Fairfax Music: "In The Tradition & Beyond"

07/20/2019

Extended Metaphors on ADAPTATION - chamber orchestra & visualization

“Art is a nation's most precious heritage. For it is in our works of art that we reveal to ourselves and to others the inner vision which guides us as a nation. And where there is no vision, the people perish.”
― Lyndon Johnson
“No matter how corrupt, greedy, and heartless our government, our corporations, our media, and our religious & charitable institutions may become, the music will still be wonderful.”
- Kurt Vonnegut Jr., A Man Without a Country

http://fairfaxmusic.org/blog/notes-on-adaptation-by-richard-fairfax

by Richard Fairfax http://fairfaxmusic.org/blog/notes-on-adaptation-by-richard-fairfax

07/20/2019

Extended Metaphors on ADAPTATION - piano & visualization

“There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law. I love music passionately. And because l love it, I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it. It is a free art gushing forth — an open-air art, boundless as the elements, the wind, the sky, the sea. It must never be shut in and become an academic art.”
― Claude Debussy
“If it sounds good, it is good.”
- Louis Armstrong
http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/store/p59/Extended_Metaphors_On_ADAPTATION_-_piano.html

by Richard Fairfax

07/19/2019

Fairfax Music: "In The Tradition & Beyond"

Commemorating man on the moon 50 years ago, Fairfax Music: "In The Tradition & Beyond" invites you to join its explorations of sound in space and time.🎶 Get printed music to play "Beyond" contained in http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/store/c3/Assorted_Tunes_For_Improvisation%2C_Volume_1.html
and watch the BEYOND Series https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsuZGhbE6PhEYIAPNxzXxdWSTErV5yJWQ

Hop in, relax and enjoy the ride!

The mission of Fairfax Music: "In The Tradition & Beyond" is to provide creative and communicative art for people which promotes their cultural awareness, stimulates their intellectual development, and improves their quality of life.

07/16/2019

Romance Evermore - woodwind quartet & visualization 2018 Redux

“This, the dream and the dreamer, wandering in the desert from Hopkinsville to Vienna in love with a streetwalker named Music.…”
― Langston Hughes, The Ways of White Folks: Stories
“Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart..”
- Pablo Casals
“Music makes one feel so romantic - at least it always gets on one's nerves - which is the same thing nowadays.”
- Oscar Wilde

http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/store/p64/ROMANCE_EVERMORE_-_Woodwind_Quartet.html

by Richard Fairfax sheet music available at http://fairfaxmusic.org/store/p64/ROMANCE_EVERMORE_-_Woodwind_Quartet.html

07/15/2019

ROUND TRIP for Saxophone Quartet score

“Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.”
- Plato, The Republic
“Music is energy, emotion, expression, escapism, enlightenment. Music is so much more than just entertainment.”
― Rasheed Ogunlaru

http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/store/p65/ROUND_TRIP_For_Saxophone_Quartet.html

by Richard Fairfax http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/store/p16/ROUND_TRIP_For_Saxophone_Quartet.html

07/12/2019

Fairfax Music: "In The Tradition & Beyond"

Fairfax Music: "In The Tradition & Beyond"

“Most people die with their music still locked up inside them.”
- Benjamin Disraeli
“Don't be afraid, just play the music.”
- Charlie Parker
“When you play music you discover a part of yourself that you never knew existed.”
- Bill Evans

07/11/2019

Fairfax Music: "In The Tradition & Beyond"

“You will be most readily cured of vanity or presumption by studying the history of music, and by hearing the master pieces which have been produced at different periods.”
- Robert Schumann
“[O]ne of the most persistent traits of the Western white man has always been his fanatical and almost instinctive assumption that his systems and ideas about the world are the most desirable, and further that people who do not aspire to them, or at least think them admirable, are savages or enemies. The idea that Western thought might be exotic if viewed from another landscape never presents itself to most Westerners.”
― LeRoi Jones, Blues People: Negro Music in White America

[Get "Zulu Blues" printed music in http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/store/p15/Six_Pieces_For_Four_Saxophones.html and http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/assorted-tunes-for-improvisation-volume-1.html ]

Fairfax Music: "In The Tradition & Beyond" proudly presents this new video with music that I wrote about 30 years ago in tribute to South Africa's struggles to end colonial oppression, apartheid and tribal conflicts, and to establish liberal democracy for its people.

