Rhys Chatham | |
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| Background information | |
| Born | (1952-09-19)September 19, 1952 (age 73) |
| Origin | New York City, U.S. |
| Genres | Minimalism,no wave,experimental rock,noise |
| Occupation(s) | Composer,guitarist,music theorist,trumpeter |
| Instrument(s) | Electric guitar,trumpet |
| Years active | 1971–present |
| Labels | Northern Spy Nonesuch Moers Music Dossier NTone/Ninja Tune Table of the Elements Wire Editions |
| Website | www.rhyschatham.net |
Rhys Chatham (born September 19, 1952) is an American composer, guitarist, trumpet player, and multi-instrumentalist (flutes in C, alto and bass, keyboard), primarily active inavant-garde andminimalist music. He is best known for his "guitar orchestra" compositions.[1] He has lived in France since 1987.
Chatham began his musical career as apiano tuner for avant-gardeMinimalist composerLa Monte Young as well asharpsichord tuner forGustav Leonhardt,Rosalyn Tureck andGlenn Gould. He studiedflute under Sue Ann Kahn, with whom he first encounteredcontemporary classical music, and studied soon afterwards underelectronic music pioneerMorton Subotnick and minimalist icon La Monte Young. He was a member of Young's avant-garde group,Theatre of Eternal Music during the early seventies. Chatham also played withTony Conrad in an early version of Conrad's group,The Dream Syndicate. In 1971, while still in his teens, Chatham became the firstmusic director at the experimental art spaceThe Kitchen in lower Manhattan. His early musical work, such asTwo Gongs (1971) owes a significant debt to La Monte Young and other minimalists such asTerry Riley andPhilip Glass.[2]
By 1977, Chatham's music was heavily influenced bypunk rock, having seen an earlyRamones concert. He formed theNo Wave groups Tone Death (that performed early versions of hisGuitar Trio)[3] andThe Gynecologists after being intrigued and influenced by the group of artists that music critics would labelNo Wave in 1978. That year, he began performingGuitar Trio around downtown Manhattan with an ensemble that includedGlenn Branca, as well as Nina Canal ofUt. During this period, he wrote several works for large guitar ensembles, includingDrastic Classicism, a collaboration with dancerKarole Armitage.Drastic Classicism was first released in 1982 on the compilationNew Music from Antarctica, put together by Kit Fitzgerald,John Sanborn andPeter Laurence Gordon. It was also included on the 1987 album that also included his 1982 compositionDie Donnergötter (German for "The Thundergods").
In 1978,Artists Space served as a site of inception for the No Wave movement, hosting a five night underground No Wave music festival, organized by artistsMichael Zwack andRobert Longo, that featured ten local bands; including Chatham'sThe Gynecologists and Tone Death.[4]
Members of the New York Citynoise rock bandBand of Susans began their careers in Chatham's ensembles; they later performed a cover of Chatham's "Guitar Trio" on their 1991 album,The Word and the Flesh. (This parallels the way that members of fellow NYC noise rockersSonic Youth began their careers in Branca's ensembles;Thurston Moore ofSonic Youth did play with Chatham as well.)[5]
Chatham began playing trumpet in 1983, studying under Carmine Curuso and Andrew Crocker, and his more recent works explore an early minimalist vocabulary employingloop anddelay techniques for trumpet; these are performed by Chatham himself. Examples of this work can be heard on the albumOutdoor Spell, released by Northern Spy in 2011, and a recent duo album withCharlemagne Palestine, entitledYouuu + Mee = Weee, released on the BelgianSubRosa Label in 2014.
In 2002, he enjoyed a resurgence following the release of a limited-edition 3 CD retrospective box set on the record labelTable of the Elements,An Angel Moves Too Fast to See: Selected Works 1971-1989, complete with 130-page booklet. TheAn Angel Moves Too Fast to See part of the title comes from Chatham's 1989 composition for one hundred guitars. He has been since touring with his one-hundred guitar orchestra in Europe.
In 2005, he was commissioned by the city of Paris, in his adopted homeland, to write a composition for 400 electric guitars entitledA Crimson Grail, as part of theNuit Blanche Festival. Approximately 10,000 people were present at the performance, and 100,000 more watched it on live television. A CD of excerpts from this concert was released in January 2007 by Table of the Elements.
Rhys Chatham was touring the original 30 minute version ofGuitar Trio in the USA and Europe, renamedG3 because the instrumentation had been increased to between six and ten electric guitars, electric bass and drums. In February 2007 he completed a twelve-city tour called theGuitar Trio (G3) Is My Life North America Tour, which was accompanied by the original film byRobert Longo that was projected behind the performance, entitledPictures for Music (1979). The sets consisted of local musicians from each city of the performances, including members of Sonic Youth,Tortoise,Godspeed You! Black Emperor,Hüsker Dü,Brokeback,90 Day Men,Town & Country,Die Kreuzen, Bird Show and others. A three-CD box set of these performances was released by Table of the Elements in March 2008.
Rhys Chatham made his first American presentation of a composition for a one-hundred guitar orchestra inWilliamsport, Pennsylvania, on May 23, 2008, with an orchestra composed of local students and teachers,[6] as well as many professional guitarists. This performance was the premiere of a new composition entitledLes 100 Guitares: G100.
The American premiere ofA Crimson Grail was on August 8, 2008. Two-hundred electric guitarists performed the piece at theDamrosch Park Bandshell in New York City. The performance was part of a free concert series, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, that was being commissioned by theLincoln Center. But rain canceled the concert for safety reasons. For the 2009 premiere, precautions were taken so that the concert could go on even if it rained.
Concurrent with his work for guitar orchestras and smaller ensembles, Chatham's trumpet style has evolved from its characteristic distorted sound of the 90s to its present more dreamy and laid back approach to playing the instrument, influenced by players such asDon Cherry andJon Hassell. Examples of this style can be heard on Chatham's releases,The Bern Project, released by Hinterzimmer Records in 2010, andOutdoor Spell, released in 2011 by Northern Spy.
In 2023 Chatham and hisNo WaveXS: The Opera Opus[7] was featured at the ParisCentre Pompidou in a Nicolas Ballet curated exhibition entitledWho You Staring At: Visual culture of the no wave scene in the 1970s and 1980s.[8] A video documenting the Pompidou March 8 eventXS: The Opera Opus: An Operatic Transvaluation of No Wave Aesthetics byJoseph Nechvatal and Rhys Chatham was held and published online at the Pompidou website.[9]
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