简介： by Michael G. NastosCreative improvising saxophonist Blaise Siwula was born February 19, 1950 in Detroit, Michigan, growing up in a working 更多>
by Michael G. NastosCreative improvising saxophonist Blaise Siwula was born February 19, 1950 in Detroit, Michigan, growing up in a working/middle class black neighborhood. His next-door resident practiced saxophone in the afternoon and occasionally allowed him inside to watch him play. Involved with the arts for all of his life, he began studying the alto sax at the age of 14 playing in the middle school concert band. Hearing John Coltrane's LP Om in 1969, he felt compelled to take the tenor saxophone and make his voice heard on it. Big influences on Siwula were hearing Art Pepper in San Francisco, as well as Ornette Coleman, Sonny Stitt, Archie Shepp, Pharaoh Sanders, Sun Ra, Blue Mitchell, Elvin Jones and Miles Davis in memorable live performances around the Detroit area in the early 70's. Cecil Taylor's recordings with Jimmy Lyons were inspirational in a later period. The Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival in 1972, and performances by Ravi Shankar and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra were also telling. Off to college off-and-on for an extended period from 1968-1980, he studied theory and composition at Wayne State University, but earned a B.F.A. Siwula's first personal encounters with jazz musicians was around 1971 while living in a hotel near the downtown campus of Wayne State. Drummer Doc Watson had been hanging while living there and returned to school to study composition. He and Siwula spent evenings talking about music, art and Charlie Parker. Then the saxophonist got married, moved to San Francisco and started playing in coffee houses playing free improvised music and writing poetry. He was influenced by Spanish Civil War poets like Miguel Hernandez and Federico Garcia Lorca, French poets Baudelaire and Rimbaud, beat poet Gregory Corso, Hart Crane and W.B. Yeats. After four years in Northern California he came back to Detroit, then headed for Europe in 1989 working and traveling as a street musician for three months, then returned to the States settling in New York City. After periodic explorations of drama, poetry, architecture and visual art, and quite unable to secure a recording contract initially, Siwula made his music available via independently produced cassette tapes. Since then, the self-determining Siwula has been actively involved with the Metro-New York improvisation scene, including working with Amica Bunker, the Improvisers Collective and most prominently the Citizens Ontological Music Agenda series. Siwula had initially booked shows with Bunker in 1991-92, C.O.M.A. was created, and formally staged diversified concerts centered in free music on a continual basis since March 1998. Every Sunday, some type of improvised music assembly is presented, with an open forum session after. Once a year, C.O.M.A. produces a benefit/festival where over a hundred musicians gather and make music on all the floors, roof and garden of their venue. During the decade of the 2000's, Siwula as a spontaneous composer has incorporated traditional musical scoring techniques with visual/graphic and performance oriented presentations. Primarily an alto saxophonist, he plays a number of saxophones, clarinets, flutes, percussion and string instruments, and computer altered sound files as background for improvisation. Among his many collaborations; Doug Walker's Alien Planetscapes, Cecil Taylor's Ptonagas, William Hooker's ensembles, Judy Dunaway's Balloon Trio, Dialing Privileges with Dom Minasi and John Bollinger, Ken Simon, Karen Borca, Jackson Krall, William Parker, Mike Khoury, Eyal Maoz, Jeff Platz, Joseph Scianni, Adam Lane, Carsten Radtke, Peter Kowald, Perry Robinson, Newman Taylor Baker, John Voigt, Wilber Morris, Joseph Daly, Vincent Chancey, Theo Jorgesmann, Michael Zerang, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Rashid Bakr, Tatsuya Nakatani, Dominic Duval, Jay Rosen, Lukas Ligeti, Sarah Weaver, James Ilgenfritz, Fala Mariam, Ernesto Rodrigues, Hilliard Greene, Joe McPhee, Daniel Carter, Bern Nix, Syd Smart, Brian Groder, Jordon Schranz, Ernesto Diaz-Infante, Matt Sullivan, Bruce Gremo, Tan Dun, Maria De Alvear, Vattel Cherry and Jeff Arnal.
