Where else but the Vision Festival, in the US at least, would you find a night given to two participants in that legendary extended fanfare the world knows as Ascension. One still works among us, John Tchicai, and the other left us since Vision Festival last conveved.
Marion Brown was a wonder. He was among the early inventors of mixed medium work incorporating poetry, visual arts and the timbres of alto saxophone and flute. He was most avid to work with early explorers from the AACM when they began to leave Chicago.
He had a particularly expansive relationship with Wadada Leo Smith when both lived along different parts of the Connecticut River valley. They collaborated on a memorable run of Impulse releases, a favor passed from Coltrane to Wadada carried by Mr. Brown.
Marion Brown was also a rigorous ethnomusicologist and had an elaborate correspondence with Kwabena Nketia from Ghana.
They worked out a number of specific features generally common to nearly all African and African Diaspora musical forms. While anyone is welcome to incorporate them from any culture, the combination creates recognizable sonic signatures and suggests patterns of relationship between the Mother Land and the New World.
Among these are the use of hocquet, poly rhythm and poly meter, ululation and sonic texture or buzz called the mirliton effect. All in all, it is a very useful orientation and is among his many under appreciated contributions.
In the Main Stage
6:00PM to 6:15PM Invocation Patricia Parker,Fay Victor,Kyoko Kitamura,Jean Carla Rodea,William Parker, Michael Wimberly
6:15PM to 7:00PM Blood Trio Whit Dickey,Sabir Mateen and Michael Bisio
7:15PM to 8:00PM The GROUP Tribute to Marion Brown & Billy Bang. D.D. Jackson (piano), Hamiet Bluiett (baritone sax), Ahmed Abdullah (trumpet) Bob Stewart (tuba) Charles Burnham (violin) Andrew Cyrille (drums)
9:15PM to 10:00PM Tchicai's Ascension Unending In the footsteps of John Coltrane. John Tchicai (sax),Alex Weiss (sax),Garrison Fewell (guitar),Rosie Hertlein (violin), Dmitry Ishenko (bass),Ches Smith (drums)
10:15PM to 11:00PM Tony Malaby's Tamarindo Trio. Tony Malaby (sax) William Parker (bass) Tom Rainey (drums)
Abrons Art Center Downstairs
8:00PM to 8:30PM Stephen Haynes & Parrhesia. Stephen Haynes (trumpet, cornets, flugelhorn) Joe Morris (electric guitar) Warren Smith (drums and percussion)
8:45PM to9:15PM David Henderson & Bob Marshall. David Henderson (poetry) Bob Marshall (drums)
