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Joe Giardullo
Multi-instrumentalist/composer
Joe Giardullo released Gravity - Music for Creative Chamber Group (Breeze
Records) in 1979. It disappeared into obscurity almost immediately, but not before
Downbeat's Francis Davis called it the most "intensely democratic music" he'd
heard, comparing it to Braxton's Paris ensembles and using concepts and vocabularies from
mathematics and geology to describe the creative elements of the music. He gave it 4
stars. Joe has continued to work in that same democratic vein since then.
After a short period based in Amsterdam, Holland, Joe
returned to live and work 100 miles north of New York where he was "under the
radar" and all but invisible until he met up with the legendary Joe McPhee.
Although McPhee had long been a near-neighbor, both men were private people and Giardullo
never considered contacting him. That meeting in 1991, however, marked the beginning of a
collaboration that endures till this day.
At the same time as his meeting with
McPhee, Giardullo became involved with Pauline Oliveros and the Deep Listening Band. The
influence of Oliveros contributed mightily to Giardullo's conceptions and The Oliveros
Foundation commissioned a number of pieces from him (Elemental Ode for the Deep Listening
Band and Thomas Buckner, and Autumn Rhythm, dedicated to Jackson Pollack).
In 1996, Joe brought his quartet to
the Albert Ayler Festival in New York. He has performed regularly with luminary Joe
McPhee, in duo and larger ensembles. He teamed with McPhee, Cecil Taylor bassist Dominic
Duval and drummer Jay Rosen at the John Coltrane Festival at NY's Knitting Factory in
1997, and performed in Poland in collaboration with Russian choral conductor Leon
Zaborowski and the Cappella Musica Antique Orientalis choir in 1998. In 1997, Joe
presented his Heart of Udu, commissioned by the Latin Percussion Corporation's
Udu Drums, at LA's Percussive Arts Society.
Joe has performed with most of the
leading improvisors including McPhee, Roy Campbell, Jay Rosen, Mike Bisio, Dominic Duval,
Marilyn Crispell, John Heward, David Prentice, Tani Tabbal, Pauline Oliveros, Stuart
Dempster, Thomas Buckner and Butch Morris, as well as emerging artists such as Rosi
Hertlein, Neil Feather, Makato Sato, Jerome Bourdellon, Polish players Bart Qzniak and
Dawid Kosiarkiewicz, Luciano Pagliarini, Andre Mergenthaler and the Dutch trio OBAO.
Joe
Giardullo's interview with Rui Paez
Joe
Giardullo's interview with Fred Jung
Joe Giardullo's Website
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Discography on Drimala Records
2005
Live at Mãe de
Áqua DR 04-347-06
2004
Let Them Pass
DR 03-347-03
2003
Now Is
DR 03-347-02
2002 The Language of Swans DR 02-347-05
2002
Shadow &
Light DR 02-347-01
Selected Discography
2002
Unquenchable Fire Deep Listening
2002
Let Paul Robeson Sing CIMP Records
2002 Art Spirit Boxholder Records
2001
Specific Gravity Boxholder Records
2001
Primal Intentions Cadence Records
2000 No Greater Love CIMP Records
1999 In The Spirit CIMP Records
1999 Blues of the Birth Euphoria
1998 Tosca Salad Deep Listening Records
1997 24 Hours Dudelange
1979 Gravity Breeze Records
The following is from Joe Giardullo's interview with
Rui Eduardo Paes as he discusses Now Is.
The full interview.
The title “Now
Is” is not intended to imply urgency but rather a directness - a directness of
purpose and a directness of sound. It was my intention for the music to have a greater
clarity than much of the other music I have done. My only considerations for the recording
session were these: that I would only play soprano , and that I wanted the music to be
“clear” - each instrument to be crystal clear in conception and sound. That was
it. I knew the sound I hoped to achieve even though, as usual, I didn’t have any idea
what we would play.
And yes, I guess it is the music of the “day after” because once
you know something, you can never act as if you don’t know it, even if you want to.
What I knew as a player was that there was too much noise in the air for me, and not
enough clarity. Before people can understand what you have to say, they must be able to
hear your voice clearly. Otherwise they hear something that is not there or hear it
incorrectly. Speaking only for me, my “voice” on the soprano had never been
captured on a recording. “Now Is” does that for me. Also, the first time Joe
McPhee and I met and played together 12 years ago, we each played soprano, and the real
sound of that has never been captured fully until “Now Is”.
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