Karen Borca (born September 5, 1948 in
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The county seat of Brown County, it is at the head of Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It is above sea lev ...
) is an American
avant-garde jazz and
free jazz bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuo ...
ist.
Early life and education
Borca studied music at the
University of Wisconsin with John Barrows and
Arthur Weisberg
Arthur Weisberg (April 4, 1931 – January 17, 2009) was an American clarinetist, bassoonist, conductor, composer and author.
Biography
Weisberg was born in New York City. He attended The High School of Music & Art, majoring in bassoon and s ...
, graduating in 1971.
While at the University of Wisconsin, she met
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Percival Taylor (March 25, 1929April 5, 2018) was an American pianist and poet.
Taylor was classically trained and was one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an energetic, physical approach, resulting in complex ...
, who taught at the university during the 1970/1971 academic year. Borca studied with Taylor, played in his
big bands
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...
, ensembles, and the Cecil Taylor Unit, and was his assistant while he worked in the Black Music Program at
Antioch College in
Yellow Springs, Ohio.
She was an assistant to Taylor's longtime collaborator, saxophonist
Jimmy Lyons, while he was
artist-in-residence
Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...
at
Bennington College in
Bennington, Vermont in 1974. Borca and Lyons got married, and she played in his ensemble until he died in 1986.
Career
In 1976, Borca performed in a production of
Adrienne Kennedy's ''
A Rat's'' ''
Mass'' directed by
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Percival Taylor (March 25, 1929April 5, 2018) was an American pianist and poet.
Taylor was classically trained and was one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an energetic, physical approach, resulting in complex ...
at
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, the theatre began in the ...
in the
East Village of Manhattan. Musicians
Rashid Bakr,
Andy Bey
Andrew W. Bey (born October 28, 1939) is an American jazz singer and pianist. Bey has a wide vocal range, with a four-octave baritone voice.
Raised in Newark, New Jersey,Adler, David R"Andy Bey" ''JazzTimes'', April 25, 2019. Accessed December ...
,
David S. Ware,
Raphe Malik, and Lyons also performed in the production. Taylor's production combined the original script with a chorus of orchestrated voices used as instruments.
[La MaMa Archives Digital Collections]
"Production: ''Rat's Mass, A'' (1976)". Accessed August 8, 2018.
Borca has performed with her own ensembles at the
Newport Jazz Festival New York City Salute to Women in Jazz in 1978 and 1979, Soundscape,
Vision Festival
The Vision Festival is the world's premier festival of experimental music (typically free jazz/ avant-garde jazz), art, film and dance, held annually in May/June on the Lower East Side of New York City from 1996 to 2011, in Brooklyn from 2012-201 ...
, and
Jazz Fest Berlin, among many other festivals and concerts. She has performed in the United States and internationally, with musicians such as
William Parker,
Bill Dixon
William Robert “Bill” Dixon (October 5, 1925 – June 16, 2010) was an American composer, improviser, visual artist, activist, and educator. Dixon was one of the seminal figures in free jazz and late twentieth-century contemporary music. Hi ...
,
Butch Morris
Lawrence Douglas "Butch" Morris (February 10, 1947 – January 29, 2013) was an American cornetist, composer and conductor. He was known for pioneering his structural improvisation method, ''Conduction'', which he utilized on many recordings.
B ...
,
Marco Eneidi,
Joel Futterman,
Sonny Simmons,
Alan Silva, and
Jackson Krall
''Jackson Krall Jr.'' (born October 12, 1949) is a drum maker.
Born in Detroit, through the years Jackson's instruments have found their way into the hands of the world's greatest drummers and percussionists, and can be heard on recordings as w ...
.
Discography
With
Jimmy Lyons
* 1978: ''
Push Pull'' (
Hathut Records)
* 1980: ''
Riffs
A riff is a repeated chord progression or refrain in music (also known as an ostinato figure in classical music); it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instrument, that forms the basis or accompan ...
'' (
Hathut Records)
* 1985: ''
Give It Up'' (
Black Saint Records
Black Saint and Soul Note are two affiliated Italian independent record labels. Since their conception in the 1970s, they have released albums from a variety of influential jazz musicians, particularly in the genre of free jazz.
History
Black S ...
)
* 1983: ''
Wee Sneezawee'' (
Black Saint Records
Black Saint and Soul Note are two affiliated Italian independent record labels. Since their conception in the 1970s, they have released albums from a variety of influential jazz musicians, particularly in the genre of free jazz.
History
Black S ...
)
* 1972–1985: ''
The Box Set'' (Ayler)
With
Alan Silva
* 1999: ''
Alan Silva & the Sound Visions Orchestra'' (
Eremite Records
Eremite Records is an independent American jazz record label founded in 1995 by Michael Ehlers, with early involvement from music writer Byron Coley. Ehlers was a student of Archie Shepp's at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. After colleg ...
)
* 2003: ''
H.Con.Res.57/Treasure Box'' (
Eremite Records
Eremite Records is an independent American jazz record label founded in 1995 by Michael Ehlers, with early involvement from music writer Byron Coley. Ehlers was a student of Archie Shepp's at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. After colleg ...
)
With others
* 1982: ''
Red Snapper: Paul Murphy at CBS'' (
Paul Murphy,
Cadence Jazz Records)
* 1983: ''Cloudburst'' (
Paul Murphy, Murphy Records)
* 1983: ''Moments'' (
Joel Futterman, Ear Rational)
* 1984: ''Passage'' (
Joel Futterman, Ear Rational)
* 1986: ''
Winged Serpent (Sliding Quadrants)
''Winged Serpent (Sliding Quadrants)'' is an album by Cecil Taylor recorded in Milan, Italy on October 22–24, 1984 and released on the Soul Note label. The album features performances by Taylor with Jimmy Lyons, Enrico Rava, Tomasz Stanko, ...
'' (
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Percival Taylor (March 25, 1929April 5, 2018) was an American pianist and poet.
Taylor was classically trained and was one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an energetic, physical approach, resulting in complex ...
,
Soul Note Records)
* 1994: ''Final Disconnect Notice'' (
Marco Eneidi, Botticelli)
* 1999: ''
Many Rings
''Many Rings'' is an album by the American jazz guitarist Joe Morris, recorded in 1999 and released on the Knitting Factory label. He leads an experimental quartet featuring bassoonist Karen Borca, saxophonist Rob Brown and accordionist Andrea ...
'' (
Joe Morris,
Knitting Factory)
* 2001: ''Waking the Living'', Earth People (Undivided Vision)
* 2001: ''The Cosmosamatics'' (
Sonny Simmons, Boxholder)
* 2008: ''
17 Musicians in Search of a Sound: Darfur'' (
Bill Dixon
William Robert “Bill” Dixon (October 5, 1925 – June 16, 2010) was an American composer, improviser, visual artist, activist, and educator. Dixon was one of the seminal figures in free jazz and late twentieth-century contemporary music. Hi ...
,
AUM Fidelity)
References
External links
*
Karen Borcaat
AllMusicBorca's page on La MaMa Archives Digital Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Borca, Karen
American jazz bassoonists
Living people
1948 births
Musicians from Green Bay, Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni