Greg Kelley Solo
Greg Kelley/Matt Ingalls DuoGreg Kelley graduated from the Peabody Conservatory of Music in 1995 with a degree in trumpet performance. It was there that he first began exploring the variety of extended techniques available to the trumpet and their use in composition and improvisation. In mid 1995 Kelley moved back to his home state of Massachusetts and soon relocated to Boston where he quickly established himself as a new voice in the New Music, improvisation and experimental music scenes. This also began a period of intense collaboration w/ local composers, musicians and installation artists.
Kelley soon embarked on a series of tours to Japan, Europe and several cross country tours in the United States, including appearances at such venues as the Knitting Factory in New York, the Musique Action Festival in Vandouvre France, the Superfici Sonore Festival in Florence Italy, and the Seattle Improvised Music Festival. This soon led to collaborations w/ an international caste of musicians, composers, filmmakers, dancers and artists including work w/ legendary experimental music composer Pauline Oliveros, avant-garde jazz "genius" grant recipient Anthony Braxton, liminal improviser Eddie Prevost of the experimental music group AMM, new music pianist and Cage specialist Stephen Drury, nigmatic noise musician Keiji Haino, and a vibrating floor installation w/ sound artist Mark Bain, among many others.
In this time, Kelley also made over 20 recordings many of which appeared on year-end top ten lists in such magazines as Signal-To-Noise (USA), the Wire (UK), and Blow-Up (Italy). The recordings have appeared on such labels as Emanem (UK), Rossbin (Italy), Twisted Village, Freedom From, RRRecords, Intransitive, 9Winds, Leo (UK), Boxholder, Meniscus, and others.
Beginning in 2000, Kelley began a more intense focus on solo performances including compositions using the extended techniques he had developed for the trumpet. This led to the release of his much acclaimed CD 'Trumpet' on Meniscus Records. While this recording gained him much praise, it was also a controversial release: "Kelley's aptly named Trumpet seems to be at the core of a debate over the acceptable boundaries of what "music" might or mightn't be." -Scott Hreha, One Final Note. Kelley's visceral reappraisal of the function of his instrument and abstract structuralist approach caused both excitement and consternation. The follow-up to 'Trumpet,' 'If I Never Meet You in This Life, Let Me Feel the Lack' was Kelley's longest form composition to date, as single 40 minute piece for solo trumpet. After this release, Kelley embarked on a 10 date tour of new works for solo trumpet, which formed a song cycle based on the work of pop composer Tommy James. An unlikely source for Kelley's abstraction, these works used repetition and more overt use of melodic material.
The year 2003 will see multiple tours in the United States and France, including a series of concerts w/ soprano saxophonist Bhob Rainey, French new music percussionist Le Quan Ninh (Quatuor Helios), and dancer Yukiko Nakamura, as well as the release a recording of a new piece for solo trumpet 'That's the way I like it, baby, I don't wanna live forever.'
Cost: $10-20