to offer college credit and Mr. Arnold s hand picked faculty reads like a Who s Who of New York Guitar Players and Educators.

Mr. Arnold is the author of more than 50 music instruction texts devoted to crucial aspects of guitar technique, theory, ear training, time, sight reading, and the overall mastery of high-level performance skills. He gives frequent clinics on both basic and advanced improvisational concepts and ear training. Saxophonist John Gunther has a unique and compelling voice as a composer and improviser with inspirations from jazz, classical, and folk traditions from around the world. John has performed with Tom Harrel, Dewey Redman, John Abercrombie, Dizzy Gillespie, The Woody Herman Orchestra, and The Maria Schneider Orchestra. He was composer in residence for The Toronto Fringe Dance Festival 2004 and has composed scores for several feature films.

As part of New York city s downtown music scene for the past ten years, he has produced five recordings for Creative Improvised Music Projects (CIMP) as a leader and is co-founder of "Spooky Actions. John Gunther also teaches at New York University.



.a fluent composer and performer who is redefining mainstream jazz. David Lewis, Cadence Magazine;

Gunther has a knack for writing startling attractive melodies. Steven A. Loewy, The All Music Guide

Number of Discs: 1

UK Delivery:

• Free delivery on all orders of £10 or more.
• £1.49 delivery fee on orders below £10.
• UK orders are shipped via Royal Mail 2nd Class.

International Delivery:

• Flat rate delivery charges vary by country.

Dispatch and Delivery Times:

• All orders are shipped from our warehouse in Northampton, UK within 48 hours of receipt during working hours.
• UK mainland orders typically arrive within 3-5 working days via Royal Mail 2nd Class.
• International estimated delivery times:
• Europe & Channel Islands: 7 to 10 working days
• USA: 7 to 15 working days
• Rest of the World: 9 to 21 working days

View our full delivery infomation here.