JOHN BACON,
JR.
drummer,percussionist,composer
John Bacon, Jr. has performed Jazz and New Music throughout the U.S.,
Canada and in Europe. He performed at Verona Jazz'92, Verona, Italy with
trombonist Roswell Rudd and the Flexible Flyers and recently recorded the
Unheard Herbie Nichols vol.I and II for CIMP Records with
Roswell Rudd and Greg Millar. In 1993 he recorded the Theme Music for
the World University Games, with trumpeter Lester Bowie. Bowie and Rudd
have been featured soloist with Bacon's ensemble Multi-Jazz Dimensions.
Bacon has recorded two albums of original jazz music entitled Multi-Jazz
Dimensions and Winds Of Change.
Bacon was featured as a soloist performing original compositions and improvisations
at the North American New Music Festival in 1992 and at Hallwalls Contemporary
Art Center in 1995. He has produced a multi-media video, entitled Percussion
In Space, that features solo percussion improvisations and a compact
disc of solo percussion music entitled DRUMSPEAK.
Bacon has received grants from Meet the Composer to perform and speak at
performances of his compositions. He was the recipient of a grant from the
Arts Council in Buffalo and Erie County to establish a series of jazz concerts
featuring the ensemble Multi-Jazz Dimensions. In 1991 he was the recipient
of an Erie County Initiative Program Award in composition. Bacon received
a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to study percussion with
Bobby Previte during 1995. He has been commissioned by the Just Buffalo
Literary Center, Williamsville North Percussion Ensemble and the Fairport
High School Jazz Ensembles.
Bacon is co-director of the New Jazz Orchestra of Buffalo an ensemble dedicated
to performing new works for a jazz ensemble of strings, woodwinds, brass
and rhythm section. The NJOB has performed at the Erie Art Museum, on WBFO
FM88, with Trombonist Grachan Moncur III at the Marquee at the Tralf and
with Stephen Drury conducting music of John Zorn at the North American New
Music Festival in 1993.
As a member of The Maelstrom Percussion Ensemble, Bacon has performed throughout
the Eastern United States at High Schools and Colleges, presenting the groups'
Day Of Percussion program. In addition, Maelstrom has recently recorded
John Cage's Imaginary Landscapes for hat Art Records and is featured on
Michael Colquhoun's CD These Days.
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John Bacon, Jr.
Drummer,Percussionist,Composer,Educator
Email: MultiJD@aol.com
Maelström Percussion Ensemble
·Full time member: involved in composing, performing, recording,
education, administration and production duties for a percussion quartet
dedicated to original music, new music and world music.
·Educational Performances and Workshops: throughout New York, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont.
·Recordings: IMAGINARY LANDSCAPES, music of John Cage, LABRYNTH,
music of Lou Harrison and PIKADON, music of James Tenney, with Jan
Williams for hatArt Records.
Multi-Jazz Dimensions
·Leader: involved in composing, performing, administration (grant
writing, publicity, accounting) and production (recording, concerts, multi-media
presentations) for a small jazz ensemble dedicated to original and improvisational
music.
·Performances: World University Games Cultural Festival (with Lester
Bowie); Bamboo,Toronto, Ont.; WBFO Radio; Tralfamadore Cafe; Joe Rico's
Milestones; The Blue Note, Buffalo; Erie Art Museum (w/ Roswell Rudd and
Lester Bowie as featured soloists); Lancaster Opera House (Two Generations
of Jazz w/ Jack Bacon and The Morgan Street Stompers); Curtain Up! (w/ Roswell
Rudd as featured soloist); First Night in Buffalo; Rockwell Hall, Buffalo
State College (w/ The Maelström Percussion Ensemble); Buffalo Academy
for the Visual and Performing Arts High School (Jazz Night); Tribute to
Bill Evans at the Tralfamadore Cafe; Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center Music
Series, Network of Light (Multi-media presentations integrating dance, poetry,
visual displays, video and music).
