John Adams leads Swiss premiere of Scheherazade.2 in Geneva with violinist Leila Josefowicz … Devendra Banhart plays two European festival sets … Emmylou Harris plays free set in Nashville ... Lake Street Dive join Dave Matthews Band in Washington State … Brad Mehldau, Mark Guiliana, John Scofield play Detroit Jazz Festival … Pat Metheny, Christian McBride lead Tokyo residency … Steve Reich is focus of BBC Proms … Caetano Veloso, Teresa Cristina launch tour in Paris … and more …
John Adams leads the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and violinist Leila Josefowicz in the Swiss premiere of his new dramatic symphony, Scheherazade.2, as part of a series of events for the Geneva Festival this weekend. The performance at Victoria Hall in Geneva tonight is the capstone of an all-Adams program that also includes his 1986 fanfare for orchestra Short Ride in a Fast Machine and his 1983 work for strings Shaker Loops. He joins music critic Rocco Zacheo in a conversation about his career on stage at La Bâtie on Saturday. The weekend concludes with a concert at Salle des Abeilles by Ensemble Contrechamps that pairs a new work by Thomas Hauert with two piano works by Adams: Hallelujah Junction (1996) and Phrygian Gates (1978).
Nonesuch releases the first recording of Scheherazade.2 on September 30. Josefowicz, for whom the piece was written, performs it on the album with the St. Louis Symphony led by Music Director David Robertson. Scheherazade.2 is available to pre-order now on iTunes and in the Nonesuch Store.
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Devendra Banhart plays two late-summer festival sets this weekend, at Into the Great Wide Open in Vlieland, Netherlands, tonight, and the End of the Road Festival at the Larmer Tree Gardens in Tollard Royal, England, on Sunday. He also takes part in a Q&A with Uncut magazine live on Larmar's Piano Stage Sunday evening.
The singer/songwriter/guitarist's new album, Ape in Pink Marble, is due September 23. Banhart wrote, produced, arranged, and recorded the album in Los Angeles with his longtime collaborators Noah Georgeson and Josiah Steinbrick, both of whom also worked on his 2013 album, Mala. Ape in Pink Marble, which Uncut has already described as “excellent,” is available to pre-order now with an instant download of the album tracks "Middle Names” and "Saturday Night."
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Emmylou Harris plays a free set at Centennial Park in her hometown of Nashville for the final summer session of the Musicians Corner series. Joining her for the performance are Mary Ann Kennedy and Pam Rose. On hand in the park will be adorable and adoptable dogs from Harris's dog rescue, Bonaparte's Retreat.
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Lake Street Dive continues its North American Side Pony tour with three special shows at the Gorge Amphitheatre in Quincy, Washington, as special guests of Dave Matthews Band, tonight, Saturday, and Sunday. The group resumes its headlining run with a show at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in two weeks.
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Brad Mehldau, drummer Mark Guiliana (with whom he paired up for the Grammy-nominated album Mehliana: Taming the Dragon), and guitarist John Scofield, having embarked on a world tour earlier this summer, reunite for a one-off performance at the free Detroit Jazz Festival on Labor Day Monday. The New York Times, reviewing the group’s week-long residency at the Blue Note in New York City in June, calls it a “new-groove super trio.”
A collaboration of a different sort for Mehldau, with longtime friend Joshua Redman, has resulted in their first duo album, Nearness, due next Friday. “Magic always seems to happen when saxophonist Joshua Redman and pianist Brad Mehldau play together,” says Mojo; “they create a special telepathic musical synergy in each other’s company.” The duo embarks on an extensive fall tour later this month.
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Pat Metheny joins up with bassist Christian McBride for a residency in Tokyo, starting with a set at the Tokyo International Forum, as part of the Tokyo Jazz Festival, on Saturday, followed by two, multi-set, nights at Blue Note Tokyo on Sunday and Monday.
Metheny was joined by McBride and drummer Antonio Sanchez on his 2008 albums Day Trip and Tokyo Day Trip: Live EP. The Boston Herald called it “arguably his best” ensemble yet, and the New York Times said their “playing conveys a sense of proportion, substance and coherence, along with rigorous clarity; solid benchmarks for any great improvisers at the peak of their game.”
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Three works by Steve Reich—Vermont Counterpoint, Eight Lines, and Music for a Large Ensemble—form the program of a special BBC Proms, performed not in Royal Albert Hall but in a Peckham car park this Saturday at noon and again at 3 PM, the latter broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. The Multi-Story Orchestra, conducted by Christopher Stark, makes its Proms debut performing the concerts at Bold Tendencies Multi-Storey Car Park, where it is in residence.
Reich, celebrating his 80th birthday next month, has been this week’s BBC Radio 3 Composer of the Week. For the five-part series, BBC Radio 3 gives an encore presentation of interviews from 2010, in which the composer discusses his legendary career with host Donald Macleod, and highlights some of Reich’s most critically acclaimed works.
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Caetano Veloso and Teresa Cristina embark on an eight-city tour, starting with a free concert in La Place de la Madeleine in Paris tonight as part of the Lavage de la Madeleine festival celebrating Brazilian culture. The tour marks the release of Cristina’s live album and DVD, Canta Cartola, and makes stops in Portugal, South Korea, Japan, and the US, with shows in New York, Chicago, and Fort Lauderdale.
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