Composer/soloist: Tango Toy: Klezmer Stories

This is the first jazz-klezmer oriented CD from Paul Brody. It was produced by the Berlin state radio station and  features bassist, Carlo Bica, pianist, Jens Thomas, and drummer, Reiner Winch. (Laika Records 2000)

 

Composer/soloist: Animals & Cowboys

This sonic cartoon version of America is based on folk songs and lyrics found in a 50 cent Carl Sanburg collection. It features prominent musicians such as David Moss, Gayle Tufts, Billy Bang, Michael Rodach, Ed Schuller, Rudi Mahal, and Tony Buck from the Necks. (Nrw Jazz label 2002)

 

Ensemble Work

Ensembles as leader, composer, soloist:

Paul Brody’s Sadawi (Tzadik and Enja Records since 2007) (Six albums!)

Bern, Brody & Rodach (2013-2015) (www.bernbrodyrodach.com)

Detonation Orchestra featuring David Moss (2005-2011)

Tango Toy (1997-2004)

Paul Brody Octet (1987-2001)

Brody has been part of the following ensembles or performed with:

(Selection)

The Berkeley Promenade Orchestra (Director: Kent Nagano)

San Francisco Repertory Ballet

Arnold Dreyblatt Orchestra of Excited Strings & Winds

Ari Benjamin Meyers Redux Orchestra Versus Einsturzende Neubauten

Constanza Macras’s Dorky-Park

Barry White and the Love Unlimited Orchestra

She She Pop

Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird

Julian Rosefeldt’s Manifesto with Cate Blanchett

The Stone Sessions with John Zorn and Steven Bernstein

Alan Bern’s Semer Orchestra and The Other Europeans

17 Hippies

Meret Becker Tiny Teeth

Cora Frost

Die Geschwister Pfister

Asa

Clueso

Shirley Bassey

The New York Harlem Theater Ensemble

The Klezmer Conservatory Band

 

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Paul Brody’s Sadawi Documentary film excerpts. (Solo)

 

 

Piranha Records Promotional Video: Semer Ensemble

Documentary Film trailer about Other Europeans Ensemble
Semer Ensemble on tour in Canada review: 

Growing Hope: Alabama Prison Arts & Education Project

Growing Hope is an extension of another WDR (West German Radio) documentary, Most Wanted Poets. While visiting prison classes with Kyes Stevens, the head of the education program, I was moved by many of the talks with both students and teachers, and found them to be a valuable resource for those interested in learning about how education and art are key to human survival, to humanness itself.

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Deutschland Radio/Prix Europa

Talking Melody-Singing Story

 An Operatic Sound Installation by Paul Brody

The installation has been selected as a radio art feature for DEUTSCHLAND RADIO and for the PRIX EUROPA – The European Broadcasting Festival – Europe’s largest annual tri-medial festival.

 

Talking Melody-Singing Story was originally created as a sound installation for Brody’s 2016 Artist in Residence project for the Munich Kammerspiele Opera Department summer festival.

The piece is based on the two main components of opera: aria and recitative. Part one, Talking-Melody, features singers recalling the moment they fist discovered that their voices were special. The voice melodies of the singers are used as a compositional base to bring out the melodic quality of them speaking.

In other words, stories they tell about melody are transformed into an aria-like composition. The interviews include vocal stars such as Anna Prohaska, Laurent Naouri and Lorin Sklamberg.  A mini opera house was built to contain the installation.

The second part, Singing-Story, contains recordings of people in three different cities describing what they associate with opera. The interviews are from the street around the Munich Kammerspiele, people in rural Alabama, and an Italian woman living in Berlin. Those talking about opera are given a recitative style accompaniment, the story telling part of opera. This mini documentary about opera is both an exploration into operatic form, and into the story telling voice itself.

The background of this sound installation adopted for radio is from Brody’s work

dedicated to inspiring his listeners to hear the narrative-musical quality of spoken language. He has produced installations exploring story telling and voice-melody and identity for the Jewish Museum Berlin, Transmedialle Festival NK Art Space,  Maxim Gorki Theater, and the Prinz-Georg Room for Art.

Süddeutsche Zeitung Kritik:

“Talking Melody – Singing Story”. Der knapp zwanzigminütige Hörfilm des amerikanische Musikers Paul Brody reißt die oft so perfekt inszenierte Oberfläche der Kunstform Oper auf, lässt etwa Sänger intim plaudern oder befragt Strafgefangene in Alabama zu ihrem Verhältnis zur Oper, genauso wie deutsche Passanten…Brodys Klanginstallation fängt diesen Moment des Intimwerdens wunderbar auf: Opernsänger, die über ihre ersten bewussten Erfahrungen mit ihrer Stimme plaudern – die meisten dieser Sängern fangen dann prompt an, Kinderlieder zu singen – nicht erzwungen, mehr als klangliches Beispiel für ihre Anekdoten.

Critique translation:

South German Newspaper

Talking Melody – Singing Story.”  The almost 20 minute listening-film by the American musician, Paul Brody, tears off the often perfect veneer of the operatic art form. The singers chat in intimately about singing, prisoners in Alabama and Germans passing by on the street tell about what they associate with opera… Brody’s sound installation wonderfully captures moments of intimacy: opera singers tell about their earliest memories of experiencing their voices —most of them break out into a children’s song — not because they’re asked to, but naturally, to give a musical example to their anecdotes.