·Recordings: Multi-Jazz Dimensions (MC20872), Winds of Change
(JDR CD001) andPeace For Trane.
Solo Artist
·Performing original compositions and improvisations: drumset,
electronic percussion, vibes, marimba, berimbau, miscellaneous percussion
and voice.
·Performances: The North American New Music Festival; The Artists Gallery
Music Series (Buffalo, NY); Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center Music Series
(Buffalo, NY).
·Recordings: DRUMSPEAK
(JDR CD002), PERCUSSION IN SPACE (video).
The New Jazz Orchestra of Buffalo
·Co-leader: involved in composing, performing, conducting, administration
and production for a jazz orchestra of strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion
performing original music.
·Performances: Live Broadcast on WBFO Radio; Erie Art Museum (Erie,
PA); Performance of the Music of John Zorn (at the Albright Knox Art Gallery,
Bflo. as part of the North American New Music Festival) ; Hallwalls Contemporary
Art Center Music Series; Tralfamadore Cafe (w/ soloist Grachan Moncur III).
Roswell Rudd
·Featured performer and composer
·Performances: DuMaurier Downtown Jazz Festival, Toronto, 1997; The
Erie Art Museum (Erie, PA); The Village Gate (Rochester, NY); Hallwalls
Contemporary Art Center Music Series (Buffalo, NY) and Verona Jazz '92,
Verona, Italy.
·Recordings: The Unheard Herbie Nichols Vol. 1 (CIMP#133), The
Unheard Herbie Nichols Vol. 2 (CIMP#146).
Teaching Experiences
·Fredonia State College(1997-): Adjunct Lecturer instructing percussion
students in mallets, drumset, and percussion.
·Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland, OH(1997-): Instructing students
in mallets, drumset, and percussion.
·St. Francis of Assisi Parochial School, Tonawanda, NY(1991-): General
Music (grades K-8th), Chorus director.
·St. Joseph's Academy, Buffalo NY(1995-): Conductor and composer for
percussion ensemble.
·Private Instruction (1995-): Operates private studio with instruction
in drums, percussion and composition.
·Young Audiences(1988-): Educational performances in Western New York
and Rochester.
·Drumset Clinics (1996-): Throughout the Eastern U.S. as part of the
Maelström Percussion Ensemble's Day of Percussion.
·Composers In the Schools (1985-1996): Composers Alliance of Buffalo
residencies in City of Buffalo Public Schools.
·Frontier School District, Hamburg NY (1995-96): Percussion Instructor
for middle school and high school percussionists.
·Buffalo Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts: Conductor and
composer for percussion ensemble.
·City Honors High School, Buffalo, NY: Marching Percussion Instructor
and Arranger .
·Jazz Improvisation Workshop(1988): Buffalo State College.
Compositions
·Westward Into The Wind;The Ancient Bridge:commissioned by Fairport,
NY HS Jazz Ensemble, premiere 5/30/97.
·Ida and The Turtle: theatrical work, based
on a family legend, integrating voice, dance, film and percussion quartet.
·50-2 with Bells and Whistles: two percussionist on hand drums, foot
bells and whistles, premiere Mexico City, 1997.
·A-Melba Funk; Boss Clown!; I Love You So; Multiplication Tables; Conjunction;
It's What You Need Too!; Bush Music: for jazz orchestra.
·Three Worlds Suite: improvisational piece written for high school
students.
·Roses; For Philip Wilson: for brass quintet.
·The Rhumba, The Afro-Cuban And The American Way: for the Williamsville
H.S. Percussion Ensemble.
·Bogota; Embracing: ten piece jazz arrangements commissioned by the
Just Buffalo Literary Center.
·Inter-Dimensional Encounters: for jazz trio and percussion trio.
·Multi-Media: one hour performance integrating poetry, dance, visual
effects, video and music.
·Wedding Music: for brass trio and marimba.
·Marimba; Opus: for marimba.
