Gnarly Buttons / John's Book of Alleged Dances
-
79465
Track Listing
-
12:32
-
104:53
-
112:31
-
129:55
-
135:45
-
148:32
-
21:15
-
32:31
-
46:32
-
53:00
-
64:46
-
72:39
-
81:11
-
93:50
News & Reviews
-
"It would be difficult to make an account of all the ways John Adams’s music has influenced me and my work," Nico Muhly writes in his note in the upcoming 40-disc box set John Adams Collected Works, "but in the spirit of writing something personal, I’d like to offer a few perhaps impersonal observations about his work in a more circular, even crabwise, fashion. There are specific places in John’s music where there is a rhyme hidden across decades, relating to an elusive sense of 'meaning' in his music which radiates across his body of work." You can read his complete note from the box set here.
Nonesuch Records releases the forty-disc John Adams Collected Works, a box set of recordings spanning more than four decades of the composer’s career with the label, on July 1, 2022. It includes two extensive booklets with new essays and notes by Timo Andres, Julia Bullock, Robert Hurwitz, Nico Muhly, and Jake Wilder-Smith. Nonesuch made its first record with John Adams in 1985; he was signed exclusively to the label that year, and since then the company has released forty-two first recordings and thirty-one all-Adams albums. “John Adams coming to the label was one of the central events in our company’s history,” says Robert Hurwitz, Nonesuch’s longtime President and current Chairman Emeritus. “The recordings were done in real time, mostly within a few months of a piece’s first performance. Every recording was either conducted by John, or made under close supervision of the composer, who was in the control booth for every album—when he wasn’t on the podium.” Collected Works includes thirty-five discs of Nonesuch recordings and five from other labels.
-
About This Album
Gnarly Buttons is the puckish title for John Adams 1996 concerto offered here in its first recording, released April 17, 1998, on Nonesuch Records. Written for the British clarinet soloist Michael Collins, he performs it here with the London Sinfonietta, conducted by John Adams. The work’s instrumentation underscores the vernacular roots of the music: a string ensemble is augmented by banjo, mandolin, guitar, trombone, two low double reeds, piano, and two keyboards playing a variety of sampled sounds including accordion, clarinet—and cow.
Also premiered on this new recording is a set of 11 short pieces for string quartet, entitled John’s Book of Alleged Dances, written for and performed by Kronos Quartet. Alleged Dances also references folk elements such as the Western hoe-down and a Protestant hymn-tune. Several of the dances combine sampled rhythm tracks with live strings, and project a freewheeling imagination that is mirrored in the movement titles, like “Dogjam,” “Rag the Bone,” “Stubble Crotchet,” and “Alligator Escalator.”
Credits
MUSICIANS
John’s Book of Alleged Dances
Kronos Quartet:
David Harrington, violin
John Sherba, violin
Hank Dutt, viola
Joan Jeanrenaud, cello
Gnarly Buttons
London Sinfonietta:
John Adams, conductor
Michael Collins, clarinet
Gareth Hulse, English horn
John Orford, bassoon
David Purser, trombone
Rebecca Hirsch, violin
Joan Atherton, violin
Roger chase, viola
Christopher van Kampen, cello
Lynda Houghton, double bass
Steve Smith, banjo, mandolin, guitar
Shelagh Sutherland, sampler/piano
David Maric, sampler/pianoPRODUCTION CREDITS
Gnarly Buttons
Produced by Philip Waldway
Recorded July 1997 at Air Studios (Lyndhurst), London, England
Engineered by Geoff Foster
Edited and mixed At Galaxy Classics, Mol, Belgium
Engineered by Kees de Visser
John’s Book of Alleged Dances
Produced by Judith Sherman
Recorded August 1995 (Toot Nipple) and August 1996 at Skywalker Sound, Nicasio, CA
Recording Engineer: Craig Silvey
Assistant Engineer: John Klepko, Chris Haynes (Toot Nipple)
Editing Assistant: Jeanne Velonis
Electronic tapes prepared by Mark Grey
Mastered by Paul Zinman at SoundByte Productions, New York City
Design by John Gall
Cover photograph courtesy of Valerie Schaff/Graphistock
Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz
More From
genre:
Release Date:
Friday, April 17, 1998 - 04:00
DescriptionExcerpt:
Adams features clarinet, an instrument his father taught him, on Gnarly Buttons, which London’s Independent calls “charming and musically fascinating.” Kronos Quartet performs the playful John’s Book of Alleged Dances, minus the choreography; says Adams, “The steps for them had yet to be invented.”
