Home » Jazz Musicians » Cynthia Hilts

Cynthia Hilts

What's in a name? Quite a bit when it comes to the handle of composer and pianist Cynthia Hilts’s intriguing octet, Lyric Fury. As the name suggests, her writing is defined by powerful contrasts. She likes to build from long, meditative passages to explosive endings. The tried and true technique of tension (and more tension) and release seldom yields more satisfaction or surprise.

But as witness the brisk, striking originals on Lyric Fury, Hilts’s captivating new album, her orchestrations can go in different directions (and different keys) in the same moment, within the same beat or phrase. Imagine, if you will, a peaceful waltz through the meadow and a frantic run through a thunderstorm happening at the same time. Her music can fill the senses even as it swings like crazy.

Together for several years, Lyric Fury boasts a lineup of top-drawer players with highly distinctive “A” games of their own. They include trumpet great and onetime Mingusite Jack Walrath, saxophonists Lisa Parrott and Lily White, trombonist Deborah Weisz, cellist Leigh Stuart, bassist Ratzo Harris, and drummer Scott Neumann.

“When I first put the band together, I didn’t know most of the musicians,” confesses Hilts. “But I got really good at cold calling—hey, how would you like to work in a band that sounds like a celestial collision of Mingus and Debussy?”

Over time, the members of Lyric Fury not only bought into Hilts’s demanding avant-meets-mainstream strategies, they found ways to enhance them. “My pieces are difficult, even the stuff I think is easy,” said Hilts, “and I can get a little tyrannical in getting people to do what I want.” But in the best sense, these musicians gave as good as they got.

As reflected by the infectious opening track of Lyric Fury, “Those Basinites,” the Tucson native can write from the ground up. Inspired not by Count Basie but the quirky residents of Basin, Montana, where Hilts did several residencies, the tune started with what she called a “nice noodley line” in a slow 5/4 with swinging sixteenth notes. It took on a funky quality through the addition of a bass line that, she wrote in a lively but short-lived blog, “turned out to be so chunkily engaging that it was almost a forest unto itself” and ended up being re-fashioned into a more approachable, medium-tempo piece in which “the beat is about a heartbeat long rather than a long, slow breath.”

But much of Hilts’s music, for which she writes her own poetic lyrics, responds to situations and events. “Previously a Thing,” a brash invocation that turns Horace Silver-style hard bop on its ear (dig White’s passionate tenor solo), was written after a breakup. The free-gliding “Blues for the Bronchs,” featuring out-of-sorts voicings and a ripping, hard-edged solo by Walrath, was inspired by an unshakable case of bronchitis.

Read more

Tags

159
Album Review

Cynthia Hilts: And a Few Montana Friends-Stars Down to the Ground

Read "And a Few Montana Friends-Stars Down to the Ground" reviewed by Dave Nathan


Cynthia Hilts came from New York for a year's stint as artist in residence at the Montana Artists Refuge. This features music she wrote while working and living in the Big Sky State. The music embraces a wide range of styles including jazz, funk, folk and new music used in varying harmonic settings feelings of sadness, joy, agony and humor. When in New York, Hilts formed the Lyric Fury Ensemble to play her original compositions, mostly avant-garde in structure.

Hilts ...

Read more articles
1

Recording

Lyric Fury, The Adventurous Octet Led By Pianist/Composer Cynthia Hilts, Debuts On Record January 13

Lyric Fury, The Adventurous Octet Led By Pianist/Composer Cynthia Hilts, Debuts On Record January 13

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

Twenty years ago, Brooklyn-based pianist/composer Cynthia Hilts was seeking to form a band “that sounds like a celestial collision of Mingus and Debussy” as a vehicle for her brisk, striking originals. Her avant-meets-mainstream writing, as the band name Lyric Fury suggests, is demanding and defined by powerful contrasts. Hilts and her octet have been honing a sound and a vision ever since, and their brilliant efforts are captured on their first recording together—the like-named Lyric Fury—set for January 13 release ...

123

Event

Cynthia Hilts & Lyric Fury Play the Triad Theatre

Cynthia Hilts & Lyric Fury Play the Triad Theatre

Source: All About Jazz

CYNTHIA HILTS AND LYRIC FURY: original jazz to shake you up

Wednesday January 25th ONE SET ONLY AT 7pm

TRIAD THEATRE 158 West 72nd St between Broadway & Columbus

reservations highly recommended (212) 362-2511 $12 cover $10 min

eight master musicians ... one amazing composer

The press said: “The genius of talent and heart. Syncopation and nuance, rhythm and dissonance, sensitivity and personal expression - the compositions of a great ...

108

Event

Cynthia Hilts Solo Piano at 5C Cafe, Dec 14, 5-7 pm

Cynthia Hilts Solo Piano at 5C Cafe, Dec 14, 5-7 pm

Source: All About Jazz

CYNTHIA HILTS SOLO PIANO 5C CAFE 68 Avenue C (at 5th Street) WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 14 5-7 pm $5 donation Come check out stellar pianist, vocalist and composer CYNTHIA HILTS performing solo at 5C CAFE. This is an unusual chance to hear her playing her wildest, crankiest and most luxurious solo flights. Experimental jazz for a transcendant happy hour! 5C Cafe offers organic juices and coffee, great pastries and vegetarian food ...

66

Event

Cynthia Hilts Trio at Kavehaz, December 8, 6-9 pm

Cynthia Hilts Trio at Kavehaz, December 8, 6-9 pm

Source: All About Jazz

CYNTHIA HILTS TRIO will play original and amazing jazz at Kavehaz. Cynthia's unique piano and voice bring out the fire of her compositions. She is joined by master bassist Ron McClure and the transcendant Peter Grant on drums. It promises to be an exciting early soiree with new featured compositions “A Hedonist Learns Restraint" and “Dulcinea's Regret". Kavehaz is a sophisticated groove, at the same time that it is extremely comfortable. The food is great and there is no cover. ...

159

Event

Cynthia Hilts Trio with Ron McClure at Kavehaz, December 8 6-9 pm, no cover

Cynthia Hilts Trio with Ron McClure at Kavehaz, December 8 6-9 pm, no cover

Source: All About Jazz

October 24, 2005 To: Listings/Critics/Features From: Blond Coyote Productions Press Contact: CYNTHIA HILTS, [email protected] KAVEHAZ 37 West 26th Street THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8 6-9 PM no cover $10 minimum CYNTHIA HILTS TRIO will play original and amazing jazz at Kavehaz. Cynthia's unique piano and voice bring out the fire of her compositions. She is joined by master bassist Ron McClure and the transcendant Peter Grant on drums. It promises to be an exciting early soiree with new featured compositions “A Hedonist ...

“Pianist Cynthia Hilts's album Lyric Fury—a funky mambo full of Mingus-meets-Debussy-and-Carole-King flavor—is one of the more outrageous releases of 2017. Indeed, Lyric Fury is designed to challenge and entertain, start to finish.” —Ken Micallef DownBeat

“Lyric Fury is the sound of a mature voice expressed in compositions of great depth, and the soloing raises the bar even further.” Ken Micallef - DownBeat

“There are some mighty players in Lyric Fury and even so they are secondary to the sum of the parts. A wonderful record and some heavy compositions.” Robert Rusch - Cadence Jazz

Read more

Primary Instrument

Piano

Willing to teach

Intermediate to advanced

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Lyric Fury

Blond Coyote Records
2017

buy

Second Story Breeze

Blond Coyote Records
2008

buy

And a Few Montana...

Montana Artists Refuge
2001

buy

Videos

Similar

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.