 
Our
Mission
Contact Us
Become a Member
Support
Workshops
Youth Ensemble
Past Events
Merchandise
Table
Links
Nameless Sound
was established in 2001 to present the best of international
contemporary music and to support the exploration of new methods in
arts education
Nameless
Sound presents
concerts by premier artists in the world of creative music. In
addition, Nameless Sound artists work directly with students from
Houston’s public schools, community centers, and homeless shelters.
Nameless Sound’s educational work helps to nurture a new generation of
artists and inspire tomorrow’s creative thinkers.
CONNECT
Blog
Facebook
Myspace
Myspace Youth
Ensemble
Twitter
Arts
Houston
Flickr
|
|
Nameless Sound presents:
The Resounding Vision Awards
honoring Roscoe Mitchell and Susie and Sanford Criner
|
|
|
Thursday,
March 28, 2013, 6:30pm
Historic
Eldorado Ballroom, 2310 Elgin, Houston [map]
featuring:
music by Curley Cormier and the Gladiators
(house band of the famous Silver Slipper)
plus
auction of art and objects
food courtesy Liberty Kitchen
beer courtesy Buffalo Bayou Brewery
wine courtesy Della Terra and Tenuta Sant'Antonio
$200
individual tickets
$400 pair of tickets
$1500 Sponsors: six tickets plus recognition in program, signage, and
website
$2500 Benefactors: eight tickets plus recognition in program, signage,
and website
$5000 Avant Garde: ten tickets plus recognition in program, signage,
and website
$10000 Visionary: ten tickets plus recognition as above and opportunity
to speak at the event
buy
with PayPal below, or e-mail us to make
payment arrangements
A founding
member of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative
Musicians), Roscoe Mitchell’s commitment to self-determination,
empowerment and collective action is strongly tied to his history with
that crucial organization. The AACM was not only a landmark for
musician-run collectives in the 1960’s; it was also the breeding ground
for many of the most important musician/composers of that era. Roscoe
Mitchell is no exception. He is a key figure in a 2nd wave of jazz
avant-gardists who saw themselves as composers, just as much as they
were improvisers. Balancing these two critical poles, this generation
challenged the stereotypes and prescribed roles of the “jazz musician”.
The AACM catalyzed a critical re-assessment of identity, backed up with
highly advanced aesthetics and sophisticated explorations of
compositional processes. This avant garde expanded the music beyond the
ecstasies and expressionism of their “post-bop” and “free jazz”
predecessors. Greats like Ellington and Mingus made a point to reject
the constraints coded into the term “jazz”. The composers/musicians of
the AACM fully embodied a commitment to this vision. The plurality of
their ethos was expressed in the motto of the AACM’s most well known
group (The Art Ensemble of Chicago, co-founded by Mitchell) who called
their work “Great Black Music, from the Ancient to the Future”. Equally
important (and entirely connected) to the AACM’s aesthetic and
organizational innovations, was its location. In shifting the focus of
the cutting edge from New York City to Chicago, the AACM, the Art
Ensemble, Mitchell, and his colleagues started a critical
decentralization of the cutting edge. No longer was the pulse of the
avant garde only to be found in New York.
It’s for all of these reasons (and his amazing
music itself) that Nameless Sound feels so much resonance with the work
of Roscoe Mitchell. The seeds he helped to sow and the persistence by
which he has lived out his commitment exemplify everything that we hope
to represent. In the new century, he’s been revered as one of the
music’s most articulate elder statesmen, holding prestigious teaching
posts at the University of Wisconsin and Mills College, and serving as
a beacon for a new generation of creative musicians. “I think music
should relate to life,” says Mitchell. “It should be brought back into
schools, back into communities, so that people can have exposure to the
very rich and meaningful possibilities available.”
The Community Vision Award is presented to Houstonians Susie and
Sanford Criner, art champions and music lovers. Susie and Sanford
Criner began their professional involvement in music in 1979 with the
transformation of the Heights Bank Building into the much-loved
Rockefeller’s night club, for which they received the Texas Society of
Architects Honor Award for Historical Redevelopment. Susie is renowned
for
her expertise in the music business, having founded and operated Gulf
Coast Entertainment since 1985. Since that time, she has provided
unique entertainment to private and corporate affairs in Houston and
across the country. She has served on the boards of The Contemporary
Arts Museum, Houston, Stages Repertory Theatre, FotoFest, and the UT
Press, among others, and has been honored by FreshArts and
Diverse Works. David Dove,
Founding Director, Nameless Sound
I'm most gratified to hear that Roscoe
Mitchell has been honored with the Resounding Vision Award.
Mitchell is one of the most significant musical artists of the past
thirty years. As a composer, his work evinces a personal approach
that exudes ingenuity and originality at every turn. As an
improvisor, the urgency and great range of expression embodied in his
easily recognizable voice on each of the seemingly endless array of
instruments he has mastered seems to somehow transcend conventional
notions of the character of instrumental timbre. Mitchell is an
artist who can be regarded as a prime founder of a field, or an
aesthetic--a defining artist who is still pointing the way for
others. The astonishing diversity of his explorations, where no
two recordings seem to employ the same instrumentation or the same
structural concepts, points to an amazing fecundity that seems to flow
without end. He is a genre-busting artist who continues to
confound stereotyped notions concerning the possibilities of vernacular
expression.
George E. Lewis, author of A Power
Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music
|
|
|
|
|