John Zorn's renowned THE STONE presents a weeklong residency performed and curated by mesmerizing guitarist and composer Eyal Maoz. A mainstay of the NYC downtown music scene, Maoz is notoriously known as the bad (and crazy) boy of the progressive jazz guitar world. For six nights, he brings his new works evoking both cutting edge rock-jazz-Jewish extravaganza noise and chamber grace.
Residency includes sets with his iconic bands: Middle-Eastern meets pop and Downtown music of Edom featuring Shanir Blumenkranz (7.18); The X guitar and contemporary classical string quartet premiering new works (7.15); acoustic Jewish project Dimyon (7.16); eccentric, electric Collapse Guitar Quartet (7.17); jazz-based trio 9 Volt featuring Rick Parker and Tim Berne (7.17); the Jewish rock sounds of John Zorn's Abraxas (7.19); experimental group Hypercolor featuring Lukas Ligeti (7.20); and more. For a complete schedule, see below.
"Showcasing some of today's most unique musical groups and premiering some of my new pieces at The Stone is a rare and unique opportunity," says Maoz. "The generations of downtown experimentalism have certainly inspired and informed me and my work. There's no better place to explore an expressive, new-breed fusion of music."
Audiences can expect to be thrown to a parallel universe full of insightful imagination and emotions. Known to tell stories of pain, hope, strength, joy and celebration, Maoz's music oscillates between extremely delicate and highly volatile. According to All Music Guide, "Maoz redefines what ethnocentric world fusion can be from a mean-streets New York City perspective."
About Eyal Maoz: Based in New York City, the Israeli born Eyal Maoz is a sought after composer, guitarist, and bandleader. He's a Tzadik, Ayler, Out Now and Piadrum Records artist and a member of John Zorn's Cobra and Abraxas ensembles. Eyal leads his own bands including Edom (Tzadik Records), 9 Volt with Tim Berne, the Maoz-Sirkis Duet, Hypercolor, and the Maoz-Masaoka Duet (with koto player Miya Masaoka).
Eyal's ensembles and projects have performed at major music festivals worldwide such as the Montreal International Jazz Festival (Canada), Jazz at Marciac (France), Red Sea International Jazz Festival (Israel), NYC Winter JazzFest, Tzadik Radical Jewish Music Festival, Brooklyn BAM Next Festival, Verizon Jazz Festival, the New York Jewish Music and Heritage Festival, Florida Music Harvest, The Jewzapalooza Festival in NYC and many more. His music was featured in the movies Keepers Of Eden (by Yoram Porath), Israeli's Cinema History documentary (by Raphael Nadjari), and MTV's "Undress." WNYC/NPR recently dedicated a 90-minute program to his music.
Eyal started to explore jazz, rock and avant-garde music at an early age. He led the highly celebrated Lemon Juice Quartet which performed regularly at the Red Sea International Jazz Festival, released three original CDs and was heralded for their CD Peasant Songs, a raucous version of Bela Bartok and Eric Satie's music on Piadrum Records. Eyal's collaboration with long-time childhood friend and in-demand UK drummer Asaf Sirkis, has resulted in two duo CDs; the most recent Elementary Dialogues was released in June 2009 by Ayler Records (France), with their new upcoming album to be released in 2014.
After a successful guitar solo tour in Austria, Eyal also completed a guitar tour in China, playing solo as well as performing with local musicians from straight-ahead jazz aficionados to extreme avant-garde noisemakers. Recently, Eyal collaborated with the notable Israeli poet Ronny Someck in Italy. Eyal's string quartet composition Boded has won the Orchestra of Our Time Call for Score Project in New York, and was recorded by the prestigious Scorchio Quartet and performed by the Praxis Quartet. Eyal is gearing up for a European tour starting September 2014.
EYAL MAOZ RESIDENCY @ THE STONE
subject to change
TUE 7.15 @ 8pm | THE X - MODERN CLASSICAL WORKS
Esther Noh - violin
Melissa Tong - violin
Stephanie Griffin - viola
Jeremy Herman - cello
Brian Marsella - piano
Eyal Maoz (guitar)
The X is a unique electric guitar extravaganza with a traditional string quartet sonic. Eyal's string quartet composition Boded has won the Orchestra of Our Time Open Score Project in New York. Brian Marsella will debut two piano pieces by Maoz. One is inspired by the movie The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; the other inspired by a circle.
TUE 7.15 @ 10pm | EYAL MAOZ'S CRAZY SLAVIC BAND
Jay Rozen (tuba)
Chris Stromquist (drums)
Eyal Maoz (guitar)
Frank London (trumpet and horn)
Rob Henke (trumpet and horn)
Briggan Krauss (saxophone)
Original music inspired by the newest contemporary Slavic composers.