·Modes Operandi: premiere performance by violinist Leroy Jenkins and
the Composers Alliance of Buffalo, Feb.2, 1997.
·Additional compositions and arrangements: Percussion ensemble, songs,
big band, improvisational structures.
Other Performances
·Artpark Jazz Festival: with the improvisational trio Dinosaur.
·The Buffalo Jazz Workshop: at the Albright Knox Art Gallery Jazz Series
and featuring soloists Bruce Johnstone, Richard Shulman, Sam Noto, Don Menza,
Emily Remler, Jeremy Wall, Randy Purcell, Bobby Militello, Milcho Leviev.
·Al Tinney Trio and Quartet: at the Grovsenor Concert Series and various
clubs.
·Vinny Golia: Bennington College, VT , Summer Program 1997.
·Junnieh Booth: JazzMa at the Langston Hughes Institute and Junteenth
Festival.
·Bobby Previte: Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center ; Music of the Moscow
Circus at The North American New Music Festival.
·Wendell Rivera's Latin Jazz All-Stars: regular performances and recordings.
·The East Buffalo Media Association: Multi-media performances and recordings.
·The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra: with conductors Christopher Keene,
Semyon Bychkov, Lukas Foss.
·The Greater Buffalo Opera Company: productions of Carmen, Madama Butterfly,
Strazny Dwor, Porgy and Bess.
·The Fredonia Chamber Players: performances as tympanist and percussionist.
·Charles Ives Institute For American Music, Danbury, Conn.
·Frequent engagements with big bands, jazz combos and other popular
music ensembles.
·Percussionist: with the Variety Club Telethon Orchestra, at Sheas
Buffalo Theater and Melody Fair.
·Stage Show Performances: The Four Freshmen, The Four Aces, The Four
Lads, Roger Williams, Jerry Vale, Al Martino, Bobby Vinton, Clint Holmes,
Dianne Reeves, The New Chordettes, The Diamonds, Bowser.
Additional Discography
·IMPROVISATIONS VOLUME I AND II
·A FAMILY SWEET, Sam Falzone and the Buffalo Jazz Workshop,
Mark Records.
·JUMP START, Rick Strauss, ProJazz.
·WHEN IT RAINS, Jeff Jarvis Group, Mark Records.
·NEW WORKS BY REYNOLD SCOTT AND JOHN BACON, JR., New
Jazz Orchestra of Buffalo.
·THEME MUSIC FOR THE WORLD UNIVERSITY GAMES 1993 , with Lester
Bowie.
·THESE DAYS, Michael Colquhoun, Maelstrom Percussion Ensemble,
Independent.
·NO BOUNDARIES, Wendell Rivera, WPR Productions.
·AMERICA'S MUSIC, Rey Scott & Co., Planetary Lights.
·LOS CARIBES, Michael Colquhoun, Independent.
·PORTFOLIO , Wendell Rivera, WPR Productions.
Grants
·Meet The Composer (1985-97)
·Erie County Decentralization Grant (1988-89) to establish a concert
series featuring original jazz compositions.
·Erie County Initiative Program Grant (1991) award for music composition.
·National Endowment for the Arts (1995) Jazz Study Grant awarded to
study with Bobby Previte.
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IDA AND THE TURTLE
a musical/multi-media folk tale
Ida and the Turtle is the story of a young girl who leaves her home on bright
Sunday afternoon, dressed in her best clothes, to sit by the ocean and daydream
before dinner. The piece is a multi-media presentation involving dance,
voice, film and percussion music. It is a work in progress.
In the opening vocal section, "Mama I'm leaving now...", Ida sings
to her mother about the effect the ocean has on her dreams and imagination.
She asks her mother about her own dreams, if they have come true, and if
she knows what the future might bring.
The second movement is entitled "Street Dance". In this segment
Ida plays, dances and runs through the streets of her tiny Italian village
on her way to the seaside and her favorite dreaming spot.
