Music as Spiritual Practice: James Falzone at Wistariahurst Museum

Music can be used to uplift us spiritually and to sell products. It can be used to urge us to make love and to make war. This malleability is what makes music so ubiquitous and such a powerful force in our lives. James Falzone, who gave a solo concert at Holyoke’s Wistariahurst Museum on March 20, understands the power of sound to transform us. Playing clarinet, flutes, shruti box and piano, Falzone filled the marble Music Room with vibrations both beautiful and troubling. On March 23 at Amherst College, he gave a superb lecture on the critical role the arts play in a liberal arts education. Together, these two events painted a compelling case for the importance of music in our lives.

Falzone is Associate Dean and Professor of Music at Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle University. His appearance in the Valley was part of his solo barnstorm through the Midwest and northeast United States. The 54-year old musician and scholar is no stranger to western Massachusetts. Jazz Shares has presented his clarinet septet (The Renga Ensemble), his world music quartet (Allos Musica Ensemble), his duo with bassist/vocalist Katie Ernst (Wayfaring), and his quartet for three clarinets and voice (Pneuma). Taken together, they paint a portrait of a consummate musician and an evolved human being.

Falzone began Friday’s program from the back of the room, and made his way to the stage playing a wooden flute from the indigenous Paiute people of the Great Basin (western U.S.). This sacred wind instrument slowed our breath and put us in a spiritual frame of mind. Throughout the evening, he produced the loveliest sound from his custom-made Backun clarinet, and when combined with drones from his shruti box, a traditional Indian bellows-driven instrument, the room - and the 35 bodies in it - were bathed in mellifluous vibrations of wood and reeds. Given the system collapse around us, we were grateful for the respite. Linda Tumbarello, who at one point had stood up and to watch from the side, reported that 90% of the audience had their eyes closed.

These moments of harmony were juxtaposed with unusual clusters of tones, untethered floating meters, and sounds best described as screeching and scrapping. Falzone rubbed elephant bells on the piano strings to produce a whirling buzz. With clarinet in hand, he walked the aisles, repeatedly returning to a shrieked note at the end of each melodic phrase. His penny whistle work referenced Indian music and mournful Celtic refrains alongside some piercing overblowing. Taken together, the concert’s alternating periods of tension and release produced a kind of yoga high, the feeling of having been on a journey.

Like a worship service, Falzone’s recital took you someplace. He became a Christian in high school, and served as music director at Grace Chicago Church for 16 years. Since moving to Seattle, he has offered monthly improvised, contemplative solo clarinet music at Saint Mark’s Cathedral.

“I think of improvisation as an embodied spiritual practice, not unlike prayer or yoga or tai chi,” Falzone said in an interview with the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship in 2016. "In any improvised practice you’re constantly reacting to the present by making sense of the past. That’s exactly what I do on the bandstand: I play a gesture, a note, a phrase—and that becomes my past. Then I stand in a new now. I play a few more notes, and that becomes the past. There is a new now, and the process continues. Embedded in the whole process is the acceptance, even the celebration, of risk and imperfection.

"The sense of learning and growing in the midst of decision making is, to me, a beautiful metaphor for the spiritual life. The continuous cycle of moment-by-moment living resembles the life of faith. Improvisation is infused with freedom—openness to what is possible in any given moment. The freedom of improvisation can also happen in a worship service, when there’s a sense that the pastor, musicians, liturgists and worshipers are fully present, ready to listen and react to whatever God has brought to that moment.”

Pop Gets Complicated: John Hollenbeck's GEORGE

“John Hollenbeck likes to blur the distinctions between the knotty virtuosity of jazz and the broad appeal of pop,” wrote Jude Noel in Pitchfork in a review of Letters to George, the 2023 debut release by Hollenbeck’s quartet, GEORGE. 

At the Institute For the Musical Arts in Goshen, MA on March 17, we heard his genius for doing just that. Together with Anna Webber (tenor saxophone/flutes), Sarah Rossy (voice/synthesizers) and chiquitamagic (synthesizer/voice), the drummer John Hollenbeck gave us an hour of finely crafted, high energy music that received palpable approval from the 55 of us gathered in the barn. Webber (Vancouver) and Rossy (Montreal) were born in Canada. With Hollenbeck now a Canadian citizen and teaching at McGill, and chiquitamangic living in Toronto, GEORGE is very much a product of the Great White North.

