Vision Live

Vision Festival

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An historic double disc CD/DVD release, Vision compiles highlight performances from the Vision Festival, New York's own world-renowned multi-arts festival. Past Vision Festivals have been described as avant-jazz. However, as the festival has evolved we have come to understand that it is no longer meaningful as a description of what we present nor is it how we wish to be seen. A better description might be freedom music. For it is not limited by any particular tradition, but may in any instance utilize any tradition. It is art built on the development of craft and vision with each artist using a voice that is uniquely their own. It is art with a most decidedly disciplined disregard for tradition and boundaries.

Vision boasts stunning performances from a full spectrum of advanced musical thinkers and improvisers who draw on a rich collective history. The nine selections include performances from Blue Series regulars Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Mat Maneri, Roy Campbell, and Hamid Drake, all of whom offer moments of transcendence and grace, fire and succor, heady introspection and soulful groove. Also included are great performances by pianist Dave Burrell; bassoonist Karen Borca; vocalist Ellen Christi; and reed man Douglas Ewart with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. Finally, there is a valedictory solo from German bass explorer Peter Kowald, who died several months after the recording.