Bang on a Can

Steve Reich's New York Counterpoint is one of a series of works for soloist accompanied by pre-recorded layers of themselves. As such, it is part of Reich's ongoing interest in the mediation between tape and live performance, as evidenced both in early works such as "It's Gonna Rain" right through to "The Cave". NYC was originally written for Richard Stoltzman. I rerecorded it under Reich's supervision in January of 1996. The sessions took place in New York on the day following the "storm of the century," when the entire eastern United States was buried under several feet of snow. I didn't quite make it to the airport in time and ended up spending 16 hours on a train from Boston to New York (it normally takes 5), arriving in a dead Manhattan at 4 am, trudging through the snow with my instruments. No cabs were running, the city was more quiet than it had been since the Dutch purchased it, and the only people on the street were the doormen at the Russian Tea Room, who were busily shoveling snow. Afterwards, the musician's union refused to pay me, claiming that they knew for a fact that no work could possibly have gone on that day. --Evan Ziporyn