Sonic Youth in Cunningham Celebration
 

www.saucerlike.com

Sonic Youth in Cunningham Celebration
November 3, 2008

April 16 marks the 90th birthday of Merce Cunningham—one of the most important choreographers of our time—whose radical approaches to space, time, and technology continue to redefine the way we experience dance. Over the course of his celebrated career, he has forged a distinctive language of movement, illuminating the body’s inherent drama and limitless capacity for change. And as a longtime collaborator of John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns, he has played a leading role in fostering innovation across art forms.

In celebration of his birthday, Merce Cunningham Dance Company returns to BAM with the world premiere of a dazzling evening-length work created in collaboration with and performed live by underground rock legend Sonic Youth, former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, and mixed-media sound composer Takehisa Kosugi. With an intriguing multi-tiered décor by world-renowned architect Benedetta Tagliabue, lighting by Tony and Obie-winning designer Brian MacDevitt, and costumes by Romeo Gigli, this new masterpiece is testament to the boundless imagination of a man who, on the cusp of his ninth decade, still keeps us on our toes.

More info here.

Moshe

[maybe i'm seeing the blurb wrong but it looks like this will have four performances

cool. thanks for in fo!

so jones is gonna be playing w/ sy?

I hope those shows will be filmed for a DVD release. Maybe it is a good opportunity to release that SY/Takehisa Kosugi session too...

maybe it is good opportunity go to NY.

Hers an update on Pitchfork

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/articl...on-dance-piece

Also, here is an insanley great track by JPJ "4 mInute Warning"

Its on ITunes
http://www.zavvi.co.uk/music-10+to+1...3c.r10.1/p.jsf

cheers for da update link. new for me was that Lee's going to have 2 art shows in Europe and he series of three of 12" singles by a french band.

I'd love to go to NY for that live "thingy"...I might

Sounds like fun.

I had no idea he was ninety.

Total Coolness !

I saw JPJ in a solo show with members of Bauhaus and others in 2000 and it was great....Oh and I have that "4 minute warning" on a cd with Eno and others...called Music for Films, I believe....the disc is from 1988.

great track

non member tickets on sale today!

Merce Cunningham at 90

Part of the 2009 Spring Season

Apr 16 at 7pm*
Apr 17 & 18 at 7:30pm
Apr 19 at 3pm

*BAM Spring Gala

Merce Cunningham at 90
Merce Cunningham Dance Company
Choreography by Merce Cunningham

Commissioned by BAM


“...he has routinely been described as the world’s greatest choreographer… The dances he has made this millennium suggest, amazingly, that no choreographer alive is more concerned with continuing to extend his range.”
—The New York Times

April 16 marks the 90th birthday of Merce Cunningham—one of the most important choreographers of our time—whose radical approaches to space, time, and technology continue to redefine the way we experience dance. Over the course of his celebrated career, he has forged a distinctive language of movement, illuminating the body’s inherent drama and limitless capacity for change. And as a longtime collaborator of John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns, he has played a leading role in fostering innovation across art forms.

In celebration of his birthday, Merce Cunningham Dance Company returns to BAM with the world premiere of a dazzling evening-length work created in collaboration with and performed live by underground rock legend Sonic Youth, former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, and mixed-media sound composer Takehisa Kosugi. With an intriguing multi-tiered décor by world-renowned architect Benedetta Tagliabue, lighting by Tony and Obie-winning designer Brian MacDevitt, and costumes by Romeo Gigli, this new masterpiece is testament to the boundless imagination of a man who, on the cusp of his ninth decade, still keeps us on our toes.


BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Running time: 90min with intermission

Subscription tickets: $20, 36, 52, 60
(Full price: $25, 45, 65, 75)


Décor Design by Benedetta Tagliabue
Lighting Design by Brian MacDevitt
Costumes by Romeo Gigli for "io ipse idem"

Music composed and performed by:
John Paul Jones
Takehisa Kosugi
Sonic Youth

I wanted to go to that so much.

I'm really excited to see this-- I got tickets for the Sat. night show. I also got tickets for the No Fun Fest. I think sometimes us New Yorker's take for granted the amount of shows the band plays around the area.

I think it should be pointed one of those nights there will be a post show q n a session, and I think SY might be taking part in it. If I remember right, this is after the friday night show.

a few predictions for the SY/JPJ/TK/MC show:
 

stage lights fade up on the debut of SY's newly customized amplifiers with newly woven navajo blankets bearing each member's symbol from Daydream Nation LP replacing the standard black or sparkle grill cloth. A transparent plexiglass drumset bears Steve's symbol.

1st act: John Paul Jones, Kim Gordon, and Mark Ibold each weilding scissors with extra-long blades cut up 3 copies of bass-tablature for the LZ song "Whole Lotta Love", randomly paste the pieces back together blindfolded, then each play their new cut-up bass parts simultaneously, while the Merce Cunninham Dance Company flips coins at guitars left on to buzz and feedback, only occasionally hitting a string.

2nd act: Lee and Thurston make explicit the connections between Jimmy Page's psych-out violin bow Dazed & Confus(ion/ed) workouts and just about every heavy duty sonic brakdown/blowout, utilizing custom made violin bows made from oplical prisms that cause rainbow trails around their guitars and distortions in space and time. Thuston in poppy suit, Lee in stars and planets suit. Kim in dragon suit teaches the dancers some schoolyard hopscotch moves.

3rd act: Steve Shelly, shirtless in wig and false beard, plays a truely twisted take on Moby Dick with heavily dealyed and phased drum sounds sent through all the band's amps, and swirling around the audience in surround sound, while Thruston with curled hair, midriff shirt, and too-tight pants sings his poems in bad Robert Plant imitation voice, and Takehisa Kosugi types out the score to "+/-" on musical calculator stolen from Kraftwork's practise space.

4th act: all performers join audience and tangle up a truely massive supply of old used guitar strings until someone gets hurt. Everyone has to have a tetnus shot afterwards.

Curtain

Sonic Youth, John Paul Jones Compose Dance Piece

March 10, 2009 04:50 PM ET





David J. Prince, N.Y.
Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones and alternative rock legends Sonic Youth have collaborated on an original musical piece for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and will perform together in Brooklyn, N.Y. in April. "Nearly Ninety," a new full length work composed by Sonic Youth, Jones and mixed-media sound composer Takehisa Kosugi, will debut at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on April 16, Merce Cunningham's 90th birthday.

The piece and its debut performances are part of "Merce Cunningham at 90," a four day festival celebrating the choreographer's work and influence. After its world premiere at BAM, "Nearly Ninety" will travel to Madrid, Champaign-Urbana, Paris, Berkeley, and London.

A long-time champion of improvisation and collaboration in dance, Cunningham and his dance company have worked with a number of musicians for past performances, including Radiohead, John Cage, and Sigur Ros.

Jones first performed with Merce Cunningham Dance Company in 2005, when he appeared as a guest musician with the Company’s in London. Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore performed with the Company in the late 1990's.

John Paul Jones and Sonic Youth perform with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, April 16-19. More info is available at bam.org.

aghrrr, another NY thing I should go for...