Gerry Hemingway
- an overview
The very first major compositional project I undertook in 1977 which was supported by the Connecticut Commission on the Arts was a series of 8 duets based on the paintings of David Pallian. Its instrumentation was flexible and it included duet performances with Leo Smith, Ray Anderson, Mark Dresser and Mark Helias (not always with me in the equation). So duets as a forum for music making have been an important part of my musical journey from my earliest days of composing and performing music.
This page provides an overview of active (listed first) and recent duo projects and recordings. From this page you can connect to more detail on pages devoted to each individual project.
Samples of some of these duos can be found on the mp3 page as well most of these recordings are also available from this page.
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This duo began in 2016 as a series of residencies, rehearsals and performances in Ireland, and further evolved in 2018 in the context of a trio with bassist Barry Guy with the release of the recording “Illuminated Silence”. Both the duo and trio have since co-existed but it is the duo that has become a central platform for both players. There is by now a shared and well understood language between them that moves seamlessly between formal structures, spontaneous invention, as well as their unique interpretations of song. The release of “Kairos” in 2023 debuts this array of possibilities which continue to grow as a rich and varied performance platform for both musicians.
The duo will be touring in the UK in October 2024, and thoughout Europe in 2025. |
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As a duo Gerry And Earl were very active in the 1980's and have become active again in 2024 -2025. There were many projects that each initiated and one of them, a quartet called Re-Ensemble Gerry put together in 1987 along with George Lewis and Anne LeBaron, was documented and the program included the duo "Rosebud" which has now surfaced on the New World Records release entitled "Clepton". The remainder of the CD includes a project with the GRH trio performed at the Donnaueschingen festival in 2006. This wonderful CD can be found here. We will be performing in duo at Taktlos in the spring of 2025 and in collaboration with Georg Graewe in Austria nd Germany as well. |
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Since arriving in Switzerland I connected with the remarkable trombonist Samuel Blaser who is originally from Neuchatel, Switzerland but now resides in Berlin. there are three differennt settings. There is his quartet which currently tours the blues repertoire from the current 2018 release "Early in the Morning". There is the collective trio "Fourth Landscape" with French pianist Benoît Delbecq, and there is our duo which started around 2013. In August of 2015 we had a performance in the North of the Netherlands which was superbly recorded and now released on NoBusiness records in a limited edition of 300 Lps. Next plans are to tour in the US in 2019. Click here for more info about this duo and the recording.
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I first met Vincent Glanzmann in NYC, prior to my expatriating to Switzerland to teach and reside in Luzern, Switzerland in 2009. For the next few years he would be a student of mine. Since that time he has established himself as a very individual solo performer and a frequent collaborator in many projects based in Switzerland and Berlin. We began performing a collaborative adaption of one his electro-acoustic solo works Composition O and have since that time evolved 5 or 6 versions of the piece, finally arriving at a performance we felt best represented the work that will be published in the near future. Our collaboration continues with a new work, "Composition H" which will be premiered in November of 2018. Video here. More info here and here.
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Marilyn Crispell & Gerry Hemingway
   
Their playing together began in 1984 as part of the Anthony Braxton Quartet, this was complemented by many trios and mutual projects throughoutthe 90s, the duo has emerged as the most enduring forum for their musical kinship. The first recording released in 1992 on Knitting Factory works was followed almost 20 years later by the 2011 release of Affinities on Intakt records. In May of 2015, "Table of Changes" with music captured from their 2013 European tour became the second release on the Intakt label. For more about the duo and historical background on their various projects together, click here.
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This musical association dates back to Ellery working in the GH Quartet at its inception in 1997 and continuing as a core member through thats group's various incarnations. Ellery continues to play in Hemingway's ensemble music as part of the new formation of his quintet. This duo was a natural outgrowth of their long musical relation. Click here for information about the recent release, and here for background on their past & current work together. |
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Gerry met Terrence via Kermit Driscoll who briefly was presenting the three of us as a vehicle for his music in 2008. Since that time Terry & Gerry have spawned many musical projects together some initiated by Terry and others such as the current GH quintet under Gerry's stewardship. The duo was a natural outcome and platform for the continued development of this musical relationship. Click here for more detail about the recent recording on Auricle Records. |
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In 2003 Jin Hi Kim invited Gerry to Korea to perform on a project with her and a number of traditional Korean musicians in a project called Sanjo Ecstasy. You can seeclips of the project on You Tube here Pt 1 and Pt 2. They have performed in a number of project initatiated by Jin Hi Kim and have more recently began performing duo mostly in the context of a multimedia work called Digital Buddha (a video excerpt here). Their work together has culminated in the release of "Pulses" on Auricle Records. More information about this recording is available here. |
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Beginning with some many hours in the car traveling throughout the Midwest and MidAtlantic regions of the US, this duo developed a vast and articulate mutual vocabulary and a unique manner of exchange that has culminated in two well received recordings, both taken from performances in the US with a few works recorded in a London studio. This site has a detailed page about the duo (click here) and also a newer page regarding the more recent Auricle Recording "Buffalo Pearl". |
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In 2007 Anthony Braxton and Gerry Hemingway spent two summer days recording 4 one hour programs of improvised music at Wesleyan University. Anthony & Gerry had not performed or recorded together since 1994, and the primary experience for their long experience of making music together was in the context of the Anthony Braxton Quartet between 1983 and 1994 (though there were other projects as well - forinstance "Second Line Ratoon" documented on Bim Huis recordings). This duo recording offers a substantial listening experience. Its available here, and these reviews offer more description of the recording (From La Vif - Phillip Elhem- in French), (Art Lange - Point of Departure - scroll down) (Mark Corroto - All About Jazz) (Pachi Tapiz - in Spanish). |
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Released in 1998 this is something quite unique in Gerry Hemingway's repertoire, a series of improvised duets with vocalist Andrea Goodman, known primarily for her work with Meredith Monk, based on the first eleven James Wanless Voyager Tarot cards. This was a collaborative venture in essence to find a sound world that embodied some of main archetypes these cards so beautifully illustrate. The recording is available from Amazon, or by contacting either Andrea or Gerry directly. |
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Over the past 15 years Gerry has intersected with Ivo Perelman for a number of different recording projects. This duo recording was culled from two sessions quite far apart, one with Ivo having pre-recorded midi based piano which Hemingway improvised to, and the 2nd a session in Brooklyn in the winter of 2009 with tenor and some of Ivo's more unusual manifestations of a tenor saxophone (one without the keys). |
