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Lisle Ellis, bass, electronics, sound design
Pamela Z, voice and electronics
Holly Hofmann, flutes
Oliver Lake, saxophones
George Lewis, trombone
Mike Wofford, piano
Susie Ibarra, drums and percussion

Liner Notes

Jimmy Best on his back to the sucker punch of his childhood files was a graffiti tag that was not hard to miss if you spent any time wandering the streets of lower Manhattan in the late 1970's. This quote refers to the systematic destruction of the lives of young men of color by racist policies of justice and imprisonment. The cryptic tag's author was SAMO, aka Jean-Michel Basquiat, who was to take a step beyond enigmatic inner city wall poetry to smote the contemporary art world with a mighty knockout punch.

During my student days of that same time in New York the graffiti of SAMO was of little consequence to me. I was pursuing my music studies yet I also felt a strong connection to visual art; I always carried a book or pad with me for drawing and writing, but it would not be until twenty years later that I would begin to explore my own aspirations as painter.

By the late 1990's I was feeling the tug of painting like an irresistible gravity and it was an important turning point. I did something that would have been inconceivable to me at any other time, I took up painting almost to the total exclusion of music. As it turned out, my painting activity led me back to music and to something new: electronic music.

Through out this phase of painting and electronic exploration I had with me a constant companion: the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat. I found we shared certain artistic sensibilities such as recognizing that the vision to break new ground was a result, and a continuation, of the work of others who had come before. That, along with a distinct sociopolitical attitude, was the synthesis I had always searched for in art. JMB's fearless pursuit of his ideals was a true source of inspiration.

Conceived as a gesture of respect and gratitude to JMB I began composing the Sucker Punch Requiem shortly after relocating to New York from California in 2005 and completed it eighteen months later. Much like JMB may have begun a painting by perusing a favorite source such as Gray's Anatomy, I started by researching the requiem form historically and discovered a number of variations used by composers throughout history. However, in the interest of having the simplest possible structure as a starting point, I settled on the traditional six part "mass for the dead" of the Roman Catholic Church. I wrote themes for each of the parts and then began to do what I felt Basquiat would have done if he had been constructing and deconstructing a painting. I densely overwrote some parts (so much so that we did not get it all recorded) in a manner similar to how he would paint, layering layer upon layer. Then, still following his example, I removed some layers to expose sonic images and overlapping musical shapes . . . inventing, discarding, retrieving, copying and reusing musical gestures and ideas.

I only hope that Sucker Punch Requiem, unrecognizable from its earliest incarnation, captures the spirit of Basquiat.

Perhaps, you the listener will find that quality in this music that Basquiat was purported to say existed in his own music and painting, that it was at once "incomplete, abrasive and yet oddly beautiful."

Biographies

Lisle Ellis is a multifaceted creator whose work reflects his interests in music, visual art, computers/technology, and community. As a composer and improvisor-bassist his oeuvre spans three decades and two countries and has brought him international recognition as an artist with an exceptional vision. Ellis's distinct instrumental voice has been heard in concerts in the company of legends of the avant-garde such as Paul Bley, Peter Broetzmann, Andrew Cyrille, and Joe Mcphee, and on more than 40 recordings for international labels such as Black Saint, DIW, and Hat Art, and New World. Currently, Ellis's principal interest is in developing an electro-acoustic architecture he calls string-circuitry confluence; he continues projects with his long standing trio with Larry Ochs and Donald Robinson, What We Live,; Di Terra, an Italian based trio with Alberto Braida and Fabrizio Spera; and duos with pianists Paul Plimley and Mike Wofford.

www.lisleellis.com
www.profile.myspace.com/lisleellis

Pamela Z is a composer/performer who makes solo works combining a wide range of vocal techniques with electronic processing, sampled sounds, and The BodySynthª gesture controller. She has also composed scores for dance, film, and new music chamber ensembles. Her audio works have been presented in exhibitions at the Whitney in NY and the Dišzesanmueum in Cologne. She has toured throughout the US, Europe, and Japan in concerts and festivals including Bang on a Can, the Japan Interlink Festival, Other Minds, and the Venice Biennale. Her numerous awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Creative Capital Fund, the CalArts Alpert Award, the ASCAP Award, and the NEA/JUSFC Fellowship.

www.pamelaz.com

Holly Hofmann "One of the most accomplished jazz flutists in the U.S., she has single-handedly destroyed the stereotype of the delicate female flutist, thanks to her muscular attack and improvisational abandon." (L.A. Times) Since receiving two degrees in music from Cleveland Institute of Music and University of Northern Colorado, Holly now makes her home in San Diego, California where she is the Music Director for several series and festivals. She has gained international notice for her work in jazz with the likes of Ray Brown, Kenny Barron, Cedar Walton, and Mike Wofford to name a few. She has eleven critically acclaimed recordings as a leader and currently tours with her quartet and quintet with string orchestra.

www.hollyhofmann.com

Oliver Lake is a renaissance man who paints, composes and performs and views it all as parts of the same whole. Lake attributes much of his diverse array of musical styles to his experience with the Black Artists Group (BAG), the legendary St. Louis collective he co-founded over 35 years ago. He also cofounded the World Saxophone Quartet with Hemphill, Hamiet Bluiett and David Murray in 1977. A recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship. Other commissions received include Library of Congress, the Rockefeller Foundation ASCAP, the Int. Assoc. for Jazz Education, McKim Foundation, Mary Flagler Cary Trust and the Lila Wallace Arts Partners Program.

www.passinthru.org
www.oliverlake.net

George E. Lewis, improvisor-trombonist, composer and computer/installation artist, is the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music at Columbia University. The recipient of a MacArthur "genius" Fellowship in 2002, a Cal Arts/Alpert Award in the Arts in 1999, and numerous fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Lewis studied composition with Muhal Richard Abrams at the AACM School of Music, and trombone with Dean Hey. He has explored electronic and computer music, computer-based multimedia installations, text-sound works, and notated forms. A member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1971, Lewis's work as composer, improvisor, performer and interpreter is documented on more than 120 recordings.

www.music.columbia.edu/people/bios/lewis-george

Mike Wofford "A jazz pianist who makes equal use of brain, heart and muscle." (JazzTimes) He has a long list of associations with such widely diverse artists as Harry "Sweets" Edison, Zoot Sims, Charlie Haden, Shelly Manne, Benny Golson, Vinnie Golia and George Lewis. Wofford is also known for his creative work as pianist and Music Director for the late Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald and for his composing and arranging for many years in Los Angeles. Now residing in San Diego, he primarily records and performs with his own trio, as well as in a duo and quartet with his wife, flutist Holly Hofmann.

www.mikewofford.com

Susie Ibarra, percussionist, improviser and composer, Ibarra performs both as a soloist and a collaborator. One of her passionate interests is the folkloric and indigenous music of the Philippines which influences her contemporary work. Several recent composition and performances include "Pintados Dream/The Painted's Dream" music for orchestra and drums commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, "Drum Sketches," "These Trees That Speak" commissioned for Ethos Percussion, "Dancesteps" for solo piano, "Black and White" solo violin and field recordings, "Dream Etudes" music for Susie Ibarra Trio, and "Paradiso" music for Electric Kulintang. She received her music diploma from Mannes College of Music, B.A. from Goddard College, and has studied drumset with Milford Graves, Vernel Fournier and Buster Smith and Philippine Kulintang with Danongan Kalanduyan.

www.susieibarra.com