Racer Session #323 | Dick Valentine & Pete Leinonen | May 8, 2016

This week we're honored to present two veteran improvisers--Dick Valentine and Pete Leinonen to the Racer Sessions, 8pm this Sunday. Read Valentine's inspiring thoughts on "The Masters" below:

"Love letter, thank-you note, time capsule: Remembering the Masters

When we play a tune from memory, we say we know the song "by heart."
Listeners and players alike are encouraged to consider this as
something more than a mere figure of speech.

This evening we propose to present a set of free jazz, by which term
we mean improvised music incorporating idioms appropriated from the
rich traditions of Great Black Music.

One way of looking at it, Free Jazz is the Research and Development
department of popular music. In recent months we've been investing
energy and time in reviewing and re-working a few selected
compositions from the jazz canon, that is to say, those short
masterpieces used and re-used over and over again on recordings, on
stages, in club performances, and at jam sessions everywhere. Going
deeper into these materials we find, as so many before us have found,
deep inarticulate emotions within the confines of carefully
constructed little melodies, and immense reserves of power lurking in
a dynamic change from pianissimo to mezzo piano.

For the open improv set of the Session, we encourage players to offer
music from deep within, melodies with emotional implications, and
messages that carry weight when played softly and with care.
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Dick Valentine (tenor sax) and Pete Leinonen (bass) performed three pieces.

—

Improv 1: Geoff Traeger (voice and effects), Taylor King (bass), Evan Woodle (drums)

Improv 2: Howard Londner (drums), Joel (pocket trumpet), Jeremy Gonzalez (alto sax), Luke Bergman (bass)

Improv 3: Colin Pulkrabek (trombone), Dick Valentine (tenor sax), Michelle Hutchinson (drums), Simon Henneman (guitar)

Improv 4: Evan Hashi (drums), Amelia Coulter (trombone), Neil Welch (tenor sax), Zach Burba (piano), Michael Flanagan (guitar)

Improv 5: Joel (pocket trumpet), Haley Freedlund (trombone), Taylor King (drums), David Balatero (piano)

Improv 6: Evan Woodle and Keeli McCarthy (drums), Colin Pulkrabek (trombone), Luke Bergman (bass), Inge Chiles (voice)

Improv 7: Byron Svendsen (bass), Pippin Kenworthy (guitar), Neil Welch (tenor sax), Liam Fitzgerald (drums)