Noonan was awarded the commission by the Jerome Foundation Commissioning Program in 2005, based on his goal of creating original compositions which fuse traditional wandering folk music with concepts from the New York progressive jazz scene. The Commission will underwrite a total of 24 original compositions, varying in length from 3 to 30 minutes, which will ultimately be re-created in the recording studio, in live performance spaces, and in private community centers over a five year period.
Noonan's debut release for Songlines Recordings, Stories to Tell, features six of the compositions created for the Commission: “Massana Cisse," “Esspi," “Noonbrews," “Urban Mbalax," “NY," and “Dr. Sleepytime." Joining him at Symphony Space will be most of the musicians who contributed to “Stories to Tell," including vocalists Susn McKeown and Abdoulaye Diabate, guitarists Aram Bajakian and Marc Ribot, Theirno Camara on bass, and Mat Maneri on viola. Also performing on bass will be the legendary Jamaaladeen Tacuma.
Noonan describes the music on “Stories To Tell," which will be released on January 9, 2007, as “tribal rhythms by an Irish griot ... My goal is to adapt folklore in a modern jazz context, merging storytelling and folk music from bardic and griot traditions."
Born in Boston, Noonan graduated from the Berklee College of Music and was one of the co-founders of The Hub, a trio whose punk-jazz earned them critical acclaim throughout Europe. While touring in Italy in 2003, he was in a car accident that nearly cost him his life and left him with two broken legs requiring several operations over two years, anchoring him to a wheelchair for months on end. It was during his recuperation that the idea that eventually resulted in the American Composers Forum commission first took shape. As soon as he could move his legs, he was back playing drums, this time developing a new project that blended jazz-punk with West African folk music. He got together with Thierno Camara, an old friend in whose Waaw Band he'd performed years earlier, to write some new tunes, and the resulting first Brewed by Noon CD - a quartet that also featured guitarist friends Aram Bajakian and Jon Madof - was released independently in 2005. Jazz Review said “Imagine Prime Time joined by Fela Kuti and Bill Frisell, then remixed by Bill Laswell, and you'll start to get a hint of just what an intoxicatingly soulful blast this is."
The Symphony Space performance is at 8:30 PM. The venue is located at 2537 Broadway at 95th St. For ticket information, visit their website at www.symphonyspace.org
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