|
The Delphian Orchestra is a seventeen piece ensemble based in NYC that performs the music of composer Justin Mullens and poet Justina Mejias. == History == The ensemble was founded in 1996 by composer/musician Justin Mullens and poet Justina Mejias.〔The Delphian Orchestra, (), Biography〕 Justin Mullens has been performing his music in New York since 1996 at clubs such as Birdland, The 55 Bar, The Bowery Poetry Club, and The Jazz Standard. He has been commissioned to write music that ranges in styles from chamber to "post-modern" jazz in a wide variety of settings. He has also had the honor of working with choreographers such as Wendy Blum, Jordan Fuchs, and Molly Rabinowitz. Mullens graduated from Berklee College of Music with a double major in Composition and Performance. While there, he was the recipient of the Quincy Jones Award for composition and the Art Farmer Award for Performance. In addition to recording his own work with The Justin Mullens Quintette and the Delphian Jazz Orchestra - his playing and writing have been featured on albums with The Dimitri Guravitch Quintet, The Paul Olenick Sextet, and Ethan Eubanks. From 1996 to the year 2000, the band played music that was written with a thematic approach and included a collaboration with the poet Justina Mejias. This phase of the Delphian Orchestra’s repertoire often gravitated towards narrative themes, such as Beowulf, English fairy tales and Greek myth.〔AAJ Staff, (), All About Jazz, Justin Mullens: Justin Mullens and The Delphian Orchestra, 11/24/2004〕 During this period, the orchestra frequently played runs at The Nuyorican Poets Cafe and at The Bowery Poets Cafe, in addition to shows at the Gershwin Hotel and the Knitting Factory. From 2000 through 2007, the band focused its attention on instrumental pieces and performed primarily at jazz clubs and performance spaces. This period of the band's development also saw the introduction of multimedia, adding live video to much of the music. The videos, filmed and edited by Justin Mullens, were carefully edited to sync with each piece of music.The Delphian Jazz Orchestra performs music that stretches outside of the typical parameters of a traditional big band. The music drastically morphs styles that fall anywhere from the influences of Ellington and Monk to Stravinsky and Frank Zappa. Hoping to free itself from the confines of formal structure, The Delphian Jazz Orchestra expresses a full range of emotion and thought through unique musical artistry. In 2007, Mullens collaborated with musician/composer Matt Cowan to create a piece of music entitled "S’latch and the Continuum of the Sleestaks", which combined the orchestral music of the band with electronic music that was programmed to sync with the ensemble.〔Don Williamson, (), Justin Mullens and The Delphian Orchestra, 5/16/2004〕 In 2008, Mullens decided on a change of instrumentation and a different approach to the aural space the band played in. The band moved from the traditional 3-row big band structure (trumpets, trombones and saxes) to a wide semi-circle with the instruments situated according to frequency. This gave the compositions a more active role in a space, allowing Mullens to create effects which would be impossible with an ordinary big band structure. In 2010, Mullens continued his writing based on Greek mythology, completing "The Heliconian Suite", a nine-piece suite that focused on the various influences of The Muses. This suite takes advantage of the band’s semi-circle structure in interesting ways, such as panning a single note or melody from one side of the room to another and creating delays and echoes which move around the audience. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Delphian Orchestra」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|