Spencer Barefield & Creative Arts Collective

Barefield @ Imagination Station

2011-08-04T21:50:00.000-07:00

Barefield Super String Quartet:

Creative Transformation in Detroit's

Corktown Neighborhood

Sunday, August 28, 3–5 pm

2230 14th Street, AKA The Imagination Station

In the news:
www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/mornings/weekend/summer-soiree-fundraiser-in-detroit

The Imagination Station at Roosevelt Park—two blighted but exploding with creative energy Corktown homes facing the iconic Michigan Central Train Station—was the setting for “Summer Soiree,” an adventurous jazzy classical concert and party on Sunday, August 28 at 3 pm. Guitarist-composer A. Spencer Barefield, a 2010 Kresge Arts Fellow, electrified 2230 and 2236 14th Street with his cutting-edge music featuring violinist Jannina Norpoth, violist John Madison and bassist John-Paul Norpoth.

A celebration of Detroit and its expanding creativity, Imagination Station takes pride in including a spread of Detroit’s finest organic and locally-prepared food, wine, and beverages. Summer Soiree was the final opportunity to view and bid farewell to Catie Newell’s acclaimed “Salvaged Landscape” sculpture—assembled on the balcony of Imagination Station—before its journey to the Grand Rapids Museum of Art (Grand) for the international ArtPrize competition. Since its inception, Imagination Station has collaborated with artists, providing a site for innovative installations.

The concert raised funds to support the Imagination Station’s transformation of its houses and vacant lots into a creative campus built on community, technology, sustainability and the arts. The vision includes establishing a media center, open air public art gallery and living quarters. It will be a model green rehab— a demonstration center for the incorporation of innovative renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies such as geothermal heating, Energy Star Appliances, electric car charging systems and residential solar systems. The Imagination Station is a new nonprofit organization that is partnering with Barefield’s 33-year-old nonprofit arts organization, the Creative Arts Collective.

More information at Imagination Station at www.facethestation.com

The Barefield Super String Quartet exhibits great diversity and talent in all forms of music from traditional to avant-garde jazz, classical, indie rock, hip-hop, and more.

Described by JazzTimes as “an extraordinary guitarist/composer … He melds the techniques of Segovia and Jimi Hendrix into a startling jazz lexicon,” A. Spencer Barefield has received numerous awards for composition and performance from National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer and others. He has toured and recorded in the US, Canada, and Europe, extensively as a leader, soloist, and with Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell, Oliver Lake, Andrew Cyrille, Richard Davis and many more. Barefield’s Creative Arts Collective earned Michigan's Governor's Arts Award for excellence and has received international recognition for its innovative presentations, including its 13-year Creative Music at the Detroit Institute of Arts series and current Palmer Woods Music in Homes series. Read more at spencerbarefield.com.

Violinist Jannina Barefield Norpoth made her solo debut at age 13 at Orchestra Hall with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and returned a few years later to perform the Sibelius Violin Concerto. She has performed internationally, including solo appearances with the Birmingham Bloomfield Symphony, Ensemble 212, and at the Montreux Detroit Jazz Festival, Mostly Mozart Festival, VH1’s Save the Music, FOX’s Fearless Music Television, Art X Detroit, and a concert tour of Tuscany in Italy. Jannina is a member of the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra.

She was first violinist in the Osso String Quartet — a music ensemble on the Asthmatic Kitty Record Label started by songwriter sensation Sufjan Stevens. Osso’s debut US tour included sold-out shows at the 92nd Street Y Tribeca, Southern Theatre in Minneapolis, Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and many others.

Jannina has been a featured performer alongside Itzhak Perlman, Emmanuelle Boisvert, jazz violinist Regina Carter, Marcus Belgrave, My Brightest Diamond, Beyonce, and Jay-Z. Her recording credits include work with her own band Hollands, Jay-Z, Akron Family, Keri Hilson, and producers Jerry “Wonda” Duplessis, and Bryce Goggin. Jannina and her husband John-Paul are working closely with Duplessis (Wyclef Jean's cousin and collaborator) writing and recording their string arrangements for John Legend and other musicians.