07/11/2019

Fairfax Music: "In The Tradition & Beyond"

“A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians.” 🎶😁
- Frank Zappa

See various developments of this work on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsuZGhbE6PhFTIxSbxQeKQLHoCl12wZzR
and get printed music for you to play it at http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/the-adaptation-series.html

Some of the most fulfilling times I had the privilege of participating in during my nearly 40 years at ASCAP were the Employees For Relief Talent Shows, which began in 2001 to honor 9/11 victims and continued to support those in need, such as music students in schools affected by the Hurricane Katrina floods. I want to salute all my generous and talented colleagues, especially those who assisted me in this performance from one of those events 12 years ago, 9/21/05.
[Click here to read and hear more about my work "ADAPTATION" http://fairfaxmusic.org/blog/notes-on-adaptation-by-richard-fairfax ]

07/09/2019

Beyond.wmv

“In those days it was either live with music or die with noise, and we chose rather desperately to live.”
― Ralph Ellison, Living with Music: Jazz Writings

"My method of writing is to take the most basic kind of line and improvise on it. After all, I am the child of the culture which created Jazz.”
― Leon Forrest

“Where’s jazz going? I don’t know. Maybe it’s going to hell. You can’t make anything go anywhere. It just happens.”
― Thelonious Monk

Get "Beyond" printed music contained in http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/assorted-tunes-for-improvisation-volume-1.html and play it! 🎶

[Watch this 2006 performance and other versions in the BEYOND Series on YouTube. Feel free to like (Y) and comment ;) }

composition by Richard Fairfax performed at ASCAP Employees For Relief Talent Show in 2006

07/07/2019

PRAISE from Suite Salvation

“Music, that is the science or the sense of proper modulation, is likewise given by God's generosity to mortals having rational souls in order to lead them to higher things.”
― St. Augustine
“Music is, to me, proof of the existence of God. It is so extraordinarily full of magic, and in tough times of my life I can listen to music and it makes such a difference.”
- Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Suite Salvation is a four-part musical study which draws its inspiration from bible scriptures to gain insights for correcting some problematic aspects of th...

07/06/2019

In The Beginning - Chromaticism for Orchestra - 2019

“I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up in the morning and see the light.”
― Miles Davis
“I could compare my music to white light which contains all colors. Only a prism can divide the colors and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener.”
― Arvo Part

by Richard Fairfax

07/05/2019

Divergence In ADAPTATION for Chamber Orchestra

“Our biological rhythms are the symphony of the cosmos, music embedded deep within us to which we dance, even when we can't name the tune.”
- Deepak Chopra
“I haven't understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it.”
― Igor Stravinsky
“Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.”
- Lao Tzu

by Richard Fairfax http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/the-adaptation-series.html

06/26/2019

Extended Metaphors on ADAPTATION - piano & alto saxophone

“Each song is a child I nourish and give my love to. But even if you have never written a song, your life is a song. How can it not be?”
― Michael Jackson

featuring Richard Fairfax - alto saxophone http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/store/c5/The_ADAPTATION_Series.html

06/20/2019

Watch The ROUND TRIP Series videos
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsuZGhbE6PhFW5em1OITLx2ovwWkTwsIw
Get printed lead sheets and arrangements of "ROUND TRIP" at http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/the-round-trip-series.html

06/18/2019

Fairfax Music: "In The Tradition & Beyond"

Fairfax Music: "In The Tradition & Beyond"

