CODYARTS Midwestern Mythologies
	work by MultiDisciplinary Artist Steve Nelson-Raney
Steve Nelson-Raney has been performing his own music since the late sixties. Since then he has given numerous concerts throughout the country and appeared with such musicians as Malcolm Goldstein, Peter Kowald, Ernie Watts, Michael Zerang, Tom Hamilton and the traditional players of Greek Macedonia. Solo performances have included two in New York City. Nelson-Raney’s current work includes continuation of ongoing improvisations for saxophone and piano, composition in various mediums and collaborations with other musicians, writers and visual artists (two notable collaborative performances have been with writers Anne Waldman and Tom Raworth). Nelson-Raney performs regularly as saxophonist in the free improvisation trio Audiotrope, in a duo with percussionist Jon Mueller, as well as in a wide variety of other contexts in the Milwaukee area. Nelson-Raney’s writing has been published in two Midwestern anthologies, Poetry Is For People and Poetry Out Of Wisconsin, in Intervals, an anthology of writings by musicians, and in various magazines, such as traverse, Gam and Fell Swoop. His selected poems are available each year in small editions of handmade chapbooks which he designs and constructs. Active in bookarts since 1986, Nelson-Raney has utilized the book form in hundreds of works that have included text, photography, drawing, painting and collage. Currently he is producing specifically designed ‘packets’ that contain a series of mounted thematically related photographs. Nelson-Raney’s visual work has been exhibited in numerous shows throughout the Midwest; he has had a one person show at Milwaukee’s Woodland Pattern Book Center, as well as a joint show there with instrument maker Hal Rammel with whom Nelson-Raney collaborates musically. *** Steve Nelson-Raney holds a graduate degree in music from Bradley University. He has taught public school instrumental music in Illinois and jazz studies courses at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. He is active as a composer and performer throughout the country, working in both jazz and contemporary music idioms. In 1979 Nelson-Raney founded Cody Books/Records (later to become CODYARTS) as a vehicle for documenting and distributing his work. In 1997 Nelson-Raney co-founded, with Hal Rammel, The Great Lakes Improvisation Project which continues to present performances of new music in the Milwaukee area. Nelson-Raney is a senior lecturer in the Music Department of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, teaching theory/composition and jazz studies courses. RECORDINGS WRITING SCORES VISUAL ART CONTACT

RECORDINGS

Polarity Communion Piano improvisations from 2004. CD with cardboard sleeve $15.00 CD with hand sewn sleeve and original photograph $25.00 Icarus As Flyboy Bix Soprano and sopranino saxophone improvisations from 2003. CD with cardboard sleeve $15.00 CD with hand sewn sleeve, poem and reed sculpture $25.00 The Zeus Series Two improvisations. ‘Stream Of Threads’ for tenor saxophone; ‘Core Samples’ for piano. Recorded live in performance. CD in cardboard sleeve. $15.00 “The Zeus Series is a sometimes soothing, often frantic conversation with the mind, performed with uniquely imaginative artistry.” Eric Ludwig, Shepherd Express. “Nelson-Raney’s tenor has a big, brawny sound with a human, throaty cry. There’s a touch of Rollins…, Coltrane… and Sam Rivers…. What’s impressive is that he carries off this solo with hardly a dead spot. It’s a good performance. The second solo, played on piano is Core Samples and is clearly Cecil Taylor derived.” Robert Iannapollo, Cadence Summer 1994 Improvisations for soprano and sopranino saxophones, some with hi hats and bell. Enclosure contains an original poem by Bob Harrison. CD in jewel case $15.00 “Summer 1994 comprises 12 solo improvisations which demonstrates his (Nelson-Raney’s) purposeful control over circular breathing and multiphonic techniques now, largely thanks to Evan Parker’s innovations, very much a part of many solo sax improvisor’s armoury. Nelson-Raney has a strong enough sense of his own direction with this ‘tradition’, and his ideas have plenty of gusto and penetration. Make this acquaintance.” Chris Blackford, Rubberneck “On both soprano and sopranino Nelson-Raney utilizes some of (Evan) Parker’s vocabulary, swirling sharp harmonics and tongue trills into a constant liquid flow; as a visual analogue, imagine a film that slips out of frame and suddenly reveals a new set of patterns as it sputters past. Nelson-Raney’s most unusual device, however, is a peculiar percussion setup on which he accompanies himself. Two miniature hi hats…. Sometimes they initiate a spasmic little rhythm in dialogue with the horn, sometimes they’re independent of the reed ideas. It’s a stripped down free-improvising one-man band that could make a living on the hippest of street corners.” John Corbett, The Reader Some Piano Music Recorded in 1989. Side one contains a long improvisation for prepared piano; side two contains four structured improvisations/compositions for piano. LP in cardboard sleeve $25.00 “Pianist Steve Nelson-Raney seems to have assimilated a number of structural and technical devices of contemporary music (classical and jazz) and this makes his music curiously familiar and yet refreshing.” Art Lange, Down Beat (rating: ****) “Nelson-Raney has almost a trap drummer’s – say Han Bennink’s – sense of tension and release, of shading and drama. I like the way he makes connections like that…. ‘Paul’ (dedicated to Paul Bley) is like a blackboard lecture on the relationship between Bley’s rarefied single-note lines and Lennie Tristano’s dense ones (over a walking bass so loose it would drive Tristano crazy).” Cadence

