My new group premiers this year in Paradox!

January 15 is the official premier of my new group RIOT in Paradox Tilburg during the Fontys Academy of Music & Performing Arts Nederlands Saxofoon Festival with saxophonist/clarinettist/composer Maarten Ornstein and percussionist/composer Bart de Vrees. We are in the process of writing new music as we speak. https://paradoxtilburg.nl/programma/riot-paradox-nls-saxofoonfestival/ It's a very exciting time in which I am rerouting my career to new paths and exploring the edges of styles. ‘RIOT’ is the final concert of the Netherlands Saxophone Festival organized by the AMPA Fontys Conservatory. Saxophonist Ties Mellema, professor of saxophone at AMPA, put together a program that marks the start of a new phase in his career. He will do this together with his new group ‘RIOT’ with saxophonist/clarinettist/composer Maarten Ornstein, percussionist/composer Bart de Vrees and students of the AMPA Conservatory in Tilburg. ‘RIOT’ will premier in jazz club Paradox in Tilburg. Ties, Maarten en Bart are members of the groundbreaking musicians collective ‘Splendor’ in Amsterdam. But their past goes back years. Ties and Bart played together in the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Maarten composed many important solo and ensemble works for Ties. In the mean time the three artists developed themselves, each on their own path. Ties decided to bring them together in a new group called ‘RIOT’ that unites their musical backgrounds into one. In Paradox Tilburg ‘RIOT’ will play new pieces that the trio made together inspired by music of Squarepusher, Boards Of Canada, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Eddie Harris, Johann Sebastian Bach, Aphex Twin, John Coltrane, Claude Debussy, and many others. An evening with soundscapes, sheets of sound, beats, improvisation and above all, everything in between.

John Coltrane

Last Friday I went to Splendor Concerthall with somewhat mixed feelings. Last year I needed music that stimulated me to keep playing, because one of the medicine I took could harm my nerves and thus damage the motorics in my fingers. I found the music of John Coltrane. Back then I thought it was a good idea to try this out on a stage. And so we did, Rembrandt Frerichs, Vincent Planjer, Jos Machtel and me. Not only risking the harsh criticism of our own artistic hearts, but also that of colleagues and jazz lovers. Playing the notes of John Coltrane is not jazz... In the end we didn't and don't care. My mixed feelings were gone at the end of the concert. Everything came together. Music is music, and the music of John Coltrane is divine, magnificent.... And needs to be heard on a stage. We are the only ones who are doing this, and we will continue.

Listen here why:

https://soundcloud.com/info-1446/transition-ties-mellema-rembrandt-jos-machtel-vinsent

Quite proud of this.

https://www.facebook.com/tiesmellema/posts/10155193992789688

Music: advice needed!

Hey guys,

This year I am hard resetting my body. One of the things that is going on is that I am rediscovering music. I started watching Netflix last year but i got fed up with it in November. Then I started listening to music again. Since five years until November I hardly listened to music. In November I got myself a Spotify subscription and have been discovering all kinds of new (new for me) music. But also music that I knew with new ears. It's been an adventure. 

I started with John Coltrane (https://open.spotify.com/album/4vIJFprkZ7vyN6nhcBgQmG), Sonny Rollins (https://open.spotify.com/album/4lZ0JM0RUD4jddNbD63O7b) and Hank Mobley (https://open.spotify.com/album/2prCz4HRmedo4uyhAtXX9Q). 

A whole new world opened to me. So it seemed. I always enjoyed the energy of these saxophonists of course. But their energy seemed to hit a different spot now. It seemed to go deeper. 

Now I have been listening to Jürg Frey (https://open.spotify.com/album/7tU4Y1ak1TVAv6Rdr7zE9H) 

and David Lang ((https://open.spotify.com/album/0tvI3qVV6BYbj12cGnNArr).

And this is me new for me. I've always listened a bit to minimal music. I've always enjoyed Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich (https://open.spotify.com/album/3lNs2UnRog90lU3dusjkWK) but now there is more going on. My taste for minimal music seems to be coming from a yearning for tranquility and quietness.  And this is very new to me. It's new that musical taste seems to be dependent on my mood and on what I need spiritually. And I have to get used to the fact that my taste can be very different at the end of the day than when i get up. It always was  a too 19th century notion to me that I need to be in a certain mood for a certain type of music. Good music is good music, right? No!

A friend told me some months ago that there is only one type of music: good music. I do not agree (today...). There is music that I connect with on a certain moment, depending on my emotional state. And sometimes it's not the best music. But it's music that hits a certain spot in me. 

My question for you is: can you advise me any music to listen to based on my current preference for the minimal music of Jürg Frey and David Lang?

Please post them in the comments. 

Thanks!

Ties