By assembling musicians from across the bleeding edge of contemporary American music, the Downtown Composers Collective (DCC) offers creatives access to talent beyond the simplistic scope of most mainstream music.
| by: | Apr 1, 2001 |
Jazz illuminatus Henry Threadgill, producer/composer Steve Fisk, composer/instrumentalist Wayne Horvitz and fusion composer/instrumentalist Nicky Skopelitis are the DCC talents in question. On the business end, the New York-based company was formed by executive producers Trish Murray (former VP/director of broadcast with Cole & Weber, Seattle), Bill Ronan (her husband and former exec producer/principal at Cinevox, Seattle) and Skopelitis, who also acts as musical director.
"After years of using other people's music for creative inspiration, I started getting frustrated," says Ronan, referring to the role of his record collection as the starting reference point for many an ad project.
"There is a big difference between working with the guy who wrote a song and a guy who is copying the style; it's always a watered-down version of the real thing when you are appropriating."
Ronan had been introducing creatives to Pigpen (Horvitz's jazz--grunge project) and Material, the Funkronomicron, Pram and Ekstasis (a few of Skopelitis' collaborations with Axiom producer Bill Laswell) to positive results for some time as part of his role as producer with Cinevox. He noted the interest these eclectic works raised, and, after moving to New York with Murray, they assembled a cadre of composers comprised of some of these avant-garde talents.
"It was funny convincing them to work in advertising; none of them knew much about it and they looked at ad music with bemusement," says Ronan.
"They are not necessarily experimental musicians but everything they do is unique. There is always some odd phrasing or crazy sound that gives them an edge. There are a lot of ways to do music but only a few people who are original every time," says Ronan.
Cases in point: between them, Fisk, Horvitz and Skopelitis have played or produced for jazz avant-gardists such as John Zorn and Herbie Hancock as well as alt-rock favorites such as Nirvana, Soul Coughing, the Afghan Whigs and the Geraldine Fibbers. Threadgill has recorded more than 150 works, and despite status as one of the top living jazz artists, Threadgill defies genre-specific classification.
Webfiles>
DCC> www.composercollective.com
