It shouldn’t seem strange to say that William O. Smith, also
known as Bill Smith, composes chamber music, improvises in jazz
groups, explores extended techniques on his instrument (the clarinet),
and generally does what many musicians do these days: cross musical
borders at will.
Smith began bounding across musical genres over 60 years ago, back
when such genre hopping was greeted with suspicion. In a recent
interview, Smith remembered that “when I went to high school in the
1940s, jazz was a dirty word. You couldn’t play jazz in the practice
rooms.” But that didn’t matter; already inspired by seeing clarinetist
Benny Goodman at the San Francisco World’s Fair in 1939, Smith
played clarinet in various jazz groups and combos.
“Goodman not only inspired me as a jazz musician, but inspired me to
learn more about classical music,” says Smith, who fondly recalls the
recordings Goodman made of pieces by Mozart, Debussy (the difficult
Premiere Rhapsodie), and the formidable Hungarian composer
Béla Bartók. Urged to further his musical education,
Smith hit the road with a band, going east to New York. Once there, “I
gave my two weeks notice,” recounted Smith. “I had saved up $1,000,
which I anticipated would get me set up in New York to go to
Juilliard.”
After a stint at Juilliard, Smith came back west and studied at
Mills College with Darius Milhaud, the most famed member of Les
Six, a loose group of composers crucial to Parisian musical life in the
1920s. Milhaud adored the energy and vitality of jazz. At Mills, Smith
met Dave Brubeck and became a frequent collaborator with the
pianist both at live shows and on recordings.
In 1959, Smith heard the flutist Severino Gazzelloni play
Luciano Berio’s Sequenza I: “When he got to that part where the
flute plays two high notes at once—such control! I started
thinking, maybe the clarinet can do the same thing.” Shortly
thereafter, Smith began his pioneering work, composing Duo for
Clarinet and Tape at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music
Center, exploring how to play multiple clarinets simultaneously, and
cataloging the chirps, croaks, and other surprising tones possible on
the instrument.
Although Smith credits his pieces under one of two names—”I
use ‘Bill Smith’ for jazz and ‘William O. Smith’ for nonjazz
projects”—improvisation, composition, and experimentation cohabit
peacefully throughout Smith’s music, including in his latest work,
Space in the Heart, an opera with a libretto by Peter
Monaghan, one of the sages of Seattle jazz.
“Ever since I was a student,” explains Smith, “I wanted to write an
opera, like my teacher Darius Milhaud, who wrote
opéra-minutes, short operas in the grand tradition. I
wanted to write an opera in the jazz tradition.” In Space in the
Heart, three singers and an improvising group tell a tale of
planetary exploration complicated by love and jealousy. At an age when
most composers take it easy, Smith, at 81, keeps taking risks.
Smith presents and discusses his jazz opera Wed May 14, Jack
Straw Productions, 4261 Roosevelt Way NE, 634-0919, 7:30 pm,
free.
Thurs 5/8
COMMUNITY FOR NORMAL AND MENTAL HEALTH
Not a nonprofit org, but a volcanic quartet fronted by one of the
godfathers of freely improvised music in Seattle, Paul Hoskin. He’s
joined by two mainstays of the weekly jam session at the Blue Moon,
keyboardist Matt Norman and Ethan Cudaback on drums, as well as bassist
and longtime musical compadre David “Skip” Milford. Expect, in Hoskin’s
words, “a new lexicon of shapes and language.” Beacon Pub, 3057
Beacon Ave S, 726-0238, 8—10 pm, free.
Fri 5/9
LAKE UNION CIVIC ORCHESTRA
With a scrappy, can-do spirit, LUCO brings fun and adventure to the
warhorses of classical music. On the program: Richard Strauss’s mighty
Death and Transfiguration along with gems by Debussy, the
Nocturnes and the dreamy Prelude to the Afternoon of a
Faun. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, 652-4255, 7:30 pm,
$10/$15.
NEHIL + MARBLE, COREY FULLER
I’m infatuated with “Light along the edge of water,” Corey Fuller’s
contribution to Cotton, a compilation released last year by
Dragon’s Eye Recordings. Like much electronic music these days,
“Light…” drones, yet Fuller eschews rhythmic stasis with tones that
seem to twinkle randomly and then drift together into a distant,
glittering wall of chimes. Fuller opens for the Portland duo of Seth
Nehil and Matt Marble; both deftly explore the fringes and crevasses of
quiet sounds. Fourth-floor Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd
Center, 4649 Sunnyside Ave N, 8 pm, $5—$15 sliding-scale
donation.
Sat 5/10
JOVINO SANTOS NETO
Neto, a Brazilian pianist and flutist who has collaborated with
Sérgio Mendes and the legendary Hermeto Pascoal, celebrates the
release of his CD Alma do Nordeste (Adventure Music). Neto and
his quintet make festive music leavened with rhythms (samba, tango,
etc.) and instruments (melodica, shakers, woodblock, flutes,
tambourine) not usually associated with jazz. Tula’s, 2214 Second
Ave, 443-4221, 8:30 pm, $15.
Sun 5/11
JOSHUA ROMAN
The cellist duets with a slew of musicians, from clarinetist Laura
DeLuca of the Seattle Chamber Players to chanteuse Sarah Rudinoff.
Roman’s choice of repertory remains equally eclectic, encompassing
Handel, Joni Mitchell, Silk Road Project composer Zhou Long, and Derek
Berman. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, 800-838-3006, 7 pm,
$15—$20.
Mon 5/12
MUSIC OF REMEMBRANCE
MoR commemorate the release of their latest disc, For a Look or
a Touch (Naxos), by premiering Paul Schoenfield’s Ghetto
Songs. A song cycle for baritone, soprano, and narrator,
Ghetto Songs sets the Yiddish poetry of Mordecai Gebirtig, a
troubadour of the Krakow ghetto. Also, the Northwest Boychoir sings
Yiddish choral music performed in the Terezín concentration
camp. Works by David Stock, Erwin Schulhoff, and Egon Ledec round out
the program. Recital Hall at Benaroya, 200 University St, 365-7770,
7:30 pm, $36.
Wed 5/14
LADIES MUSICAL CLUB
Gail Perstein and Roberta Diesner play duos for English horn and
piano by Fauré, obscure oboe virtuoso Antonio Pasculli, and
Hindemith. Soprano Johanna Mastenbrook sings Schumann’s Frauenliebe
und Leben opus 42. Seattle Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave,
622-6882, 12:10 pm, free.