As the story continues, Ida begins to dream and before long she has lost
track of time. The tide begins to roll in, but Ida is unaware. Soon she
is surrounded by water far out from the tide line. Her sister calls wildly
from the now distant shore, but to no avail. She gives up and departs. Suddenly
Ida is startled from her dreams as she is splashed by the water and realizes
that she is stuck at sea. Ida fantasizes that this has happened to her because
she has sat upon the back of an enormous sea turtle that is carrying her
away. Ida begins to fantasize about what she will find on this journey.
Eventually she begins to recite her final prayers believing that she is
doomed. Just then her sister returns with their father who launches a row
boat and rows out to rescue her.
The piece draws inspiration from two anti-heroes of American musical-dramatic
work. The repetitive, pattern-based percussion music of Harry Partch, although
texturally similar to the music of composers Steve Reich and Terry Riley,
remains structurally different from the minimalist arena in that Partch's
music is, as he has stated, Corporeal (tangible; with the intention to convey
meaning), like a story or a dance that tells a story, rather than Abstract.
Partch's use of dance, singing and percussion have been a model for Ida.
Frank Zappa's use of rock elements, his use of humorous sound, complex polyrhythms
and most importantly his repetition of individual melodic elements and the
subsequent displacement and development of those fragments as the forward
motivation in a piece of music, have been extremely important.
The melodic material used throughout the entire piece is derived from the
alternation of two chords of identical intervallic structure, built on root
notes a whole step apart. InIda
7/8 dance, this material is presented as an ostinato in odd meter
time upon which scales and melodies derived from these structures are presented
in a quasi-improvisational manner. The piece Solo Variation is a
stream of conciousness melodic development of the two alternating chords.
The original development appears in the marimba. Material derived from this
development was later manipulated and re-scored for the gongs, vibe, orchestra
bells and fretless bass synthesiszer.
Although these two pieces donot appear consecutively in the actual drama
they are both dream sequences during Ida's adventure and therefore related.
Ida 7/8 dance is a trance inducing frenzy, like voodoo, meant to
draw the spirit into the body. Solo Variation is a hypnotic dance,
a shamanic travel, the dreamer seeking to travel to where the spirit lives.
-John Bacon, Jr.
Multi-Jazz Dimensions
"Multi-Jazz Dimensions is a band with one foot in jazz and the
other in fusion...the group is obviously comfortable in either idiom."
Mark Stryker, CADENCE Magazine.
"From the beginning the night's music was destined to go farther and
farther out. The Changing directions of the music blew over the audience
like shifting winds in a storm allowing the appreciative crowd to bask in
the flood of creative juices on stage."
Patrick Keyes, CODA Magazine.
"Such diversity and imagination go a long way in explaining why Multi-Jazz
Dimensions is the most exciting and enriching jazz group on the local scene
today, one whose potential is larger than its already considerable achievements."
Richard Chon, The Buffalo News.
Have performed at:
The Marquee at the Tralf
The Erie Art Museum
The World University Games Cultural Festival
Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center
The BAMBOO in Toronto, Ont., Can.
The Blue Note, Buffalo, NY
Radio Broadcasts:
WBFO FM 88
WEBR AM 970, Jazz in the Nighttime.
Recordings:
Multi-Jazz Dimensions, LP and Cassette, Mark Records MC 20872
Winds of Change, CD and Cassette, Jazz Dimensions Records 0001
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THE NEW JAZZ ORCHESTRA OF BUFFALO
The New Jazz Orchestra of Buffalo was founded in 1991 by composers John
Bacon, Jr., Reynold Scott and Don Metz. The orchestra is currently the
resident musical ensemble at Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center in Buffalo,
New York.
The orchestral instrumentation of two violins, viola, cello, bass, three
woodwinds, two brass, a chordal instrument and percussion set this group
apart among jazz ensembles. New music written especially for the unique
instrumentation of the ensemble has been the groups sole repertoire since
its' inception.