 

 

 

 

Production originally for the Kammerpiele Munich Opera Department Summer Festival 2016 Artist in Residence project. Edited for Deutschlandradio 2017 Composition: Paul Brody except for the ‘Italian woman’s story’ at the end uses a section of Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi Special thanks to the singers and David Marton: Kevin Conners- Bavarian State Opera Jelena Kuljic -Munich Kammerspiele Opera Department Laurent Naouri -Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, The Metropolitan Opera Anna Prohaska -Salzburger Festspiele, Royal Opera, London Lorin Sklamberg -Klezmatics Musicians: David Moss and Paul Brody Intro voice and trumpet Verena Vehrling -viola Mark Kovnatsky -violin Jan Tilman Shade -cello Jan Roder -bass Paul Brody-trumpet, piano, trombone Gerald Meyers -trombone Rachel Susser -flute Christian -Dawid-clarinet Christian Koegel-guitar Michael Rodach -guitar Valentine Butt -accordion Elena Graupe -drums Clara Hinterberger -Announcer Production: Cupcake Studio Berlin Mix: Jens Troendle Studio Berlin

Grundgesetzland: WDR

Was bedeutet es den Deutschen, in einem Land mit Grundgesetz zu leben? Bekommt das Wort “Würde” eine andere Bedeutung, je nachdem in welcher Kultur man aufgewachsen ist? Der amerikanische Komponist Paul Brody befragt
Menschen, die in Deutschland zu Hause sind, nach ihrer Sicht auf die ersten fünf Artikel des Grundgesetzes. -Von

WDR 3 Hörspiel:
Autor, Regie, Komposition: Paul Brody
Redaktion Leslie Rosin;
Produktion WDR 2017
Stimmen von: Hassan Akkouch Norbert Bolz Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff Elena Graupe Christian Gedschold Ljiljana Vulin-Hinrichs Lore Maria Peschel-Gutzeit Mini Kapur Vivien Lee David Marton Carmen Sitter Teilnehmer des Salons der Sprache Ewa Struszczinska-Wille Jelena Kuljic Hüseyin Yoldaş Ulrike Offenberg, Tarik Ercan, Dagmar Wegener Frauen vom Nachbarschaftsheim Kinder von Keistpark und Passanten Musiker: Ulli Bartel-Geige Paul Brody- Trompete, Klavier, Posaune Jan Tilman Schade- Cello Uli Kempendorff- Klarinette Jan Roder-Bass Rachel Susse- Floete Production,
recording, editing: Paul Brody Additional editing, mixing: Max Knoth Music mix: Jens Troendl
Salon der Sprache Aufnahme: Sebastian Meissner

Paul Brody’s Poetry Electric: Trailer, Artist’s talk, Album

FULL ALBUM on all major streaming platforms!

Paul Brody’s wild and ambient compositions inspired by the voices of poets he recorded. The poets introduce themselves and often describe the sounds that they feel are important in their poems. These are often included in the soundscape, along with Trumpet, cello, accordion, and noises from objects found on the streets of Berlin. Brody thinks of these compositions as “musical translations” of the poems, which connects the work with an obscure method of translating poetry called homophonic translation. This is when a poem is translated, not by the meaning of the text, but by the sonic quality of the poem.

Gregor Dotzauer: Chief literary editor from Der Tagesspiegel
Prefabricated tracks, samples thrown in and trumpet solos born of the moment, ranging from a squeak to a hymn, make Brody’s performances an experience in their own right. The noisily atmospheric and the distinctively peeling, the melodic and the rhythmic enter into a liaison that gives the lyrics a second life. After centuries of closeness, the contemporary poem and the song have a hard time with each other for many reasons. The way in which Brody’s music takes on the voices of poets from different languages and regions, without completely assimilating them, perhaps there is a future that we no longer dare to hope for.

Two of the writers, Uljana Wolf and Christian Hawkey, were already working with poetry via homophonic translation, or when a poem is translated from the sound of the phrases rather than the meaning of the words. Brody’s compositions and improvisations extend homophonic translation in that he draws inspiration from both the sonic element of the poems well as the expression of the poet’s own voiceThe previous concerts have been full, and the audience has enjoyed an after-show party with ambient music based on the voices of the poets. Vowels expand into long tonal passages, consonants cut into grooves, and syllables are flushed with tonal colors.

ABOUT PAUL BRODY:
From Blixa Bargel to John Zorn, Brody works regularly as a sound artist, composer and trumpeter at the Théâtre de Vidy in Lausanne, the Münchner Kammerspiele, the Berliner Schaubühne, the MC93 Paris, the New York Harlem Opera and the Vienna Burgtheater, among others. He works closely with the music producer John Zorn. His album HINTER ALLEN WORTEN, which features artists such as Clueso, Meret Becker and Jelena Kulijic, was on the best list of the German Record Critics’ Award. Paul Brody was nominated for the Europe Broadcasting Festival and the Vienna International Feature Festival for his work as a sound artist. His sound art works have already been heard on WDR, Deutschlandradio, the Jewish Museum Berlin, the MuseumsQuartier Vienna and at Transmediale Berlin. He is currently writing an opera for the Opéra National de Lorraine in Nancy. He works closely with the theater directors David Marton and Hans-Werner Kroesinger.

SPRACHMELODIE-KLANGFARBENMELODIE (SPEECHMELODY-SOUNDCOLORMELODY)

Writers: Uljana Wolf, Marica Bodrožić, Tomas Venclova, Katharina Ogentoye, Christian Hawkey, Ellen Hinsey, Gregor Dotzauer, Tom Drury, Angélica Freitas, Gregor Hens, Ivana Sajko, Tom Bresemann, Donna Stonecipher, Michael Krüger, Marina Frenk, Orsolya Kalasz, Isaac Goodman, Carolyn Gammon

Tomas Venclova reading Into the Fire

Carolyn Gammon reading The Warble by

Photo: Tom Bresemann