Okkyung Lee, an experimental Korean cellist, held a six day residency at the Stone, a very unique and special performance space in East Village. Founded in 2005 by John Zorn, the Stone is 100% dedicated to music. It’s very discreet: you won’t notice it unless you are looking for it. And even then it’s easy to miss. It’s also one of the few places that does not have any social media presence.
You won’t find a bar inside. No CDs for sale. It’s just a room with rows of chairs and a grand piano in the middle. There is absolutely nothing there to distract you from being in the moment and enjoying the music. If you like experimental, avant-garde music then it is THE place to go in New York City.
Okkyung Lee played 12 different sets during her six day residency and each one featured different musicians and material. The line up for the week was impressive and the two performances that I went to see were outstanding.
Tuesday night Okkyung Lee was joined by drummer Ches Smith and the duo kicked off the residency. I saw Ches perform with Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dogs at the Winter Jazz Festival and he is a phenomenal drummer; his drive, energy and inventiveness are amazing; his playing is hard, almost abrasive, drawing freely on jazz, rock and experimental music.
The 45 minute set was intense and the brooding atmosphere was morbid, but in a very beautiful way. Lee played with utter concentration, grinding the bow into the cello with violence, as if she were reaching for the heart of the instrument, and then letting the reverberations of it float around the room.
I had to come back for Okkyung Lee’s set with jazz pianist Vijay Iyer and the queen of electronic experimental music Ikue Mori. Vijay is an exciting musician and composer; his work continues to receive critical acclaim and admiration of the fans worldwide.
Ikue Mori has been an integral part of NY experimental scene since she moved here from Japan and started playing drum machines. Since 2000s Ikue has moved towards using her laptop to create a very unique sound. 
The trio’s improvising appeared effortless and they created beautifully textured, emotionally charged sound. It’s remarkable how the music unfolded, with no preconceived structure.
The set was completely sold out (never mind the fact that Stone does not sell advanced tickets – people were lining up outside well before the show to get in). Incredible how such a small, tightly packed place could be completely silent for the whole duration of the show. There was no talking, no whispering, just total silence. You could almost physically feel the tension and the anticipation. And it was well deserved.
Okkyung Lee graciously agreed to do an interview for Flowers In a Gun before the beginning of the show:
Anna: You background is in classical music, but your writing incorporates traditional Korean music, jazz … noise. How did all of these come to shape your work?
Okkyung: It’s not like I am trying to come with a fusion of those. It’s just what I grew up with. So when I play and improvise I think those come up really. And I think when you improvise the whole thing is about your identity as a whole. So it’s not even that you can really choose. And especially when I write music it really comes up.
A: And what is your writing process? Especially given that improvisation is such an important part of what you do. How do you balance written out music and leaving space for improvisation?
O: It really depends on who I am writing for actually. Sometimes I want to write something that’s completely written out, more like traditional jazz. In a terms that there is the head, then improv section, and then you play the head again. Or there is structure.. For example, yesterday [the first set with Ches Smith] was a mixture of structure and improvisation. Especially when you know somebody, know that person’s background, that person’s playing, so you can imagine things, and how that person functions …. Some of my friends read music, some don’t. I have to make sure that I can come up with something that they feel comfortable enough with. So they can play MY music, but also something that THEY like to do. So sometimes I really have to make sure that there is enough space, really absolutely free space … because some people .. that’s how they like to work. And other people like more guidance, so it really depends.
A: And do you usually write with particular musicians in mind?
O: Yes, usually. Obviously there are times, like this group that I am doing on Friday, more like jazz … well not really, but you know – more typical written out section and cello. I knew that it was gonna be guitar, drum and bass. But usually I know each person’s style … I have to figure out how well the people will work together, and how they work and try to make the best out of it. So yes, most of the time I have people in mind.
A: How did your residency at the Stone come together?
O: Well, it’s been more than a year already. When The Stone opened in 2005 and I curated, I didn’t really play. I selected the musicians and at that time I tried to book as many solo performances as possible because I am really interested in solo shows … And this time … There are people like Theo Bleckmann that I never played with but we would always talk about doing something together and people like C Spencer Yeh … . I really like what they do and they happened to be in town. Also bringing Ikue and Vijay together, I don’t think they ever played together. So I just wanted to come up with different projects. I didn’t go for variety, for the sake of variety; it just worked out that way. I don’t know that many things that I am really proud of, but in the last 14 years that I moved to New York I have been very fortunate to work with really different people, from different backgrounds. So I thought it would be really nice to bring some of those people together. So again, it’s really the people, people that I wanted to play with. People come first.
A: And did you write pieces specifically for each musician that you are playing with?
O: No, the only people that I wrote for was Ches yesterday and the group that I am performing with on Friday. And the duo with Michelle Boulé, the last set on Sunday, it’s also a piece. But other than that it’s mostly improv.
A: Then I am really excited about tonight!
O: I’ve been playing with Vijay since 2002 I think. And Ikue … I met her pretty much when I moved to New York. So I’ve worked with both of them, just separately. So something should happen …
A: I am really curios about your album Ghil and the recording process. It’s a very unusual way to cut a record. Can you say a few words about it?
O: Well, I really gave Lasse [Marhaug] 100% trust, 150% trust. Because how it happened, he told me that he wanted to record a solo of mine before Stephen O’Malley asked me. And he said up front that he wanted to record my cello not in a typical way of recording the cello; he really wanted it to sound raw, visceral, noisy. And I said “Yeah, sure.” Because he is a dear friend of mine and an amazing musician. And then basically he told me “Ok, we are going here and you will play. And then we go somewhere else.” It mostly happened in Norway, mostly in Oslo. We recorded about three hours worth of material and most of it I never really heard. I only heard what Lasse sent me. Funny thing I was really just playing acoustically; I wasn’t listening to any of the recording. It was only Lasse who had his headphones on, so he was listening to it, how it sounded. And I had no idea. And this was really smart of him because I think that if I had heard how I was playing it probably would have changed my playing. We finished in June 2012 and then just a couple of months later Stephen got in touch with me and he asked me to do a solo record for his label. And I told him that actually I have one if he wants it. And so it just all kind of came together.
A: What are some of the projects that you are currently working on?
O: Actually this quartet that I am doing on Friday, that’s more tune oriented. I think I want to have a band! So I think I am going to focus on it and try to develop it … Also in March I did this multimedia project, it involved video, and stage set, and lighting …That I really liked, I got a lot of satisfaction out of it. It’s different than playing. So I want to do more of that somehow. And I also want to start working with Korean traditional musicians, which will take me a long time because it means that I have to get more involved, meet more people and spend more time in Korea. Eventually.
More about Okkyung Lee can be found on her blog, Facebook and Twitter @OkkyungLee.
Anna Yatskevich is Flowers In A Gun’s glamorous jazz & beyond critic! Catch more reviews from her here and follow her on Twitter @jazzaddikt.