Description:
Gnarly Buttons is the puckish title for John Adams 1996 concerto offered here in its first recording, released April 17, 1998, on Nonesuch Records. Written for the British clarinet soloist Michael Collins, he performs it here with the London Sinfonietta, conducted by John Adams. The work’s instrumentation underscores the vernacular roots of the music: a string ensemble is augmented by banjo, mandolin, guitar, trombone, two low double reeds, piano, and two keyboards playing a variety of sampled sounds including accordion, clarinet—and cow.
Also premiered on this new recording is a set of 11 short pieces for string quartet, entitled John’s Book of Alleged Dances, written for and performed by Kronos Quartet. Alleged Dances also references folk elements such as the Western hoe-down and a Protestant hymn-tune. Several of the dances combine sampled rhythm tracks with live strings, and project a freewheeling imagination that is mirrored in the movement titles, like “Dogjam,” “Rag the Bone,” “Stubble Crotchet,” and “Alligator Escalator.”
ProductionCredits:
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Gnarly Buttons
Produced by Philip Waldway
Recorded July 1997 at Air Studios (Lyndhurst), London, England
Engineered by Geoff Foster
Edited and mixed At Galaxy Classics, Mol, Belgium
Engineered by Kees de Visser
John’s Book of Alleged Dances
Produced by Judith Sherman
Recorded August 1995 (Toot Nipple) and August 1996 at Skywalker Sound, Nicasio, CA
Recording Engineer: Craig Silvey
Assistant Engineer: John Klepko, Chris Haynes (Toot Nipple)
Editing Assistant: Jeanne Velonis
Electronic tapes prepared by Mark Grey
Mastered by Paul Zinman at SoundByte Productions, New York City
Design by John Gall
Cover photograph courtesy of Valerie Schaff/Graphistock
Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz
Cover Art:
Nonesuch Selection Number:
79465
Number of Discs in Set:
1disc
ns_album_artistid:
2
ns_album_id:
4
ns_album_releasedate:
Wednesday, April 1, 1998 - 05:00
ns_genre_1:
0
ns_genre_2:
0
Album Status:
UPC/Price:
Label:
CD+MP3
UPC:
075597946529BUN
Label:
MP3
UPC:
603497098668
Price:
9.00
Artist Name:
John Adams
MusicianDetails:
MUSICIANS
John’s Book of Alleged Dances
Kronos Quartet:
David Harrington, violin
John Sherba, violin
Hank Dutt, viola
Joan Jeanrenaud, cello
Gnarly Buttons
London Sinfonietta:
John Adams, conductor
Michael Collins, clarinet
Gareth Hulse, English horn
John Orford, bassoon
David Purser, trombone
Rebecca Hirsch, violin
Joan Atherton, violin
Roger chase, viola
Christopher van Kampen, cello
Lynda Houghton, double bass
Steve Smith, banjo, mandolin, guitar
Shelagh Sutherland, sampler/piano
David Maric, sampler/piano
[{"parent":{"title":"Get on the list !","body":" Get exclusive information about NONESUCH tour dates, video premieres and special announcements ","field_newsletter_id":"14075483","field_label_list_id":"6389157","field_display_rates":"-1","field_preview_mode":"false","field_lbox_height":"","field_lbox_width":"","field_toaster_timeout":"16000","field_toaster_position":"From Bottom","field_turnkey_height":"800"}}]