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Hesteria Records & Publishing Co.
Please visit: http://arts.ucsc.edu/faculty/Hester/index.html
Karlton Hester and Hesterian Musicism
Karlton E. Hester, Ph.D. (composer/flutist/saxophonist), began his career as a composer and recording artist in Los Angeles where he worked as a studio musician and music educator. He received his Ph.D. in composition from the City University of New York Graduate Center and is currently Director of "Jazz" Studies at the University of California in Santa Cruz. As performer on both flute and saxophone, he is music director of the Fillmore Jazz Preservation Big Band and Hesterian Musicism. Hester is currently music director of Hesterian Musicism, founding director of the Fillmore Jazz Preservation Big Band in San Francisco and served as the Herbert Gussman Director of Jazz Studies at Cornell University from 1991-2001. His formal study included Harry Nelsova and Paul Renzi on flute, Joe Henderson and John Handy in "jazz" improvisation, composition with Bruce Saylor and Robert Starrer, as well as lessons with Frank Chase and Bill Tremble on saxophone.
Hester specializes in premeditated, spontaneous and electro-acoustic composition. His compositions span a wide range; from numerous solo cycles for various woodwinds to chamber configurations, music videos and electro-acoustic symphonic works written in an eclectic array of styles. He has been the recipient of fellowships, grants and commissions from the National Endowment of the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, New England Council of the Arts, Arts International, and ASCAP, amongst others. His albums include 21st-Century Musicism (2005), Harmonious Soul Scenes 2000; Musicism for the Sake of Love; Hesterian Liberation; Reconstructive Musicism; Karlton Hester and the Contemporary Jazz Art Movement; Hesterian Musicism; Dances Purely for the Sake of Love; Musicism for Your Imagination and Sacred Musicism, Harmonious Soul Scenes 2000 and others.
"Hesterian Musicism reveals him to be a composer with a breathtaking range of materials that are skillfully wrought in both refreshing chamber configurations and his impressive 12-piece Contemporary Jazz Art Movement." --- Downbeat
Hesterian Musicism: As a composer Hester has continued to evolve the trans-harmonic style he calls Hesterian Musicism since the early nineteen seventies. His music involves a fission of Afrocentric and Western tonal, modal, quartal, serial, and electronic elements into an expressive voice that defies simple categorization as either premeditated or spontaneous composition. The range of his works spans from numerous solo cycles for various woodwinds to chamber configurations and electro-acoustic symphonic works written in an eclectic array of style. Originally nurtured in New York, Hesterian Musicism is a continuation of his former Bay Area based ensemble, The Contemporary Jazz Art Movement (1970s & 80s). He has recorded his own compositions, since the early 1970s, featuring the Contemporary Jazz Art Movement on earlier albums and Hesterian Musicism on more recent recordings. Hester continues to perform with both East and West Coast members of Hesterian Musicism.
Hesterian Musicism is not only the name he coined for his performance ensemble, but it also designates Hester's compositional and improvisational process. Hesterian Musicism is the creative process through which Karlton Hester's compositional and performance style merge to give rise to aesthetic environments where other musicians, kinetic and visual artists, and poets can meet to produce new art forms through imaginative effort. Its philosophical basis involves an intrinsic freedom of expression, focused and disciplined spontaneity, and a structural basis that explores the creative components of diverse sources from the whole earth. Intrinsically interdisciplinary, Hesterian Musicism has presented numerous concerts in collaboration with other artists, such as painters, dancers and choreographers, poets, as well as a number of performances featuring African musicians on traditional instruments.
