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| Henry Kuntz: New CD In an alluring set of solo and multi-track improvisations inspired by mixed-media presentations of saxophone and puppet theatre, tenor-saxophonist Henry Kuntz in his new CD Wayang Saxophony Shadow Saxophone (Humming Bird Records) re-examines the sound, technique, and musical dimensions of the tenor. "The diaphanous tenor of Wayang Saxophony Shadow Saxophone took flight like a light butterfly free of its silver cocoon. It happened as I prepared for two solo performances that featured the coming out of my Balinese shadow puppets. The puppets were entrusted to me by a homegrown cultural ambassador on the Indonesian island. The leather puppets, elaborately and colorfully painted but normally only seen as shadows on a white screen, were theatrically presented in open space to relate a Balinese story known as Desa Nama Kerta, The Ten Names of Peace. The tale is old, but it was recently newly produced in Bali to help relieve people's trauma from the bombings of 2002 and 2005. I felt that an adapted version of the epic might help us to hold the light in our own poisoned spiritual atmosphere, polluted by war, violence, and planetary disasters. The moral import of the story is that one cannot confront violence with more violence. Only by preserving and strengthening the life-giving principles embodied in music, dance and ritual - originally, gifts to humans from the gods - can we hope to restore harmony and balance in the world. In performance, the content of the Balinese tale served as thematic material on which to improvise. To align my playing with the character of the story, I felt prompted to take a fresh look at the saxophone. Instead of allowing the instrument - it's nature, it's history, even it's recent "free" history - to determine how I should play it, I decided to let the music-in-process suggest the manner of instrumental usage. This was as much an evolutionary as a conscious decision that came from working over a period of months with the puppets. The harmonics of blown breath emerged; and, from repeatedly vocalizing the story, the voice spontaneously asserted itself as an integral part of the music. The names of the pieces for four tenors are derived from the names of two sets of ancient Javanese gamelan known as sekati. In Yogyakarta, these orchestras play once each year for five days. The music is peculiarly stark and strong, yet sweet. The sounds of the gamelan sekati are said to confer great spiritual power on those who hear them"--Henry Kuntz (June 2006) Henry Kuntz has been intimately involved in free jazz and free improvisation for more than 30 years. From 1973 to 1979, he was editor and publisher of the internationally-acclaimed newsletter-review BELLS. He first recorded on tenor saxophone in 1977 on Henry Kaiser's Ice Death. He has played musette and various flutes since 1981, miniature violins since 1983, gamelans and xylophones since1988, and rhaita since1999. On Humming Bird Records, he has released 2 LPs, 16 cassettes, and 6 CDs of solo, group, and multi-tracked free improvisations. In 1986, he formed the "avant-shamanic trance jazz" group Opeye. He has traveled extensively to Mexico, Central and South America, Asia, North Africa, and Indonesia recording, studying, and drawing upon aspects of music, ritual, dance, and performance, from which 5 ethnographic cassettes have been produced. He has performed with Moe Staino's MOE!kestra and has collaborated on various projects with edgy drone master Robert Horton. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Jazz News :: home page |