Boil, Grind, Brew is a collage of sounds and moods from the process of making a cup of coffee using an electric kettle, burr grinder, and Chemex pour-over brewer. The text tells the legend of coffee's discovery by Kaldi and his dancing goats and then explains the process to brew the perfect cup. The music emulates the various moods I usually feel while waiting (patiently) for this cup including pensiveness, abrasiveness, impatience, and suspense.

Boil, Grind, Brew was written for the loadbang ensemble in Spring 2020 as part of a program in partnership with the Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance (KcEMA) and UMKC. This performance was recorded at Octaven Audio in New York City in December 2020.

Boil, Grind, Brew

Electric guitar, amplified strings, and percussion

Flesh Of My Flesh

Piano concerto commissioned by Keith Kirchoff. 
Open rehearsal recording of Midwest Chamber Ensemble and Keith Kirchoff, piano. 

Nicodemus: The Beds are Burning Again

ALBUM OUT FEBRUARY 24, 2017

Performed by the NYU Percussion Ensemble under the direction of Jonathan Haas with guest appearances by So Percussion, Bobby Previte’s new work Terminals Quartets celebrates the subtle, the powerful and the serene in modern percussion-based music. 

The piece is both a back story and a natural progression for Previte’s 2014 Cantaloupe release TERMINALS (Five Concertos for Percussion and Soloist). In that work, So Percussion played the role of a concerto orchestra behind soloists on harp, guitar, piano and saxophone; Terminals Quartets re-calibrates exclusively for percussion, and adds new music to create a work of vast space and melodic abstraction—an entirely new entity of percussive sound, with an eerie echo of its original source. 

As such, Terminals Quartets is also testament to the teaching power of music, with the recording having been beautifully captured by Paul Geluso in New York University’s James Dolan Studio, and featuring top percussion students from NYU’s premiere Steinhardt Music and Performing Arts Program.

Terminals Quartets

Bobby Previte – Terminal D [excerpt]

This piece has three primary motives which are in different meters. The motives are introduced one at a time at the outset of the piece before being juxtaposed (heard together). At various times you will hear 2 or 3 motives simultaneously; the sections in which this occurs conclude when the various "downbeats" of each motive finally occur in unison. I call this "metric phasing." At times this phasing technique is all there is to hear. One can follow a motive and all of its interactions with the other motives which create composite melodies and rhythms. At other times, the metric phasing serves as accompaniment to new melodic gestures. 

The middle section is improvisatory and the finale of the piece develops motives in a more traditional manner. Enjoy!

Performed by Nebular Blue

Nathan Brown, trombone
Rachael Rule, piano
Frank Nawrot, guitar

United Front, no. 2

BL@KLI$T's latest track from our upcoming album, BL@KWAVE.

Seth Davis and Jacob Frisbie (AKA Mr. Sandman and DI$CGOLF)

The Moment Youve Been Waiting For

Please contact me with score inquiries at slandismusic@gmail.com

Personnel

Zach Shemon, alto/tenor saxophone soloist
UMKC Musica Nova, Boris Vayner, Conductor

Virginia Backman, flute
Erik Hose, bass clarinet
Ashtin Johnson, violin
Aubrie Powell, double bass
Matt Anderson, percussion
Hao Yin, piano


Recorded and Produced by Jason Schueffler
Recorded May 4, 2017 UMKC White Hall


Program Notes

The graffiti tags and paintings of Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) inspire Cadenza II: Litanies of Samo and the final movement, BOOM!!! ...for Real! and feature the tenor saxophone. Spoken text, noise, rhythmic momentum, and improvisation evoke the frenetic nature of Basquiat's work. The final movement develops the energy of the cadenza, by adding a constant juxtaposition and layering of fragmented and disparate musical material, comprised of noise, improvisation, text, and hints of vernacular music genres. Rapid changes of texture, orchestration, volume, and temporality shape the dramatic arc.

Cadenza II. Litanies of Samo [attacca] III. BOOM!!! ...for Real!

Lament for alto sax and fixed media

Nicolas Lira, alto sax
Commissioned by A.J. Pratt

Lament (Nicolas Lira, Alto Sax)

Performed by newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, Concert I: Immaterial and Intangible (October 12, 2019). Kansas City, Missouri.

https://newear.org/

FAT SUNSET 2018

Ted King-Smith (b.1988) is a composer, educator, and saxophonist based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a composer he is interested in the combination of acoustic and electronic forces in music, and emphasizes virtuosity and improvisation in his works. Recent recognition for his music has come from The National Band Association, I Care if You Listen, the American Prize, and BMI. Ted’s music has been featured at numerous conferences and festivals as well as Late Night at National Sawdust, and WFMT and WKCR radio stations. He holds degrees from the Hartt School of Music, Washington State University, and the University of Missouri – Kansas City. Ted is a full-time instructor in Audio Engineering at the Milwaukee Area Technical College where he teaches courses in music technology and recording. He is also an active performer with the Mnemosyne Quartet, and founded the Kansas City Contemporary Music Festival in 2017 with the newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble.

Boil, Grind, Brew

Ted King-Smith

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