The group includes bassist and composer Greg Piontek and guitarist and composer
Greg Millar.
In 1991 the ensemble provided a creative outlet for the composer/performers
in the ensemble.
In 1992 The Composers Alliance of Buffalo was solicited to compose for the
ensemble. The group performed the works of CAB composers at the Erie Art
Museum in Erie PA. The group was featured on a live radio broadcast on WBFO
FM 88 performing these compositions.
In 1993 the group was selected to perform a concert of the works of John
Zorn at the Albright Knox Art Gallery.
In 1994 the group began presenting concerts in schools throughout Western
New York in order to develop an audience of dedicated listeners.
The 1995-96 season will feature collaborations with composers from outside
the Western New York Region including Gerry Eastman and Grachan Moncur III.
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UPCOMING PERFORMANCES
January 1999
w/ The Maelström Percussion Ensemble
9th, 5-11p APAP Conference, NYC
Throughout January Young Audiences of Buffalo and Rochester NY
February 1999
w/ Wendell Rivera
5th, 11p Calumet Arts Cafe, Buffalo
6th, 8p Jamestown Community College
w/ Maelström Percussion Ensemble
8th & 9th, Chautaqua Institute residency in Erie, PA.
March 1999
w/ Wendell Rivera
5th, 11p Calumet Arts Cafe, Buffalo
w/ Tom Keil
12th, 11p Calumet Arts Cafe, Buffalo
w/ Maelström Percussion Ensemble, Maelström and Master Drummers
21st, 7p Marquee at the Tralf, Buffalo
April 1999
w/ Wendell Rivera
2nd, 11p Calumet Arts Cafe, Buffalo
w/ Sam Noto, Sam Falzone, Sabu Adeyola and Tom Paladino
9th, 16th, 23rd & 30th, 9p Carlos O'Ryans, Buffalo
w/ Tom Keil
10th, 11p Calumet Arts Cafe, Buffalo
w/ Swing City
14th, 8p Tri-C Jazz Fest, Cleveland
May 1999
w/ Wendell Rivera
1st, 8p Rockin' at the Knox, Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
w/ Al Tinney
5th, 12p Grovsenor Concert Series, Central Library, Buffalo
w/ Sam Noto, Sam Falzone, Sabu Adeyola and Tom Paladino
7th, 14th, 28th, 9p Carlos O'Ryans, Buffalo
w/ Wendell Rivera
8th, 11p Calumet Arts Cafe, Buffalo
w/ John Hasselback, Jr.
21st, 10p Ellicotville Jazz Fest, Ellicotville, NY
w/ Wendell Rivera
22nd, 9p Madigan's, Ellicotville Jazz Fest, Ellicotville, NY
June 1999
w/ Wendell Rivera
4th, 11p Calumet Arts Cafe, Buffalo
w/ Colleen Williams
5th, 9:30p ZuZon, Buffalo
July 1999
w/ Wendell Rivera
2nd, 11p Calumet Arts Cafe, Buffalo
w/ Maelström Percussion Ensemble
8th, 12p M&T Plaza, Buffalo
w/ Wendell Rivera
9th, 12p M&T Plaza, Buffalo
w/ Colleen Williams
17th, 9:30p ZuZon, Buffalo
w/ Maelström Percussion Ensemble
17th-22nd, Arcady Music Festival, Maine
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LINKS
AltaVista: Main Page-excellent
search engine.
American Music Center-
resource for grants, composer services and other music related info.
DAT Tape Web-info
on DAT taping, machines and online shopping.
Library of Congress
World Wide Web (LC Web) Home Page
M-Cubed - The
Macintosh-MIDI-Music User Group
Nickel City Scene- Buffalo, NY area music info.
rec.audio.pro
FAQ (v 0.7)- answers to your pro audio questions.
The Black Page!-
For you Zappa Freaks.
U.S. Copyright Office
Forms- Download and Register.
www.maelstrompercussion.com
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