. . . one of the longest established groups of its type on the East Coast, USA.
Many of the trio's recordings have been internationally distributed, and still in print. Principals - bassist: Gary Mazzaroppi, drummer: John Mosemann
W E L C O M E .
. . . for now this site is mostly here as a calling card. The "do not disturb sign" is gone.
The exact model of the website is evolving.
For now, unusual extended works are available for streaming and licensing. If you have time, listen at least until the point this happens: "I didn't hear that coming."
We expect extraordinary amounts of material of all sorts to become available and categorized. For now if you hear anything you would like to licence, please drop us a line - licensing
In addition, your subscription would be most welcome.
Mark Kramer is a pianist/multi-instrumentalist. His jazz piano style - compared with those of Evans, Jarrett, Hancock, Guaraldi, and others - developed independently and in tandem. Kramer 1) leads and records his own trios, 2) is a co-producer and co-performer with bassist Eddie Gomez, 3) has accompanied hundreds of internationally acclaimed jazz artists, and 4) works simultaneously in high profile careers outside of music. Kramer has produced a wide range of recordings from original jazz works and standards, to unusual specialty jazz, trance, techno works. Mark's most recent area of interest is in developing a system which integrates concurrent spontaneous live performance, notation, recording, and rapid orchestration of orchestral-band-chamber- exotic instrument combinations. This proprietary invention expedites exploration, refinement, and presentation of FULL-STREAM-MUSIC ™- improvisational and compositional solutions, all based on the immediacy of classic jazz. Examples are given in the music player on this interim website. Mark's earliest influences were George Shearing, Ray Charles, The Silhouettes, The Three Sounds, Cannonball Adderly, Horace Silver, Idrees Sadiq, Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner, Oscar Peterson, Red Garland, Wynton Kelly, Charles Rosen, Glenn Gould, Vivaldi, JS Bach, Billy Strayhorn, Stan Kenton, Coltrane, Borodin, Rachmoninoff, Stockhausen, Shoenberg, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, and Satie.
An avid electronics and recording enthusiast in childhood, Mark in the mid-80s designed and built one of the first professional quality ADAT based project studios equipped with a rebuilt 9 foot concert grand. The studio continues to produce internationally distributed works. Today, following several design iterations. recording is Pro-tools HD based. Besides excellent live multi-tracking capability, it now includes video and state of the art sample based instrumental and choral emulations through a responsive MIDI farm network.
This is a Fantasia-Impromptu for Chorus, Orchestra and Jazz Trio. It roughly sketches the evolution of jazz as based upon the 4:6 (2 @ 2:3)sub-Saharan polyrhythm (cross-rhythm.) "My African Heart" directly highlights seeming metric contradictions, resolving these as an organic whole. The typical call and response patterns are reiterated through rich variations. The "step dance" pattern is also in evidence. The piece glides into a quiet requiem, reflecting the brutal aftermath of genocide; a violation of the spirit which spawned jazz as a global art-form. CAUTION: At the outset a familiar stage is set for My African Heart, as well as for most of these pieces. This gives the newer language its context. So, hang in there for a few minutes. If you wish, use the blue slider to sample every few minutes to understand the often radical changes which are going to occur. Please try to listen past about 2'30". You'll see why it wouldn't work to introduce this music at say 3'42".
. . . is a music which is concurrently improvised by one or more musicians, recorded and notated in the moment. Based on accurate notation, the improvisation can then later be orchestrated, embellished, or simplified - in near turn-key fashion. This music, once the purview of masters gifted with massively durable musical memory, can now be created by many others.
The compositions issue from the mind's ear, drawing on any and all musical styles that the composer intends to bring to the moment - in unimpeded fashion. The music can range from emotionally rich and intellectually undisciplined: to highly structured, virtuosic, and emotional.
FULL STREAM MUSIC™ also requires a new discipline in performance: i.e., what is improvised on the source instrument must also employ specific techniques which pre-translate to the ensemble represented in the mind's ear.
Thus, the first impression is that these works are simply THIRD STREAM MUSIC. However, as defined by Professor Gunther Schuller, who invented the term, they are not. At times these works are jazz played with strings and classical instruments, are classical music improvised by a jazz player, have inserted bits of this and that at whim and at will, is sometimes jazz in fugal form by a jazz player. Consistent with Third Stream this music is not designed to do away with jazz or classical music; it is just another option.
Many of the techniques of FULL STREAM MUSIC have been used by film composers who improvise scores. However, as demonstrated, extended musical works - meant as foreground art - are more than possible with this art form. FULL STREAM MUSIC is tailored to musicians who do not want to, or who can't, interrupt the long arc of their creative process.
This is a classic four movement symphony. It is called the NAPKIN because the main themes were written on a napkin and in a hurry. FULL STREAM MUSIC:
the baroque style is employed as a jumping off point for a specific melding of improvisation as real-time composing. Thus, this music is probably not THIRD STREAM JAZZ - as defined definitively by Gunther Schuller.
I call it "FULL STREAM MUSIC," as it is simply the unimpeded flow of improvisation concurrently committed to notation (and sometimes later orchestrated.) In this case, FULL STREAM MUSIC is more related to jazz than any other genre because it is my interest, and because I am not at all classically trained. The beauty of the FULL STREAM MUSIC technique is that it strips away the stylistic facade of jazz, and exposes the underlying - hidden - music. It is at times jazz played with strings and classical instruments, it is classical music improvised by a jazz player, it is inserting bits of this and that at whim and at will, and it is sometimes jazz in fugal form by a jazz player. It is just another option for today’s musicians.
I played this particular symphony after pondering BACH'S Brandenburg concertos and working out his probable approach to them. It turns out, that Bach was a brilliant serial melodist who was able to take that source material and to parlay it into polyphony. It seems to me that the Brandenburg concertos are hugely long lines of melody with or without corny accompaniment. As supporting evidence, he was able to work that way in the cello and violin partitas. The integration of stylistic jazz improvisation in these 4 movements occurs in the middle of each movement. The challenge was in the blending. In all cases those sections designated as SOLO sections are based on the harmonies of preceding sections. Any section could be used for improvisation, once the chord symbols are actualized for the harmonies. There are other unposted examples of "full stream" in which the demarcations between jazz and not jazz are totally absent.