Jody Redhage, voice & cello;
Ken Thomson, clarinets;
Alan Ferber, trombone;
Dan Tepfer, piano;
Tim Collins, vibraphone;
Fred Kennedy, drums
Influences
Fire in July draws influences from a wide range of genres...art songs, jazz and improvisation, pop, rock, experimental artists, and classical composers.
DEBUT ALBUM "ANCIENT STAR" IS DONE! Our street date for the CD is Sept. 15, 2009, and it's now available at CD Baby: http://cdbaby.com/cd/redhageandfinjuly. "Ancient Star” features 14 of Jody’s original compositions for the ensemble, including settings of poetry by William Carlos Williams. Fire in July's debut album reflects the current 21st century trend of straddling genres. With tinges of Medieval chanson and hints of Kurt Weill & Raymond Scott, Redhage creates a captivating blend that simply comes across as her own unique voice.
"Rum Point" - Jody Redhage - cello and Fire in July (Ken Thomson - clarinets, Alan Ferber - trombone, Fred Kennedy - percussion and Tim Collins- vibraphone). Live at the 2009 New Directions Cello Festival, Ithaca, New York - June 5th, 2009
ABOUT FIRE IN JULY: Featuring the original indie art songs of "adventurous cello songstress Jody Redhage"(Time Out NY) and some of the most versatile and talented improvisers in New York, Fire in July melds the detail and finesse of chamber music with the energy and drive of pop, rock, and jazz improvisation. Fire in July's unusual instrumentation includes an instrument from each instrument family: voice, cello, clarinet/bass clarinet, trombone, piano, vibraphone, and drums. Each member of the group is a composer and bandleader in their own right: Ken Thomson is a founding member of Gutbucket, and also Slow/Fast; Alan Ferber has his Nonet and Nonet + Strings; Tim Collins has his own group with a recent record out on Rope-a-Dope records (produced by Charlie Hunter!); Dan Tepfer has his own trio of piano, bass & drums; and Fred Kennedy is a founding member of the Gray Code and Randal.
"Sometimes There's God So Quickly" - Jody Redhage - cello and Fire in July (Ken Thomson - clarinets, Alan Ferber - trombone, Fred Kennedy - percussion and Tim Collins- vibraphone). Live at the 2009 New Directions Cello Festival, Ithaca, New York - June 5th, 2009
MORE INFORMATION ON FIRE IN JULY'S BANDLEADER, cellist, composer and vocalist JODY REDHAGE: "Wow, wow, wow! Give this woman a cello and stand back!" (Cello City Ink). "A new music dynamo...Redhage is cultivating a growing repertoire of indie art song that breaches genre boundaries and makes for stirring listening" (Musicworks magazine). Jody Redhage’s dual passions for chamber music and new music have led her to participate in an array of cutting-edge, experimental chamber music projects. Praised for her “exceptional technical command,” (Steve Smith, Night After Night), Jody has premiered over 100 works, including many of her own compositions for chamber ensembles, as well as premieres of fellow composers' works. In the past several years, she has embarked on a project in which she simultaneously sings and plays intricate and rhythmically complex musical lines. As recipient of the 2005 Hertz Grant, Jody was able to develop this project by writing and commissioning a repertoire for her voice and cello from some of New York's most talented emerging composers. She went into the recording studio in the summer of 2006, and the CD culmination of this commissioning/recording project, "All Summer in a Day" (2007, New Amsterdam Records), has been called “a freewheeling, slightly edgy and altogether "different" kind of musical experience…highly rewarding and worthwhile” (Dave Lewis, All Music Guide). Jody graduated with her master's degree in cello performance from the Manhattan School of Music in May 2005, and she now resides in Brooklyn. She began composing at age 19 and studied composition at the University of California Berkeley. In New York, Jody continued her composition studies with Bang on a Can founder Julia Wolfe. Jody’s passion is setting modern American poetry into 21st century art song, and her compositional activity is focused on writing for herself and her own performing ensemble for which she is director, Fire in July. Redhage has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall, Merkin Hall, the Brooklyn Academy of Music opera house, the Whitney Museum of Art, and Mass MoCA, and has performed on recitals at numerous music festivals and universities across the nation including, Princeton, Yale, UC Berkeley, the University of Richmond, and Old First Concerts in San Francisco. A a cellist, she has worked with composers Pierre Boulez, Martin Bresnick, John Corigliano, George Crumb, Richard Danielpour, Michael Gordon, David Lang, Steve Reich, Todd Reynolds, Terry Riley, Lois V. Vierk, Julia Wolfe, and Evan Ziporyn. Additional notable collaborations include performances with members of the Tokyo String Quartet, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the Flux Quartet, the Sirius Quartet, Sequiter, Tactus Contemporary Ensemble, Neil Diamond and band, Sufjan Stevens, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Meatloaf, the Roots, Clay Aiken, Enya, Duncan Sheik, and Guster. Jody has appeared on TV playing on ABC's "The View," the CBS "Early Show," NBC's "The Today Show," "the Rockefeller Christmas Spectacular," and "Conan O'Brien." Her own compositions, as well as works from her CD, have been aired on several NPR stations, including WFMU and WNYC's "Evening Music."
Redhage’s compositions have been performed by the New Music Collective in Charleston, SC, and across the country in such venues as the University of California Berkeley, Northwestern University, Meredith College (Raleigh, NC), the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Tenri Cultural Institute, Old First Concert Series (San Francisco), Dangerous Curve Gallery in Los Angeles, the Berkshire Fringe Festival, Composer’s Voice Concert Series (Manhattan), and Serial Underground (Manhattan). Jody is the founder and director of the Ditmas Park Concert Series, a community music series in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn. Sponsored by the Brooklyn Arts Council, the NY State Council of the Arts, the NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs, and numerous local business sponsors, the DPCS connects the world-class musicians living in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn with the students and residents of the community. For more information and a list of upcoming concerts, please visit www.jodyredhage.com.
