Will Redman profile picture

Will Redman

drums make sounds

About Me

I am a composer, percussionist, and teacher. I play and write as much bent music as is possible (really, how much music is possible?). My music has been heard by audiences in houses, dive bars, nightclubs, restaurants, art galleries, parks, amphitheaters, record stores, book shops, hotels, and concert halls. I have some degrees in music - University of Maryland at Baltimore County (BA), the University of Southampton (MA), and SUNY Buffalo (PhD) - and have studied composition and/or percussion with Stuart Saunders Smith, Kevin Norton, Jeff Stadelman, Tom Goldstein, and Michael Finnissy; I have learned a lot from friends such as John Dierker, John Hughes, Todd Whitman, Jonathan Vincent, Bill Sack, Evan Rapport, and others. My most recent compositions, such as Book, are graphically fantastic scores that are intended to be interpreted by musicians of varied backgrounds and abilities. Some of my recent performances have included free improvisation with baritone saxophonist Steve Baczkowski; a dramatic lecture/recital with musicologist Jaime Currie and the Open Music Ensemble; solo drum set recitals (evoking both Max Roach and Morton Feldman’s The King of Denmark); high-energy improvised rock-ish music with Microkingdom (Marc Miller (of the Oxes) and John Dierker); free jazz with 3081 (Dave Ballou, Mike Formanek, John Dierker) and drum and/or lo-fi electronics improvisations with many other good friends.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 6/23/2006
Band Website: willredman.com
Influences: pretty much everything i've seen, heard, read, or done has influenced me. but seriously folks, here's a short list of recent interests: Minutemen, Public Enemy, Michael Finnissy, Anthony Braxton, Stan Brakhage, Helmut Lachenmann, Wu-Tang Clan (especially Ghostface), Sylvano Bussotti, Black Flag, Zen, Saint-Saens, David Tudor, Jerome Cooper, J.S. Bach, Bob Dylan, MC5, Ultramagnetic MCs, Richard Barrett, John Cage, Don DeLillo, Morton Feldman, Hollis Frampton, James Baldwin, Neil Young, Stevie Wonder, Duke Ellington, Harrison Birtwistle, Max Roach, Maurice Ravel, Earle Brown, Clipse, Kenneth Gaburo, John Coltrane, Erik Satie, Anton Webern, Brian Ferneyhough, Brian Eno, Biggie AND Tupac, Sonny Rollins, Claude Debussy, Ruth Crawford-Seeger, Albert Ayler, Black Sabbath, Sun Ra, Max Neuhaus, Thelonious Monk, Richard Barrett, R. Buckminster Fuller, and on and on....
Sounds Like: noarmot, slort, in, ny, junk, quiise, het, loeloow, loud, shdy, fang, mst, ou
Record Label: www.willredman.com
Type of Label: None

My Blog

totally new jam with ancient origins

The new track there on my MySpace page is called For The Common Malfunction. It was recorded the other night by the trio Brief Strong Language - Dave Ballou (trumpet), John Dierker (bass clar), myself...
Posted by Will Redman on Fri, 27 Jun 2008 10:47:00 PST

new microkingdom record available now!!

Microkingdom (marc miller - guitar, myself - percussion) has released a debut LP on green vinyl!!! the band on this one is called Microkingdom’s Pro Hour and includes Marc and myself of course, ...
Posted by Will Redman on Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:35:00 PST

A new composition

So far there are six entries in my new composition Charts...pretty straightforward notation compared to Book. However, again there are no instructions and ambiguity abounds...this is music for everyda...
Posted by Will Redman on Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:02:00 PST

Two New Joints

There is a new solo drumset recording posted on my page - Solo Jan Fourteen. I often think of the drums harmonically, so in this one you'll hear a few different "keys" and some "chromatic" stuff. For ...
Posted by Will Redman on Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:05:00 PST

My massive graphic score Book now for sale

Well...finally I'm technologically advanced enough (just barely) to sell copies of my 98-page graphic score Book online. Just go here: www.bookmusic.org/book.html and you can pay by PayPal or Credit C...
Posted by Will Redman on Mon, 12 Nov 2007 10:56:00 PST

The Way Music Looks

Book And Some Thoughts About The Way Music LooksArt is a network of influences, reactions, meanings, misunderstandings, experiments, best-guesses, thievery, pretension, and desperation. In the end the...
Posted by Will Redman on Wed, 05 Sep 2007 07:58:00 PST

un-rhythmic

After hearing me play twice in as many weeks with two different groups, my friend Chris (an incredibly talented drummer and songwriter) recently asked me why all this music is so un-rhythmic and why t...
Posted by Will Redman on Mon, 15 Jan 2007 07:41:00 PST

Book Abstract

Abstract for a recent composition called Book. (see www.bookmusic.org)A performance of the composition Book is a case-specific exploration of the relationship between musician and music notation. Mos...
Posted by Will Redman on Thu, 28 Dec 2006 09:03:00 PST

Words About Drums

The track called "Drums 2" on my main page is an improvised drum set solo. It was record in a terrible sounding room (an analog electronics studio actually) with a meager mic setup. I ended up really ...
Posted by Will Redman on Wed, 20 Dec 2006 06:23:00 PST

my first show since moving back to md...

...that is if you don't count the nine minutes that jeff donaldson and i played at Floristree last week...more about that below.I'm very excited about this show because it is the debut of the new band...
Posted by Will Redman on Tue, 12 Dec 2006 07:11:00 PST