Sunday, Nov 11 2007 8:00 PM $10
1510 8th St Performance Space
1510 8th Street
Oakland
Improvised music + food (Early Thanksgiving - turkey, stuffing, etc.)
3 sets with Virtuoso Contrabassist Bertram Turetzky
Set 1
Bertram Turetzky - contrabass
Damon Smith - contrabass
Set 2
Nancy Turetzky - flutes
Bertram Turetzy - contrabass
Set 3
Phillip Greenleif - reeds
Scott R. Looney - piano
Bertram Turetzky - contrabass
William Winant - percussion
BERTRAM TURETZKY
- Contrabass -
Since the end of World War II, the contrabass has emerged from its traditional orchestral role to assume the position of an important solo instrument. This marked rise in interest in the contrabass can be traced to it's importance in Jazz and the development of new performance techniques. Bertram Turetzky has been a key figure in the renaissance of the contrabass and since 1955 more than 300 new worked have been written for, performed by and recorded by him, making him the most frequently recorded contrabass soloist in America. In fact, Bertram Turetzky is one of the few performers in all of music history to have single-handedly created a large and impressive repertory of music for his instrument.
Turetzky's concert career includes a multitude of performances at concerts and festivals in music centers of the world; New York, London, Paris, Warsaw, Los Angeles, Stockholm and Berlin. His body of work includes music of all genres; solo to symphonic with everything else in between written by composers from the U.S.A., France, Germany, Poland, Australia, Mexico and Spain. He also enjoys programs of music of the Baroque and Romantic periods as well as works by composers out of the Jazz tradition such as Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington.
In addition, he is the author of THE CONTEMPORARY CONTRABASS (1974), a monograph outlining the new techniques of the instruments. On the basis of the now classic book, Turetzky was named co-editor of the prestigious series THE NEW INSTRUMENTATION, published by the University of California Press.
Bertram Turetzky is professor of music at the University of California, San Diego, where his spends a major part of each year in residence. Turetzky has recorded works for the following labels: Advance, Ars Nova, Desto, Finnadar, Folkways, Medea, Nonesuch, Takoma, CRI, Serenus and Nine Winds.
"Turetzky is a stunning executant, like a great basso cantante, his double bass speaks purely and with the easy resonance at the softest dynamic levels. Even his harmonics never sound gritty. And the resourcefulness with which he strives for unlikely colors and textures seems virtually unlimited." - New York Times
"Turetzky is a virtuoso of a caliber unsurpassed by any other practitioner of his instrument today." - Chicago Daily News
Damon Smith
http://www.balancepointacoustics.com http://myspace.com/smithdamon
New solo project:
http://www.myspace.com/damonsmithsolo