Hesteria Records & Publishing Co.: Musical Recordings
2008 |
Karlton Hester, Divine Particle’s Vision 1. The Creative Source (Suite #1)
[“Supernova” for alto flute, synthesizers, “Neutron Star” for synthesizers, “Divine Vision” for tenor sax, synthesizers], Trance Dance – synthesizers, Vibratory Communication - soprano saxophone, synthesizers, K-Tone with Nana - guitars and cello, synthesizers , Interconnectivity (Suite #2), [“ Creative Link One” for fl, trpt, cello, bass, perc, voices, & synth. “Storybook #1” for ten. sax, flugelhn, cello, bass, perc, voices, & synth.], Nana and K-2 for flute, trumpet and cello, synthesizers, The Nucleus (Suite #3), Passion Reprise – synthesizers (CD Hesteria 12) |
2006 |
Karlton Hester’s Fillmore Jazz Preservation Big Band (Featuring John Handy and Denise Perrier): Live at Herbst Theatre “Wind Machine.” “April in Paris,” “Jomago,” “'round Midnight,” “'swonderful,” “God Bless the Child,” “Wave Yo Mambo,” “A Night in Tunisia,” “I Can’t Get Started.” “In a Mellow Tone,” “Milestones.” (Hesteria 11) |
2005 |
Flute, soprano and tenor saxophones, Twentieth-Century Musicism: Compositions by Karlton Hester; Twin Pyramids,” “Origins,” “DNA,” “Saturnday Head,” “K-2 Hues,” “Nanaiya's Voodoo Dance,” (CD Hesteria 10). |
2002 |
“Equipoise,” by Karlton E. Hester, “Donna Lee,” by Charlie Parker, and “Out of Nowhere,” by Green/Heyman, Soundings: A Musical Gallery, a compilation CD featuring selections by department composers, performaners and ensembles, Music Department, University of California, Santa Cruz (Spring) |
2000 |
Flute, piccolo, tenor saxophone, and composition, Harmonious Soul Scenes 2000, with Hesterian Musicism; “Scenes;” “Sun Soul;” “Harmony in Oshogbo;” “Byrd Math;” “Caravan”, “Harmony (Reprise);” all compositions by Karlton E. Hester; except “Caravan,” by Ellingon/Tizol; Hesteria Records, HRP00009 (CD) |
| 1999 |
Flutes, saxophones, synthesizer and composition, Sacred Musicism, with Hesterian Musicism; “Tone’s Tune;” “Mass Dance;” “Spirituality;” “Hesterian Blues, Balance and Proportion;” “Love Dance, Movement II: Pooh Kee Daydream;” “Hypermetric Voodoo Logic;” “Epicene Fractals;” all compositions by Karlton E. Hester; Hesteria Records, HRP00008 (CD) |
1998 |
Flute, bass flute and composition; Musicism for the Sake of Love; with the Contemporary Jazz Art Movement; “El Paso Sunrise;” “Y La Estacion deLluvias Comienza;” “The Pee Cal Flute Experiment (flute quintet);” “Visitor from the Outside;” “For the Affect of It (flute trio);” “Felicitous Circus;” “Love/Ontology: Prelude;” “Muse;” all compositions by Karlton E. Hester; Hesteria Records, HRP00007 (CD, reissue of LP Hesterian Musicism, with “Love/Ontology: Prelude” and “Muse” from Dances Purely for the Sake of Love) |
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Flute, soprano and tenor saxophones, synthesizer and composition; Reconstructive Musicism; with Hesterian Musicism; “Dance Number 2;” “ Emancipation Anxiety;” “ Treadmill-X;” “ Blues & Other Hues;” “ Love Dance;” “ Free Hesteria;” “ Master Juba's Juju;” all compositions by Karlton E. Hester; Hesteria Records, HRP00006 (CD) |
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Flute, piccolo, alto and bass flute, tenor saxophone, synthesizer and composition; Hesterian Liberation; with Hesterian Musicism; “Ebony Woogie Woman;” “Medifocus;” “Hesterian Blues;” “Trans-Z;” “Dance Number One;” “Spirit Mood One;” all compositions by Karlton E. Hester; Hesteria Records, HRP00005 (CD) |
| 1993 |
Flute, tenor and soprano saxophones, synthesizer and composition; Musicism for Your Imagination, with Hesterian Musicism; Little Ones;” “Fundamental Vibe and Liquid Motion;” “Tears and Polarity;” “Escape Samba;” “Her Hymn;” “Equipoise;” “Tone Walk;” “Anti-Stoicism;” “Individuation;” “Abyssmal Funk;” “Harmony;” all compositions by Karlton E. Hester; Hesteria Records, HRP00004 (CD and MC) |
1988 |
Flute, bass flute, tenor saxophone, synthesizer and composition; Dances Purely For the Sake of Love; with the Contemporary Jazz Art Movement; “A First World Romance;” “Love/Ontology: Prelude;” “Muse;” “Love/Ontology;” “Pooh Kee Daydream;” “Yasuko's Fanfare;”all compositions by Karlton E. Hester; Hesteria Records, HRP00003 (LP) |
| 1982 |
Flutes and composition; Hesterian Musicism with the Contemporary Jazz Art Movement; “El Paso Sunrise;” “Y La Estacíon de Lluvias Comienza;” “The Pee Cal Flute Experiment;” “Visitor from the Outside;” “For the Affect of It;” “Felicitous Circus;” all compositions by Karlton E. Hester; Hesteria Records, HRP00002 (LP) |
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“Felicitous Circus,” by Karlton E. Hester; Elaine Patree, vocals; Columbine Records Vocal Collection |
1981 |
Flute, piccolo, bass flute and composition; Karlton Hester and the Contemporary Jazz Art Movement, with the Contemporary Jazz Art Movement; “The Jive Cycles Within an Integrated Force Field;” “Ballad;” “It's About Time the Rain Came;” “Pan African Ballet Music;” all compositions by Karlton E. Hester; Hesteria Records, HRP00001 (LP) |
| 1980 |
Baritone saxophone, Blues, Myself and I; Ray Collins, KRC |
Books and Monographs
2004 |
Bigotry and the Afrocentric “Jazz” Evolution. Global Academic Publishing (Binghamton University), Binghamton, New York. |
| 1997 |
The Melodious and Polyrhythmic Developments in John Coltrane's Spontaneous Compositions Within a Racist Society, Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston, New York |
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