Other Newsletters '04-'05
Hello Everyone!
I hope all is well with everyone reading this letter. We have a lot of material included on this one so I will get right to it. There is a comprehensive article on my "Thirty Years" in this month's music magazine called "No Depression." The interview was the longest "phoner" I have ever done, three hours! It is also one of the best articles written about my career. Writer Geoffrey Himes who has written about my music many times before, was able to internalize my creative forays to such a degree and very much create a career piece. I have probably never been more out spoken, and more articulate about my feelings and so accurately quoted. It is available on new stands now.
In case any of you read the Strings Magazine cover story this month on the "Eroica Trio," you might have seen my name mentioned in the article as someone who is being commissioned by them to compose a piano trio. It is absolutely true! I have just now finished the piece for them. It will be premiered March 5th at Villa Montalvo, CA, and I will be on hand conducting a panel discussion as well. I dedicated the music to Johnny Cash, one of my boyhood idols. Later in life I got to work with him on my Heroes album in 1992. The piece for the wonderful Eroica Trio musicians is entitled "Poets and Prophets." They are planning to perform the piece on tour too!
There has been much activity in the press concerning my new CD "Thirty Year Retrospective." The web site has compiled some of it below. Also, two fiddlers that go back with me the full thirty years decided to write very revealing perspectives of my career, music, and even how I learned. We have included those essays below. I hope you enjoy!
It is going to be an exciting year for us here and we will keep you up to date as it all unfolds. Until next time, let's have a great new year!
Best Wishes,
Mark O'Connor
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- Mark's Hot Swing Trio performed some christmas music during the holiday break on Bravo's Breakfast For The Arts, and also appeared this month again with one of their swing tunes.
- Mark's In Full Swing recording was used for a segment on Brian Boitano's Skating Spectacular national television special during the holidays.
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Sunday, January 4, 2004 12:00AM EST
ON THE RECORD
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Revisiting 30 years of excellence
Mark O'Connor, "Thirty Year Retrospective" ****
By JACK BERNHARDT, Correspondent
From the mid-1980s through the early '90s, Mark O'Connor was one of the young Nashville cats who defined country's "neo-traditional" revival. But his impact on American music did not begin or end there.
Launching his career as a 12-year-old national fiddle champion, O'Connor raised the bar for technical and emotional excellence in bluegrass. And with other young turks, including Sam Bush, Bela Fleck and Jerry Douglas, he helped redefine traditional acoustic music by grafting jazz, classical and rock flourishes onto ages-old Southern fiddle tunes.
With his brilliant two-CD "Thirty Year Retrospective" (OMAC), O'Connor revisits and renegotiates his past achievements with a concert recorded live at Vanderbilt University. His genius is accentuated by the accompaniment of mandolinist Chris Thile, guitarist Bryan Sutton and bassist Byron House. Just as O'Connor helped define acoustic music for these pickers, they in turn are setting the standard for their generation. O'Connor's choice of accompanists was a master stroke, ensuring that his achievements and insights avoid fossilization and evolve with the times.
Highlights? Take your pick. For the bluegrass fan, there's the ornamented, entertaining Texas fiddle romp on "Tom and Jerry" and the Monroe salute "Jerusalem's Ridge." Newgrassers will enjoy the exploratory quest of "A Bowl of Bula" and the rhythmic drive of "Bowtie." Classical fans will delight in Caprice No. 4 in D Major, and others will enjoy the patriotic reflections in "Song of the Liberty Bell."
There are no toss-offs. Every one of the 29 tunes is a tour de force, a credit to 30 years of musical excellence.
Mark O'Connor recorded his new two-CD set in a concert at Vanderbilt University.
AP File Photo by Ed Andrieski
Mark O'Connor's Thirty-Year Retrospective
By Darol Anger
Short time, long time. Thirty years, when it starts at age twelve, is almost prelude. So what we have here, symbolized and embodied by Mark's new retrospective recording, is the front half of arguably the most brilliant fiddling career on this continent.
Retrospectives generally mean that there's not going to be much more from this fellow, a last gasp of sorts. This retrospective is more of a pause in a continuing torrent of creative musical energy that has just begun to hit stride. Short time.
