The Festival of New Trumpet Music—a.k.a. FONT—opened its 11th edition this week with an ambitious concert last Wednesday night at Roulette. According to FONT's founder Dave Douglas, the festival is intended "to celebrate the trumpet in the hands of musicians of every variety," crossing the border from jazz to new music and back again.
The concert opened with a "preview" performance of John Zorn's Antiphonal Fanfare for the Great Hall, which positioned six trumpeters throughout Roulette's wraparound balcony. Zorn, whose 60th birthday is being fêted this year with a plethora of concerts throughout the city, laid low in the back row while the chaotic, euphoric sounds bounced all around. Zorn seemed completely in his element, surrounded by old friends and colleagues who've known him for decades, long before his recent recent appearances at the Lincoln Center Festival and New York City Opera.
Following was a tribute to Butch Morris, the sui generis jazz maestro and innovator who passed away this past January. Butch's "conduction" technique—which purportedly allowed him to control volume, timbre, phrasing, and pitch, all without the benefit of a score—was employed here by his friend and acolyte, Dino Deane, who led a dozen musicians in a freewheeling improvisation that lasted the better part of an hour. It came across sounding more experimental than jazz, almost classical in its structure—which is more than I could say for Butch's own conductions when I heard them.
The main event of the evening was Henry Brant's Flight Over a Global Map, originally written in 1989 for 100 trumpets. Brant, a pioneer of spatial composition, composed the work as a site-specific piece for SUNY Oneonta's Goodrich Theater, positioning the trumpeters not only on the stage and in the balcony, but in the aisles, catwalks, and light bridges. Before he died in 2008, Brant made a reduced version for a "mere" 52 trumpeters and percussionists, which was the version heard at Roulette. With the musicians positioned all around the balcony, on stage, and in the wings, the music surrounded the audience, bouncing from left to right, front to back, and over our heads. Ranging from softly elegiac to harsh and feral, Brant's music evoked everyone from Wagner to Messiaen and Stockhausen.
FONT continues through October 2 with shows at both traditional and experimental venues throughout the city; schedules available online. More pics on the photo page.