Over the years, Hollenbeck has had two primary outlets for his compositional energies: the 25-year old Claudia Quintet, which Jazz Shares presented in 2017, and his 19-piece Large Ensemble, which has three Grammy-nominated recordings to date. GEORGE is the first new band he’s put together in 17 years, and it’s a keeper. The band formed and practiced remotely during the first year of the COVID pandemic, and the four players did not meet in person until January 2022, when they assembled in a Montreal studio to record Letters to George. Now, with Rossy replacing Aurora Nealand, the band is touring in support of their latest effort, Looking For Consonance, recorded in 2024 and just now being released.

chiquitamagic (Isis Paola Giraldo) gave birth to her daughter eight months ago, so GEORGE is reconvening after a year apart. They assembled at Webber’s house in Greenfield for a day of rehearsing before hitting the IMA “stage”, no written music in sight. Their performance in Goshen kicked off a tour that will take them to New York, Philadelphia, New Haven and Boston.  

With its kinetic edge and avant leanings, the music brought to mind Jim Black’s AlasNoAxis; with its catchy, groove oriented compositions, I heard echoes of Chris Lightcap’s Bigmouth; and with its synth-laden pop tendencies, I thought of Kneebody. But despite those references GEORGE is its own thing, thanks to the brilliance of its leader. Hollenbeck’s drumming was crisp and compelling, and he played with a rock-like directness. In fact, his technique was so precise it took me a while to be able to concentrate on other elements of the music.

Welcoming back return visitors like Hollenbeck advances our project building regional bonds with the larger jazz world. But for me, there’s a thrill in being introduced to musicians for the first time. Born in Bogotá, chiquitamagic is part of the notorious KNOWER house in L.A., and she tours and has recorded with Justin Brown and Ambrose Akinmusire. Her own music touches on EDM, cumbia, funk, experimental, choral and jazz. Check out this video. chiquitamagic stood between two synthesizers, which she played simultaneously. Her left hand handled the bass chores, laying down a super funky line on “George and Dee”, and summoning space-age smears in support of “Georgist”. Her role is critical to the band’s sound, and I can see why Hollenbeck put the group on hold until she could rejoin.

Like chiquitamagic, Sarah Rossy is not coming from the jazz world, proper. Despite being a finalist in the Ella Fitzgerald International Voice Composition, Rossy was a singer-songwriter who performed hundreds of concerts throughout Quebec and Eastern Canada. In 2017, her practice expanded to include interdisciplinary movement and visual projections. Mentorship with Meredith Monk, voice and movement research in Berlin, explorations of ethnic heritage at the Arabic Music Retreat, and multiple residencies at Banff Centre were all formative experiences. Her Lebanese roots shone on “Nassam Alayna-Lhawa”, a classic love song associated with longing for the homeland. Her vocals were restless and ethereal, and made common cause with Flora Purim’s groundbreaking work with Airto throughout the 1970s. On Silvio Rodriguez’ “Unicornio”, her voice entwined with Webber’s flute to produce diaphanous clouds fit for an angel.

Folks are still buzzing about Webber’s Nonet concert at the Iron Horse in January. (The Intakt recording will be released later this year.) Although she has pulled back on her commitments at the New England Conservatory, she still seems busy as a bee, with upcoming concerts in Belgium, Canada, Boston, New York and Amherst (Max Johnson’s Sextet at the Drake in June.) As we’ve heard with Shimmer Wince, her Simple Trio and Nonet, Webber is a first rate composer/conceptualist. So it was great to hear her in service of Hollenbeck’s vision, her mentor and Simple Trio-bandmate. Her tenor playing was meaty and straightforward, different from the complicated excursions we associate with her own projects.

I was lucky enough to have encountered Hollenbeck’s debut recording, no images, when it was first released in 2001. It includes “The Drum Major Instinct”, a brilliant 25-minute piece that weaves Martin Luther King’s sermon with an improvising ensemble of Hollenbeck and three trombones. That it was conceived during his final year at Eastman tells you all you need to know about his talent and intent. Throughout his career, Hollenbeck has made music that is distinctive, highly musical and made with skill and integrity. We are more than happy to bear witness.

