I have a very exciting concert that will feature a world premiere of Story of Casey Jones for Orchestra, a piece for orchestra which I composed by Jugendorchester des Camerloher-Gymnasiums at the cafe on Donnerstag March 24th @ 8pm
It is a composition about the famous train engineer Casey Jones who died in a train collision in 1899! I will tell the entire story with words and music at this concert.
Announcing the Sean Noonan signature snare drum by the great Bavarian drum maker Alex Zachow from Troyan Drums. This snare drum is a original and unique drum which consists of three different types of wood that will create different timbres around the instrument! You can visit his site and order your own drums at www.troyandrums.de.
Currently recording a solo drumset album at nfo.studio in Erding, Germany, where I am playing Troyan drums. This album will be released next fall.
I would like to share with you a sneak preview of what is happening in 2011!
Boxing Dreams String Quartet premiere of "Night Music" @ the Stone, "Set the Hammer Free" album is officially released, "Story of Casey Jones" for orchestra being performed the Spring,
UK piano duet with Matthew Bourne, Bavarian musicians in Brewed by Noon will tour Europe this Spring.
You can pre-order your limited edition of the Brewed by Noon's latest album release. "Set the Hammer Free" that is a fermentation of high energy Jazz Art Rock from the New York underground that travels to and from America, Ireland, Bavaria, West Africa, and further. Since the release of "Stories to Tell" and "Boxing Dreams", Noonan has gathered a collection of legends, stories, and songs that are improvised and composed from the drum set, in the fashion of an "Irish griot". Inspired by Irish playwright Samuel Beckett's theatre of the absurd, Noonan uses these ingredients to fuel his New York line up of Alex Marcelo, keyboards, Shanir Blumenkranz, bass, and Aram Bajakian guitar.
European Tour Dates
Brewed by Noon new Bavarian trio lineup includes Norbert Burger guitar and Robert Klinger bass
Feb 9-13 Poland
Feb 17 Munich
March 5 versus barbershop, Munich
"Born to Brew" Uk tour with Matthew Bourne
March 10 Leeds, UK
March 12 The Shed, Brawby, Malton,North Yorkshire, UK
March 13 Splinter @ the Bridge, New Castle, UK
March 15 The Vortex, London
March 16 Jazz Bar Edinburgh
March 17 Glasgow Art Club, UK
March 19 Leeds, UK
March 24 cafe camerloher, Freising, DE
Brewed by Noon
March 27 Bad alchemy, Wurzburg, Germany
April 1 Ebene 3, Heilbronn, DE
April 2 Jazzclub Tonne, Dresden, DE
April 4 Ruffini, Munich, DE
April 6 Jazzclub Hirsch, Moosburg, DE
April 7 Schiassn, Erding, DE
April 9 Frauenau, DE
April 10 Kinocafe, Taufkirchen
April 16 stockwerkjazz, Graz austria
April 18 verein innenhofkultur, Klagenfurt austria
April 29 Jazzkeller Hofheim, DE
Thursday May 19, 2011 10pm
@ The Stone
Sean Noonan's Boxing Dreams String Quartet
Tom Swafford (violin)
Patti Kilroy (violin)
Leanne Darling (viola)
David West (cello)
Sean Noonan (drum set, percussion, stories)
Drummer, composer, and storyteller Sean Noonan premieres "Night Music" Book 1, a story transformed into a musical dream.
September 2010:
I am currently booking dates for the "Set the Hammer Free" European album release tour from March 16-April 18, 2011. Also, I will be touring with UK pianist Matthew Bourne in a new improvisation duett "Born to Brew" in Feb/March 2011.
Residency at the LIC Bar, Long Island City
Every Wednesday @ 10pm in October
Featuring new compositions such as Wayfaring Stranger, Improv Bouts, and a Return to Forced Meatballs
And a new spectacular array of musicians that feature
Oran Etkins clarinet
Brian Drye trombone
Tom Swafford violin
Eyal Maoz guitar
www.licbar.com
45-58 Vernon Blvd
Queens, New York 11101
(718) 786-5400
Also New album: "Set the Hemmer Free" has been mixed and will be release soon!
