CMS series: Exquisite Jazz duo, NY’s Cooper-Moore, piano & Boston, Francisco Mela, drums

https://www.facebook.com/events/662440919147348

www.creativemusicseries.com

Free Jazz, New Music, Improv

Their “Music Frees Our Souls” performance

Cooper-Moore: “his solo piano tour de force of musical styles will also take the listener on an adventurous journey”  All About Jazz. Francisco Mela is a favorite among jazz\’s elite instrumentalists; all of whom cite his charisma, sophistication, and life-arming spirit as an extension of his incredible talents as a composer and drummer

\”I believe it is my work to express in the Music the pain of loss and injustice, and to give expression to the victory of outlasting our losses and to our facing down adversity. And in the Music I feel it a duty to remember the struggle and the overcoming, and to express faith, forbearance, and hope in a better world.\”- Cooper-Moore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGi56Psisw0

“Cooper-Moore is a great, overlooked pianist – his neglect as regrettable as that of Herbie Nichols in his day…” The Journal of Music

“ Cooper-Moore is one of those cats that’s been a prime mover in creative improvised music for years, but has next to nothing in terms of a discography to show for it. He’s living proof that the recorded legacy of the music, while seemingly vast, is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what has transpired and lives on only in the memories of those who have witnessed it first hand through concerts and performance.”  Free Music Archives (FMA).

“…that despite his hair-trigger improvisational tendencies Cooper-Moore remains at his core one of the most lyrical musical souls” FMA

Francisco Mela

Boston’s most in demand Jazz drummer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjLU4YgCh3c

Francisco Mela is a favorite among jazz\’s elite instrumentalists; all of whom cite his charisma, sophistication, and life-arming spirit as an extension of his incredible talents as a composer and drummer.  Including McCoy Tyner, Joe Lovano, Kenny Barron, Quincy Jones, John Scofield, Cooper-Moore, many more.

\”…Mela\’s drumming is expressive and rudimentary perfect, laying down an expansive palette, while not crowding his fellow accompanists.\”[4]     All about Jazz

\”Mela also has one of the most mercurial and quickest-thinking brains in music and can be both powerful and lucid, turning on a dime from an almost other-worldly, hallucinatory voice to a musician with a painterly, patrician demeanor.\”[5]     LatinJazzNet

\”…the drummer achieves a rare balance between sophistication and abandon, as he delivers irrepressible rhythmic layers behind, between and around the rest of his band.\”[6]       All about Jazz

Francisco Mela is a man who lives to drum.   NY Times

Cooper-Moore, bio:

Pianist / Multi-Instrumentalist / Composer / Instrument Builder

As a composer, performer, instrument builder/designer, storyteller, teacher, mentor, and organizer, Cooper-Moore has been a major, if somewhat behind-the-scenes, catalyst in the world of creative music for over 40 years. As a child prodigy Cooper-Moore played piano in churches near his birthplace in the Piedmont region of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. His performance roots in the realm of avant jazz music date to the NYC Loft Jazz era in the early/mid-70s. His first fully committed jazz group was formed in 1970 – the collective trio Apogee with David S. Ware and drummer Marc Edwards. A studio recording of this group was made in 1977, and issued as Birth of a Being on hatHut under Ware’s name in 1979 (re-mixed and re-issued in expanded form on AUM Fidelity in 2015!). He earned a B.A. in Music Education from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and later studied composition-arranging at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, moving to New York in 1973. Sonny Rollins asked them to open for him at the Village Vanguard in 1973, and they did so with aplomb. Following an evidently rather trying European tour with Ware, Beaver Harris, and Brian Smith in 1981, Cooper-Moore returned home and completely destroyed his piano, with sledgehammer and fire, in his backyard. He didn’t play piano again until some years after, instead focusing his energies from 1981-1985 on developing and implementing curriculum to teach children through music via the Head Start and other music programs. Returning to New York in 1985, he spent a great part of his creative time working and performing with theatre and dance productions, largely utilizing his hand-crafted instruments. It was not until the early 90s, when William Parker asked him to join his group In Order To Survive, that Cooper-Moore’s pianistic gifts were again regularly featured in the jazz context. In the early ‘aughts the group Triptych Myth was his own first regular working jazz group in decades and together they blazed some trails and released two albums: one rich formative, and one exquisite. A destined creative re-union with David S. Ware in the Planetary Unknown quartet, the Digital Primitives trio with Assif Tsahar & Chad Taylor, and continued work with William Parker followed. Cooper-Moore’s creative life continues well-strong and unabated into the present day. He was the Lifetime Achievement Honoree at the 22nd iteration of Vision Festival, NYC on May 29, 2017. Cooper-Moore also has written and performed for playwrights and choreographers.

Francisco Mela:                       

Born in Bayamo, Cuba,[1] Francisco Mela studied at the Music School of Arts El Yarey[1] as a teenager before furthering his studies at the National School of Arts for Teachers, el CENCEA.[1] He taught at Rafael\’s Cabrera Conservatory of Music and played with some of the country\’s top Latin jazz musicians, as well as leading his group, MelaSon Latin Jazz Band, that toured throughout Mexico. In 2000, he moved to Boston to study at Berklee College of Music and shortly afterwards invited to join their faculty where he still instructs!  [1]

He became the house drummer at the Wally\’s Café. It was here where he developed the concept for what would later be his own group.

In 2005, Mela joined the quartet of saxophonist Joe Lovano. Of particular note was the group\’s 2008 album on Blue Note entitled Folk Art.[2] Later that year, Mela was approached by McCoy Tyner to join his trio. Said Tyner of his new young drummer, “Mela is just a fantastic player. He has his own style and his own sound, which is what I look for in a drummer.”

Mela was named the Twin Cities Jazz Festival\’s first artistic director in 2014,[3] Before appointment, he served as artistic director for the Xalapa Jazz Festival in Veracruz, Mexico (2010-2013).

In late 2016, Mela was part of an inaugural ensemble that joined Afro-Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés and saxophonist Joe Lovano for an international tour throughout Europe and North America.

Mela has released eight albums as a leader: Melao, Cirio, Tree of Life, Fe, and MPT Volume 1, including the three volume duet series, “Music Frees Our Souls”, affirming Mela’s unique niche in the melting pot that is now New York’s jazz and avant-garde scene.