The
Bang on a Can All-Stars is a touring and recording offshoot of its parent organization,
Bang on a Can. More a festival than a recording ensemble,
Bang on a Can emerged in the 1990s to bridge the gap between avant-garde and popular music, and the
All-Stars have an impressively large recording catalog.
Bang on a Can was formed in 1987 as a music festival by composers
Julia Wolfe,
David Lang, and
Michael Gordon. The composers regarded
Louis Andriessen as their spiritual mentor, and his works, along with other avant-garde pieces, were performed at
Bang on a Can events. At first,
Bang on a Can was a one-day festival, but it quickly branched out into live and recorded enterprises of various kinds. Recordings of
Bang on a Can events began to be issued, with
Bang on a Can Live, Vol. 1, appearing in 1992 on the CRI label. That year, the
Bang on a Can All-Stars were formed as a six-member ensemble. The group played amplified instruments and crossed boundaries between classical, jazz, rock, world music, and experimental music. The distinction between
Bang on a Can and the
Bang on a Can All-Stars was not fixed at first, with the 1995
Bang on a Can album Industry featuring a group of players performing music by the three founders and by
Andriessen.
The members of
Bang on a Can All-Stars are
Robert Black, Mark Stewart,
David Cossin,
Vicky Chow,
Ken Thomson, and Arlen Hlusko; prior members include composer
Evan Ziporyn and cellist
Maya Beiser. Both in performance and on recordings, the work of the
Bang on a Can All-Stars is marked by collaboration with a wide variety of artists. Collaborations have included those with composers
Steve Reich,
Philip Glass, and
Tan Dun, jazz saxophonist
Ornette Coleman, Burmese circle drum master
Kyaw Kyaw Naing, and hip-hop's
DJ Spooky. Live performances have included a dance collaboration with Sasha Waltz based on
Terry Riley's In C and
Wolfe's Flower Power for the
Bang on a Can All-Stars and orchestra. The group gained wide attention for its 2015 recording of
Wolfe's composition
Anthracite Fields and for one of
Meredith Monk's
Memory Game in 2020.
Bang on a Can All-Stars recordings have appeared on the group's Cantaloupe label. In 2022, the
Bang on a Can All-Stars joined
Riley for a recording of the latter's
Autodreamographical Tales. ~ James Manheim