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Garrett List (1943-2019) Your Own Self (1972) Your Own Self, Side A Your Own Self, Side B Bass – Mike Williams French Horn – David Jolley Percussion – Gordon Gottlieb, Gregory Reeves Piano – Frederic Rzewski, Rick Cutler Saxophone – Jon Gibson Trombone – Garrett List Trumpet – Lou Ranger, Mark Gould Vibraphone – Barry Jekowski, Roy Pennington Voice – Jay Clayton, Jerry Kaplan, Joan LaBarbara Garrett List’s work for Opus One, in 1972, was a remarkable creative effort, conceived like a celebration of a higher self-consciousness. The context is avant-garde minimalism, but the music is enriched by a deep spiritualism; it echoes the most meditative jazz of the age, taking also advantage from the mystic lesson of La Monte Young. Everything is solved in a free, moderate and brilliant language, pure and elegant. It’s quintessential, in these rare moments of beauty, the instrumentation of the voices and the relative interpretation of the text. The sibilant female chant is lost in an intimate and ethereal recitation, wrapped by the drones of the horns and the dripping notes of the piano and vibraphone. It’s the ideal atmosphere for an impalpable ecstatic way, the echo of a secret dialogue with the inner cosmos. List seems to condense perfectly all his emotional and transcendental sound universe, making Your Own Self, non only a seminal work, but also a radiant message of total harmony. American Images (1978) Ouverture 6:00 The Speech 2:30 A3 Slow Dance 5:51 Do You Remember When 4:31 The Tools Of War Are Multiplying 2:30 Hard Line 4:40 Nothing At All 6:40 What America Wants, America Gets 2:30 Let Go 4:27 Still Going 4:47 Understanding Is Not Enough 6:25 Certain Logic 7:04 Inside 6:30 Like A Gull 3:52 First Blues 5:30 A Rainy Night In Rome 5:12 Composed By – Garrett List Drums, Voice – Sadiq Abdu Shahid Engineer [Recording] – Aldo Amici, Raimondo Caruana Flugelhorn, Alto Saxophone, Flute, Piano – Byard Lancaster Trombone, Piano, Voice – Garrett List Voice, Piano – Genie Sherman Recorded May 23, 1978, Rome. Garrett List GARRETT LIST was born in 1943. He spent most of his childhood in Southern California, and attended the State University in Long Beach, California, transferring to the Juilliard School in New York City where he received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in performance and music. As a performer of new music and an organizer of new music concerts, he has been involved with the first performances of major works by many American and European composers including: Luciano Berio, John Cage, Bruno Maderna, Ornette Coleman, Morton Feldman, Earl Brown, Carla Bley, Frederic Rzewski, Christian Wolff, Anthony Braxton, Jim Burton and others. He was an original member of The Ensemble, the performing group of Lincoln Center's "New and Newer Music" series and served as co-director with Dennis Russell Davies for the 1973-74 season. He was musical director of The Kitchen, a performance center for video, art and music in New York City in 1975-77. Improvisation has played a large part in List's work, and since 1971 he has been associated with Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV), a live electronic and improvisation ensemble which was founded in Rome by Frederic Rzewski, Alvin Curran, Richard Teitelbaum, and others, in 1966. Through the New York chapter of MEV he came into contact with such outstanding improvisers as Dave Holland, Karl Berger, Anthony Braxton, Bob Moses and Barry Altschule. His compositions have been played throughout Europe and America, in 1974 at Berlin's MetaMusik Festival and The Walter Series at The Kitchen. His composition, Phase One, is available on Opus One Recordings. In 1975 Mr. List accompanied the Creative Associates of the State University of New York at Buffalo on their tour to Eastern Europe. He died in 2019.