NY drummer Noonan's suite for astring quartet and drum set combines downtown jazz/rock and improv with classical music.

NY drummer Sean Noonan's suite for amplified/unamplified string quartet and drum set is a contemporary take on the Third Stream that draws upon diverse genres, incorporating jazz/rock, folklore, and storytelling, Neoclassical, American experimentalism (Henry Cowell, Conlon Nancarrow, John Zorn), and avant-garde improvised music.

Noonan approaches the string quartet as an extension of the drum set. He envisions his four limbs as a string quartet, developing compositional and improvisation concepts derived from his own musical language as a jazz drummer, such as 'improv canons' and improvising off the fragmented song of a child's toy sheep. At any particular moment, rock grooves might be locking with insistent string ostinatos, then morph into spiky counterpoint reminiscent of Bartok. Delicate-harsh four-part writing for the quartet is woven around Sean's eclectic, lyrical and organic style, solidifying the relationship between these two choirs.

The quartet consists of Tom Swafford and Patti Kilroy (violins), Leanne Darling (viola), and David West (cello).

The music also represents an original story by Noonan, an absurd, Beckett-influenced tale about an Irish gambler who one day finds himself immured inside a wall (excerpts of the story are included in the booklet).

Track Listing

• A Gambler's Hand
• Caught in the Act
• Lully
• Banshee Dance
• Thank You
• Ghost Quarters (improv canon)
• Triptych: A far, no silence; Forced Meatballs; A far, so afar
• I Feel the Clouds
• Courage Unleashed
• Monster of Solitude

Additional Details

Label: Songlines

Genre: Jazz

Run Time: 52 mins

Release Date: 08/14/12

UPC: 774355159729