{"id":5008,"date":"2011-09-09T11:25:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-09T11:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/grasse-hay-steck-ecstasy-and-joy-at-zephyr\/"},"modified":"2011-09-09T11:25:00","modified_gmt":"2011-09-09T11:25:00","slug":"grasse-hay-steck-ecstasy-and-joy-at-zephyr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/grasse-hay-steck-ecstasy-and-joy-at-zephyr","title":{"rendered":"Grasse, Hay & Steck: Ecstasy and Joy at Zephyr"},"content":{"rendered":"

10:28am | <\/strong>As part of the monthly 2nd Saturday activities in and around Downtown Long Beach, Zephyr Vegetarian Cafe<\/a> on 4th street (between Elm and Long Beach Blvd) is hosting an improvisational performance at 9 PM. <\/p>\n

While this may not be what most think of as a ‘power trio,’ I think the term is apt when fusing the talents of Emily Hay<\/a>, Dr. Jonathon Grasse<\/a> and Tom Steck<\/a>. Each comes from a unique and storied background. Grasse is a guitarist, celebrated composer, and Assistant Professor of Music at CSU Dominguez Hills. Hay moves easily between flute, voice and piano. She’s been part of many seminal ‘new music’ groups, and tours all over the world. Steck is a percussionist and visual artist who I know best from his work with Chris Schlarb in I Heart Lung<\/a>. <\/p>\n

All three are comfortable working in a variety of contexts, but this trio formation is fairly new. <\/p>\n

Grasse<\/strong>: Emily, Tom and I recorded together two weeks ago. That was our first time as a trio. Emily sat in for a Surrealestate gig for Sound Walk in LB about five years ago. I met Tom during the recent formation of a group called Decisive Instant. The trio recording is for my upcoming CD of duets and trios, due in 2012 on Acoustic Levitation. <\/p>\n

Sander<\/strong>: I know that you work in lots of different contexts. Can you talk a bit about the rewards and challenges that come from improvising?<\/em> <\/p>\n

Grasse<\/strong>: The immediacy of “compositional” results with live musicians is absolutely unique. This demands listening and response in performance that are equally unique. I believe, too, that a type of ecstasy and joy can be experienced in real time while improvising. <\/p>\n

Challenges are many and include “poor” results, or unsatisfactory musical directions taken during a session. <\/p>\n

Steck<\/strong>: The challenge is to listen for what is not there, hear that it should be there, and make manifest that sound, in the time that you imagined it. The reward is the possibility of a musical experience that is a living art, never to be repeated. <\/p>\n

Hay<\/strong>: Improvising allows me to explore sound arenas and unusual capabilities of my instruments and voice that constraints of traditional music may not allow. It also allows me to jump through abstraction patterns of thought, and shifts of time, space, and elements of sound quickly, without inhibition. <\/p>\n

Grasse<\/strong>: I would like to add that improvisation tends to grow out of a community of like-minded, or maybe not so like minded, musicians. The people are important, obviously. <\/p>\n

Sander<\/strong>: To clarify, in this trio setting, you’re not preparing any material in advance as a jumping off point, correct? <\/p>\n

Grasse<\/strong>: Correct. The only structures will be certain roles we might play, perhaps ways in which we navigate time. But not pitch material, chord ideas, or sequences of specific gestures. It will be free improvisation. <\/p>\n

Steck<\/strong>: It is a similar notion to Whistler saying that it took a lifetime to make a 5 minute painting. <\/p>\n

Sander<\/strong>: Does your work as an improviser in any way inform your work as a composer?<\/em> <\/p>\n

Hay<\/strong>: Yes. There are ideas, tonal centers, nuances, riffs and structures which arise out of improvising which I may later incorporate into a composed piece, or go back to in a future structured performance. <\/p>\n

Grasse<\/strong>: One instance is structuring improvisation to the point where it is compositional. But in my ‘concert music’ output, where I am notating almost every aspect of the music, improvisation itself doesn’t appear — other than in perhaps the creative manner of inventing (improvising) material that ends up being notated. But I have composed many structured improvisations. <\/p>\n

Sander<\/strong>: How do you feel about extended techniques?<\/em> <\/p>\n

Steck<\/strong>: Extended techniques offer an element of surprise, and hopefully sophistication, into a conventional way of playing. It invites the listener to hear all sound as music, and there is something inherently interesting about a musician trying to express something beyond the bounds of the instrument. <\/p>\n

Grasse<\/strong>: I use a variety of extended techniques but have had to learn how to incorporate them more tastefully. Of course that is entirely subjective. Those techniques need to come from the sound world’s demand for them rather than a showcase mentality. In the end, I feel they’re essential for my playing. <\/p>\n

Hay<\/strong>: I often place my instruments and voice in roles within ensembles which are not common. For example, I am not always the solo instrument or lead voice. Some of the sounds and techniques I use on my flutes and with my voice could be deemed not ‘pure,’ as they defy the classical preconceived notions of what the instruments should sound like. <\/p>\n

I’m not afraid to sound hooty, breathy, harsh, multiphonic or percussive on the flutes, and my vocals have been described as primal and sometimes disturbing to the listener. I’m not afraid to enter the realm of the Id. <\/p>\n

— <\/p>\n

Find Zephyr Vegetarian Cafe<\/a> on facebook. <\/p>\n

Learn more about Emily at EmilyHay.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Read Jonathon Grasse’s bio<\/a>. <\/p>\n

More information about Tom can be found at A HREF=”http:\/\/tomsteck.com\/” target=blank>TomSteck.com. This performance is sponsored in part by LVXEdge.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Jonathon Grasse, Emily Hay, and Tom Steck each bring a vast wealth of talent, experience, and innovation to their performances. They will be performing together for the first time tomorrow night at 9 PM at Zephyr Vegetarian Cafe, located at 340 East 4th St.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5008"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5008"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}