Thomas Buckner (born 1941) is an American baritone vocalist specializing in the performance of contemporary classical music and improvised music. In his work, he utilizes a wide range of extended (non-traditional) vocal techniques.
Buckner also works as a concert promoter; in Berkeley, California, he founded the 1750 Arch Concerts, which presented over 100 musical events per year for eight years. He also founded the record label 1750 Arch Records, which released more than 50 LPs. Also in Berkeley, he co-led the 23-member Arch Ensemble with composer Robert Hughes. [1] [2] He operates the record label Mutable Music.
Buckner has performed with Roscoe Mitchell, Gerald Oshita, Phill Niblock, Borah Bergman, David Darling, Gustavo Aguilar, Wu Man, and Earl Howard. More than 70 composers have created works for him; these include Robert Ashley, Noah Creshevsky, Alvin Lucier, Annea Lockwood, Bun-Ching Lam, Morton Subotnick, Jerome Cooper, David Wessel, Tom Hamilton, Leroy Jenkins, Wadada Leo Smith.
Buckner is a grandson of International Business Machines founder Thomas J. Watson, Sr. In the early 1970s, while his uncle John N. Irwin, II served as the U.S. Ambassador to France, Buckner was one of approximately 500 left-leaning Americans on Richard Nixon's so-called "enemies list."
He grew up in Westchester County, New York, and has lived in New York City since 1983. His wife is the bharatanatyam dancer Kamala Cesar, whom he married in 1992. He is the brother of painter Walker Buckner and children's advocate Elizabeth Buckner.
Buckner is an alumnus of the Music Academy of the West, where he attended in 1970. [3]
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With Muhal Richard Abrams
With Jerome Cooper
With Roscoe Mitchell
Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any general rules, instead following the intuition of its performers. The term can refer to both a technique—employed by any musician in any genre—and as a recognizable genre of experimental music in its own right.
Roscoe Mitchell is an American composer, jazz instrumentalist, and educator, known for being "a technically superb – if idiosyncratic – saxophonist". The Penguin Guide to Jazz described him as "one of the key figures" in avant-garde jazz; All About Jazz stated in 2004 that he had been "at the forefront of modern music" for more than 35 years. Critic Jon Pareles in The New York Times has mentioned that Mitchell "qualifies as an iconoclast". In addition to his own work as a bandleader, Mitchell is known for cofounding the Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).
George Emanuel Lewis is an American composer, performer, and scholar of experimental music. He has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1971, when he joined the organization at the age of 19. He is renowned for his work as an improvising trombonist and considered a pioneer of computer music, which he began pursuing in the late 1970s; in the 1980s he created Voyager, an improvising software he has used in interactive performances. Lewis's many honors include a MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and his book A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music received the American Book Award. Lewis is the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music, Composition & Historical Musicology at Columbia University.
Leroy Jenkins was an American composer and violinist/violist.
Gerald Oshita (1942–1992) was an American musician, composer, and sound recordist.
Lovely Music is an American record label devoted to new American music. Based in New York City, the label was founded in 1978 by Mimi Johnson, an outgrowth of her nonprofit production company Performing Artservices Inc. It is one of the most important and longest running labels focusing exclusively on new music and has released over 100 recordings on LP, CD, and videocassette.
Robert Dick is a flutist, composer, teacher and author.
The Revolutionary Ensemble was a free jazz trio consisting of violinist Leroy Jenkins (1932–2007), bassist Sirone and percussionist/pianist Jerome Cooper (1946–2015). The group was active from 1970–1977, and reunited briefly in 2004. Musician George E. Lewis described the trio as "one of the signal groups of the period." Writer John Fordham stated that the group "was remarkable for its concentration on texture, tone colour and the then unclaimed territory between jazz and contemporary classical music." A DownBeat reviewer, writing in 1972, described them as "a unique, utterly contemporary unit of extraordinarily talented players who possess a world understanding of what 'organized sound' is all about."
Jerome Douglas Cooper was an American free jazz musician. In addition to trap drums, Cooper played balafon, chirimia and various electronic instruments, and referred to himself as a "multi-dimensional drummer," meaning that his playing involved "layers of sounds and rhythms". AllMusic reviewer Ron Wynn called him "A sparkling drummer and percussionist... An excellent accompanist". Another Allmusic reviewer stated that "in the truest sense this drummer is a magician, adept at transformation and the creation of sacred space".
Nonaah is a double album recorded in 1976-77 by Roscoe Mitchell. It was originally released on the Nessa label in 1977 and features solo, duo, trio and quartet performances by Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, Malachi Favors, Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis, Henry Threadgill, Joseph Jarman, and Wallace McMillan. The 2008 double CD reissue added five unreleased saxophone solos to the album.
The Visibility of Thought is an album of contemporary classical compositions by Muhal Richard Abrams performed by various ensembles which was released on the Mutable Music label in 2001. The album features performances by Abrams, Jon Deak, Joseph Kubera, Mark Feldman, Thomas Buckner, the string quartet ETHEL and Phillip Bush.
Susan Allen was an American harpist and music educator. She was particularly known for her world premieres of music for both the classical and electric harp by contemporary composers. She performed in a variety genres—classical, experimental music, jazz, and world music. For many years Allen was also Associate Dean of the Herb Alpert School of Music at California Institute of the Arts.
8 O'Clock: Two Improvisations is an album by American saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell and vocalist Thomas Buckner which was recorded in 2000 and released on Mutable Music the following year.
In Walked Buckner is an album by American saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell which was recorded in Chicago in 1998 and released on Delmark the following year. The album is dedicated to vocalist Thomas Buckner.
Numbers is an album by American jazz saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell, which was recorded in between 2003 and 2010 and released on the French RogueArt label.
Spectrum is a live album by pianist and composer Muhal Richard Abrams and saxophonist and composer Roscoe Mitchell. It was recorded at Philharmonic Hall in Ostrava, Czech Republic, and was released by Mutable Music in 2009. The album begins with an improvised duet by Abrams and Mitchell titled "Romu." This is followed by Mitchell's three-part "Non-Cognitive Aspects of the City" for baritone and orchestra, commissioned by Mutable Music, with a text by Joseph Jarman, and featuring singer Thomas Buckner with the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra. The album concludes with the Janáček Philharmonic's performance of Abrams's "Mergertone" for orchestra, commissioned by the Ostrava Center for New Music and premiered at the opening concert of the Ostrava Days 2007 festival. Both orchestral works were conducted by Petr Kotik.
In Concert: From There to Hear is a live solo percussion album by Jerome Cooper. It was recorded during 1995–1998 at concerts presented at Roulette and The Knitting Factory in New York City, and was released by Mutable Music in 2001.
Alone, Together, Apart is a live album by percussionist Jerome Cooper and vocalist Thomas Buckner. It was recorded in April 2002 at Lotus Music and Dance Studio in New York City, and was released by Mutable Music in 2003.
1750 Arch Records was an independent record label that focused on experimental and avant garde music, jazz, and classical music.
Robert Grove Hughes (1933–2022) was an American composer, conductor, bassoonist and music scholar based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was known for his wide-ranging artistic interests—extending to poetry, performance art and social commentary—and advocacy of contemporary, often experimental music. San Francisco Chronicle critic Joshua Kosman described Hughes as a visionary and "musical Zelig" who "played a key role in a vast range of ambitious and influential musical projects." In the 1960s, Hughes co-founded the long-running Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and co-founded and led the award-winning Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra. In subsequent decades he co-founded and led the Arch Ensemble for Experimental Music with baritone vocalist Thomas Buckner and co-directed the performance group MA FISH CO with his wife, artist Margaret Fisher.
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