Since 1998, the Meridian Gallery in San Francisco, CA has run a stimulating series of gallery concerts under the umbrella title of Meridian Music: Composers in Performance.
Innova'
s
Earth Music
is a compilation of 14 cuts taken from live recordings from within this series, several being improvisations from star instrumentalist/composers --
Vinny Golia
,
Frank Gratkowski
Matthew Sperry
, and koto virtuoso
Shoko Hikage
, to name a few -- and others being excerpts from loosely, or more strictly composed, pieces by
Pauline Oliveros
Damon Smith
, a voice/cello song by
Theresa Wong
, and even a simultaneous realization of two
Anthony Braxton
pieces performed by the series' first curator,
Philip Gelb
, and pipa player
Jie Ma
. It's a well-chosen selection, emphasizing some of those magical moments that seem only to emerge from improvising, usually off in the air and gone by the time anyone thinks to hit "record." Thankfully, the curators of the series thought ahead and had the tape rolling before the music got underway. As one might expect, there is a little inconsistency in the sound quality throughout the program, with older tapings sounding a bit more distant and hissy than later ones, suggesting a change in the recording rostrum along the way, or at least evolutionary engineering expertise. Several of the pieces are exceptionally striking, however, such as
John Bischoff'
Quarter Turn
; nothing on
is really long enough to wear out its welcome, and some pieces, such as
Shoko Hikage'
s koto improvisation, seem a little too short. Nevertheless,
is a solid snapshot of this interesting concert series and provides an enjoyable, ad hoc primer of the improvisation movement in the United States in the naughts.