WRITING

Selected Poems From 2005 2006 23 pages, 8.5” by 11”. Hand sewn spine. $10.00 Selected Poems From 2004 2005 25 pages, 8.5” by 11”. Hand sewn spine. $12.00 Selected Poems From 2003 2004 27 pages, 8.5” by 11”. Hand sewn spine. $12.00 Selected Poems From 2002 2003 42 pages, 8.5” by 5.5”. Hand sewn spine with heavy dust jacket. $12.00 Selected Poems From 2001 2002 56 pages, 8.5” by 5.5”. Hand sewn spine with heavy dust jacket. $12.00 Polarity Communion: A Mythology for Piano 2001 A poem. 8 pages, 5.5” by 4.5”. Hand sewn spine with heavy dust jacket, photo and painting. $10.00 Thirty Five Poems From 2000 2001 46 pages, 8.5” by 5.5”. Hand sewn spine with heavy dust jacket and photograph. $12.00 Sixteen Poems, 1996 to 1999 2000 16 pages, 8.5” by 5.5”. Stapled spine. $8.00 Illinois Speech Dance 2000 A poem. 6 pages, 8.5” by 5.5”. Stapled spine. $8.00 When There Were Not Two 1992 Writings on solo playing and related matters. 12 pages, 11” by 8.5”. Stapled spine. $10.00 Appendix L 1995 Poems and journal entries. 7 pages, 11” by 8.5”. with hand colored visuals. Stapled spine. $8.00 Brite Shade 1983 Includes ‘Real Short Real Stories’ by Steve Nelson-Raney and ‘Not At All’ by Martin J. Rosenblum. 49 pages, 8.5” by 5.5”. Perfect bound. $25.00 In Accordance With The Grains (a storem) 1982 Poem/story and photographs. 18 pages, 8.5” by 5.5”. Stapled spine. $10.00 Twenty Six Absences With An Epilogue (after Diane Keaton’s Reservations) 1981 Poems 23 pages, 8.5” by 5.5”. Stapled spine. $10.00

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SCORES

April Music 2004 Solo piano. 1 page. $5.00 Calendar 2003 Twelve short pieces for piano 12 pages. $15.00 Hushing A Day Just Lived 2003 Solo piano. 4 pages. $10.00 Six Pieces For Piano (after Lorine Neidecker) 2003 20 pages. $15.00 Two Pieces For Piano 2002 4 pages. $10.00 Three Songs 2002. For melody instrument and percussion. 12 pages. $10.00 Three Moments in June 2002 Solo piano. 8 pages. $10.00 Mantras (Twelve Wounds) 2002 Solo piano. 6 pages. $10.00 Landscape (Illinois) 2002 For keyboard(s) and other unspecified instruments. 10 pages. $10.00 Bonnie Raitt Seen on the River Road in Early Evening 2002 Solo piano. 5 pages. $10.00 Sextet 1998. For 6 players using any sound sources. Graph notation. 15 pages. $15.00 Trio 1997 For three players using any sound sources. Graph notation. 8 pages. $15.00 While In Paris 1996 For pianist/speaker. 16 pages. $15.00 Selected Jazz Compositions, 1966 to 1994 1995 Melody line and chord symbol notation. 37 pages. Spiral bound. $20.00 Seventy Nine Years (in memorian John Cage) 1993 Solo Piano. 4 pages. $5.00 Three Beckett Songs 1990 Solo piano. 9 pages. $10.00 Some Love Songs (after Bruce Andrews) 1988 For solo melody instrument. 16 pages. $15.00 Frames (after Hollis Frampton) 1988 For solo melody instrument. 3 pages. $8.00 February: Robin Masses (after Robert Grenier) 1988 For solo melody instrument. 2 pages. $5.00 Thronging Sunk (after Clark Coolidge) 1987 For solo melody instrument. 5 pages. $10.00 December 15: Lindemann’s Kayak Capsizes for the First Time 1987 For solo melody instrument. 2 pages. $5.00 Nine Miniatures (after John Zorn) 1982 For solo melody instrument. 9 pages. $10.00 Diana Nyad (Experiencing Three Periods of Fantasy During a One Mile Swim) 1982 For solo melody instrument. 7 pages. $10.00 The Chadds Ford Songs 1982. Twelve pieces for solo piano. 37 pages. $20.00 Piano Piece 1978 For solo piano. 4 pages. $5.00 Piano Piece 1978 For solo piano. 2 pages. $5.00 Suggested Material 1977 For any number of pianists. Includes some graph notation. Four pages. $5.00 Time Was 1975 For solo saxophone/melody instrument. 1 page. $5.00 Song For The Immobile Hero 1975 For solo piano. 1 page. $5.00

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VISUAL ART

Ulysses In Baghdad 2004 A packet of 11 3.5” by 5” photographs mounted on paper. Wax figure in front of war drawings. $75.00 Allowing Composition 2004 A packet of 22 3.5” by 5” photographs mounted on paper. Found abstractions. $100.00

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	***
	All prices include postage. No returns/exchanges except for defective recordings. Please make checks payable to Steve Nelson-Raney.

	For more information and/or to schedule performances, contact:
	Steve Nelson-Raney 3065 N. Bartlett Milwaukee, WI 53211 USA (414)332-0769 codyarts@execpc.com