[NewMusic] New CD: Wayang Saxophony Shadow Saxophone

[Henry Kuntz]

"Wayang Saxophony Shadow Saxophone" - Humming Bird Records (HB CD 6) 

Henry Kuntz: Tenor Saxophone

            In an alluring set of solo and multi-track improvisations
inspired by his mixed-media presentations of saxophone and puppet theatre,
Henry Kuntz re-examines the sound, technique, and musical dimensions of the
tenor.

 

"The diaphanous tenor of  'Wayang Saxophony Shadow Saxophone'  took flight
like a light butterfly free of its silver cocoon. It happened as I prepared
for two solo performances that featured the coming out of my Balinese shadow
puppets. The puppets were entrusted to me by a homegrown cultural ambassador
on the Indonesian island....

            "The leather puppets, elaborately and colorfully painted but
normally only seen as shadows on a white screen, were theatrically presented
in open space to relate a Balinese story known as Desa Nama Kerta, The Ten
Names of Peace. The tale is old, but it was recently newly produced in Bali
to help relieve people's trauma from the bombings of 2002 and 2005. I felt
that an adapted version of the epic might help us to hold the light in our
own poisoned spiritual atmosphere, polluted by war, violence, and planetary
disasters. The moral import of the story is that one cannot confront
violence with more violence. Only by preserving and strengthening the
life-giving principles embodied in music, dance and ritual - originally,
gifts to humans from the gods - can we hope to restore harmony and balance
in the world.

            "In performance, the content of the Balinese tale served as
thematic material on which to improvise. To align my playing with the
character of the story, I felt prompted to take a fresh look at the
saxophone. Instead of allowing the instrument - it's nature, it's history,
even it's recent "free" history - to determine how I should play it, I
decided to let the music-in-process suggest the manner of instrumental
usage.  This was as much an evolutionary as a conscious decision that came
from working over a period of months with the puppets. The harmonics of
blown breath emerged; and, from repeatedly vocalizing the story, the voice
spontaneously asserted itself as an integral part of the music.

             "The names of the pieces for four tenors are derived from the
names of two sets of ancient Javanese gamelan known as sekati.  In
Yogyakarta, these orchestras play once each year for five days. The music is
peculiarly stark and strong, yet sweet. The sounds of the gamelan sekati are
said to confer great spiritual power on those who hear them."  - Henry Kuntz
(June 2006)

 

            (Order online from cdbaby.com or send check or money order -
$12.95 postpaid - to Humming Bird Records, 1117 The Alameda, Berkeley, CA
94707.)

 

            Henry Kuntz has been intimately involved in free jazz and free
improvisation for more than 30 years. From 1973 to 1979, he was editor and
publisher of the internationally-acclaimed newsletter-review BELLS. He first
recorded on tenor saxophone in 1977 on Henry Kaiser's Ice Death.  He has
played musette and various flutes since 1981, miniature violins since 1983,
gamelans and xylophones since1988, and rhaita since1999. On Humming Bird
Records, he has released 2 LPs, 16 cassettes, and 6 CDs of solo, group, and
multi-tracked free improvisations. In 1986, he formed the "avant-shamanic
trance jazz" group Opeye. He has traveled extensively to Mexico, Central and
South America, Asia, North Africa, and Indonesia recording, studying, and
drawing upon aspects of music, ritual, dance, and performance, from which 5
ethnographic cassettes have been produced. He has performed with Moe
Staino's  MOE!kestra and has collaborated on various projects with edgy
drone master Robert Horton.