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Event
The TANK and the West
Originally constructed to provide water for the steam engines of the Old West, the Tank came to the Colorado high desert town of Rangely in the 1960s, but was never filled, as it was sited on a soft shale hill, which bowed the bottom of the Tank slightly. That convexity created an extraordinary resonance in the Corten steel structure, and in 1976 musicians and sound artists discovered it as a world-class sonic resource with a reverberation deeper and longer than the Taj Mahals.
On August 28, 2021, at 8pm, the guitarist/composer Bill Frisell and filmmaker Bill Morrison will fulfill the potential of this unique structure with a live sound and image production for a select audience. With original music by Bill Frisell and projections on the desert landscape and the Tank itself by Bill Morrison, this show will explore the history of the Tank as an encapsulation of the American West, a powerful, unique and unforgettable experience.
The guitarist, composer and arranger Bill Frisell was born in Baltimore in 1951 and spent most of his youth in the Denver-Aurora metropolitan area. After graduating from Northern Colorado, where he studied with Johnny Smith, Frisell went to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied with Jon Damian and Jim Hall. Frisell's career has spanned more than 40 years and dozens of celebrated recordings. His eclectic output as a bandleader has emphasized folk, country music, and Americana. In the early 1990s Frisell made one of his best reviewed albums: Have a Little Faith, an ambitious survey of American music, from Charles Ives and Aaron Copland (the entirety of Billy the Kid) to John Hiatt (the title song), Bob Dylan ("Just Like a Woman") and Madonna ("Live to Tell"). In 2003 Frisell's The Intercontinentals was nominated for a Grammy award; he won the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album for his album Unspeakable. His 2008 album History, Mystery was nominated for a 2009 Grammy award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group. Recognized as one of Americas 21 most vital and productive performing artists, Frisell was named an inaugural Doris Duke Artist in 2012. He is also a recipient of grants from United States Artists and Meet the Composer, among others. A recent documentary film by director Emma Franz, entitled Bill Frisell: A Portrait, examines his creative process in depth.
Bill Morrison is an American, New York-based filmmaker and artist. His films often combine rare archival material set to contemporary music, and have been screened in theaters, cinemas, museums, galleries, and concert halls around the world. Born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1965, Morrison had a midcareer retrospective at New York's Museum of Modern Art, in 2015. He is a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and has received the Alpert Awards in the Arts, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Capital, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists award (2003). His theatrical projection design with Ridge Theater has been recognized with two Bessie Awards, and an Obie Award. Morrison has collaborated with some of the most influential composers and performers of our time, including John Adams, Gavin Bryars, Bill Frisell, Philip Glass, Michael Gordon, Henryk Górecki, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Kronos Quartet, David Lang, Steve Reich, & Julia Wolfe, among many others. Decasia (2002), his feature length collaboration with composer Michael Gordon, was selected by the Library of Congress to its National Film Registry in 2013, becoming the first film of the 21st century selected to the list.
The TANK Center for Sonic Arts is a fully-equipped recording venue and concert site, as well as a 501(c)3 nonprofit arts organization, founded in 2013. Since then, The TANK has hosted hundreds of reserved visits, recording sessions, and performances by artists from Colorado and all over the country. The three-day Solstice Festival has for four years attracted many visitors to Rangely. 2017s Solstice event featured the Grammy-winning vocal group Roomful of Teeth, and was listed in The New Yorker magazine as one of the Notable Concerts of the Year. Cornetist Ron Miles headlined the 2018 Solstice Concert, and in 2019 percussionist William Winant performed at The TANK for the event.
Among other groups who have recorded at The TANK recently were the Colorado Childrens Chorale; Sound Circle, a Boulder-based a cappella womens ensemble; the percussion ensemble from the Strings Music Festival in Steamboat Springs, and The One Voice Children's Choir, a 140-member youth chorus from Utah.
The TANK also produces a yearly concert as part of Rangely's Septemberfest, in 2018 showcasing the master of the Native American flute, R. Carlos Nakai, and creates local events by visiting artists, including off-site concerts in the town park, assisted living facilities, the public schools, and elsewhere. The Tank offers Open Saturdays, free public visitation hours from 9am to 1pm on Saturdays, and reduced-fee Family Time visits on Saturday afternoons and Wednesday evenings. The TANKs educational programming aims to teach visitors to listen in a whole new way.
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LocationThe TANK Center for Sonic Arts (View)
233 County Rd 46
Rangely, CO 81648
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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