THE RED MICROPHONE

THE RED MICROPHONE: Liberation Jazz, neo-Beat quartet John Pietaro: poetry, voice, percussion/Rocco John Iacovone: alto and soprano saxophones, bass clarinet/ Ras Moshe Burnett: tenor and soprano saxophones, flute/Laurie Towers: fretless and fretted electric bass -with- Dave Ross, electric guitar/Gwen Laster: viola/Claire Daly: baritone saxophone The Red Microphone was founded in 2010 to record “Brecht Breakdown” for the British label Institute for Alien Research’s album The Beat Sounds from Way Out. The work, an amalgam of Bertolt Brecht’s poem “Questions from a Worker Who Reads” and the ensemble’s free improvisation, was arranged by Pietaro as a unique brand of avant garde jazz threaded through 1920s-30s radical proletarian culture. Since that time, the quartet has performed widely, recording an independent CD, The Red Microphone Speaksin 2013, and the critically acclaimed album with poet Amina Baraka for the legendary ESP-Disk label, Amina Baraka & the Red Microphone (2017). Most recently the band, in an expanded form, recorded And I Became of the Dark... (ESP-Disk) to be released on April 23, 2021. The featured single, "Revenge of the Atom Spies" is slated to be released universally in early April. The Red Microphone’s music is based in free improvisation, drawing on jazz history, the Beat Generation, the New York School of poets and strains of post-punk, incorporating revolutionary anthems, folk songs and originals infused with poetry of Pietaro and masters Brecht, Langston Hughes, Amiri and Amina Baraka, John Reed, Jack Kerouac, Diane Di Prima, Kenneth Fearing, Woody Guthrie and Walter Lowenfels and others. __________________________________________________________________________ 'THE RED MICROPHONE SPEAKS' 1) Freedom Theme (Rocco John Iacovone) 2) L'Internationale Redux (“L’Internationale” by Pierre Degeyter; adaptation and arrangement by John Pietaro) 3) God to the Hungry Child (music by Janet Barnes to poetry of Langston Hughes; originally published by the Composers Collective of New York, 1932; adaptation and additional music by John Pietaro) 4) The Proof is Overwhelming (free improvisation incorporating John Howard Lawson’s statement protesting the House Un-American Activities Committee, 1947) 5) Song of the United Front (music by Hanns Eisler; adaptation by the Red Microphone; licensing via Beitkopf & Hartel, Weisbaden, Germany) 6) One for Robeson (free improvisation dedicated to Paul Robeson) 7) L'Internationale Reconstruct (“L’Internationale”: lyric by Eugene Pottier, music by Pierre Degeyter. Excerpted prose: “Our Revolutionary Music” and “The Crisis in Music” by Hanns Eisler. Conception and arrangement by John Pietaro; adaptation by the Red Microphone, Nora McCarthy and Natalie Scarborough) –recorded voices of Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Dalton Trumbo (HUAC hearing, 1947), Vladimir Lenin 8) The Times (“And the Times Are Dark and Fearful” by Hanns Eisler; adaptation and arrangement by John Pietaro; licensing via Beitkopf & Hartel, Weisbaden, Germany) JOHN PIETARO –vibraphone, suspended cymbals, various bells, frame drum (selection 4), shaker (selection 5), glockenspiel (selection 5), wind chimes (selection 5), tom-tom (selections 5, 6, 7), snare drum (selections 5.6.7), triangle (selection 6), drumkit (selection 7 intro), lion’s roar (selection 7), spoken word (selections 6, 7) RAS MOSHE –tenor and soprano saxophones, flute, bells (selections 4, 6, 7), spoken word (selection 3) ROCCO JOHN IACOVONE –alto and soprano saxophones, ocarina (selection 4), frog rasp (selection 4) --For this recording Nicolas Letman-Burtinovic played upright bass (except on selection 8) With special guest NORA MC CARTHY –vocal (selection 7) --Recorded on December 16, 2012 at 17 Frost Theatre of the Arts studio, Brooklyn NY; Engineer: Natalie Scarborough. --Mastered by Kramer at NoiseMiami Studio, Miami FL --Cover photograph by Denise Iacovone; disc photograph by John Pietaro *** Kramer on 'THE RED MICROPHONE SPEAKS': "This music is MOVING me like nothing else i've mastered in years. reminds me of the days when all i listened to was stuff from the ESP label, BYG (from France), and Karl Berger, my first real teacher and mentor. this music of yours brings all musics TOGETHER. i fucking LOVE it!" *********************** __________________________________________________________________________

Brooklyn, NY