Bassist John-Paul Norpoth has achieved recognition as an orchestral musician, collaborative artist and recording artist, performing in concert venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to the Knitting Factory, in genres from classical to jazz to rock and roll. He currently serves as the principal bassist and featured soloist for the Bachanalia Chamber Orchestra. John-Paul has performed under the batons of Itzhak Perlman, Kurt Mazur, Bright Sheng, Jamie Laredo, Otto Werner Mueller and others in numerous orchestras in the New York area.

John-Paul has been a guest artist at the Amagansett Chamber Music Festival and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Lecture Series at Baruch College. Mr. Norpoth performs, produces, and records a multitude of instruments including, electric guitar, piano, synthesizer, electric and upright bass, and vocals. He arranges, performs and records strings for independent and major label pop/rock acts, including metal band Black Dahlia Murder, teen pop sensation Never Shout Never, super producer Jerry "Wonda" Duplessis, and folk rock band Akron Family, as well as his own band, Hollands. He can also be heard on the motion picture soundtrack for the movie "Married Life" starring Pierce Brosnan and Rachel McAdams.

Read more about Jannina and John-Paul: http://palmerwoods.org/music-in-homes/musicians-2010-2011/139-violin-a-bass-jannina-a-john-paul-norpoth

John Madison is the principal violist of the Michigan Opera Orchestra and Sphinx Symphony, and plays with the award-winning Cassini Ensemble, Detroit Symphony, Toledo Symphony, Toledo Opera Orchestra and New York City Opera Company. John has appeared as soloist with the Southfield Philharmonic, Toledo Symphony, Jackson Symphony, and the Adrian Symphony. A sought-after educator, he is Dean of the Sphinx Preparatory Music Institute. He is cofounder and coordinator of the Cassini Ensemble, recently toured with the Chamber Orchestra of France and performed with the New York City Opera Company.

The Imagination Station Summer Soirée is presented by Creative Arts Collective and Imagination Station with support from Michigan Council for Arts & Cultural Affairs, Midtown Detroit, Corktown Housing, EnergyFinanceAnalytics, NationBuilder, Printwell, StreetDemocracy, 3rdWard, The Pink FlaminGO!, Brother Nature Farms, McClure’s Pickles, and Valentine Vodka.

A. Spencer Barefield & Creative Arts Collective

2011-08-04T21:30:00.000-07:00

Barefield awarded the prestigious 2010
Kresge Foundation Arts Fellowship

"A. Spencer Barefield is the best guitarist ignored by the U.S. jazz industry. He melds the techniques of Segovia and Jimi Hendrix into a startling jazz lexicon. The Detroit-based Barefield’s ensembles have included the likes of James Carter, Andrew Cyrille and Richard Davis, and his compositions have made bold use of string quartets." Bill Shoemaker, JazzTimes

Clockwise from top left: A. Spencer Barefield, Richard Davis,
Dave McMurray, Marian Hayden, Dave Young and Marcus Belgrave.
Photo: ©2011 Barbara Barefield

Read more at artxdetroit.com/artist/a-spencer-barefield/
Photo: ©2011 Barbara Barefield

Described by JazzTimes as “an extraordinary guitarist/composer,” Barefield has received numerous awards for composition and performance from National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, Kresge Foundation and others. He has toured and recorded in the US, Canada, and Europe, extensively as a leader, soloist, and with Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell, Oliver Lake, Andrew Cyrille, Richard Davis and many more. Barefield’s Creative Arts Collective has received international recognition for its innovative presentations, including its Creative Music at the Detroit Institute of Arts series and current Palmer Woods Music in Homes series.

Creative Arts Collective

A mainstay on the Detroit music scene, Barefield is the director of the Creative Arts Collective (CAC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the presentation, preservation and creation of jazz and creative music. Inspired by Chicago's legendary Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), two members of AACM, Roscoe Mitchell and Dushun Mosley, were founding members of CAC with Spencer in the early 1970s in East Lansing, Michigan.