WED 7.16 @ 8pm + 10pm | EYAL MAOZ DIMYON
Tanya Kalmanovich (viola)
Eyal Maoz (acoustic guitar)
Shanir Blumenkranz (acoustic bass)
Mathias Kunzli (percussion)
Satoshi Takeishi (percussion)
Wonderfully realized, Dimyon is an exciting fuse of Maoz's unique musical voice with an array of genres such as modern Jewish-Middle Eastern, classical, jazz and avant-garde music. A Jewish acoustic project, Dimyon has earned critical acclaim in Israel. If one has to define influential figures for Dimyon, John Zorn's Acoustic Masada and Frank Zappa would make the list.
THU 7.17 @ 8:00pm | THE COLLAPSE GUITAR QUARTET
Yoshie Fruchter (guitar)
Ty Citerman (guitar)
Jonathan Goldberger (guitar)
Eyal Maoz (guitars)
The Collapse Guitar Quartet offers first-rate repertoire ranging from jazz, ethnic and pop style compositions to highly imaginative contemporary works. This dynamic and wide-ranging synthesis features music arranged and composed by the CGQ members.
THU 7.17 @ 10:00pm | 9 VOLT WITH TIM BERNE
Rick Parker (trombone, effects)
Tim Berne (saxophone)
Eyal Maoz (guitar, effects)
Yoni Halevi (drums)
An avant-garde, jazz-based trio (joined by the iconic saxophonist Tim Berne who is featured as a guest in their debut album as well), 9 Volt is comprised of New York's brightest underground jazz players. 9 Volt derives its unique sound from Parker?s use of electronics with the trombone combined with Maoz?s unique approach to guitar and effects.
Their compositions are born from a synthesis of electronic experimental, rock, jazz and neoclassical minimalism. The band is held together by Israeli born drummer Yonadav Halevy who is highly regarded in both funk/hip hop as well as jazz circles. According to the New York Times, "9 Volt thrashes toward an expressive new-breed fusion, informed by a few generations of downtown experimentation."
FRI 7.18 @ 8:00pm + 10:00pm | EYAL MAOZ'S EDOM
Brian Marsella (keyboards)
Shanir Blumenkranz (bass)
Yuval Lion (drums)
Eyal Maoz (guitar)
Featuring Eyal Maoz's notorious one-of-a-kind approach to composition, and produced by the magic ears of Shanir Blumenkranz, Edom brings us into the much-too-rarely visited junction of instrumental pop, jazz and avant-garde. A unique synthesis of Jewish music, New Wave, electronic, and disco, "Maoz's fearsome foursome wallows in Middle Eastern modes and melodies...and then, just as naturally, melds into sweet melodic wistfulness and exhilarating and blood-curdling Downtown noise...Terrific." (The Buffalo News) According to John Zorn, it's "ecstatic music for a new generation."
SAT 7.19 @ 8:00pm | 1895
Kermit Driscoll - bass
Shawn Baltazor - drums
Eyal Maoz - guitar
Eyal Maoz's film project, 1895 (the year the first movie was ever projected in the world), is presenting music composed for Yoram Porath's documentary Keepers of Eden (winner of the Avignon / New York Film Festival), and music inspired by video art works by Deborah Johnson, Benton C Bainbridge, Graeme Patterson and Tracey McGuirl.
SAT 7.19 @ 10:00pm | JOHN ZORN ABRAXAS
Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz (gimbri)
Yoshie Fruchter (guitar)
Kenny Grohowski (drums)
Eyal Maoz (guitar)
Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz steps out on his own to make one of the most primal and tribal installments in the Book of Angels series. Drawing on his Sephardic roots, Shanir plays gimbri throughout, giving the music a primeval Moroccan edge. Featuring the intense guitar pyrotechnics of Eyal Maoz and Yoshie Fruchter and the atavistic drumming of Kenny Grohowski, this is Ritualistic Jewish Rock for the 21st century by a brilliant young lion from the East Village via Brooklyn/Israel!
SUN 7.20 @ 8:00pm | LMN TRIO
Shoko Nagai (keyboards)
Lukas Ligeti (drums, electronics)
Eyal Maoz (guitar)
Improvised music and sounds by three of the best improvisers of the downtown scene.
SUN 7.20 @ 10:00pm | HYPERCOLOR
Lukas Ligeti (drums)
James Ilgenfritz (bass)
Eyal Maoz (guitar)
Previewing their upcoming debut CD on Tzadik (TBR 09/14), this strangely marvelous rock-spastic-jazz band features composition by all three members. NYC-based Hypercolor's ridiculous artsong craftsmanship alternately revels in complexity or brazen simplicity, favoring entropy and near-disaster over order or tidiness. Like experimental grafting surgery gone horribly awry, Hypercolor bears limbs borrowed from 80s NYC No-Wave, and early jazz/rock, and orchestral rock textures.
THE STONE Presents Weeklong Residency With International Artist Eyal Maoz, Tuesday 7.15 through Sunday 7.20 at 8:00pm + 10:00pm nightly at The Stone, Corner of Avenue C/2nd Street, NYC. Train: F/J/M/Z at Delancey-Essex. Tickets: $15/Students $10. No advanced ticket sales. For more information, visit stonenyc.com. For more information, visit: eyalmaozmusic.com.
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