EFW Presents: Yuko Otomo (with Rob Brown & Daniel Carter)

Name: EFW Presents: Yuko Otomo (with Rob Brown & Daniel Carter)
Start: 2024-10-12T20:00:00-04:00
Location: Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center

Schedule

Sat Oct 12 2024 at 08:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center | Poughkeepsie, NY

"Yuko Otomo, a Japanese native who writes in English, has generated a largely ekphrastic oeuvre, one that finds drama in the phenomenology of art rather than its history: the strange play of light on a canvas in a museum, a found poem on the way to a Bruce Nauman retrospective, or her own transience in a world of English speakers. Her unique position allows her to capture art as it is lived and not as it is studied. Her written work defies category and displays a humble recognition of subjectivity, daring to be small and quiet in the presence of mammoth artworks and cities, as well as an uncommon creative confidence in dwelling at the border between language and the visual, while never shying away from their tensions...though best known as a poet, Otomo has an equal devotion to visual art, criticism, and translation that reveals an unbordered spirit, called to art."
– Greg Nissan, Asymptote
Elysium Furnace Works is excited to present in a rare Hudson Valley appearance the multi-disciplinary artist Yuko Otomo. A writer and visual artist whose work demonstrates remarkable range, sensitivity and perspicacity, Otomo, widow of the noted late free-jazz poet Steve Dalachinsky, has long been closely associated with the Downtown New York City musical avant-garde.
For this event, Otomo will be reading from her truly unique work, joined for the first time in performance by her friends and longtime associates in the Downtown scene: alto saxophonist Rob Brown and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter.
Yuko Otomo, Rob Brown and Daniel Carter will perform on Saturday, October 12* at 8 PM at the VBI Theatre of Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center, located at 12 Vassar St in Poughkeepsie, NY. Tickets are $15 in advance and $25 at the door — advance tickets are on sale at https://otomo.eventbrite.com/ (please note: advance sales end at midnight the night before the concert).
EFW's momentous 2024 season will also include:
November 16: AM / FM, VBI @ CHAC — this power duo of guitarist Ava Mendoza and violinist Gabby Fluke-Mogul synthesize a heady brew of avant jazz, blues and noise, radically upending experimental music(s) past, present, and future. Advance tickets on sale now at: https://amfm.eventbrite.com/
December 7: Harriet Tubman (Ross / Gibbs / Lewis), VBI @ CHAC — EFW closes out our monumental season with the fiery intensity of the long-running eclectic, electric collective Harriet Tubman, comprising the insanely talented, accomplished trio of guitarist Brandon Ross, bassist Melvin Gibbs and drummer JT Lewis, rounding out 2024 on a monstrously high, heavy note. Advance tickets on sale now at: https://harriettubman.eventbrite.com/
Biographies of Otomo, Brown and Carter follow below.
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A visual artist & a bilingual (Japanese/English) writer of Japanese origin, Yuko Otomo writes poetry, haiku, art criticism, travelogues & essays. Her publications include “Garden: Selected Haiku” (Beehive Press), “STUDY & Other Poems on Art” (Ugly Duckling Presse), “FROZEN HEATWAVE: a collaborative linked poem project with Steve Dalachinsky” (Luna Bisonte Prods), “Anonymous Landscape” (Lithic Press), “In Delacroix’s Garden: a collaborative book with Basil King” (Spuyten Duyvil) & the most recent “PINK” (Lithic Press). She lives in New York City.
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Alto saxophonist Rob Brown was born in Hampton, VA in 1962. He has been playing the saxophone since the age of 11. He moved to NY in 1984, and since then has been actively leading groups or working as a sideman with Matthew Shipp, Wiliiam Parker, Craig Taborn, Gerald Cleaver, Daniel Levin, Joe Morris, Whit Dickey. Others that Rob has performed and/or recorded with are Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Denis Charles, Bill Dixon, Butch Morris, Reggie Workman, Henry Grimes, Roy Campbell Jr., Hamid Drake and Fred Hopkins, as well as various dance groups, poets, and performance artists. He has toured Europe extensively. He is a 2001 CalArts/Alpert/Ucross Residency Prize winner and has received many Meet The Composer Fund grants. In 2006 Rob was awarded a Chamber Music America New Works grant.
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Daniel Carter is an American free jazz musician who plays saxophone, trumpet, and flute.
Carter has recorded and performed with many distinguished musicians, including William Parker, Federico Ughi, DJ Logic, The Negatones, Thurston Moore, Yo La Tengo, Soul-Junk, Anne Waldman, Cooper-Moore, Matthew Shipp and scientist/musician Matthew Putman among others. He is a member of the cooperative free jazz groups Test, Other Dimensions In Music, odon, Ghost Moth and Dissipated Face.
In 2007 the Pendu Sound compilation album Getting rid of the glue with Excepter and Daniel Carter was listed as number 70 in Thurston Moore's "Top 80 of 2006". In 2015 the New York Forward Festival was created to celebrate Carter's 70th birthday.
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Elysium Furnace Works is a cooperative project co-led by Mike Faloon and James Keepnews. EFW seeks to present the work of vanguard artists in settings as dedicated and uncompromising as the art itself, focusing primarily although not exclusively on live music performances in and around New York's vibrant Hudson Valley. Follow us on Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/elysiumfurnaceworks — and on Instagram @elysiumfurnaceworks.
* Please note different date from previous announcements.