Ned Rothenberg

In hundreds of solo concerts throughout Europe, North and South America, and Japan, composer-performer Ned Rothenberg has performed his amazingly original form of instrumental music. He also leads the ensembles Double Band, Power Lines and Sync and was a founding member of New Winds. As a collaborator he has worked with many innovative instrumentalists including guitarist Paul Dresher, pianist Yuji Takahashi, Sainkho Namchylak, Elliott Sharp, John Zorn, British saxophonist Evan Parker, and Fred Frith. Rothenberg generates a remarkable variety of new timbres through unique playing techniques including circular breathing allowing for extremely long melodic patterns, multiphonic chords, precise overtone control, elaborate rhythmic tonguing attacks, control of overlapping beat frequencies, combinations of the previous, and much more. His music evokes an emotional spectrum from humor to pathos, a feeling of rhapsodic melancholy to simple awe at encountering a sound never before experienced. On this videotape, he performs "Timestamp" for bass clarinet, and "Intimations" for alto saxophone. In his interview, Rothenberg discusses the exposing and channeling of emotions during performance, as well as playing different musics in varying situations and relating to the audience. Click here to view clip.