Hey all, since it doesn't look like we'll be getting out there any time soon, I thought I'd share some video from Ben Kono Group's most recent project: Voyages. This was a suite of compositions commissioned by Chamber Music America New Jazz Works and we premiered it at Jazz Forum in Tarrytown, and again at Greenwich House in NYC this past December. Inspired by the writings of my grandfather Juhei Kono it traces our family's transition from Japan to America and features my quintet augmented by some very special friends on strings. The first installment of these is called "Bata Kusai!!", a rather colorful phrase my grandfather used to describe his first taste of American food and culture when he was summoned over to work on a farm, and I wrote it to feature the amazing Sara Caswell on violin. Hope you enjoy!
Ben Kono Group premiere of "Bata Kusai!!" from "Voyages" suite, commissioned by Chamber Music America New Jazz Works Grant at Renee Weiler Concert Hall, NYC Dec.18, 2019.
Ben Kono, tenor saxophone and composition Pete McCann, guitar Mike Holober, piano Matt Clohesy, bass Jared Schonig, drums Sara Caswell, violin Meg Okura, violin Lois Martin, viola Jody Redhage Ferber, cello
Many thanks to Chamber Music Magazine for featuring my CMA grant project "Don't Blink" in their Fall 2020 issue, and to the musicians who have kept this project going over the years: Henry Hey, Pete McCann, Kermit Driscoll, Satoshi Takeishi, Mike Holober, Jared Schonig, and Matt Clohesy. Looking forward to a time when we can continue presenting this music live again!
I hope you are having an enjoyable summer! The family and I just returned from a truly inspiring tour of our national and state parks on the west coast for a long awaited getaway. Highlights included camping among the California redwood giants of Jedediah Smith State Park; wandering through Sahara-like sand dunes of Oregon’s coast; and hiking among the glaciers and marmots of Mt.Rainier in Washington. If you get a chance to do so, I highly recommend spending some time immersing yourself in nature away from home. It doesn’t have to be exotic, just far enough from the city so you can see the stars at night and hear the birds over the sound of trains and automobiles! Our country’s natural environment is a treasure that never ceases to inspire me, and now more than ever it’s crucial to remind ourselves why we need to take action and protect these special places.
This spring I had the pleasure of taking the Ben Kono Group to Joplin, Missouri and presenting our environmental jazz suite “Don’t Blink” as part of the revered Pro Musica Chamber Music series. I must admit that, during our drive from the airport in Arkansas to our hotel in Joplin, I was a bit apprehensive about the reception of our message as we passed mile after mile of fracking fields and gas refineries. As it turned out, not only was our performance well received, but there was an overwhelming positive response to our message concerning the fragility of our environment, and it seemed to strike a particular nerve with that community. Thanks to Bonnie Yetter for all the careful planning and warm hospitality given to us on our visit, she is a great advocate for the arts in Joplin! And of course thanks to Henry Hey, Pete McCann, Matt Clohesy and Ross Pederson for bringing their incredible musical expertise and positive energy to the gig. They are the best of the best!
If you happen to be on the east coast, we now present this same program at Music Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Falls Village, CT on Saturday August 5th at 6:30 as part of their Twilight Series performances. Music Mountain is the oldest summer chamber music festival in the country and has one of the finest sounding acoustic spaces around. Tickets are $30 for the concert only, or there is a pre-concert theme dinner option at Falls Village Inn for $70 if you want to make a night of it. If you are in the Berkshires area we would love to see you there! Visit dontblinkmusic.org for a preview of the music we will be playing.
In other news this summer, I spent June recording some amazing new music with the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble—our third album with this band; a new recording of wind ensemble music with Gotham Winds; a CD release concert for Korean jazz composer Hyeseon Hong; and, coming up in August, the debut recording of Japanese jazz composer Migiwa Miyajima and her most excellent jazz orchestra. Jazz and camping, what a great way to spend the summer!
This weekend was Earth Day and our family celebrated by planting trees on our street, pulling some junk out of the Hudson River, and celebrating nature with friends outside on a beautiful spring day. I also dabbled in some film production, and so I present to you a new music video for the Ben Kono Group’s upcoming release “Don’t Blink”. The piece is entitled “Passenger” and was written to commemorate the centenary passing of the last passenger pigeon over a hundred years ago. I hope you enjoy!
This coming weekend marks another opportunity to voice our appreciation and concern for the environment. In Washington DC and around the country this Saturday April 29th citizens will be coming together at the Peoples Climate March to voice their concerns over our global climate change. During this tumultuous period of environmental crisis it is more important than ever to voice our opposition to those who would undo the progress made to better our earth, and to draw attention to the effect our footprint has on the health of our planet.
Rather than heading to DC, however, I’m taking the Ben Kono Group to the midwest to do our part in spreading the word! I am very excited to be partnering with Pro Musica in Joplin, Missouri to present our environmental suite “Don’t Blink” this Saturday April 29th at Missouri Southern State University as part of their chamber music series. We will be presenting a masterclass open to the public at Corley Auditorium from 1-2pm, then the concert at 7:30pm. If you or anyone you know resides in the Joplin area and would be interested in attending, please pass along this information, we’d love to meet you!
