Noah Kaplan Quartet perform Dec 3

TOPAZ ARTS presents The Noah Kaplan Quartet
Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 6pm
Admission is free, suggested donation $10
directions to TOPAZ ARTS >

The Noah Kaplan Quartet will perform in celebration of their new recording, Descendants, on HatHut Records.  Featuring: Noah Kaplan (saxophone); Giacomo Merega (electric bass); Joe Moffett (trumpet); Ben Hall (drums).

Immediately following an opening reception from 3-6pm of “Memory of Smoke” – a solo exhibition of new works by Cambodian artist Bandaul Srey.

The transparency of the quartet’s intent and mode of operation allow hearing inside the music, from which details of descent and association emerge. In response, memory, and imagination, memory’s mirror, suggest familiar analogies – such as the guitar’s Appalachian folk arpeggios in “Pendulum Music,” the tenor saxophone’s vocalization and the raga-like development of “Descent,” the bluesy edge of “Esther,” the multiple meters in “Rat Man.” Or the way “Wolves” comes together – the fluid electric bass fitting hand-in-glove with the guitar’s fluttering modalities, the groove and textural incident of the drums, the soprano saxophone’s shofar cry. As the improvisational mode coheres, everything relates to melody, even the rhythm section, urging without forcing, alert to alternatives in the moment. – Art Lange

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Noah Kaplan is an American composer and saxophonist. His playing has been described as “venturesome” (New York Times), as well as “formidable” (All About Jazz) and “meditative and elegiac . . . it communicates a wild tenderness” (All About Jazz, New York). Noah graduated from the New England Conservatory where he studied with Joe Maneri and Jerry Bergonzi. With Maneri, he studied microtones as well as Arnold Schoenberg’s theory and composition texts and cultivated a sound that blends microtonality and modern jazz. In 2008, the light and other things, a collaboration with slide guitar icon David Tronzo and bassist Giacomo Merega, was released to critical acclaim. In January 2011, Dollshot’s self-titled debut album was released on Underwolf Records. The Noah Kaplan Quartet’s debut recording, Descendants, featuring guitarist Joe Morris, will be released on HatHut Records in 2011. Also in 2011, Noah will appear on Ad Faunum which will be released by NotTwo Records. Noah maintains an active performance schedule and has performed and/or recorded with Joe Morris, Mat Maneri, Peter Erskine, Alan Pasqua, Anthony Coleman, Art Davis, Joe Maneri, Randy Peterson, Ed Schuller, David Tronzo, Luther Gray, Daniel Levin, Judith Berkson, Pandelis Karayorgis, Kirk Knuffke, Marco Cappelli, Mauro Pagani, and Hampton Fancher among others. Noah lives in Brooklyn, NY. www.noah-kaplan.com

Bassist Giacomo Merega is a leading voice in the avant-garde improv music scene. In 2008, his debut album ‘the light and other things’, featuring slideguitarist David Tronzo, was released to critical acclaim and as part of Noah Kaplan’s Quartet he will appear on ‘Descendants’, an upcoming release on HatHut hatOLOGY. Born in Italy, schooled in Boston, Giacomo now lives in New York. He has performed and recorded with musicians such as Joe Morris, Mat Maneri, Anthony Coleman, Dave Fiuczynski, Marco Cappelli and Luther Gray among others. Giacomo also plays in Bryan Baker’s quartet and has presented solo bass performances in the US, Europe and Asia.

Ben Hall is a drummer, percussionist, tympanist and a founding member of the 1/4 speed Michigan chamber jazz group Graveyards, as well as a co-curator of the experimental label brokenresearch.

Joe Moffett is a trumpeter and improviser based in Brooklyn.  He can be heard leading his own groups and has also performed alongside musicians such as Joe Morris, Kenny Wollesen, Tony Malaby, Luther Gray, Forbes Graham and Jim Hobbs.  His projects include Ad Faunum, a quintet that will see the official release of its debut album on Not Two in 2012.  He is a co-founder of the Philadelphia-based quartet Bird Fly Yellow, and the voice-trumpet duo Twins of El Dorado with vocalist Kristin Slipp.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 3rd, 2011 at 11:21 am. It is filed under Latest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.