{"id":1447,"date":"2015-09-26T13:05:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-26T20:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jessegilbert.net\/?p=1447"},"modified":"2015-09-26T13:05:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-26T20:05:00","slug":"wls-renaissance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jessegilbert.net\/cms\/1447\/wls-renaissance\/","title":{"rendered":"Wadada Leo Smith at the Renaissance Society"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jesse will create live visuals for two concerts related to Wadada Leo Smith&#8217;s solo show &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.renaissancesociety.org\/exhibitions\/4\/wadada-leo-smith-ankhrasmation-the-language-scores-1967-2015\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ankhrasmation: The Language Scores, 1967-2015<\/a>&#8221; at the Renaissance Society in Chicago, October 24-25, 2015.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Concert #1<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Golden Quartet<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Oct 24, 2015, 7PM<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/place\/Reva+and+David+Logan+Center+for+the+Arts\/@41.7853246,-87.6038761,15z\/data=%214m2%213m1%211s0x0:0x6c39cb25111a7dc8?sa=X&amp;ved=0CJEBEPwSMApqFQoTCO-5le2HvscCFYQaPgodCp0OIQ\"><br \/>\nLogan Center for the Arts <\/a><br \/>\nPerformance Penthouse, 9th floor<br \/>\n915 E 60th St<br \/>\nChicago, IL 60637<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>Wadada Leo Smith joins pianist Anthony Davis, bassist John  Lindberg, and drummer Mike Reed to perform some of the key scores in the  Renaissance Society exhibition. Video artist Jesse Gilbert provides  live visuals.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><br \/>\nConcert #2<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Wadada Leo Smith Solo<\/strong><br \/>\nOct 25, 2015, 3PM<\/p>\n<p><em>Smith offers a solo performance amongst his scores in the Renaissance Society\u2019s gallery, with live visuals by Jesse Gilbert.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.renaissancesociety.org\/exhibitions\/4\/wadada-leo-smith-ankhrasmation-the-language-scores-1967-2015\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong><br \/>\nAnkhrasmation: The Language Scores, 1967-2015<\/strong><\/a> is open October 11-29, 2015.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"contact\">\n<p><strong>The Renaissance Society<\/strong><br \/>\nat the University of Chicago<br \/>\n5811 South Ellis Avenue<br \/>\nCobb Hall, 4th floor<br \/>\nChicago, Illinois 60637<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>During exhibitions, the gallery is open:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Tuesday to Friday: 10am\u20135pm<\/li>\n<li>Saturday and Sunday: 12\u20135pm<\/li>\n<li>Closed Mondays<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All exhibitions and events at the Renaissance Society are free of charge, and no booking is required (unless otherwise noted).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Exhibition Introduction<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Trumpeter, composer, educator, and visual artist Wadada Leo Smith is a  pioneer in the fields of contemporary jazz and creative music. During  the 1960s and early \u201970s, Smith was based in Chicago, where he was a key  member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM).  Largely recognized as a watershed organization in the history of jazz,  the AACM is known for crafting a vibrant dialectic between improvised  and formally scored music, and this year celebrates its 50th  anniversary. The Renaissance Society presentation runs in parallel to  MCA Chicago\u2019s exhibition <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.mcachicago.org\/exhibition\/the-freedom-principle-experiments-in-art-and-music-1965-to-now\/\"><em>The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now<\/em><\/a> (July 11 to November 22, 2015), which features one of Smith\u2019s four-panel scores.<\/p>\n<p>Smith was one the most active and articulate proponents of this  exchange, legitimizing a formal ideology around improvised music and the  illustrated score that he continues to build on to this day. <em>Ankhrasmation<\/em>\u2014a  neologism formed of \u201cAnkh,\u201d the Egyptian symbol for life, \u201cRas,\u201d the  Ethiopian word for leader, and \u201cMa\u201d, a universal term for mother\u00ad\u00ad\u2014is  the systemic musical language that Smith has developed over nearly 50  years. The scores eschew (and at times incorporate) traditional notation  in favor of symbolic compositions of color, line, and shape. These  provide specific instruction for the seasoned improvisor while allowing  musicians to bring their own special expertise and individual strengths  to each performance.<\/p>\n<p>The Renaissance Society presents the first comprehensive exhibition of Smith\u2019s <em>Ankhrasmation<\/em> scores. The more than 45 works on paper include the first of Smith\u2019s scores to use non-standard visual directions, <em>The Bell,<\/em> which was debuted on Anthony Braxton\u2019s seminal 1968 recording, <em>Three Compositions of New Jazz<\/em>.  A number of scores from the exhibition will be performed by Smith\u2019s  Golden Quartet in a concert on October 24, and Smith will perform solo  in the gallery on October 25.<\/p>\n<p>Experimental music has been a component of the Renaissance Society\u2019s  programming since the first concerts hosted in conjunction with the  World\u2019s Fair in Chicago in the 1930s. The exhibition is organized by  Hamza Walker  and John Corbett, both of whom have at different times  served as music curators at the Renaissance Society.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Wadada Leo Smith<\/strong> was born in Leland, Mississippi in  1941 and trained with the U.S. Military band program, Sherwood School of  Music, and Wesleyan University.  A faculty member at The Herb Alpert  School of Music at California Institute of the Arts until his retirement  in 2013, Smith also taught at the University of New Haven, the Creative  Music Studio in Woodstock, NY, and Bard College. Smith currently  performs with the Golden Quartet, Silver Orchestra, and Organic  ensembles, and his compositions have been performed by other ensembles  including AACM-Orchestra, Kronos Quartet, San Francisco Contemporary  Music Players, New York New Music Ensemble, and California E.A.R. Unit.  Recent awards and commissions include MAP Fund Award for \u201cTen Freedom  Summers\u201d (2011), Chamber Music America New Works Grant (2010), NEA  Recording Grant (2010), Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial  Foundation (2009-2010).<\/p>\n<p>This exhibition is part of the Renaissance Society\u2019s Centennial program. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.renaissancesociety.org\/news\/6\/centennial\/\"><strong>Read more.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jesse will create live visuals for two concerts related to Wadada Leo Smith&#8217;s solo show &#8220;Ankhrasmation: The Language Scores, 1967-2015&#8221; at the Renaissance Society in Chicago, October 24-25, 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1460,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessegilbert.net\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessegilbert.net\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessegilbert.net\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessegilbert.net\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessegilbert.net\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1447"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/jessegilbert.net\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1463,"href":"https:\/\/jessegilbert.net\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447\/revisions\/1463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessegilbert.net\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessegilbert.net\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessegilbert.net\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessegilbert.net\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}