Fatuous comparisons with Paganini notwithstanding, Mark is one of those musicians who by sheer talent, will, and determination broke through a high cultural wall and set a new standard hell, a musical language for performance of fiddle music exceeding standards of excellence in any field, arguing by example for the elevation of traditional-based string music out of ethnomusicology into a living, current, deep and coherent music which speaks to everyone, high or low. Mark is not today's Paganini; he is the Mark O¹Connor.
Without compromising the strength or character of the music, Mark raised performance standards to a level which brings American traditional based music into parity with any other music and reconnected it in people's minds with the main cultural stream of Western Art Music‹from a performer's perspective. This is important, because it heralds a needed infusion of sinew & muscle into the ongoing flow of new "serious" music, dominated in this century by composers who, looking for novelty disguised as progress, wandered into some very rarefied areas where most of the other half of the equation, the audience, didn't care to follow.
Mark has boldly stood in the forefront of a new generation of composer/players. He's been very much the most visible and popular initiator of a revitalized dialogue in which the listener can participate on the visceral level of melody, harmony, and rhythm, using a musical language which resonates with peoples' real culture, in which the composer is not a ghost in the machine but a living breathing physical presence bringing complex music into being, in the room, now. And he's broken new ground. He's taken heat. He's stood up and said I'm here, fiddlers are here, we're playing real music that stands up to any musical standard and put himself on the line and deliveredthe goods.
Long time: where is this going? This recording provides a partial and happy answer.
Mark set new gold standard for the traditional-based American musical performance, and the kids don't even worry about it. Here is a new generation of brilliant musical polymaths who have accepted this new standard as a given:
Master American traditional music through the vast rich melody field of fiddle tunes, and learn the deep rhythms and exquisitely precise intonations of the Blues. Put those musics together into the demanding styles of Bluegrass and Texas contest fiddling. Work through the maze of harmonic puzzles that is jazz; swing through Swing and Bebop on up through Coltrane, play by ear, read the chart, improvise on that, come back and play the page of notes, go back home and play Bach in the wee dawn hour: the embodiment of this great Western idea of the Great Conversation, this music and musicians talking to each other across history, mountains and oceans, no borders or walls.
Chris Thile and Bryan Sutton are guys who have accepted and surpassed this challenge, neither of them even alive when Mark or I started our careers, now they play it all brilliantly, a real circle unbroken. And this is only a microcosm of what is happening in the new generations of fiddlers coming up through Mark¹s education program, the Fiddle Camps and Conferences. There will soon be a flood of incredible new musicians unleashed upon the world, playing their own visions of this music, beautifully, at an unimaginably high level.
Short time: what can be accomplished in thirty years, a veritable sea change in American music. Not bad.
•Darol Anger November 2003
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Mark's Early Years
Before Mark met his teacher and mentor Benny Thomasson, he met and studied with John Burke who taught Mark fiddle when he was 11 and 12 years old. In addition to playing fiddle, John is a noted banjo player specializing in the frailing style of play. His views on Mark's development as an artist appeared in a fiddle discussion group.
It was an interesting exchange, and we thought you might enjoy John's comments about working with Mark at the very start of his career. His posts are included here with his permission.
In response to a post that called Mark "the Mozart of the 21st century: a true prodigy whose gifts are the rarest of the rare…"
John Burke writes:
"… but (calling Mark a prodigy) could be misunderstood and may cause folks to
misunderstand Mark in ways I am sure you do not intend. You are correct to
focus on his uniqueness, but I think you neglect Mark's incredible capacity
for sustained hard effort, and also his fabulous ability to navigate the
rocks and shoals of the music business while keeping his musical vision in
tact."
"Mozart was a child prodigy in that as a CHILD he both played and composed
music on and for multiple instruments that was beyond what contemporary,
mature musicians and composers could accomplish.
