The East-West Collective: Cultures in Collision
France / China
Time
2014.10.10 21:20 – 22:20
Venue
B10 Live, North District of OCT-LOFT
Artists
Xu Fengxia – Sanxian / Guzheng / Vocal
Didier Petit – Cello
Sylvain Kassap – Clarinets
Xu Fengxia
She was a famous young Chinese international instrumental music performer in the 80s; she played Sanxian, Chin and Cheng very well. She became a member of the International United Orchestra Global Village which is established by the founder of the free impromptu music Peter Kowald in 1995. And she had co-performed with some older generation of free jazz masters such as Baby Sommer，Peter Brötzmann and Lucas Niggli. She started the Ensemble of “Qian Xing Zhe (千行者)” in Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 2008 and initiated the experimental music project between German classical strings and Chinese traditional orchestra. She won the Essen Jazzpott in Germany on 18th October 2009 and was the first ethnic Chinese pioneer jazz musician. Her “Black Lotus” which was made by her and Lucas Niggli in 2010 had won the Best Record of Germany.
Website
Didier Petit
One of the finest players to have come out of Alan Silva’s IACP School, cellist Didier Petit has been active on the French free improvisation scene since the mid 80s. His playing style relies mostly on double-string arco technique. He is also often heard vocalizing on top of his instrument. He performs regularly with Parisian improvisers like Michel Doneda, Daunik Lazro and Denis Colin, and has performed with Sakis Papadimitriou, Roger Turner, Marilyn Crispell and Carlos Zingaro. He started on cello at age six and attended the conservatory until age 15. At this point he turned his back on his classical upbringing. Hearing Sun Ra and His Arkestra and Alan Silva’s Celestrial Communication Orchestra had the power of a revelation and soon the cellist embarked on the avant-garde jazz train. He enrolled in the bassist’s IACP. For the next ten years or so he studied there, then taught and performed administrative tasks, all the while playing in the CCO. During this period, he met saxophonist Michel Lobko who introduced him to the European scene of free improvisers. With him and Christine Janvier he organized the first Décades de Musiques Improvisées in 1985, a first exercise in musical activism and networking. In 1990 he founded In Situ, a label he has pampered for 12 years before leaving Théo Jarrier in charge in 2002.
Website
http://www.myspace.com/didiersmall
Sylvain Kassap
The clarinetist Sylvain Kassap, born in 1956, has been a key figure of the jazz and improvised music scene since the end of the 1970s, but his desire to explore the different repertories available to his instrument has driven him naturally to try his hand at the work of contemporary composers and to be a founding member in 1993 of Laborintus, an ensemble devoted to creative music.
Composing firstly for the cinema, the theatre and dance, his desire to address the needs of soloists and groups such as Ars Nova and Alternance, led him to write in a more contemporary vein, influenced initially by Luciano Bério and Franco Donatoni, and then more personal.
A musician who plays with emotion and an effervescent, totally unpredictable imagination, Sylvain Kassap explores and deploys music that is rich in color and nuance, from free improvisation to contemporary music, from ethnic music to compositions, driven by an untamed spirit of freedom.
Website