Piano Makes the World Go Round

“A World of Piano”, a series of three solo concerts over three days, has had 15 editions over 31 years. The latest iteration, featuring Angelica Sanchez, Marta Sanchez and Wayne Horvitz, took place February, 26, 27 and 28 at the Northampton Arts Trust building. “A World of Piano”, a co-production of Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares and the Northampton Center For the Arts, has been interrupted over the years by regime changes at the Center, as well as their change of address from South Street to the Arts Trust at 33 Hawley Street. With building construction now complete, and four consecutive years under our belt, we hope to continue the series for the foreseeable future.

Curated by Glenn Siegel, president and co-founder of Jazz Shares, the series seeks to operationalize the title of Phineas Newborn Jr.’s 1962 Contemporary album by presenting a variety of approaches to the piano.

Angelica Sanchez was a last minute replacement for Arturo O’Farrill, who got stranded in San Diego by the east coast blizzard after performing with Ephrat Asherie Dance. Sanchez, who was part of the 2012 piano series, has performed many times in the Valley with Omar Tamez, Terry Jenoure, Wadada Leo Smith, James Brandon Lewis and her own ensembles. (Her Nonet comes to western Mass in October.) On Thursday, she sounded as good as I’ve ever heard her. There was a flow to her playing that seemed organic, and her compact, 50-minute set was presented without pause. She started her performance with a few sparse notes that slowly decayed, calling us into the space as if we were part of a Buddhist prayer ceremony. As the intensity thickened and thinned, themes, phrases and ideas floated past in endless procession. Though she was improvising, there was an inevitability to the music that had a storyteller’s logic. Sanchez zipped into town in time for sound check, then out again, back to her home in Rhinebeck, NY where she teaches at Bard. It was a blessing to be able to call in a last minute favor from a friend.

Marta Sanchez, who is unrelated to Angelica, is a fabulously talented 43 year old pianist from Madrid, who has called New York home for the past 15 years. Her profile rose considerably after she joined David Murray’s Quartet in 2022. Murray’s band regularly tours the world, and Sanchez can be found on the saxophonist’s two latest releases: Francesca (2024) and Birdly Serenade (2025). Not all pianists have a solo practice, so I asked her partner, saxophonist Caleb Curtis about her. Not only has Sanchez devoted considerable energy to playing alone, I learned, but she just recorded a new solo album: For the Space You Left. On the release she lists her instrument as “prepared piano”, and indeed on Friday she put magnets and tape on some of the strings and used electronics to alter the instrument’s sound. The juxtaposition of metallic, dampened, and buzzing notes with the piano’s natural tones sounded exceedingly fresh, and her impressive technique, honed by years of classical training, served the music well. Conceived during a MacDowell residency, the compositions were both distinct and succinct, resulting in an evening of impressive études.

An elder statesman at 70, Wayne Horvitz has led a gloriously varied life in music. Although forever linked to the NY “downtown” scene of the 80s and 90s that gave us John Zorn, Elliott Sharp, Bobby Previte, Marty Ehrlich, Fred Frith and so many others, Horvitz has lived more than half his life in Seattle. He has created a body of work that is consistently excellent across a wide spectrum of music. After his show on Saturday, Josh Miller and I gushed about his avant-jazz-funk-rock bands Zony Mash, The President and Pigpen. The recording he gifted me, Music For 10 Musicians, should be filed under classical/new music. He has composed for film, theater and dance, produced dozens of recordings and hundreds of concerts at his Seattle nightspot, The Royal Room, and was the force behind The Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet, which made Voodoo (Soul Note), one of my favorite records. His concert featured a liberal amount of electronics, including a small keyboard. These elements were expertly woven into the fabric of an evening that was dreamy, subdued, and rich with detail. A section when he generated a harmonium-like drone brought Alice Coltrane to mind, and allowed the mind to transcend the insanity of the day.

Pianist Kate Molloy, a close family friend of Horvitz’s from Seattle, and Matilde, her vocalist friend, made the trip from Rochester, NY where they are students at Eastman. The post-concert hang at our house was very sweet. Ron Stabinsky, who performed at the 2023 piano series, made the five hour drive from his home in central Pennsylvania to attend the last night of the series. Others drove from Vermont and the Berkshires to share in the musical bounty, examples of the reach and impact of A World of Piano.