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sonic openings under pressure Brennan's an abstract expressionist with chops. He's utterly coherent in his free associative improvisations, and he imbues his music with a great deal of timbral and rhythmic variety. His compositions are fresh and quite original. Patrick Brennan's a first class saxophonist and composer, and his trio is one of the most interesting I've heard in some time. - Cadence patrick brennan |
Composer, saxophonist, ensemble leader, author & educator, patrick brennan is a native of Detroit who studied theory & composition with Bob Shechtman at Thomas Jefferson College & was mentored in New York City at large & by such undersung heroes as saxophonists Marvin Blackman, John Stubblefield & Detroit composer David Durrah.
Brennan coordinates multidirectionally jointed polyphonic structures that interpose themselves within the communications among the improvisers. His compositions explore intra-ensemble creative dynamics & thinking processes as much as they do sonic image & design, having grown out of both a sympathy for the living interactions of music making & a belief in raising the level of music making through collaboratively involving & entrusting each participating musician in the conceptual & imaginative processes that generate the music. All of which depends upon an intensive ensemble involvement as much in contrast with the realpolitik pick-up-band ethic pervading much of both mainstream & free jazz as with orchestral music purely organized around the reading of notated parts.
Brennan has recorded six albums of original compositions with sonic openings under pressure. He also spent a number of years developing personal & musical relationships with Gnawa musicians in Morocco & recorded the collaborative sudani project with M'allim Najib Soudani of Essaouira & the Madrid based American percussionist & vocalist, Nirankar Khalsa. Other recent projects have included solo saxophone performances, the transmedia band (collectively improvised interactive saxophone, dance, live painting & video), & triangle bounce (polyrhythmic chamber compositions for 3 electric guitars utilizing spatial positioning of sound sources as a central component of the music).
The practical challenges of communicating new musical ideas to collaborating musicians (& listeners) has kindled a strong interest in the workings & processes of communication, which has led to directly communicating within educational settings as a complementary extension of the musical process. University, museum & cultural center residencies, clinics, master classes, workshops & lectures - singly & in conjunction with the ensemble (all the way from those with young learners through those with professional musicians & ordinary listeners) have all supplied occasions for this interaction.
Brennan is also actively writing about music & the creative process in essays, liner notes, art monographs & a current work in progress involving interviews with musicians & composers about how formal musical elements also function as communication devices among improvising musicians as the music is being created in performance.
Brennan’s newest recording with sonic openings under pressure - with David Pleasant & Hill Greene - is entitled muhheankantuk (river that flows two ways) & is scheduled for release in May 2007 on the Clean Feed label.
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by Hernani Faustino