If you don’t know about our project “Don’t Blink”, you can read all about it at www.dontblinkmusic.org. The work is a commentary on our relationship with the environment as seen through the lens of my own personal path towards environmental activism. It was commissioned by the Chamber Music America New Jazz Works Commissioning and Ensemble Development Grant, and you can preview the music and read the story on our website.
For those of you who can't travel to Joplin to hear us, we will be appearing later this summer at the Music Mountain Twilight Series in western Connecticut, and we will be releasing the complete recording soon via Bandcamp, iTunes, CD Baby and all your favorite music outlets, so visit www.benkono.com for updates!
I'm proud to be featured in a story that appeared in the Fall 2016 issue of Chamber Music Magazine: "Reflecting a Planet in Peril". Writer Nicole Loeffler-Gladstone produced a well-written piece based on interviews with chamber groups who reflect an ethos of environmental activism in their work, and the Ben Kono Group's recent project "Don't Blink" was well-represented. Thank you Nicole and all the featured groups for doing justice to a great cause! You can read the article in its' entirety here:
We are excited to present our showcase this evening and would love to see you there! The Ben Kono Group will be presenting excerpts from their 2013 Chamber Music America New Jazz Works commission DON"T BLINK.
FRIDAY JANUARY 8, 5:00PM WESTIN NEW YORK AT TIMES SQUARE MAJESTIC BALLROOM 5TH FLOOR
The Ben Kono Group is:
Ben Kono; woodwinds and compostion Pete McCann; guitar Mike Holober; piano Matt Clohesy; bass Satoshi Takeishi; drums
Please come by to listen, we would love to meet you and chat with you after the performance!
I am way past due sending out an update on all things musical. Lots going on this spring and summer (!) but I thought I would focus on an upcoming event: The Ben Kono Group will be a featured ensemble at the Bryant Park New Music Festival on June 15th from 4:30-10pm. This concert features works commissioned by Chamber Music America and will be the closing concert of it's 2015 season. We will be performing our 2013 Chamber Music America New Jazz Works commission “Don't Blink” and I'm excited to be playing along five other grantees, including two of my musical heroes Donny McCaslin and Don Byron, both of whom will be leading their own respective ensembles. The concert is free and open to all ages in one of the most beautiful settings in New York City, and I hope to see you there.
In other news, the BKG recorded our commission “Don't Blink” in February and will be doing some final mixing soon. I'm pretty stoked about how it sounds! Thanks to Pete, Henry, Kermit and Satoshi for the incredible playing, Paul Wickliff for getting great sounds and keeping the session moving, and to my brother Simon for capturing the moment on film. Here's a sneak preview of what's in store:
If you can't catch us in Bryant Park, perhaps you'll come hear us in a lovely garden concert at The Hopper House in Nyack, NY. We'll be playing there Thursday evening August 13th at 7:30pm at one of my favorite places to hear music, the home of iconic American artist Ed Hopper in my hometown of Nyack on the Hudson. It's a perfect place to bring family and friends and enjoy an evening outdoors.
Ed Palermo Big Band presents The Wizard of Zodd featuring Napoleon Murphy Brock. The ultimate mashup of Frank Zappa and Todd Rundgren wrapped up in a twisted pageant based on the Wizard of Oz. I've been a member of Ed's band for fifteen years—you won't want to miss this one!
June 10 at 8pm. Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn, NY
The John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble will be celebrating the release on Sunnyside Records of “Songs We Like a Lot”, the sequel to the Grammy-nominated album “Songs I Like a Lot”. We will also be performing at the Newport Jazz Festival July 31st if you happen to be attending.
June 25 at 7:30pm. Christ and St.Stephens Episcopal Church, 120 W.69th St., New York, NY
That's right: 27 years of cutting edge big band music premiers, the last fifteen of which I've been a proud participant. And unfortunately this will be the last one, so make sure to see this if you can. If you want to know more about the history of this incredibly influential workshop and it's future, you can visit this site and join in the conversation: https://www.facebook.com/groups/593463090756480/
Thank you for reading and I hope to see you at one of these events! If you have any comments drop me a line or visit benkono.com, would love to hear from you.
Whoo hoo! The Ben Kono Group had a great two days at Paul Wickliffe's studio in Hampton, NJ recording the complete suite "Don't Blink", commissioned by Chamber Music America: New Jazz Works Grant and funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The peaceful rural environment (including a family of deer!) stoked our creative energies and we have something we think you'll find very different and rewarding to listen to. Thanks to the band--Pete, Henry, Satoshi, and Kermit--for making the long hall, and to Paul for getting us great sounds. Special thanks to Henry for the three-flight walkup in the East Village with a newly restored vintage Fender Rhodes--the sound was worth it!
Please join us LIVE and LIVE STREAMED for our first appearance since December 2019! We will be presenting our 2018 Chamber Music America commission "Voyages" for jazz quintet and string quartet at ShapeShifter Lab in Brooklyn before going into the studio to record our work. I couldn't be more excited! "Voyages" is:
Ben Kono, woodwinds and composition
Pete McCann, guitar
Mike Holober, piano
Jared Schonig, drums
Matt Clohesy, bass
Sara Caswell, violin
Meg Okura, violin
Lois Martin, viola
Jody Redhage Ferber, cello
