THE PROJECT:
We have been performing duets since 2008. Each concert is a chapter in an evolving musical conversation -- two musicians speaking the same language with slightly different points of view, and, like any good conversation, finding something new. So we titled the project DIALOGUE.
THE MUSICIANS:
Over the course of two decades and more than 30 recordings, Myra Melford, recipient of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award (2013), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2013), and the Alpert Award in the Arts (2012), has carved out a distinctive niche among the creative music’s most respected pianist-composers. Her signature sound skillfully combines early influences such as classical music and the traditional blues piano styles of her native Chicago with her later immersion in the music of Eastern Europe and India and extensive musical studies with such legendary figures as Jaki Byard, Don Pullen and Henry Threadgill. Critics called her latest release, The Whole Tree Gone (Firehouse 12 Records), “a triumph” (John Sharpe, AllAboutJazz.com), “compelling from start to finish” (Jez Nelson, BBC 3′s Jazz on 3), “a knockout by any standard” (Nate Chinen, New York Times) and “a high water mark in Melford’s extraordinary oeuvre” (Troy Collins, Point of Departure). She currently leads a variety of ensembles, including a new quintet called Snowy Egret, and composes and plays in the collective Trio M with Mark Dresser and Matt Wilson.
Ben Goldberg, whom John Zorn has called "one of the greatest clarinetists I have ever heard," was named #1 Rising Star Clarinetist in both the 2011 and 2013 Downbeat Critics’ Poll. His group New Klezmer Trio "kicked open the door for radical experiments with Ashkenazi roots music" (San Francisco Chronicle). A recording of Ben’s song-cycle Orphic Machine, based on the poetical writings of Allen Grossman with Carla Kihlstedt on vocals (“knotted and occasionally spooky composition marked by dazzling interplay” – LA Times), will be released in 2014. Ben also leads Unfold Ordinary Mind, featuring Nels Cline, Ellery Eskelin, and Ches Smith (“Joyous research into the basics of polyphony and collective improvising” -- The New York Times); the sextet Ben Goldberg School; Go Home with Charlie Hunter (“a searching ensemble that welcomes lyrical improvisation while embracing the groove” -- The New Yorker); and the Ben Goldberg Trio with Greg Cohen and Kenny Wollesen; He is a member of Tin Hat; plays monk; Myra Melford’s Be Bread; and Nels Cline’s New Monastery.
DIALOGUE: Myra Melford and Ben Goldberg at the Maybeck
Saturday, November 8, 2014, 3:00pm
Suggested donation: $20 at the door
Seating is limited. This event is sold out. Thank you for your interest.