The Vision Festival is the world's premier festival of experimental music (typically
free jazz
Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians duri ...
/
avant-garde jazz
Avant-garde jazz (also known as avant-jazz and experimental jazz) is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. It originated in the early 1950s and developed through to the late 1960s. Ori ...
), art, film and dance, held annually in May/June on the
Lower East Side of
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
from 1996 to 2011, in Brooklyn from 2012-2014, and returning to Manhattan in 2015.
[Chinen, Nate. (2006).]
"The Vision Festival: On the Fringe and Reveling in Rhythm"
''The New York Times''. Retrieved June 22, 2007.
/ref> It usually consists of between thirty and sixty performances, spread out over a number of days.[Chinen, Nate. (2004).]
''The Village Voice''. Retrieved June 22, 2007. Inspired by the 1984 and 1988 Sound Unity Festivals, it was a direct outgrowth of the seminal but short-lived Improvisors Collective (1994–95). In 1996, the collective's founder, dancer-choreographer Patricia Nicholson Parker, staged the first Vision Festival at the Learning Alliance on Lafayette Street, and subsequently founded the not-for-profit Arts for Art, Inc to organize the festival on an annual basis, along with other events and concert series throughout the year. In addition to Nicholson Parker, other members of Arts for Art's Board of Directors include: Hal Connolly, Patricia Ali, Jo Wood Brown, Whit Dickey, Judy Gage, Patricia Nicholson Parker, William Parker, Todd Nicholson and Patricia Wilkins.
Over the years, the festival has taken place in numerous venues, including the Angel Orensanz Center
The Angel Orensanz Center is an art and performance space on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was originally built as a synagogue, running through a succession of congregations and continues to be used as one occasionally. The ...
for the Arts, the St. Nicholas of Myra church basement, the New Age Cabaret (formerly known as the Electric Circus
''Electric Circus '' (also known as ''EC'') was a Canadian live dance music television program that aired on MuchMusic and Citytv from September 16, 1988 to December 12, 2003. The name originated from a nightclub that once existed at Citytv's fir ...
), the Knitting Factory
The Knitting Factory is a nightclub in New York City that features eclectic music and entertainment. After opening in 1987, various other locations were opened in the United States.
The Knitting Factory gave its audience poetry readings, perform ...
, St. Patrick's youth center, CBGB
CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in Manhattan's East Village. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for '' Country'', '' BlueGrass'', and '' Blues'', Kr ...
, Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center, the Abrons Arts Center
The Henry Street Settlement is a not-for-profit social service agency in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City that provides social services, arts programs and health care services to New Yorkers of all ages. It was founde ...
, Roulette Intermedium
Roulette Intermedium is a performing arts and new music venue located in Brooklyn, New York City. Founded in 1978, it has been located in the neighborhoods of Tribeca and SoHo in Manhattan, and now resides in a renovated theater in downtown Brookly ...
and Judson Memorial Church
The Judson Memorial Church is located on Washington Square South between Thompson Street and Sullivan Street, near Gould Plaza, opposite Washington Square Park, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. ...
.[Gross, Jason. (2002).]
"20/20 Visionaries"
''The Village Voice''. Retrieved June 22, 2007.
Music performers
The list of artists who have performed at the Vision Festival is long and varied, including David S. Ware
David Spencer Ware (November 7, 1949 – October 18, 2012) was an American jazz saxophone, saxophonist, composer, and bandleader.
Biography
Ware was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, and grew up in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. While in high sc ...
, Cooper-Moore, Sam Rivers, Frank Lowe
Frank Lowe (June 24, 1943 – September 19, 2003) was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and composer.
Biography
Born and brought up in Memphis, Tennessee, Lowe took up the tenor saxophone at the age of 12. As an adult he moved to San Fra ...
, Abbey Rader, Daniel Carter, William Parker, Roy Campbell, Jr., Hamid Drake, Nicole Mitchell, Rob Brown, Kidd Jordan
Edward "Kidd" Jordan (born May 5, 1935) is an American jazz saxophonist and music educator from New Orleans, Louisiana.
After completing a music degree at Southern University in Baton Rouge, he relocated to New Orleans. He taught at Southern Un ...
, Henry Grimes
Henry Grimes (November 3, 1935 – April 15, 2020) was an American jazz double bassist and violinist.
After more than a decade of activity and performance, notably as a leading bassist in free jazz, Grimes completely disappeared from the music s ...
, Marc Ribot
Marc Ribot (;
born May 21, 1954) is an American guitarist and composer.
His work has touched on many styles, including no wave, free jazz, rock, and Cuban music. Ribot is also known for collaborating with other musicians, most notably Tom Wai ...
, Chad Taylor, Rashied Ali
Rashied Ali, born Robert Patterson (July 1, 1933 – August 12, 2009) was an American free jazz and avant-garde drummer best known for playing with John Coltrane in the last years of Coltrane's life.
Biography Early life
Patterson was born and ...
, Joe McPhee
Joe McPhee (born November 3, 1939) is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist born in Miami, Florida, a player of tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, the trumpet, flugelhorn and valve trombone. McPhee grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York, and is ...
, Jason Kao Hwang, Jayne Cortez
Jayne Cortez (May 10, 1934 – December 28, 2012) was an African-American poet, activist, small press publisher and spoken-word performance artist whose voice is celebrated for its political, surrealistic and dynamic innovations in lyricism and ...
, Fred Anderson, Matthew Shipp
Matthew Shipp (born December 7, 1960) is an American pianist, composer, and bandleader.
Early life and education
Shipp was raised in Wilmington, Delaware, and began playing piano at six years old. His mother was a friend of trumpeter Clifford B ...
, Billy Bang, Eddie Gale
Edward Gale Stevens Jr. (August 15, 1941 – July 10, 2020), known professionally as Eddie Gale, was an American trumpeter known for his work in free jazz, especially with the Sun Ra Arkestra.
Life and career
Born in Brooklyn, New York on August 1 ...
, Whit Dickey, Amiri Baraka, Roscoe Mitchell, Steve Lacy, DJ Spooky
Paul Dennis Miller (born September 6, 1970), known professionally as DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is an American electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntabli ...
, Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo (YLT; Spanish for "I have her") is an American indie rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan (guitars, piano, vocals), Georgia Hubley (drums, piano, vocals), and James M ...
, Peter Kowald
Peter Kowald (21 April 1944 – 21 September 2002) was a German free jazz and free improvising double bassist and tubist.
Career
A member of the Globe Unity Orchestra, and a touring double-bass player, Kowald collaborated with many European ...
, Peter Brötzmann
Peter Brötzmann (born 6 March 1941) is a German saxophonist and clarinetist.
Biography Early life
Brötzmann was born in Remscheid, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He studied painting in Wuppertal and was involved with the Fluxus movement ...
, Cat Power and Louis Moholo
Louis Tebogo Moholo (born 10 March 1940), is a South African jazz drummer. He has been a member of several notable bands, including The Blue Notes, the Brotherhood of Breath and Assagai.
Biography
Born in Cape Town, Moholo formed The Blue ...
, among others.
About Arts for Art, Inc.
Arts for Art Mission Statement
''Arts For Art supports diversity in music, dance, art and ideas that embrace improvisation as a means to transform both artist and audience.''
References
{{reflist
External links
Official Vision Festival website
Experimental music festivals
Festivals in New York City
Music of New York City
01
Jazz festivals in New York City