Over the Ridge, by Richard Carr Violinist

Richard Carr improvising with Philip Blackburn live at The Henhouse

Over the Ridge

by Richard Carr Violinist

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1.	Processional 05:48 video	info	buy track
2.	Narrow Traverse 02:54	info	buy track
3.	Early Departure 06:18	info	buy track
4.	Slow, Calm, Deliberate 02:19	info	buy track
5.	Terrace Dancing 03:50	info	buy track
6.	Celestial Navigation 06:32	info	buy track
7.	Dawn Crossing 03:33	info	buy track
8.	Fulton Avenue Bus 03:56	info	buy track
9.	Funiculare 04:46	info	buy track
10.	Over the Ridge 04:39	info	buy track
11.	Wally Goes to Bali 05:40	info	buy track
12.	Westside Docks 02:20	info	buy track

about

For me, and every other musician I know, there was a lot of down time during 2020. This afforded me the opportunity to undertake the laborious task of writing notes on a page; a return to notated music after a couple of decades of producing mostly improvised and digitally composed works. After six months of being hermetically sealed in Covid lockdown, I had twelve pieces for string quartet; each of them about five minutes in length.

Scores in hand, I contacted the violist and composer Caleb Burhans (best known for his work with Alarm Will Sound) whose work I greatly admire. He responded enthusiastically and ended up being helpful in editing scores and parts, as well as assembling a quartet of young, hip, killer string players that included violinists Laura Lutzke, and Ravenna Lipchik, along with the extraordinary cellist, Clarice Jensen.

Although these folks aren’t a named and famous string quartet, they have played together with the composer Max Richter, and also with the ACME ensemble.

As I already knew, these guys weren’t strangers to the possibility of improvisation. As a result, I was able to join them in the group improvisations (Narrow Traverse; Slow, Calm, Deliberate; Dawn Crossing; and Westside Docks) that make up four of the tracks. The other eight tracks are from the group of twelve that were composed during the lockdown of 2020. You’ll have to wait for the next release to hear the other four.

The music in this album, be it written or improvised, was created by a process of emergent structure; like riding up to the ridge and deciding which way to go when you get to the other side. Structure came from process rather than the other way around. In the case of the eight written string quartets (Processional, Early Departure, Terrace Dancing, Celestial Navigation, Fulton Avenue Bus, Funiculare, Over the Ridge, and Wally Goes to Bali) I wrote each piece by culling just a bar or two out of hundreds that were left on the cutting room floor. This select group of notes would then become the cell from which each composition grew. There was never a pre-determined form only the chrysalis of the musical cell to guide the way. The music progresses in a manner that morphs slowly from one thing to the next.

Likewise, the improvisations each progressed and morphed from a single idea contributed by each member of the group. With the wrong group of musicians this process could be a lot like jumping off a cliff but with the right ones it’s more like engaging in a playful but erudite conversation. - RC

Richard Carr has been some kind of musician for last forty-some-odd years. This included work with big orchestras, and small ensembles. He played classical with the Boston Philharmonic, jazz with everyone from Milt Hinton, to Bucky Pizzarelli, to Karl Berger, and Fred Frith. He has recorded dozens of albums starting way back in the golden age of vinyl. He studied composition with Donald Martino, Jonathan Kramer and many others who are curious to see what’s over the ridge.

credits

released August 26, 2021

Laura Lutzke - violin 1
Ravenna Lipchik - violin 2
Caleb Burhans - viola
Clarice Jensen - cello

Richard Carr - composer, violin
(tracks 2, 3, 4, 7, 12)

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about

Richard Carr Violinist New York, New York

New York violinist with many credits in the jazz and classical areas. These original recordings are the mature voice of a seasoned musician.

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