UNC Asheville Vinyl Listening Party: “Sing Me a Song of Songmy” with Dr. Bill Bares, UNCA Faculty

UNC Asheville’s Music Department presents the UNCA VINYL PARTY: A monthly listening party celebrating significant albums in their entirety. This 2nd installment of the series will feature a guided listening tour of Sing Me a Song of Songmy (“a fantasy for electromagnetic tape”) from Associate Professor of Music William Bares. “Sing Me a Song of Songmy” is a 1971 Atlantic Records album that provides socio-political commentary on the Vietnam-era massacre of some 400 civilians at “Son My” village. The production brought together unlikely performing forces: jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard’s quintet, a choir, a string section, organ, tape loops, synthesizer, and spoken word. The music was composed, arranged and produced by Turkish musique concrete composer Ilhan Mimaroglu. For such a large budget album, record sales were disappointing. However, as Bares will show, the album is not a typical avant-garde jazz-protest or “third stream” effort. An unlikely album both profoundly “of” its time and yet also way “ahead” of its time, it can be considered as one of the most provocative jazz-art music collaborations of the twentieth century.

Refreshments including full bar menu, tea and drip-coffee service will be available from Session Bar and Café. Small bites from the kitchen including deli case offerings and bagged chips will also be available for purchase.

Cost: Sliding Scale. Suggested $5 Student / $15 GA More information and ticket purchase at https://withfriends.co/event/12763420

About Bill Bares Pianist / composer / scholar William Bares received his Ph.D in ethnomusicology (Harvard University) in 2009. His research interests include transatlantic jazz and environmental music. He spent most of the years 2006-2008 in Europe researching European jazz scenes and playing professionally. He taught at Harvard, Brown, Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory before taking a job as professor of music and co-director of jazz studies at UNC Asheville in 2011. Bares is an active member of Asheville’s musical community. He was the solo pianist in the Blue Ridge Orchestra’s debut of “Rhapsody in Blue,” coordinated the Sunday “Jazz Showcase” at Asheville’s famed Isis Music Hall, and directed “Ecomusicologies 2014: Dialogues”—a conference/festival in Asheville in October 2014. His book, “Jazz and the European Dream” is forthcoming.