March 2010:
Next album coming soon: Noonan will present the newest Brewed by Noon chapter that is a fermentation of Irish-American storytelling improvised on the drum set. Inspired by Irish avant-garde writer Samuel Beckett, Noonan's New Irish Brew is a collection of high energy Jazz/Punk songs from his Irish roots and beyond.
In 2010-11 Noonan will tour with his new band that include Shanir Blumenkranz-bass (John Zorn Zadik Records), Alex Marcelo-piano, (Yusef Lateef), and Aram Bajakian-guitar, (Jamaaladeen Tacuma).
Apart of Noonan's camber music series, here is recent percussion ensemble composition, Bean Phaidin, that merges Afro-Celtic folklore and rhythm.
January 2010:
After returning from a few concerts in Bavaria
I am now working to form my chamber music ensemble for a new upcoming third stream music project
which introduces the drum set to the string quartet.
To give you a sneak preview of what I am going to brew,
here is an excerpt of a work in progress:
New Double Disc Live Release: Time at the End of the Day
Finally there is a selection of the very best of Brewed By Noon, a double CD with live recordings from 2008 and '09! For all of you who cannot wait for the upcoming studio record or want to take a piece of the live experience into their living rooms, Time at the End of the Day will be available on my tour and here starting October.
August '09:
Upcoming BBN Tour in Fall '09!
This time I will be on the road with Aram Bajakian (guitar) and our newest addition to Brewed By Noon, Shanir Blumenkranz, bassist from John Zorn's Tzadik Label. Also don"t miss the show in the Tea Lounge, Brooklyn on September 7th!
P.S.: We will be playing lots of new tunes on this tour - a little foretaste on the new album that is going to be released in 2010
January '09:
I have returned from Africa. Read about it in the story-section!
The streets of Bamako, Mali
Becoming Shaka Diabate, Stories from Mali
Since the release of my album Stories to Tell in 2007,
I have developed a strong passion for storytelling and capturing new stories.
Visiting Africa with its vivid culture of music and oral traditions has become a yearning over the years and
was finally made possible through a grant from Meet the Composer.
So on December 17, 2008 I found myself soaring over the Sahara desert at around 3 am and after being awakened from a
deep sleep I peered out of my window feeling the descent through the dark smoky clouds above Bamako, Mali.
Walking off the red-eye express I felt the dry Sub-Saharan breeze with its fruitful climate that
I would have to learn to befriend.
Since the release of his previous Songlines record Stories to Tell in early 2007, Sean Noonan
has been busy stirring up the ingredients of his unique "wandering folk music" project, and here's the new brew. Grandiose,
intoxicating, and sui generis, Boxing Dreams is a wildly ambitious and idiosyncratic concept album that blends
passionate vocals and time-honored lyrics from Ireland, Mali and Senegal, raw power-jamming jazz/rock guitars,
shape-shifting improv viola, dense soundscapes, funked or punked up drum and bass grooves and complex, dancing polyrhythms.
The musical stories Noonan tells are as diverse as ever, but the overriding metaphor of the record's title suggests how he
wrestled its elements and his own restless subconscious into a personal artistic vision:
"The main effect I wanted in Boxing Dreams was to give the impression that the entire album is a single boxed dream, where each song captures a different dreamed or imagined story.
'Morpheus' in some ways sets the dreamy mood of the album.
Morpheus is the god of dreams, who assumes any shape and form, and on this song Susan McKeown sings from an Irish Gaelic aisling or dream poem called 'Magic Mist'.
'Courage' is a tribute to my hometown (Brockton, Massachusetts) boxing legend Rocky Marciano, who remains the only heavyweight champion in boxing history to retire having won every fight in his professional career.