Recordings from the historic Creative Music at the DIA concerts are now part of the Beneath Detroit CD series. A 2-disc set with Douglas Ewart, Barefield and Tani Tabbal; a 2-disc set with Leroy Jenkins with Barefield, Tabbal, Faruq Z. Bey, Jaribu Shahid and Anthony Holland; and Transdimensional Space Window with Barefield-Holland-Tabbal Trio can be purchased from itunes, Amazon.com, jazzloft.com. Read more at www.jazzloft.com/p-53160-beneath-detroit.aspx

Since that time, CAC has made its mark both locally and internationally. Its 13-year concert series at the Detroit Institute of Arts boldly presented collaborations between Barefield and other Detroit-based artists — such as Tani Tabbal, Jaribu Shahid, Dave McMurray, Tony Holland, Roy Brooks, Faruq Z. Bey, James Carter, Regina Carter, Geri Allen, Marcus Belgrave and many others — with jazz greats such as Roscoe Mitchell, Leroy Jenkins, George Lewis, Douglas Ewart, Muhal Richard Abrams, Richard Davis, Andrew Cyrille, Anthony Davis, Lester Bowie, Reggie Workman and a long list of others. CAC's contributions to the cultural scene in Michigan earned it the Governor's Arts Award for most valuable arts organization.

CAC continues to present concerts throughout the US and internationally. Many of its concerts have been broadcast on National Public Radio and have been released on CDs. CAC is currently partnering with Detroit's Palmer Woods neighborhood to produced Palmer Woods Music in Homes, palmerwoods.org

"Like Kenny Burrell, Spencer Barefield hails from Detroit. And like that of the esteemed bop veteran, his approach to the guitar is smooth, lyrical and elegantly understated. So much for cornerstones. In drawing deftly from classical and West African forms on acoustic guitar, this self-effacing young innovator is in all other respects an intriguing original."

Chicago Sun Times


Spencer Barefield at Baker's Keyboard Lounge in Detroit Photo: ©2011 Barbara Barefield

Check back for news, event postings, and updates on Detroit Jazz Guitarist and Composer A. Spencer Barefield and the Creative Arts Collective.

Spencer Barefield Quartet

2011-08-04T20:00:00.000-07:00


Left to right: A. Spencer Barefield, Dave McMurray, Djallo Djakate Keita, Dave Young Photo: ©2011 Barbara Barefield

It's a special opportunity when Dave Young crosses the border from Toronto to perform in Metro-Detroit. Canada's Juno award-winning bassist (Canada's Grammys)—a regular with the famed Oscar Peterson for some 30-year—performs and records with the Spencer Barefield Quartet. The quartet's stellar lineup includes: David McMurray (sax), Dave Young (bass), Djallo Djakate Keita (drums), and A. Spencer Barefield (guitar).

Performances are presented by the Creative Arts Collective with support from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, National Endowment for the Arts and Metro Times. Since 1978, the Creative Arts Collective has been committed to presenting the best of cutting-edge jazz and creative music in Detroit and throughout the world. "Soul Steppin' Through the Fabulous Ruins" the Spencer Barefield Quartet's latest CD release, has receiving rave reviews and has delighted jazz aficionados. For more information: 313-891-2514.

B I O G R A P H I E S

"Barefield's lovely solo has the presence of a Segovia piece
with its majestic chords and runs.
His composition constantly shifts from European
to African influences and back with ease.
It is truly a fine musical moment that reveals more of its
complexity with each new listening."

— Cadence Magazine

Guitarist/composer A. Spencer Barefield has received numerous awards for composition and performance from ArtServe Michigan-MCACA, Meet-the-Composer/NEA Commission USA, Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest, National Endowment for the Arts, Michigan Council for Arts, Arts Midwest and others. He has toured and recorded in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, extensively as a leader, soloist, and with Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell, Oliver Lake, Andrew Cyrille, Richard Davis and others. Barefield's recordings "Live Detroit" and "Xenogenesis 2000" (CAC label), and his Sound Aspects (Germany) releases "After the End" and "Live at Leverkusen" have received rave international reviews and honors. He is the Artistic and Executive Director of the Creative Arts Collective (CAC) — its concerts at the Detroit Institute of Arts and elsewhere earned CAC the Michigan's Governor's Arts Award for excellence and international recognition for its innovative presentations. More than a hundred of CAC's concerts have been broadcast on National Public Radio. Barefield has taught guitar and improvisation at the University of Michigan School of Music and elsewhere.

