About Eric Zinman: Born 5-22-1963 in Boston, MA.
I have been around the arts most of my life. My mother taught art and art
history in the Needham Public Schools. Theater and poetry were also big
priorities in my family life.I began the study of piano when I was seven with
pianist/teacher Angel Ramon Rivera. I also sang boys soprano and sang in opera
and musicals as a kid. I was fascinated by modern music and continually wanted
to get closer to this music called jazz where I found I could really express myself by creating music as
opposed to interpreting it. When I finally experienced the real thing there was no turning back. I became reborn and
dissolved in rapture.
For the past 18 years I have been involved in
the Boston and national music scene. In 1995 I founded and produced the
Playground new music series at the Zeitgeist Gallery in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. In 1999 I founded Studio 234.I have been honored to work with
many fine musicians from all over the world: Craig Schildhauer,Laurence Cook,
John Voigt, Raphe Malik, Sabir Mateen, Blaise Siwula,Glenn Spearman,Tatsuya
Nakatani, Luther Grey, Glynis Lomon, Mike Lopez, Greg Kelley, Christoph Irmer,
Libba Villavechia et al............ I collaborated on several orchestra
projects with Raphe Malik and more recently with trombonist Chris Allen on
projects including several large orchestra pieces featuring Boston
Improvisers.I have also composed music for dance and theater using verbal
directives as well as graphic scores. Currently I am working with bassist John
Voigt and drummer Laurence Cook.
My studies with Bill Dixon at Bennington
College, in the early eighties, completely changed my life. Later I pursued an
M.M. at New England Conservatory of Music. I have also been greatly influenced
by George Russell, Duke Ellington,Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Jimmy Lyons,
Raphe Malik, Lowell Davidson, Jimmy Stewart, Edgar Varese, and Anton Webern et
al.......
" I believe improvisation IS composition and\
requires the same depth of design.. the question is
always.................................................... how are we to
organize the material?............... together as human beings all moving in
the same direction....assembling sounds by pure necessity into a new
order........what will the notation be? oral..instant playing.......one
begins.....then another or all at once......calligraphy/
orchestration....paintings.........star charts............pitch of
ancestry................ indeterminate ratios...pendulums
swinging...indicate from the
instrument?.............any means necessary....rhythm is the unexplored
territory..with the right methodology we are forced to actually listen
mystified by the subtle reactions of human timing.......then we can hear the
nuances inherent in all music.............as we gradually discover its
form,structure, and content. -Eric Zinman
John
Voigt
About John Voigt: John Voigt has played with
Billy Bang, Borah Bergman, Peter Brotzmann, Roy Campbell, Denis Charles, Marilyn
Crispell, Andrew Cyrille, Stu Dempster, Bill Dixon, Paul Flaherty, Bill
Frisell, Malcolm Goldstein, Milford Graves, Joseph Jarman, Keith Jarrett,
Oliver Lake, Jeanne Lee, Joe McPhee, Jemeel Moondoc, Thurston Moore, Joe
Morris, Lawrence "Butch" Morris, Paul Motian, Bern Nix, and Zenna
Parkins. He has recorded for Aum Fidelity, Eremite, Box Holder, and RRRecords
(a video with T. Moore), Clean Feed, Ayler Records, and Cadence. Played at Bell
Atlantic, Sound Unity, Fire In The Valley, and Vision Festivals. Many gigs at
the Knitting Factory. He's published articles on Henry Grimes, Charles Mingus,
Don Cherry, Morton Feldman. Voigt has lectured at the Institute of Jazz
Studies; and taught at Berklee College, Boston Arts Academy and Massachusetts
College of Art.
Quotes: "In his hands the bass turns
into a real talker, a mythical creature, a mouthpiece for the history of man.
Voigt's very personal musical metaphors should not be missed." --The
Improvisor, 1993. John Voigt is "an avatar of creative music in Boston"
--Cadence, Dec. 1997. e-mail contact:
john.voigt@comcast.net more information on Voigt: http://art-energy.org/Musician.htm
and http://art-energy.org>
Laurence
Cook
About Laurence Cook:Laurence Cook studied painting
at the Museum School of Fine Arts in Boston and later learned to play piano,
vibraphone, and drums. He has been a major figure in the jazz avant-garde since
the 1960's on twenty-two recordings, including Revenge, and Dual Unity with
Paul Bley; Skillfullnes with Alan Silva,Ritti with Joe Morris;
"Fuzzagainst Junk" from Vision 1997 Festival with Thurston Moore;
Triplet and Fire in the Valley with Jemeel Moondoc; Divine Mad Love with Sabir
Mateen; November 1981, Thoughts, and Son of Sisyphus with Bill Dixon. He has
worked with Sam Rivers, Alan Silva, The Brecker Brothers, Robin Kenyatta, Mark
Whitecage, and Barre Phillips among many others.
[a paraphrase]'The older jazz is like
representational painting where you paint a portrait of a person or a thing.
Thats playing on a song and its chords. The new music is like modern painting,
Action Painting. You concern yourself with the surface of the canvas, with the
brushstrokes, the texture of the paint, the total two dimensional surface,
concern myself with the way the drum stick strikes the cymbal, the surface of
the drum heads.'
