Cross between classical and avant-jazz mixed composition and improvisation

9 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Weird Jazz, CLASSICAL: Contemporary



Details:
Chris Chalfant, born September 10, 1960, Akron, OH; Composer, director, pianist, vocalist, artist, author, and poet; Noted for her unique style as a creative artist, Chris Chalfant is a lyrical, rhythmically compelling, and powerful, innovative driving force in the world of jazz, new and improvised music. Her prolific output of composition and improvisation (over 400 works) draws largely from traditional music of Africa, Hungary and India, as well as from American folk music, jazz and classical music. Critics have compared her music and playing to a wide range of artists: Andrew Hill, Charles Ives, McCoy Tyner, Mal Waldron, Cecil Taylor, Bud Powell, Stravinsky, Don Pullen, Keith Jarrett, Webern, Meredith Monk, Thelonious Monk and a Buddhist monk. She draws from nature, poetry and dance with a strong sense of counterpoint and polyrhythm, resulting in non-ordinary phrasings, tonal structures and rhythmic layerings. Her work is both simple and complex at the same time, where she will take a simple childrenâs tune and create an expressionistic multi-tonal, multi-rhythmic contrapuntal composition or improvisation. Chalfant has a strong melodic sense as well as a feeling of tranquility in much of her work. Her keen sense of moment-to-moment movement in her composition and improvisation is supported by her training in Buddhism and Aikido, where âliving under the bladeâ results in an unshakable fearlessness, confidence and a path of truth.

All in Good Time is my first CD, although I have several Cassette recordings before this. I was trained in classical piano and composition in my earlier years, and made a gradual transition over toward more improvisational and jazz music in the mid-eighties to mid-nineties. This CD demonstrates the wide range of styles of music that I wrote between 1986 and 1996. âDreams and Nightmaresâ was my first composition/Improvisational piece which I did for Jimmy Giuffreâs Jazz Composition series when I was a student at New England Conservatory. Other tunes are all written out (âRainâ and âJyakuâ), while âNordiqueâ, which has a set structure and a lot of written material, has a lot of room for improvisation. It is named after the horse of my neighbor who heard endless hours of practicing above his apartment. I call this CD âIntellectualâ just because there was a lot of thought put into the compositional elements in this recording, unlike âConvergenceâ, which is a CD more groove-based, and less writing.