I am presenting this work to commemorate Juneteenth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth
and the historical hopes and struggles of African-Americans for freedom and equal rights. I hope that you'll feel free to look, listen, like (Y) , comment and share:

"No republic is safe that tolerates a privileged class, or denies to any of its citizens equal rights and equal means to maintain them."
-- Fredrick Douglass https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1866/12/reconstruction/304561

06/17/2019

Fairfax Music: "In The Tradition & Beyond"

“The kingdom of music is not the kingdom of this world; it will accept those whom breeding and intellect and culture have alike rejected. The commonplace person begins to play, and shoots into the empyrean without effort, whilst we look up, marvelling how he has escaped us, and thinking how we could worship him and love him, would he but translate his visions into human words, and his experiences into human actions. Perhaps he cannot; certainly he does not, or does so very seldom.”
― E.M. Forster, A Room with a View

Several years ago, I wrote a piece which was inspired by a bible story. I am thankful for the time in my life to finally present this performance of it.
While my playing is imperfect, I hope that you will enjoy it, and invite other musicians to get the printed music and perform it better.
http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/store/p16/Shadrach%2C_Meshach_%26_Abednego_-_Saxophone_Trio.html

06/13/2019

Fairfax Music: "In The Tradition & Beyond"

“From the glow of enthusiasm I let the melody escape. I pursue it. Breathless I catch up with it. It flies again; it disappears; it plunges into a chaos of diverse emotions. I catch it again; I seize it; I embrace it with delight.”
― Ludwig van Beethoven

Please join me on this new ROUND TRIP excursion in a musical direction that I and perhaps you had never gone before.
I hope that you'll enjoy watching and listening to this piece, as much as I did making it, and hit like (Y) comment and share. ;)

Musicians, look for sheet music to play this and other arrangements in http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/the-round-trip-series.html

06/05/2019

the ADAPTATION series - YouTube

http://fairfaxmusic.org/blog/notes-on-adaptation-by-richard-fairfax

http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/store/c5/The_ADAPTATION_Series.html

05/29/2019

Harlem Jazz Boxx

Harlem Jazz Series - Richard Fairfax

June 11, 2019 12:00pm - 2:00pm

Richard Fairfax is a native New Yorker who has participated in a wide spectrum of cultural activities throughout the last five decades. He was a sideman in professional bands, occasionally backing up star performers like the Four Tops and Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes. He studied musical performance and composition with Makanda Ken McIntyre and Warren Smith, playing with them and other exceptional musicians on the New York City jazz scene throughout the 1980's and 90's. Mr. Fairfax collaborated with socially, politically conscious theater-poetry-dance-music groups, including The Sedition Ensemble, Elliot Bratton's Message and the We Owe Somebody Collective. Over many years of employment at ASCAP, Mr. Fairfax performed his original compositions with musically talented co-workers for special events. In Harlem where Mr. Fairfax resides, he produced and performed the "Freedom Summer 2008" series, which featured some of his works with community discussions of historic events and their contemporary relevance. Since retirement from ASCAP, Mr. Fairfax continues to write, publish and perform his own compositions, collaborating often with the cyborg species Automata Africanus and sometimes with the finest human musicians.

Featuring: Richard Fairfax - reeds.

1st set: 12:00pm - 12:45pm (15 min break)
2nd set: 1:00pm - 1:45pm
House doors open at 11:30 am

Price: $15

Email: [email protected]

More Info: https://bitly.com/2pZPxZ8

Location
Greater Calvary Baptist Church
43-55 West 124th Street btwn Malcolm X Blvd and Fifth Ave
New York NY 10027 US

05/23/2019

Fairfax Music: "In The Tradition & Beyond"

“Looks like what drives me crazy
Don't have no effect on you--
But I'm gonna keep on at it
Till it drives you crazy, too.”
- Langston Hughes