"Mark was a wonderfully talented kid, but not a typical child prodigy. Also,
he was not the "bad boy" that pop culture has portrayed Mozart as being. In
fact, he was possibly the nicest, most innately decent kid I ever knew. I
never heard him deprecate other musicians and in fact he often heard
positive qualities in music that other, more mature musicians discounted and
deprecated. And importantly, he was not driven by an obsessive parent the
way Mozart was (except in the sense that his mom drove her kids where they
needed to go to do what they wanted to do).
"I know people want to believe that someone who accomplishes all that Mark
has was gifted from the start with something almost magical. But I can
attest that Mark's greatest gift was his determination and willingness to
work on things much harder and longer than anyone I ever met, and that is
saying a great deal. And Mark received almost no recognition from his peers
or even his teachers --- people you would think would have been delighted to
help him. Yes, he had huge natural talent, especially a flawless rhythmic
intuition that he quickly converted into an unparalleled internal groove
machine. But typically people with such talent work hard for a while, then
start to coast once they receive popular accolades.
"In my experience, Mark was different in that his musical motivation was
internal. He has never, to my knowledge, rested on any laurels, but pushed
himself to the max at every stage, even today... Each thing he mastered was
something he experimented with, then fused himself into. I really believe
that even since 1971 Mark has been working toward a musical "vision" that he
has just begun to realize in the last few years. I feel I can hear all the
musics to which he was attracted along the way in the music he is doing now.
Of course some of it seems derivative --- that's inevitable --- no art
springs into the world ex nihilo and without models and antecedents. But,
except for its great velocity, his progress has been almost like a glacier
in its inexorability, and although I will probably always like his earliest
music the most, I think that is just an indication of how quickly he outgrew
the types of music which I have never outgrown. Still, I love to hear what
he's up to, even when it is musically way beyond my understanding or
appreciation.
"Finally, when you invoke Mozart, you also inadvertently dredge up Mozart's
insanely obsessive father. Mark's childhood wasn't easy, but his parents had
no vested interest in his music at all. His mom had two extremely bright,
talented, and sweet kids and she spent every waking moment trying to make
sure they would get the things they needed and wanted to succeed in what
THEY wanted to do. Much of what she did to support her kids amounted to
reinventing the wheel. As far as I ever could tell, she derived nothing from
her efforts but the hope that her kids would be OK after she was gone.
"Mark, his mom and his sister were three very hardworking, focused people.
Any magic in their lives was something they created by great willpower and
sweat. Importantly, nobody ever enjoyed music --- every aspect, listening,
practicing, learning, creating, teaching, sharing --- more than Mark. That
is his real gift --- music remains for him something that is always an
inherent pleasure, no matter how challenging or difficult.
"Finally, Mark has achieved something Mozart never could. He is a mature
person as well as a great artist, and he is the master of his own destiny,
as well. (Pretty handy with a skateboard, too.) Will his music ever be
considered as great as that of Mozart? Surely I don't know. But his life is
certainly a much better model for aspiring players than poor Mozart's was."
John Burke
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As many of you know Mark released two CD's in 2003 (In Full Swing and Thirty-Year Retrospective) and both recordings have made various top ten lists in newspapers from around the country!
The Morning Call, PA/NJ
December 27, 2003
Best CDs for 2003
- The White Stripes, "Elephant"
- OutKast, "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below"
- Radiohead, "Hail to the Thief"
- Mark O'Connor, "In Full Swing"
- Warren Zevon, "The Wind"
- Dwight Yoakam, "Population Me"
- David Olney, "The Wheel"
- Seal, "Seal IV"
- The New Pornographers, "Electric Version"
- Victor Vaughn, "Vaudeville Villain"
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The San Jose Mercury News
December 28, 2003
(Best CD's of 2003)
Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing Trio, "In Full Swing" Odyssey. Violinist O'Connor puts on his swing-jazz hat to channel Stephane Grappelli with help from guitarist Frank Vignola, bassist Jon Burr, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and vocalist Jane Monheit.
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Bob McWillliams from Kansas Public Radio puts Mark's Thirty-Year Retrospective in the top 5 bluegrass discs of the year and was featured on the Best of 2003 Trail Mix show broadcast. McWilliams also selected it as his Borders pick for January.
"Mark's terrific, wonderful, great, amazing 2-CD set. Wow."
