Robert Dick Curates The Stone in NYC Residency 3/21-26

Robert Dick's residency at The Stone this March is a powerful representation of his extensive creative versatility. Running from March 21st through 26th, this will be the first time that an array of his projects will be presented in New York. Ranging from completely improvised (We Are the Walrus, a duo with baritone Thomas Buckner; Dissonant Geranium, a trio with Miya Masaoka, koto and Ken Filiano, bass; Raise the River, a duo with drummer Tiffany Chang; Our Cells Know, contrabass flute solo), to a project based on Robert Dick's works that embrace improvisation within a strong compositional framework (The Time Between Us, a quartet with Stephanie Griffin, viola; Ned Rothenberg, alto sax, bass clarinet and shakuhachi; Satoshi Takeishi, drums), to efforts based on collaboration (Bermuda Rectangle, a quartet with singer/spoken word artist Vince Bell, voice and guitar; David Mansfield, guitars; Ratzo B. Harris, bass). These performances all come together to put Robert's expressive range front and center.

With deep roots in free improvisation, new jazz and classical music old and new, Robert has established himself as an artist who has redefined the flute. He has utterly dispensed with preconceptions about what a flutist should sound like and what a flutist should play.

Robert has numerous solo recordings and has performed and recorded with Steve Lacy, George E. Lewis, John Zorn, Leroy Jenkins, Ursel Schlicht, Thomas Buckner, New Winds, Tambastics, Oscura Luminosa, the Soldier String Quartet, the A.D.D. Trio, Paul Giger and Satoshi Takeishi, Jaron Lanier, Randy Raine-Reusch and Barry Guy, Mari Kimura, Steve Gorn and many more of Europe and America's finest improvisers.

Robert has always believed that, while acoustic instruments can be treated as human-powered synthesizers, that music is made by people, not instruments. Thus Robert's giant range of sound color is a direct expression of his personality. He likens himself to painters like Kandinsky, DeKooning and Basquiat who worked with an unlimited palette of colors and were free to incorporate any element they wished into their work. Robert's use of spoken language in his improvisations, often transformed by the effect of his flutes on his voice, can be likened to Basquiat's inclusion of text in his paintings.
While Robert has many influences, his music doesn't display them, but rather is nourished by them. His percussive language, using the keys of the flutes - particularly the contrabass flute - isn't "key tapping" - it's drumming! Only someone who had listened to a lot of African percussion would invent such a language, but Robert's drumming is not a copy of what he's heard, it's a true original, virtuosic style!

Robert was enormously influenced by Jimi Hendrix in his twenties and thirties, and one can hear how he heard Jimi in his approach to flute sonority. Robert often uses tone colors that are far more intense than the typical flute sound. Jimi's emotional intensity, expressed through sonic intensity is his biggest influence on Robert.

World flute playing has been important to Robert as well. While he never copies how flutists from Japan or India or Indonesia play, the wooden and bamboo flute sounds Robert makes on his metal flutes could only be created by someone who has listened widely and deeply to the flutists of the world.

From electronic music, Robert got the idea of continuous transformation of sound. Listening to him play solo has been likened to the experience of hearing a full orchestra. Robert plays the flute like it's a human powered synthesizer. His sound can be thick chords one instant, then chromatic percussion, then delicate whispering filigrees, then a display of surprising power. His performances include flute (with his invention, the Glissando Headjoint®), piccolo, alto flute, and bass flutes in C and F and the
giant, stand-up contrabass flute.

Robert has invented the "whammy bar" for the flute - the Glissando Headjoint®. In 2010, Allan Kozinn wrote about new musical instruments in The New York Times ("In the Forest of Instruments, Signs of Evolution" - September 3, 2010). He concluded the article this way:

"Are any of these instruments likely to become standard? It hardly matters, really. They are here now, being played by, and composed for, musicians who are fascinated with them, and that is enough. But if I were to hazard a guess which of them might have legs, it would have to be Mr. Dick's flute with a glissando headjoint. It is, after all, not a complete reworking of the flute - simply an addition that allows Mr. Dick, a virtuoso even on a standard instrument, to create effects otherwise unavailable to him.

Besides, I love the back story. Mr. Dick, though a classical player, is a devoted Jimi Hendrix fan. And having long admired the way Hendrix used the guitar's whammy bar - a metal lever fastened to the bridge - to bend pitches and control his instrument's howling feedback, he began thinking about making an equivalent for the flute. Andrés Segovia, the great classical guitarist, used to argue that the electric guitar was a monstrosity. But it inspired one of the great classical and new-music flutists of our
time to rethink his instrument."
March 21-26 at 8:30pm
The Stone, Corner of Avenue C & Second Street, NY
F to Second Avenue; $20/set
www.thestonenyc.com
Overview for Robert Dick's Residency at The Stone:

Tuesday, March 21 8:30pm - We Are The Walrus -
Thomas Buckner, baritone & Robert Dick, flutes
Two long-time collaborators who always surprise each other and themselves!

Wednesday, March 22 8:30pm - Dissonant Geranium -
Miya Masaoka, koto; Ken Filiano, bass & Robert Dick, flutes
Robert has played many times with Miya in duo and with Ken in a wide range of ensembles. This is the first outing for this intensively colorful trio.

Thursday, March 23 8:30pm - Raise The River - Flutes & Drums -
Tiffany Chang, drums & Robert Dick, flutes
Primal music from the next dimension

Friday, March 24 8:30pm - The Time Between Us -
Stephanie Griffin, viola; Ned Rothenberg, alto sax, bass clarinet and shakuhachi; Satoshi Takeishi, drums; Robert Dick, flutes
Improvisations and compositions by Robert Dick

Saturday, March 25 8:30pm - Bermuda Rectangle -
Vince Bell, spoken word and song; David Mansfield, guitars of all types; Ratzo B. Harris, bass; Robert Dick, flutes and voice
Texas Blues deconstructed - and reconstructed!

Sunday, March 26 8:30pm - Our Cells Know release show - Robert Dick, contrabass flute solo
Celebrating the release of Robert's solo contrabass flute CD on Tzadik! Music that's truly unique.

Photo: Carla Rees