Stephen Rush

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performer, he’s studied Carnatic vocal music in India, and he is the director of the Digital Music Ensemble, whose outdoor sound installation, “Gypsy Pond Music,” is performed in a new incarnation as an annual rite of fall at the Music School.

Rush’s latest recording, Naked Dance! is—to coin an oxymoron—typically unique. First, it’s being released on vinyl. Yes, children, one of those big, black, Frisbee-like objects on which your grandparents used to listen to music when they were teens. Why? Besides valuing the dynamic range of vinyl versus the compressed sound of .mp3s, (it will, of course, be available in that format as well) Rush adds, “We grew up listening to vinyl recordings but then never got to make them.” He also appreciates the visual possibilities of the large format and enlisted Jef Mallett, of the famed Frazz comic, to create the cover art.

Naked Dance! features Rush’s jazz aspect. “That Damn Tango Thing Again” starts the album. You know what they say about the tango, that it takes two; this is take two on the theme Rush used for Tango Symphony. The Detroit Free Press raved about, among other things, that piece being “exquisitely orchestrated.” This is the stripped-down version for Rush’s piano and Jeremy Edwards’ drums. Edwards, who started jamming with Rush when he was studying with him as an undergraduate ten years ago, is now Rush’s music school colleague and frequent collaborator.