Juno award winner Dave Young is an internationally renowned bassist known for his recordings, work as a band leader and collaborator with many jazz greats, such as Oscar Peterson, Clark Terry, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Zoot Simms, Joe Williams, Oliver Jones, Rob McConnell, Kenny Burrell, Cedar Walton, Hank Jones, Nat Adderly, Peter Appleyard, Gary Burton, Barney Kessel, Ed Bickert, Ranee Lee, Marcus Belgrave, Don Thompson, Kenny Burrell, James Moody, and more. A number of his award-winning recordings are on the Justin Time label. As classical artist, he was the principal double bassist for a number of years with the Edmonton and Winnipeg Symphonies, as well as with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. Dave Young was honored at the 2003 National Jazz Awards as "Jazz Bassist of the Year." The award was richly deserved, and is a tribute to Dave's chops, highly developed musical sensibility, versatility and life-long commitment to Jazz and Jazz education. Dave and Spencer Barefield began their musical collaboration in the mid-nineties in a trio with Jazz trumpeter Marcus Belgrave. He is featured on the Spencer Barefield Quartet's "Soul Steppin' Through the Fabulous Ruins" CD with Dave McMurray (sax) and Djallo Djakate Keita (drums).

"…Whomever Dave Young might be performing with,
when it comes to his solo, it is always perfection."

Jazz Times

"…his driving support, fast scalar runs and rhythmic soloing
are definitely distinctive…
Young is never overshadowed by his partners.
Young's growling tone and take-charge walking are striking …
his ability to build impressive, rhythmically acute solos
out of his extended walking lines is immediately established."

Bass Player Magazine

Saxophonist David McMurray has released four CDs as a leader, the first on the Warner label, "The David McMurray Show" followed by "Piece of Mind," "Afro Cubano Chant" and his latest release "Soul Searching" on the HipBop/Silva Screen label featuring Pam Wise, Marion Hayden, Wayne Gerard, Louis Resto and others. He has performed and recorded internationally with Geri Allen, Terrance Blanchard, Albert King, Herbie Hancock, Bob James, Mark Ishan, Don Was, B52s, Bonny Raitt, Gladys Knight, Griot Galaxy, Kem, Was Not Was, the Rolling Stones, Kid Rock and others.

"The Musician's Musician.... Held in high regard,
Detroit Dave McMurray is multi-instrumentalist,
who combines his mastery of the tenor, soprano and alto saxophones
with his talents of the flute, keyboards, and percussion
to produce an ideal blend of musical genius."

Scott Yanow, All Music Guide, All About Jazz

Drummer/percussionist Djallo Djakate Keita has toured extensively in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan with Martha Reeves and The Vandellas, appearing in concert and on television and radio. He has toured Africa with Kareem Baaqi and has performed with some of Detroit's most acclaimed artists, including Harold McKinney, Marcus Belgrave, Charlie Gabriel, Teddy Harris, Wendell Harrison, Ralph Armstrong, Pamela Wise, Kenny Cox, Omawale African Dancers, Sun Drummers, Ras Kente, Taslimah Bey, Harvey Thompson, Faruq Z. Bey, TransMat, Jazzhead, Dub Culture and Ibn Pori Pitts.

For booking information call 313-891-2514

Barefield's Music & the Cosmos

2011-08-04T18:52:00.001-07:00

ArtXDetroit: Jazz Meets Classical
A. Spencer Barefield's Music & The Cosmos

When internationally renown jazz guitarist and composer A. Spencer Barefield is not creating music, he is researching Black Holes, String Theory and other mysteries of the universe. As a 2010 Kresge Arts Fellow, Barefield had the opportunity to merge these passions with two unique presentations of his Music & The Cosmos project at the ArtXDetroit Festival and perform with other worldclass musicians, such as Detroit Symphony Concertmaster Emmanuelle Boisvert and Canada's Juno Award-Winner bassist David Young.

