Artist Profiles

Gerry Hemingway

// composer & percussionist

GERRY HEMINGWAY is a composer and percussionist currently living in Plainsboro, New Jersey. “Chamber Works” (1999) is available from Tzadik Records, “Songs” (2002) is available from Between The Lines Records, Gerry Hemingway Quartet’s “The Whimbler” (2005) is available from Clean Feed Records, and Gerry Hemingway Quintet’s “Double Blues Crossing” (2005) is available from Between The Lines Records. Gerry Hemingway has appeared on over one-hundred recordings, and collaborated with many musicians including Anthony Braxton, Marilyn Crispell, Mark Dresser, Ned Rothenberg, and John Zorn. Gerry Hemingway’s music essay “Awake At The Wheel: Observations In Overdrive” appears in John Zorn’s “Arcana: Musicians On Music” (2000) available from Granary Books, Inc. He also is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship for his work in music composition.

Website: www.gerryhemingway.com
Photo: Ken van Sickle / GerryHemingway.com

Interview:

Our social nature inherently depends on ways of making a connection with each other, and when it becomes apparent that our time here on the planet is limited, a connection to the other, that for which there is no direct explanation. One significant way we make connection is with the ear. We always know the sound of the voice of those we care for and who created us, and these sounds span outward to a set of sonic associations of childhood, and beyond that, play a role in shaping who we become. Part of that journey is music. Music is a kind of vehicle in life, we use it to what degree we need to get around. For some it’s just a commute to work and back, and for others a journey with varying challenges to what is familiar. Music therefore keeps us connected to where it is we came from while providing us with the chance to grow, make further connections, and finally offer sanctuary to our being as we grapple with the other. To me the spirit is in part shaped by these sonic dimensions, never the same for any of us, but yet universal in some way to us all.

“Music is a kind of vehicle in life, we use it to what degree we need to get around.”
– Gerry Hemingway, composer and percussionist

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