Educational
Resume For Eric Zinman
Masters Degree in Music - New England
Conservatory of Music
piano studies - Ran Blake
Lydian Chromatic Concept - Goerge Russell
composition - Jimmy Giuffre
Bachelor of Arts - Bennington College
Black Music Major - Music Major with a concentration in Black Music
Aesthetics
Studies in Composition and Performance - Bill Dixon
Piano Studies - Nadi Qamar ( Spaulding Givens), Lionel Nowak
EXPERIENCE
Experience with small and large ensembles
both as Composer and Performer
Dance Accompanist for Harvard Dance Program -
Claire Mallardi, Director
Private piano instructor
Radio at WBRS-FM in Waltham - 20th Century
Music Show
PRINCIPAL PERFORMANCES
Jamaica Plain Multicultural Arts Center - Jamaica Plain, MA
- Benefit for Friends of the Amazon
- arrangement of Legba Crossing by Cecil Taylor for a 12-piece orchestra 1989
New England Conservatory, Jordan Hall - Cecil Taylor Student Ensemble,
performed Burning Poles 1989
Raphe Malik Quartet - Performed with the Quartet in 1989
Worcester Artists Group (WAG) - Performed at the space in 1991
Zachary_s at the Collonnade Hotel - Boston, MA 1992
Cambridge Adult Education - Cambridge, MA
Zeitgeist Gallery - Organized and Directed a music performance series
under the name of Playground in
September of 9/95, Cambridge, MA. Also Created the Composer Ensemble with
Musician Raphe Malik
Zeitgeist Gallery - Organized and produced the Cambridge Piano Festival
Bennington College - 1995 , 1996
Autumn Uprising Festival 1997 (organized and produced by David Gross)- The
performance was recorded on the Tautology Label and bought and released by Cadence
records
Boston Dance Company - performed with Dancer Adrienne Hawkins
Knitting Factory - New York City, performed with tenor saxophonist
Sabir Mateen and percussionist Mike Lopez 98,99
Studio 234 - Founder and Director, taught workshops with
bassist/composer John Voigt - produced performances begining 2000
Jimmaize Art Club - Cambridge, MA 2002
Music of The Momment- Birmingham, Alabhama, 2002 produced by Ladonna Smith
The Tremont Theatre- Boston, MA produced by the International society
2002
composed music for a nine piece orchestra in
collaboration with THE ARTEZANI THEATRE in the production of Dionysus in Cambridge at the Zeitgeist Gallery 4/6/02 and at the Boston Dance CO. 5/30/02
Performed at the Williamsburg Art Nexus in Brooklyn, NYC 4/27/02 at the Sound and Form
Festival with multi-reedist Blaise
Siwula and Percussionist Matt Weston.
Performed at the Institute of Contemporary
Art in Boston with Bassist John Voigt
and Percussionist Laurence Cook 10/7/02 as part of the Autumn Uprising
Festival 2002
Performed with C.O.M.A. (Citizens Ontological Musical Agenda) at ABC
NO-RIO in NYC 10/02
Performed with Ian Mackinnon of the Artezani
Theatre at the Zeitgeist Gallery in The Bush/Cheney Christmas 12/23/2003
Performed at the Artists At Large Gallery in Hyde Park, Boston 4/9/2004 with Raqib Hassan and
the Interdimensional Science Research Orchestra
Performed and cowrote concept and music with
Ian Mackinnon of the Artezani Theatre
at the Zeitgeist Gallery in The
Apotheosis of George W. Bush
6/27/2004
Deep Listening Space in Kingston, New York with percussionist Laurence
Cook and bassist John Voigt 4/14/2005
Vermont Jazz Center in Brattleborough, Vermont with percussionist
Laurence Cook and bassist John Voigt 4/15/2005 sponsored by Green River Data
Analysis
Cafe Olympic Rue Leon, Paris, France with percussionist Didier
Lasserre and bassist Benjamin Duboc September 27, 2006
Stralau 68 Berlin, Germany with percussionist Thomas Rehnert,
bassist Jan Roder, and Saxophonist Ernst Ludwig Petrowski October 10, 2006
Espace Culturel de L'Universite d'Angers Angers, France with percussionist Didier Lasserre and
bassist Benjamin Duboc October 13, 2006
L’Atelier Tampon 14 Rue Jules Valles 75012 Paris, FRANCE with
percussionist Didier Lasserre and bassist Benjamin Duboc Sep.16, 2007
With percussionist Makot Sato and Clarinetist Michael Marcus October 11,
2007
Alten Schmiede with the Reform Art Unit Schonlaterngass 9 1010 Vienna, Austria September 22 Saturday @ 4pm 2007
The Reform Art Unit
(septet and diverse)
Seven for Art
Walter Mali
soprano saxophone and drums
Eric Zinman
piano
Mario Recthern reeds
Karl Wilhelm Krbavac viola da gamba and piano
Karl Vossner oboe damiara
Monika Staedler harp
Fritz Novotny soprano saxophone (leader and director)
Alt Stralou 68, 10245 Berlin, -S- Treptowerpark/Ostkreuz Germany September 30, Sunday 9pm
Das Quartet
Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky tenor saxophone/ Eric Zinman piano/ Jan
Roder bass/ Michael Griener drums
Satchmos [Reinhardstrasse 25-27]
Boston-Berlin Ensemble Mittwoch 3 Oktober 20.30 uhr
Matthias Muller trombone/ Eric Zinman piano/
Berit Jung bass/ Christian Marien drums
Brecht Forum NYC February 17th 2008 with
Laurence Cook drums and John Voigt bass