For anyone near El Paso TX
Nameless Sound and the Cornudas Mountain Foundation present A Rare Site-Specific Performance
in the vast West Texas Desert
Peter Brötzmann
at The Hill of James Magee
Peter Brötzmann
at The Hill of James MageeSaturday, October 12, 2013, 3pm
James Magee's The Hill, near Cornudas, Texas
Tickets $75 each, purchase by
Paypal or call
713-928-5653
The Cornudas Mountain Foundation and Nameless Sound present a rare site-specific event in the vast West Texas desert. German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann will perform solo sets for an intimate audience at “The Hill”, a monumental (yet very personal) work of art, isolated on remote private land 70 miles East of El Paso.
Over 30 years in the making, The Hill is the life work of James Magee (b. 1946, Newaygo County, Michigan). Complex and powerful, The Hill consists of four buildings (40 feet long, 20 feet wide and 17 feet in height), all of which house installations by Magee. Built from irregularly-cut shale rock, each building is entered through a majestic iron portal, 8 feet wide and the full height of the building. The Hill sits in a gently rolling landscape with mesmerizing views of mesas, mountains, and limitless West Texas skies. Having done much of the work himself or with one assistant, The Hill has been an impressively solitary endeavor for Magee. In its three decades, only a small number of people have visited the site. This concert offers a visit to the site, as well as a musical experience. It follows several other creative music presentations at The Hill, including a concert by Bob Ostertag in 1999 and a Nameless Sound-curated event featuring saxophonists Joe McPhee and John Butcher in 2010.
For over forty years, the groundbreaking German multi-reedist Peter Brötzmann (b. 1941, Remscheid, Germany) has peeled the paint off concert halls with his massive tone, rough timbre, and relentless attack. Brötzmann studied painting at the Art Academy of Wuppertal in the late 1950s and soon began associating with Fluxus artists including Joseph Beuys and Nam-June Paik. By 1968 he had refocused his creative efforts on music and with an eight-piece group, recorded and self-issued Machine Gun, an incendiary LP that documented the leading voices of the burgeoning European free jazz revolution. In the decades since, Brotzmann has released over fifty albums as a leader while rampaging his way around the globe, taking on such fellow travelers as Han Bennink, Derek Bailey, Cecil Taylor, William Parker, Joe McPhee, and countless others. Brötzmann has a reputation for an extremely physical and powerfully expressionistic approach to music making. But a more in depth exploration reveals music with a vulnerable and lyrical core, music with roots in the blues. It's this balance of power, humanity and vulnerability that makes his performance a perfect match with the site-specific work of James Magee.
For information about James Magee, The Hill, and The Cornudas Mountain Foundation:
http://www.mageehill.org
http://www.amazon.com/James-Magee-Richard-R-Brettell/dp/379135079X
About Nameless Sound:
Nameless Sound was established in 2001 to present the best of international contemporary music and to support the exploration of new methods in arts education.
Nameless Sound presents concerts by premier artists in the world of creative music. In addition, Nameless Sound artists work directly with students from Houston’s public schools, community centers, and homeless shelters. Nameless Sound’s educational work helps to nurture a new generation of artists and inspire tomorrow’s creative thinkers.