Transgressions Eric Plaks

• 1 Theme 59 (Transgressions) 09:57
• 2 Theme 60 (For Daniel Carter) 05:22
• 3 Theme 61 (For Svetlana Boym) 05:07
• 4 Theme 62 (Cecil Waves) 07:22
• 5 Theme 63 (For John Hicks) 04:03
• 6 Theme 64 (For Matthew Shipp) 05:25
• 7 Theme 42 (Tiananmen Blues) 05:52
• 8 Improv 5 05:29
• Total Runtime 48:37

Info for Transgressions

Eric has lived his entire adult life in Harlem, where he has split his time between teaching music in the New York City public school system and his own performing and recording projects. Eric can be heard live regularly throughout the NYC area, including in his monthly engagement at The Shrine in Harlem, where he directs one of the city's top innovative large ensembles, the 14-member Shrine Big Band.

Theme 59 – Transgressions - Music can be heard as “wrong”, an artistic choice can be thought of as “inappropriate”, but as far as grist for the artistic mill, there is always the interest inherent in crossed boundaries, blurred edges, and constant trespass.

Theme 60 – For Daniel Carter – For the one and only NYC legend, and his profligate beauty on seven horns and piano.

Theme 61 – For Svetlana Boym (1959 – 2015) – Svetlana was my advisor and my mentor in Russian Literature at Harvard. She was an original and inspiring superstar, and taught me how to measure imagination.

Theme 62 – Cecil Waves – "Cecil Waves" is the name I give to a way of navigating through triplet arpeggios a la Cecil Taylor, but also just a poignant thought of missing the maestro who left us in 2018.

Theme 63 – For John Hicks – Hicks was the first jazz legend to make me feel like I belonged – an experience other musicians reported as well – and his shimmering swing lives on forever.

Theme 64 – For Matthew Shipp – Shipp is a touchstone for me, a foil and an enigma. His style is so dominant, so magnetic, so various. I step around his vast echoing shadow in search of my own sound.

Theme 42 – Tiananmen Blues – For Rose Tang – This is a home recording with Evan Crane on bass, dedicated to Rose for surviving to tell about it (and inviting me to play in a 30th anniversary commemoration with student leaders and dissidents who participated in the 1989 democracy movement in China).

Improv 5 – The last piece on this album was also the last take recorded at the studio session.

Eric Plaks, piano

Eric Plaks
was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and attended Harvard College. A student of the entire history of jazz, from the most traditional forms to the most modern styles of creative improvisation, Eric began his performing and recording career when he moved to Harlem in 1996. He has appeared in various formats around New York City and the wider world.

Eric has lived his entire adult life in Harlem, where he has split his time between teaching music in the New York City public school system and his own performing and recording projects. Eric can be heard live regularly throughout the NYC area, including in his monthly engagement at The Shrine in Harlem, where he directs one of the city's top innovative large ensembles, the 14-member Shrine Big Band. Eric's discography to date includes two discs on Cadence/CIMP, Live at Bronx Community College (2013, recorded in 2009), and The Eric Plaks Five (2015, recorded in 2008). He has also self-produced four albums: The Witch Man (2003), Rooftop Reveries (2004), Eric Plaks with Strings (2007), and The Shrine Big Band - Swamp Music (2012).

This album contains no booklet.