Bryars at Cafe Oto

Date:

October 14, 2024

Location:

18-22 Ashwin St, London E8 3DL

Since 2017, The Gavin Bryars Ensemble has performed each year at Cafe Oto. This is one of our favourite venues in London, where we can play pieces or arrangements often not heard elsewhere as part of these special concerts.

In October our performance relates to my background – and even foreground – in jazz: to Bill Frisell, Bill Evans, Tom Waits, Charlie Haden and Carla Bley.

When I conducted the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra at the 2022 Dark Mofo Festival, I included an orchestral arrangement event of one of Carla’s pieces, End of Vienna, and I have made a new version of this piece for Cafe Oto. Coincidentally our concert takes place three days before the anniversary of her death.

At the beginning of this year I wrote a harpsichord quintet for Mahan Esfahani to her memory, premiered in USA and to be performed later this year at the Wigmore Hall, entitled, in the manner of Elizabethan keyboard music, Mr Bryars, his sorrow, at Miss Bley, her passing...

PROGRAMME:

Sub Rosa (after Bill Frisell)
Viola, Cello, Double Bass, Electric Guitar, Piano, Electric Keyboard

The Flower of Friendship
Viola, Cello, Electric Guitar, Electric Keyboard, Double Bass

My First Homage (after Bill Evans)
Piano, Electric Keyboard, Double Bass, Electric Guitar

End of Vienna, by Carla Bley, arr. Bryars (New Version)
Viola, Cello, Double Bass, Electric Guitar, Piano, Electric Keyboard

Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet (Chamber Version 17’)
Viola, Cellos, Double Bass, Electric Guitar, Piano, Electric Keyboard

The Briar and the Rose, by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, arr. Bryars
Viola, Cello, Double Bass, Electric Guitar, Piano, Electric Keyboard

Gavin Bryars