Re/Sounding: An American Songbook for Piano
“The Great American Songbook” is the most popular and historically important American songs from the 1920s to the 1950s. From Broadway musicals to Hollywood movies, the “American Standards” include works by composers like Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers amongst many others. In “Re/Sounding: An American Songbook for Piano,” Jordan Nelson takes a selection of these classic tunes like “Paper Moon,” “My Funny Valentine,” “Over the Rainbow,” and “Tea for Two” and reinterprets, recontextualizes, and reimagines them through his unique musical voice. The piece is presented here in its first recording by composer/pianist Thomas Kotcheff — Core Artist of Piano Spheres and founding member of the virtuosic piano duo HOCKET. Like a 21st century remix on the most popular and enduring songs from the American Golden Age of songwriting, “Re/Sounding: An American Songbook for Piano” collides jazz standards, Hollywood musicals, and Tin Pan Alley with modernism, extended piano techniques, and artistic virtuosity all through the “magnificent pianism” (Los Angeles Times) of Thomas Kotcheff.
Songs of Insurrection
“Never stop or falter, always play loud. Stay together as long as you can, but if you get lost, stay lost. Do not try to find your way back into the fold.” That’s the instruction legendary composer Frederic Rzewski gave for his 1968 piece “Les Moutons de Panurge.” “Songs of Insurrection” (2016) is Rzewski’s sequal to his masterwork “The People United Will Never Be Defeated”. The piece is presented here in its first recording by composer/pianist Thomas Kotcheff – member of piano spheres and the virtuosic piano duo HOCKET – alongside essays reflecting on the current moment, and photographs from protests taking place across the US. With pieces including “Die Moorsoldaten” (The Song of the Deported) written by prisoners of the Börgermoor concentration camp, American civil rights hymn “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around,” and “Oh Bird, Oh Bird, Oh Roller” from the Korean Peasant Rebellion of Donghak, “Songs of Insurrection” transcends the world of contemporary music and takes you on a journey through uprising.
"Thomas Kotcheff handles the globe-spanning allusions of Songs of Insurrection with flair” —The New York Times
