Fulcrum Point

2016: Celebrating a Big Year

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This was a wild ride of a year. I shot tons of fabulous music. Philip Glass signed my photo of Philip Glass playing Philip Glass.  I covered Kurt Elling in the studio and created his latest batch of publicity portraits. Spektral Quartet's album "Serious Business," which includes my cover photo, was nominated for a Grammy. I sat next to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for 15 seconds. I gazed at the Milky Way from the tiny island of Islesford, Maine. And right in the middle of it all, I presented my jazz photography portfolio at the American Embassy in Vienna, Austria.  Thanks to all of you for being a part of a wonderful 2016! Enjoy this gallery of a few of my favorites. 

American Howl with Fulcrum Point

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Scenes from a hard-hitting concert with Fulcrum Point at the Poetry Foundation.  Kevin Coval's between-the-eyes eloquence in his own work matched the tone Allen Ginsburg's "Howl," set to music by George Flynn. The otherwise intimate setting could barely contain the force of Jerome Kitzke's "Mad Coyote Madly Sings."  Pictured are Stephen Burns (trumpet/conductor), Kevin Coval (poet/narrator), Wagner Campos (clarinet), Jeremy Ruthrauff (sax), Kuang-Hao Huang (piano), Doug Perkins (percussion), Rika Seko (violin), Sophie Webber (cello), Collins Trier (bass), Juliet Petrus, Joelle Lamarre, and Brad Jungwirth (vocals).  

Photos © Copyright 2015 by Elliot Mandel. All rights reserved. 

THE NEWS

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Easily one of the most memorable, high-energy performances I've shot this year.  Back in April, Fulcrum Point presented JacobTV's THE NEWS at Thalia Hall.  The nonstop "pop opera" is an 80-minute satire of mass media that is a poignant, comical, wacky, trippy, and altogether brilliant mash-up of rhythm, language, melodic fragments, and unreal vocals from Loire and Nora Fisher. Fulcrum Point's 9-piece band included Stephen Burns, Jim Gailloreto, Matt Wifler, Jeremy Ruthrauff, Andy Baker, Karl Montzka, Steve Roberts, Ian Ding, and Larry Kohut. 

Photos © Copyright 2015 by Elliot Mandel. All rights reserved.

 

Fulcrum Point's Concert for Peace

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For its 16th annual Concert for Peace, Fulcrum Point New Music Project showed off some serious chops.  The first set went from Somei Satoh's meditative "Hikari (Light)" to Louis Andriessen's taut and racing "Hout (Wood)."  The second set filled the South Shore Cultural Center with Thelonious Monk and Horace Silver.  A little yoga on a windswept lakefront ended the afternoon.  Looking forward to working with Fulcrum Point again on its November 1 concert, featuring Indian classical music alongside Messaien and Mingus.