On June 12, 2015 Ozivell "O.Z Bangaz" Ecford performed Frederic Rzewski's "Coming Together"and "Attica" with the Civic Orchestra and Citizen Musician Fellows of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Sympny Center in Chicago.
Frederic Rzewski's "Coming Together" is unquestionably one of the great Minimalist masterpieces, and this first recording of it is absolutely incredibly amazing. It's ridiculous that it's never been re-released.
"Coming Together" is an extremely simple piece. It's really nothing more than a short text read over a repetitive, fast sequence, much of which is played in unison. But the overall effect it creates is of a very slow build up of tension to an incredible climax after 19 minutes.
The text comes from a letter written by Sam Melville, who was an inmate at Attica prison, and was one of the leaders of the 1971 Attica riots, where Melville was killed.
The music starts with the piano playing fast rhythmic notes while most of the other instruments playing longer tones over this foundation. Gradually the other instruments start to play faster until they're all playing in a fast, tense unison.The performance was a huge success!
Todd Rosenburg, the main Photographer for the June 12, "Coming Together" event at Symphony Center, was gracious enough to give us photos from my performance. CLICK THE PHOTO LINK UP TOP TO SEE MORE PICS.
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