Night One, Music & The Cosmos, Thursday, April 7, 8:30 pm, First Congregational Church (33 E. Forest at Woodward—a station of the Underground Railroad): Barefield's nine-piece chamber jazz ensemble "Super String Symphonica" features violinists Detroit Symphony Concertmaster Emmanuelle Boisvert and Jannina Barefield Norpoth, bassist Dave Young and guitarist A. Spencer Barefield. Other musicians included violists John Madison (Detroit Symphony, Michigan Opera Theatre and Sphinx) and James Greer (MOT and Sphinx), cellists Sarah Cleveland and Martin Torch-Ishii, and percussionist Djallo Djakate Keita. A three-decade retrospective of Barefield's compositions arranged for classical strings and jazz trio take listeners on a journey into outer and inner space.

"This is an amazing opportunity to perform my music with spectacular musicians such as Emmanuelle Boisvert," said Barefield, "Emmanuelle and I share several things in common in addition to our love of music: we both play instruments handmade by Troy-based luthier Peter Psarianos, and we both long to perform on the stage of Orchestra Hall, the original site for my concert. I have dreamed about presenting my music for strings in the acoustically magnificent Orchestra Hall. However, we are honoring the DSO musicians' strike, so the concert is being held at the grand, historic First Congregational Church." (note: after 6 months, the strike ended several days prior to the concert)

Night Two, Music & The Cosmos, Friday, April 8, 7 pm, Science Center Planetarium (5020 John R Street, Detroit): A multi-media visual and audio journey through the universe with photos, videos, light, sound, music, jazz and discussion exploring the relationships between music and the cosmos. A great event for families to introduce young people to the relationships between music and science. A. Spencer Barefield on guitars and narration with Dave Young on bass and Djallo Djakate Keita on percussion.

Art X Detroit was a free, five-day series of exhibitions, presentations, readings, discussions, concerts, and dance performances for the Detroit community. Art X will showcase newly commissioned works from the 36 winners of Kresge Artist Fellowships — including 2010 Kresge Arts Fellow A. Spencer Barefield — and its two Eminent Artists, renowned visual artist Charles McGee and iconic jazz musician Marcus Belgrave. This first-ever public celebration of the 2008-2010 Kresge Artists will take place from April 6-10, 2011, in many cultural organizations located in Midtown Detroit.

For information regarding presenting Barefield's Music and the Cosmos programs, call 313-891-2514 or email barbarabarefield@aol.com.

Giants of Jazz: Henry Grimes & A. Spencer Barefield

2011-03-29T18:50:00.000-07:00

Creative Arts Collective & N'Namdi Center for Contemporary Art presented an evening of adventurous music with legendary bassist Henry Grimes  and guitarist A. Spencer Barefield on Saturday, March 19, 2011. The N'Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, The Black Box Performing Space, is located at 52 E. Forest @ Woodward, Detroit, MI 48201)
More info: grimesbarefield.eventbrite.com
grnnamdi.com

“Henry Grimes is among the  greatest improvisers living in the world today. His playing is exquisite.”  — Roscoe Mitchell

Mitchell describes Barefield as “a treasure to Detroit and to the world of music and art…a gifted & innovative musician, as well as a profoundly creative composer.”

“…veteran of early free jazz, a former collaborator with Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler and many others, really has come back, playing with a wisdom and fire and ensemble sensitivity to the multiple settings.” — Josef Woodard, JazzTimes

Between the mid-'5Os and the mid-'6Os, the Juilliard-educated Henry Grimes played brilliantly on some 5O albums with an enormous range of musicians, including Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Haynes, Lee Konitz, Steve Lacy, Charles Mingus (yes, Charles Mingus), Gerry Mulligan, Sunny Murray, Sonny Rollins, Roswell Rudd, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor, Charles Tyler, McCoy Tyner, Thelonious Monk and others … then he vanished for 30 years.

He re-emerged in 2002 when a social worker discovered him and helped him to acquire a bass, gifted to him by bassist William Parker. Grimes has since resumed an astonishing career, playing, touring and recording with many of today's musical heroes.

A. Spencer Barefield is "... an extraordinary guitarist/composer, whose striking use of classical sympathetic and 12-string instruments owes as great a debt to Segovia as it does to any jazz antecedent," touts JazzTimes. Barefield has toured and recorded internationally with Roscoe Mitchell, Lester Bowie, Oliver Lake, Andrew Cyrille, Richard Davis and other jazz giants