The Squid's Ear Magazine


Alcorn, Susan / Patrick Holmes / Ryan Sawyer: From Union Pool (Relative Pitch)

Taking the dual role of soaring guitar lines and savagely deep string foundations, Susan Alcorn joins clarinetist Patrick Holmes and drummer Ryan Sawyer for this invigorating 2022 concert at Union Pool in Brooklyn, their unique instrumentation providing clarity to each performer's contribution through their dynamic and often wildly energetic collective interplay.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Susan Alcorn-pedal steel guitar

Patrick Holmes-clarinet

Ryan Sawyer-drums


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 5904224871260

Label: Relative Pitch
Catalog ID: RPR1160
Squidco Product Code: 32988

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2023
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at Union Pool, in Brooklyn, New York, on March 20th, 2022, by H. Robert Escurel.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"This adventurous set catches lightning in a bottle. They hit the ground running and never let up. Susan Alcorn's pedal steel soloing is phenomenal while Ryan Sawyer drives the trio forward as Patrick Holmes' clarinet keeps pace with both of them. A breathless set of high energy free improvisation at its best."-Relative Pitch



"One of the world's premiere exponents of her instrument, Susan Alcorn has taken the pedal steel guitar far beyond its traditional role in country music. Having first paid her dues in Texas country & western bands, she began to expand the vocabulary of her instrument through her study of 20th century classical music, visionary jazz, and world musics. Though known as for her solo work, she has collaborated with numerous artists including Pauline Oliveros, Chris Cutler, the London Improvisors Orchestra, the Glasgow Improvisors Orchestra, Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, Nate Wooley, Ingrid Laubrock and Leila Bourdreuil, George Burtm Evan Parker, Michael Formanek, Zane Campbell, and Mary Halvorson among others. The UK Guardian writes, "As an improvisor and composer, Alcorn has proven to be visionary. Her pieces reveal the complexity of her instrument and her musical experience while never straying from a very direct, intense, and personal musical expression."-Andrea Aguzzi, Neuguitars



This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Get additional information at Neuguitars

Artist Biographies

"Susan Alcorn (born 1953) is an American composer, improvisor, and pedal steel guitarist. Having started out playing guitar at the age of twelve, she quickly immersed herself in folk music, blues, and the pop music of the 1960s. A chance encounter with blues musician Muddy Waters steered her towards playing slide guitar. By the time she was twenty-one, she had immersed herself in the pedal steel guitar, playing in country and western swing bands in Texas.

Soon, she began to combine the techniques of country-western pedal steel with her own extended techniques to form a personal style influenced by free jazz, avant-garde classical music, Indian ragas, Indigenous traditions, and various folk musics of the world. By the early 1990s her music began to show an influence of the holistic and feminist "deep listening" philosophies of Pauline Oliveros.

Though mostly a solo performer, Alcorn has collaborated with numerous artists including Pauline Oliveros, Eugene Chadbourne, Peter Kowald, Chris Cutler, Joe Giardullo, Caroline Kraabel, Earl Howard, Le Quan Ninh, Sean Meehan, Joe McPhee, LaDonna Smith, Mike Cooper, Walter Daniels, Ellen Fullman, Jandek, George Burt, Janel Leppin, Michael Formanek, Ellery Eskelin, Fred Frith, Maggie Nicols, Evan Parker, Johanna Varner, Zane Campbell and Mary Halvorson."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Alcorn)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Patrick Holmes. There are few people in the world of New York music and night life whom I adore as much as Patrick Holmes. Originally from Austin, TX he (like me) started on electric bass as a teenager, switching over to the clarinet at age 24. He's been in New York for the past twenty years, working diligently to refine a voice and approach to the clarinet that is uniquely his own. He has studied with Connie Crothers and Sabir Mateen and he has performed with Ryan Sawyer, Daniel Carter, Masami Tomihisa, Axel Dörner and many many more. Whether it's about clarinets, jazz, booze, food, metal or just plain shit, Patrick is one of my favorite people to talk to and I'm really happy that this conversation finally happened for the podcast."

-5049 Records (http://www.5049records.com/podcast/patrick-holmes)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Ryan Sawyer is a drummer and percussionist from the USA. He has played with several artists and bands like, Tv On The Radio, At The Drive-In, Scarlet Johanson, Massive Attack, Boredoms (77 & 88 Boadrum), The Mekons, Thurston Moore, among others.He currently is playing with, Stars Like Fleas, Tall Firs, and Eye Contact."

-Discogs (https://www.discogs.com/artist/300910-Ryan-Sawyer)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Benn 9:44

2. Naar 14:07

3. Nett 16:52

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
Collective Free Improvsation
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Trio Recordings
Guitarists, &c.
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
New in Improvised Music

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