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Mark O'Connor's In Full Swing comes in at #18 for the year in jazz CD sales.
Billboard
Top jazz albums.(Year In Music)
27 December 2003
(c) 2003 Information Access Company. All rights reserved.
1 A WONDERFUL WORLD--Tony Bennett & k.d. Lang--RPM/Columbia/Sony Music
2 LIVE IN PARIS--Diana Krall--Verve/VG
3 THE LOOK OF LOVE--Diana Krall--Verve/VG
4 PETER CINCOTTI--Peter Cincotti--Concord
5 ASK A WOMAN WHO KNOWS--Natalie Cole--Verve/VG
6 HARRY FOR THE HOLIDAYS--Harry Connick, Jr.--Columbia/Sony Music
7 TIMEAGAIN--David Sanborn--Verve/VG
8 ONE QUIET NIGHT--Pat Metheny--Warner Bros.
9 NORTH--Elvis Costello--Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Classics Group
10 BUT BEAUTIFUL: STANDARDS VOLUME 1--Boz Scaggs--Gray Cat/Mailboat
11 PAGANINI: AFTER A DREAM--Regina Carter--Verve/VG
12 THIS TIME OF THE YEAR--Steve Tyrell--Columbia/Sony Music
13 LADY SINGS THE BLUES--Various Artists--Capitol
14 PLATINUM GLENN MILLER--Glenn Miller--Victor/AAL
15 NATURE BOY: THE STANDARDS ALBUM--Aaron Neville--Verve/VG
16 A LOVE SUPREME (DELUXE EDITION)--John Coltrane--Impulse!/V6
17 OTHER HOURS: CONNICK ON PIANO 1--Harry Connick, Jr.--Marsalis/Rounder
18 IN FULL SWING--Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing Trio--Odyssey/Sony Music
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The Cincinnati Post
01 January 2004
It was a very good year for classical music in Cincinnati.
There were many performances-to-remember.
January: Trombonist Christian Lindberg, former CCO music director Keith Lockhart
February: The Three Mo' Tenors
April: Philip Glass, Santora and the CCO with the Vocal Arts Ensemble
June: violinist/conductor Jaime Laredo.
September: Cellist Truls Mork, Concertante with Jarvi and the Cincinnati Symphony.
October: Violinist/fiddler Mark O'Connor's "The American Seasons" (Vivaldi
American style) with the CSO led by guest conductor Michael Morgan.
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CHICAGO TRIBUNE
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
SUNDAY, December 14, 2003
TOP 10 BLUEGRASS/NEWGRASS COMPACT DISCS OF 2003
By David Royko
Special to the Tribune
MARK O'CONNOR: Thirty Year Retrospective (OMAC)
Recorded in concert, violinist O'Connor surveyed his
past by assembling a magnificent "string quartet" of
mandolinist Chris Thile (of Nickel Creek), guitarist
Bryan Sutton and bassist Byron House to help him
reveal the very best of each of his compositions.
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Pop Matters Web Site Review
m u s i c
December 22, 2003
Mark O'Connor, Mark O'Connor Thirty Year Retrospective (OMAC-5)
Mark O'Connor is an amazing talent. He picked up a violin at 11; little more than a year later, he was the top fiddler in the country for his age. His fluid playing and improvisational skills made him one of Nashville's top session musicians throughout the 1980s and early '90s. He then changed directions and began working with cellist Yo-Yo Ma ("Appalachia Waltz") and his own jazzy Hot Swing Trio. Now 42, O'Connor captures his 30-year recording career via a series of concerts held in Nashville before a reverent audience. Aided by wonder kid mandolinist Chris Thile (Nickel Creek), guitarist Bryan Sutton and bassist Byron House, O'Connor burns it up on this pristine-sounding two-CD collection. The songs here capture both O'Connor's amazing versatility and progression as a musician -- check out his first composition, "Pickin' in the Wind" then compare it to the Hot Swing-era pieces -- as well as his innate and dignified charm onstage. A real keeper.
