New Music Ensemble, Part 2 - The Performers

These are the performer biographies which were included as an insert with the New Music Ensemble's self-titled first LP. Be sure to check out the first post in this series for some useful background info, and to see the liner notes from the first LP.

Billie Alexander (Pat Woodbury)
with John Cage, 1969.
Credit: Charles Amirkhanian

Billie Alexander relates. Her thoughtful improvisations show an unique sense of timing and tasteful restraint. Her music is subtly intense. Her vocal techniques are unorthodox and include a wide range of strangely beautiful sounds, directly attributable to her extensive jazz background rooted in classical training. Oddly, this imaginative use of her voice is extremely disturbing to certain elements of our audience. Perhaps such an original conception of relating the human voice to instrumental voices upsets some ironclad preconceptions of what a singer should or should not do. That is her uniqueness.

Larry Austin drives. His energy is contagious. His imagination is rampant. His flügelhorn and trumpet playing can force a new path for the improvisation or, just as suddenly, deftly suggest a new, but logically evolved, sound context for the group. In short, he asserts the group's personality. He is a well-known composer, a conductor, and an Associate Professor of Music at the University of California, Davis. His works have been performed by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, Gunther Schuller in his 20th Century Innovations Series at Carnegie Recital Hall, by the Hartt Chamber Players, by the Composers' Forums of Chicago and San Francisco, and by various other groups in universities throughout the United States. He is currently a fellow of the Institute for Creative Arts, residing in Rome. His published works include Improvisations for Orchestra and Jazz Soloists (MJQ Music), Piano Variations (MJQ), A Broken Consort for chamber ensemble (MJQ), and In Memoriam J.F.K. (Berkeley Publishing Co.). He is affiliated with Broadcast Music, Inc.

Jon Gibson explodes. His outright abandonment of conventional sound concepts, particularly on the soprano sax, pushes the Ensemble into new and occasionally frightening contexts. He is primitive, but at the same time distinctly sophisticated. This is especially surprising considering the fact that he is the youngest member of the Ensemble. He is a graduate student at San Francisco State College, a composer, and a professional jazz musician.

Wayne Johnson.
Credit: moosack.net

Wayne Johnson sings. He is consistently lyric and often melancholy. A performer might in the heat of an improvisation "pull back" for momentary reflection on the piece as it moves. It is then that one senses the strength of Wayne's web of line within the piece. Not incidental to this concept is his remarkable control of freakishly high overtones on the bass clarinet. Wayne is a graduate of Sacramento State College, a composer, and a professional jazz musician.

Stanley Lunetta colors. He is ever alert to the proper aura of sound. Unlike so many percussionists, he listens and anticipates. The great potential power and the wide variety of color of his instruments are employed creatively and persuasively. His palette of sounds includes four clay dumbegs of differing sizes and tone, tuned cowbells, temple blocks, cymbals, a xylo-marimba, and a vibraphone. He is a composer, a graduate student at the University of California, Davis, and a virtuoso percussionist both in jazz and classical fields.

Richard Swift shapes. He articulates the improvisations, often by a forceful piano cluster which washes away previous material or by a wry series of pitches which subtly imply a new context. He is the entrepreneur of taste. He senses the diverse elements of the piece, pulls them together and gives them new meaning, new cohesiveness. He is a noted composer, a conductor, a teacher, and Chairman of the Department of Music at the University of California, Davis. His stature as a composer is recognized widely. In 1959 and again in 1960 he was invited to participate in the Princeton Institute for Advanced Musical Studies. An article about his Piano Concerto was published in a recent issue of "Perspectives of New Music". His works have been performed by Composers' Forums, I.S.C.M. chapters, and universities in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. His works are listed with and available from the American Composers Alliance (BMI).

Arthur Woodbury wails. He is the most fluent improviser in the Ensemble and the most virtuosic. His flurries of notes create glorious havoc and spark others to long series of fast changing pitches. His playing demands extremes in contrast. He is an extraordinary alto saxophonist, bassoonist, flutist, as well as jazz pianist. He is a staff member of the Department of Music at the University of California, Davis, as well as a professional performer in both jazz and classical fields.

This wide diversity of styles and concepts, this seemingly incongruous group of improvisers, creates music which continues to please each of the participants completely. We hope it pleases the listener as well.

 - - Notes by Larry Austin

NME RECORDS
1135 E. 8th Street

Davis, California