Republic of Jazz: Eco-Music Big Band - Colors of Resistance (2016)

Monday, April 11, 2016

Eco-Music Big Band - Colors of Resistance (2016)

ECO MUSIC BIG BAND

The Eco-Music Big Band is proud to present the Philadelphia premiere of its COLORS OF RESISTANCE program at the Painted Bride! Equal parts radical big band music by living composers, theatrical performance art, and classical-turned-jazz, COLORS OF RESISTANCE features new works by up-and-coming composers Livio Almeida, Felix Del Tredici, Marie Incontrera, Albert Marques, Zack O’Farrill, and Stefan Zeniuk; celebrates the five-decade career of bass trombonist and composer David Taylor; and reimagines iconic works by the late Chinese-American composer and baritone saxophone virtuoso Fred Ho and late composer and activist Cal Massey.

COLORS OF RESISTANCE tells a joyful story of music that comes from the tradition of resistance to oppression: fusing virtuosic radical jazz with hip hop, heavy metal, Latin rhythms, and blues forms, the Eco-Music Big Band promises a one-of-a-kind experience that intends to propel the jazz idiom into the 21st century. The title of the program was conceived during bandleader Marie Incontrera’s final conversation with band’s founder Fred Ho before his death, in which Ho said “all the colors of resistance… all the colors of life… hold them…”

The Eco-Music Big Band is a 16-piece, multigenerational and unique big band that includes some of the nation’s most acclaimed jazz musicians (such as bass trombonist David Taylor, drummer Zack O’Farrill, and trumpeter Adam O’Farrill). Hailed as “…music and activism at its finest” (DooBeeDooBeeDoo), the Eco-Music Big Band regularly commissions works by younger and emerging composers, and performs music with a vision for a better world. The band also performs the exclusive repertoire of the music of its late founder, Fred Ho, and the 1970s jazz composer and bandleader Cal Massey. The Eco-Music Big Band has performed on respected stages throughout the New York area such as the Blue Note Jazz Club, Red Rooster’s Ginny’s Supper Club, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, Zinc Jazz club, BAMcafe, Roulette.

ABOUT MARIE INCONTRERA

Marie Incontrera is a composer, conductor, and band leader whose work spans queer opera, political big band, and music for the oppressed.

Marie has conducted as a bandleader as well as in classical and operatic settings at Brooklyn Academy of Music, WOW Cafe, Red Rooster Harlem, BarnArts Center for the Arts, and others. Marie conducted the Green Monster Big Band for Fred Ho’s final album, which has an international release date for later in 2014. Marie was Fred Ho’s last composition and conducting protege.

A fierce revolutionary warrior and Fred Ho’s last music student, Marie was tasked to take his music to the highest level of harmoniously merging music and ecology, or PONO — a Kanaka Maoli, indigenous Hawaiian concept, for elegant and exquisite equilibrium. Eco-Music strives for this equilibrium and beyond.