Alvin Curran in Vancouver, British Columbia - November 2011
Highly esteemed composer and creative musical spirit, Alvin Curran
(www.alvincurran.com) was in Vancouver, British Columbia recently
to sprinkle a little magic dust into our area of the world.
He was in town to do several shows, including a solo piano/electronics show,
“The Alvin Curran Fake Book”, at the venerable Western Front Lodge’s
Grand Lux. Alvin was busy during his stay, so we were fortunate getting
him to facilitate two workshops as part ofNew Orchestra Workshop's
annual Music Improvisation Workshop Series. www.noworchestra.com
These workshops were a wonder of generosity of spirit. It was a great
privilege to partake in these few hours with a masterful musical storyteller.
These workshops had Alvin sharing his history, and with this a sense of his
journey and growth from a young ambitious person with considerable curiosity
and a penchant for risk taking, to the mature composer and deepspontaneous
music maker that he has become. One of the exciting by-products of the
orientation that he spontaneously assembled was the considerable sense of,
among other things, dynamics, orchestration,spatial awareness, and intention
that he was able to catalyze in the musicians participating in the workshop
without seeming to crack a sweat.
With his honesty and candour, Alvin touched and inspired many of the players.
The first of two sessions consisted of eleven musicians and was quite low-key
in presentational style, hence the working encounter tended to explore a quieter
dynamic and thoughtful sense of space. I find that artists are almost always
touched by the choice to explore quieter spaces, as it encourages a more
personal exploration of the inner landscape to generate materials for expression.
In the context of group situations, this less common and hence can be more affecting.
It certainly was in this case. Many of the participants spoke of being stimulated by
the nature of Alvin’s ideas as well as his own personal way of communicating them.
This was certainly evident in the recent rehearsals for the workshop participant concert
soon to be performed. There were several pieces that were generated by ideas
that Alvin shared. His ideas have an immediate life after these workshops.
It was really exciting to meet him and to experience his approach.
The second of the two workshop sessions saw twice the number of participants.
Alvin professed to be nervous, but in short order he seemed totally at ease and was
regaling us with stories and events completely different from the earlier session.
His freewheeling style helped set the tone that allowed the more than twenty musicians to be
enlisted in a series of dynamic exercises that emphasized listening more than playing, thinking
and sensing andbeing in the moment. This kind of focus seems to be an important
hallmark of Alvin’s music making.
Alvin’s solo performance was even more powerful. In reflection, it was really one of the
most provocative performances that I’ve seen in years. In this sixty minute set, Alvin Curran
played exactly who he is. There was no guile. It was the straight goods. He played his work
so that it displayed the considerable prowess of the years of research that he has done
with sound, combined with the immediacy of the honesty of a lifetime of personal musical truth
seeking. Take it or leave it. The music encompassed wickedly silly humour, unabashed romanticism,
unnerving virtuosity, and astounding complexity.
Alvin had his laptop computer connected to a Yamaha- Disclavier grand piano. With this technical
setup, he was able to programand assign multiple samples to each key. This allows a different
sample to be triggered by the velocity with which he struck any key. He played pieces from the
American songbook using this arsenal of hundreds of samples. In this hour-long set he played
Cole Porter, Gershwin, Fats Waller and many more. Some pieces he played in fairly straight forward
fashion, except that it would be layered with samples of poetry spoken in Russian, train hoots,
Bugs Bunnyesque boings, unknowable whooshes and sounds layered in a way that cannot be
described in words.He would also explore a note or phrase repeatedly with different velocity creating
varying sample landscapes each time even though the note or phrase was the same on the piano.
It was a truly masterful display of technology, beautiful cinematic sensibility, love of the traditional
American song and blinding love of spontaneous music making.
Having attended the workshops helped me understand more deeply how personal this performance was.
I’m tremendously grateful for both experiences. I encourage you to go to his website, www.alvincurran.com,
or go to You Tube and listen to some of his work.
If you get the chance though, go hear him in person.
That’s where you’ll really have the experience of the man and his music.
Coat Cooke
November 2011
