Don Berman + Keplinger Mandyck Duo

About

An exciting celebration of John Coltrane’s 100th birthday featuring a performance of Don Berman’s Ascension Northwest and an opening set by the fabulous Keplinger Mandyck Duo. This show will be the Coltrane celebration event of the year! Ascension Northwest is Don’s composition for an 11-piece ensemble, based upon and a tribute to Coltrane’s legendary “Ascension” recording of 1965. Ascension Northwest presents full ensemble sections that alternate with solo sections and comprise a complete set-long piece. Each full ensemble, so-called “tutti” section, starts with all of the band members playing a motif specifically written for that segment. But the motifs quickly develop into each player’s own individual interpretations, the combination of which form what Eckehard Jost termed “dense sound complexes…a new type of group improvisation emerges in which melodic-motivic evolution gives way to the molding of a total sound.… the macro-structures of the total sound are more important than the micro-structure of the parts.” Then, these sections full of large sound clusters and structures are intermingled with solo sections, in which each player gets a chance to play their own solo. And each solo section features a soloist backed by a different small number of other players accompanying it; provided a wonderful contract with the tutti sections. The Keplinger Mandyck duo opens the evening with a set of deep and powerful music that must be experienced live. Their remarkable recording, Tribute is available on Origin Records. Originarts describes this duo is this manner: “Non-stop pedal-to-the-metal creativity here. Saxophone/drum duo albums don’t exactly overflow the store shelves, but these two intense artists bring a bold, headstrong urgency to a journey through perilously naked terrain…..Works of art come in differing dimensions, but (this duo) proves that one tenor saxophonist and one drummer, given sufficient talent, imagination and guts, can make music as richly satisfying as any ensemble.”