Idiom
Anna Webber
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New Releases, Upcoming Releases and 2021
With so much going on in the world we haven’t posted an update on a few months so here we are.
Since our last check in much had happened. Jen Shyu released Zero Grasses: Ritual for the Losses and Anna Webber released Idiom. Both recordings have been met with high praise. The Wall Street Journal chronicled the development of Zero Grasses and BandCamp described the music on Idiom as, “… brilliantly harnessed the inventive sounds of free improvisation in works that are driving, dynamically scaled, and bursting with contrasts in volume, texture, and density.”
2021 still holds plenty of music. New releases by Matt Mitchell & Kate Gentile’s Snark Horse, Steve Coleman & Five Elements and Henry Threadgill Zooid, plus some other surprises. Below is a sneak preview from disc 2 “Fraughtleau” of the Snark Horse 6 CD box set. Check out trapezoid | matching tickles. The box set is available now through BandCamp and will ship out in late July.
May 30, 2021 byHafez Modirzadeh’s Facets
Friday March 5th Pi’s 2021 release schedule kicks off with the release of Hafez Modirzadeh’s Facets. A recording of duets between Hafez and three unique pianists, Kris Davis, Craig Taborn and Tyshawn Sorey.
Facets was three years in the making beginning with a two night performance at the Jazz Gallery in Manhattan and featuring four sets of music with a different pianist each set. Expanding on the concepts and ideas Hafez put into motion with the retuned piano featured on Post-Chromodal Out, Modirzadeh has distilled the approach to a single re-tuning for Facets. Modirzadeh himself utilizes alternate fingerings and embouchure adjustments on his instrument to achieve intervals between major and minor, and the pieces sway with an elasticity reminiscent of Persian poetic meter. With eight keys re-tuned and the remainder left in equal temperament, the music explores the coexistence of familiar with unfamiliar, and in the process, discovers new logic and mysterious beauty within.
This third chapter in Pi’s documentation of Hafez’s work is the first release of our 20th anniversary year and a fitting start.
