Tuesday, 14 November 2017

Nikel and Kit Downes at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival


For the final concert of this year's Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival experimental folk artist,singer and multi-instrumentalist Sam Amidon explores the intersections of songcraft, jazz improvisation, and traditional American music.

His group has some of the finest international jazz and improvising musicians including Byron Wallen trumpet; James Allsop bass clarinet / tenor saxophone; Kit Downes piano; Jasper Høiby acoustic bass; Chris Vatalaro drums / live electronics .

They will perform songs from Amidon’s most recent release The Following Mountain, which is his first album of entirely original compositions, as well as drawing on material from Amidon’s earlier records such as Lily-O and I See The Sign, which consisted of radically re-worked traditional folksongs. Sam Amidon is a singer and multi-instrumentalist originally hailing from Brattleboro, Vermont, US. His most recent album, The Following Mountain, was released in May of 2017 by Nonesuch Records.

His first album of entirely original songs and compositions, it features appearances by Jimi Hendrix percussionist Juma Sultan and legendary free-jazz drummer Milford Graves, known for his pioneering work in the 1960s with artists such as Albert Ayler and Sonny Sharrock.

Sunday 26 November 
@Bates Mill Blending Shed, 9pm
Tickets £17 (£14 concession / online)


Kit Downes Obsidian World Premiere
Kit Downes church organ
Tom Challenger saxophone

Obsidian is a collection of Kit Downes’ solo organ works from the eponymous album soon to be released on ECM Records. It is a musical response to volcanicity, slow processes that cause extreme reactions. A mixture of written and semi-scored/semi-improvised pieces, it focusses on the nuances and unique features of both smaller chamber organs local to rural Suffolk as well as larger grander instruments from bigger cities around the UK. It is both a study of extended techniques from instruments sometimes in states of disrepair, and a connection and adaptation of the improvised tradition of the instrument, exploring themes of duration, vibration and mechanics.

Saturday 25 November 
St Paul’s Hall
University of Huddersfield
Tickets £12 (£9 concession / online)
12-1pm


Tickets 01484 472900
Full programme: http://hcmf.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/hcmf_2017_programme.pdf

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