— Nicole Pensiero
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Nashville City Paper
Mark O'Connor
Thirty-Year Retrospective
(OMAC)
Extraordinary violinist Mark O'Connor picked fellow virtuosos mandolinist Chris Thile, guitarist Bryan Sutton and bassist Bryon House for a special concert commemorating his favorite compositions over a three-decade period. This two-disc set, which was recorded in July 2002 in at Vanderbilt's Blair School of Music, features the quartet demonstrating their musical excellence on folk, bluegrass, and hot jazz selections. Though each one delivers brilliant solos, their unison work and ensemble interaction is even more impressive, providing another indication that great players only care about music, not categories.
Ron Wynn
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Chet Atkins Appreciation Society
In November, Mark O'Connor released a double-cd titled "Thirty Year Retrospective". You might ask what is the connection with Chet. Mark O'Connor is an icon in the history of Nashville session players. He is an award winning guitarist, mandolinist, and violinist, and most recently a "classical" composer. Well, it was Chet who persuaded Mark to move to Nashville in the 1980's to become more involved in session work, and to further his career in music as an artist. They remained friends throughout Chet's life. Mark asked Chet to play on his 1987 release "Stone From Which The Arch Was Made". The tune was New Lifetimes, with just Mark on violin, and Chet on guitar. Chet followed his career with interest as Mark established his summer fiddle camp to further interest in acoustic music. They also played together often on TNN (The former Nashville Network). Mark came out to the convention in the early 1990's, and played a "gypsy" set with Romane. This new project includes 29 tunes recorded live at Blair School of Music in Nashville, to very appreciative audiences. He played violin, and was joined by Chris Thile on mandolin, and Bryan Sutton on guitar, and bassist Byron House. Chet admired Mark O'Connor, and I thought you should know about this project. For more info on Mark, check out www.markoconnor.com"
Mark Pritcher
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Chamber Music Magazine
February 2004
CD's New Noteworthy
Mark O'Connor
Thirty Year Retrospective (2-CD Set)
OMAC Records OMAC-5
Joined by guest bluegrass artists Chris Thile, Bryan Sutton, and Byron House, fiddler extraordinaire Mark O'Connor captures all the zest and urgency of a live performance on his new "Thirty Year Retrospective" recording--retrospective, that is, of a highly successful career with numerous albums to his credit. The two discs run the gamut of O'Connor's extensive repertoire, from the upbeat and energetic "A Bowl Of Bula" (1984, Meanings Of; 1990, New Nashville Cats) to the sensually atmospheric "Midnight Interlude" (1978, On The Rampage).
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What I saw in Ingram-Hall in Nashville, is really the perfect ensemble which reached one of the 'world's art form' in the 21st century. The ensemble was based on the music which was called 'bluegrass' in some 60 years ago, and then some 30 years later it was called 'newgrass' or 'dawg' which Mark was involved in. And another 30 years later, I saw what Mark created a new 'Chamber Music' which hold every element of American acoustic music.
"I can't translate the nuance of Japanese... sorry!! My Japanese is better... I hope!?!?"
Saburo 'Watanabe' Inoue
Moonshiner Magazine - Japan
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KNIGHT RIDDER WIRE SERVICE
ENTERTAINMENT
CD drops this week
BY JONATHAN TAKIFF Knight Ridder Newspapers
11 November 2003
Country Corner: Virtuoso fiddler Mark O'Connor celebrates three decades of
wonderful work with "30-Year Retrospective" (OMAC Records), a double-disc,
all instrumental concert recording that blends pure bluegrass, slippery
jazz grass, plus neo-classical andhaunting country airs in tandem with mandolinist
Chris Thile (Nickel Creek), guitarist Bryan Stutton and standup bassist
Byron House. A
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From a former student at Mark's Fiddle Camps
Hello there Mark!
This is Brad Phillips. I picked up you new CD at Borders the other day here in
Ann Arbor. You were right! I flipped out when I heard it! It's just
amazing.. I love the solos everyone takes. I just listened to "Soft
Gyrations" and nearly died, it was so tight! The CD comes with me everywhere I
go in my portable CD player when I am walking to class. It feels like I am 12
again listening to New Nashville Cats for the first time! It really captures
the magic very well! Congrats, Mark!
