Musicians Speak with Joseph Celli

Phill Niblock (Part 2)

Phill Niblock, the groundbreaking composer of minimalist and experimental music, joins Musicians Speak for the second half of his interview, recorded in 2020. The New York Times wrote, “His work has influenced Brian Eno and other musicians associated with the rock world… Pitches scrape against other pitches like a speeding automobile sideswiping a row of parked cars. Sum and difference tones pile up until they sound like an orchestra of strings or an immense chorus of voices. So much is going on that one finds oneself listening first to one level of detail, then to another, and only gradually learning to hear everything at once.” In Part 2 we also listen to two of his compositions, spanning forty years.

Phill Niblock (Part 1)

Intermedia artist Phill Niblock discusses his early years in NY and the beginnings of his art making at Judson Church and the founding of the Experimental Intermedia Foundation by Elaine Summers. Phill discusses his thick, loud drones and microtones as we listen to Feed Corn Ear and Hurdy Hurry. He says, “What I am doing with my music is to produce something without rhythm or melody, by using many microtones that cause movements very, very slowly.”

Wadada Leo Smith

Wadada Leo Smith has been in the epicenter of creative music for over 50 years as a composer, trumpet player, educator, and theoretician. From his earliest days with Anthony Braxton to his most recent tours, recordings, and performances with the likes of Vijay Iyer, Bill Laswell, and Milford Graves he has defined a singular path as a creative musician. In addition to being a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music, he also received the 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award and earned an honorary doctorate from CalArts, where he was also celebrated as Faculty Emeritus. During the interview, we listen to two newly released CD box sets including Sacred Ceremonies and Trumpet. Additionally, Wadada discusses various aspects of his compositional process, his work during the pandemic, upcoming projects and his tributes to other musicians, social and spiritual leaders. The New York Times wrote, “…he knows the power of a single musical gesture and cuts a clearing around himself when he plays: He uses open, full, melodic cries, and then grainy, blurry, throttled ones; he plays in recognizable rhythm for a short period or lets his phrases crumble.” “Before the masses woke, Smith's music had incorporated political, cultural, spiritual, and environmental awareness. The elder statesman of new music continues his prolific output with TUM Records box sets for the first half of 2021.” Karl Ackermann, All About Jazz

Jen Shyu

Award-winning vocalist, composer and multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu speaks about her wide range of influences, her studies in Asia, and the various compositions that we hear during the program. She is a Rome Prize Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a recipient of the Doris Duke Artist Award, among many others.  As David Hajdu of The Nation wrote, Jen Shyu is "...one of the most creative vocalists in contemporary improvised music...A singer like no other, Shyu is both lyrical and wildly adventurous, producing sounds in languages as diverse as English and Javanese, Korean, and Tetum (spoken on the divided island of Timor), all of which combine to produce a beautiful language of her own passionate invention."

Bill Frisell

Guitarist/composer Bill Frisell discusses his memories of the ‘olden days’, touring, and the extraordinary energy that he gets from the music. Bill discusses the ‘magic’ of the music taking over and the instinctive sonic relationship within his trio, his early years in Denver, the music he’s listening to now, Louis Armstrong, and others. Bill Frisell’s career as a guitarist and composer has spanned more than 40 years and many celebrated recordings. His recorded catalog has been cited by Downbeat as, “the best recorded output of the decade.” Bill appears on over 150 recordings as leader or collaborator as well as receiving Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary Jazz Album and for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. Bill is the subject of a new documentary film entitled, Bill Frisell: A Portrait, which examines his creative process in depth. “Frisell has had a lot of practice putting high concept into a humble package. Long hailed as one of the most distinctive and original improving guitarists of our time, he has also earned a reputation for teasing out thematic connections with his music…There’s a reason that Jazz at Lincoln Center had him program a series called Roots of Americana.” New York Times “Bill Frisell plays the guitar like Miles Davis played the trumpet: in the hands of such radical thinkers, their instruments simply become different animals. And, like Davis, Frisell loves to have a lot of legroom when he improvises – the space that terrifies others quickens his blood.” The New Yorker