IT'S ALIVE! Introducing my latest music video creation, inspired by teenager Mary Shelley's great story published 200 years ago. Watch, listen, like and share, if you dare! ;)

05/18/2019

Diminutiae - String Quintet & Visualization

“the point of writing music and experiencing music isn’t to make people comfortable necessarily”
- Philip Glass

by Richard Fairfax

05/17/2019

Fairfax Music: "In The Tradition & Beyond"

“Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself.”
- Miles Davis
“When you play music you discover a part of yourself that you never knew existed.”
- Bill Evans
“You've got to dig it to dig it, you dig?”
- Thelonious Monk

I'm very pleased to present this new first live performance of a piece I wrote about 25 or 30 years ago. Please read the linked blog notes, view the video, and feel free to like (Y) or comment :/

Musicians, get the "Blackfeet" lead sheets contained in http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/assorted-tunes-for-improvisation-volume-1.html and play it!

05/15/2019

IN THE BEGINNING - YouTube

“Music is, for me, like a beautiful mosaic which God has put together. He takes all the pieces in his hand, throws them into the world, and we have to recreate the picture from the pieces.”
- Jean Sibelius

http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/index.html

05/14/2019

Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego - Saxophone Trio by Richard Fairfax

Several years ago, I wrote a piece which was inspired by a bible story. I am thankful for the time in my life to finally present this performance of it.
While my playing is imperfect, I hope that you will enjoy it, and invite other musicians to get the printed music and perform it better.
http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/store/p16/Shadrach%2C_Meshach_%26_Abednego_-_Saxophone_Trio.html

http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/store/p16/Shadrach%2C_Meshach_%26_Abednego_-_Saxophone_Trio.html

05/10/2019

Canon for String Quartet (ADAPTATION Part IV)

“Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife.”
- Kahlil Gibran
“Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart..”
- Pablo Casals
“To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.”
- Aaron Copland

by Richard Fairfax http://fairfaxmusic.org/blog/notes-on-adaptation-by-richard-fairfax http://fairfaxmusic.org/the-adaptation-series.html

05/09/2019

Fairfax Music: "In The Tradition & Beyond"

Fairfax Music: "In The Tradition & Beyond"

“You know that I immerse myself in music, so to speak— that I think about it all day long— that I like experimenting— studying— reflecting.”
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
“Life without playing music is inconceivable for me. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music, I get most joy in life out of music.”
- Albert Einstein
“You've got to dig it to dig it, you dig-”
- Thelonious Monk

[Find imaginative music for strings at http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/string-quartets--ensembles.html ]

05/09/2019

Fairfax Music: "In The Tradition & Beyond"

Fairfax Music: "In The Tradition & Beyond"

“Music, when combined with a pleasurable idea, is poetry; music, without the idea, is simply music; the idea, without the music, is prose, from its very definitiveness.”
- Edgar Allan Poe
“Music embodies feeling without forcing it to contend and combine with thought, as it is forced in most arts and especially in the art of words.”
- Franz Liszt
“Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand.”
- Stevie Wonder

05/06/2019

Divergence In ADAPTATION for Chamber Orchestra (score)

http://fairfaxmusic.org/blog/notes-on-adaptation-by-richard-fairfax

by Richard Fairfax http://fairfaxmusic.org/blog/notes-on-adaptation-by-richard-fairfax http://fairfaxmusic.org/the-adaptation-series.html

05/04/2019

Fairfax Music: "In The Tradition & Beyond"

“[...] our technology and our economic system seem to produce the present bad situation: millions of people feel themselves poor and powerless; millions feel that music is something to be made only by experts.”
- Pete Seeger

I can't begin to explain what a thrill it has been for me to work on this piece and to now present it to you. Check it out and let me know if you like it (Y) , and feel free to comment and share.
I invite other musicians, especially those who might not be impressed with this saxophone player, to get the sheet music contained in http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/store/c3/Assorted_Tunes_For_Improvisation%2C_Volume_1.html and play it good! ;)