Lately I've been intrigued by the physical intensity and body movements of boxing. I'm beginning to visualize these movements and apply boxing concepts in my drumming.
'The Return of the Peanut Butter Queen' was first an actual dream I had about a Queen named Ilylea who taught her fellow peanuts the magic of making peanut butter, creating great prosperity and hope in the land of peanut. Later I wandered this story into a composition.
'Story of Jones' is a country-style instrumental narrative - each of the three sections re-enacts what happened on the famous train engineer's journey to the promised land in 1900.
Jones lost his life saving his passengers when he collided with Old No. 9 in Tennessee and was found dead still gripping the trains brakes."
Along with the dream concept there's a lot more singing on Boxing Dreams than on Stories to Tell, and generally the songs are multi-lingual (Gaelic, Wolof, Bambara, English).
Says Sean: "I think of my songs as old wine in new bottles, where my mission is to truly further understand and preserve folklore and present it in a modern context.
A major aspect of Boxing Dreams is how the music adapts storytelling, folklore and post-modern jazz, merging material from the Bardic and Griot traditions."
The singers were given freedom to interpret the compositions:
"I would first have them listen to the music and then told them what the basic theme was and have them sing about what they visualized.
Both Susan and Abdoulaye surprised me in how they complemented the instrumental arrangements, and Susan discovered and presented some amazing Irish literature."
An example of the unique synergy between voices and instruments: Susan's sound is entranced and bewitching, and Mat Maneri is like her instrumental shadow or familiar.
As Aram Bajakian, Sean's closest musical collaborator here, comments: "There's something really eerie about the way Susan's voice goes with Mat's playing. And then Abdoulaye will come in, and it brings a smile to your face. He has such an amazing presence."
And this is just one example of the surprising juxtapositions Noonan pulls off throughout the record.
With Marc Ribot and Jamaaladeen Tacuma adding their own brilliant improvising to the brew, Boxing Dreams takes Sean's Afro-Celtic-American project to a new level.
Sean Noonan, electro-acoustic drum set, compositions
Marc Ribot, electric guitar; Aram Bajakian, electric guitar, Max MSP
Mat Maneri, viola; Jamaaladeen Tacuma, electric bass
Susan McKeown, vocals; Abdoulaye Diabate, vocals, conga
Thierno Camara, electric bass, vocals; Thiokho Diagne, percussion
"Social science's loss is music's gain, as Noonan's contributions continue to grow.
Noonan's musical path hasn't been easy. While touring in 2004 with
jazzcore trio the Hub, Noonan was badly wounded when a drunk-driver slammed into their van late one night in Italy as the band navigated dark roads to get to the next gig. Sean's injuries left him struggling for his life, and his legs were badly mangled. But Sean not only survived, he made a stunningly rapid comeback and, if anything, has emerged even more focused and determined to make music that matters.
The injury and Sean's road back is an important—perhaps essential—part of the Noonan story. Always driven and determined, those who know Sean will agree that the musician who bravely endured pain to play the music that was like life-blood to him have seen a drive and passion that have surpassed what he showed in the past.
Sean has developed as an astute band-leader, something in the
eccentric tradition of Sun-Ra, rallying his band-mates in his boxer's
robe, or showing up to rehearsal in the Russian gangster look he's
been cultivating of late (mono-color tracksuit, big chains,
sunglasses), coalescing his style and ideas into the music, directing
an eclectic group of musicians from a variety of different cultures. He has proven to be a shrewd evaluator of talent, allowing the talents of young Aram Bajakian to flourish on guitar in the musical mixture he has cooked up, keeping an eye on all the ingredients to make sure that no one element overshadows the rest, and all lend a bit of distinctive flavor. Through his unique persona, the sincerity of his ideas and--more than anything--his stunningly original music, Sean has managed to put together a band in Brewed by Noon that bridges both generations and cultures.
Brewed by Noon is one of the more appropriate names for any band
you'll find. "I don't like the word fusion," Noonan says. "It makes
you think of different elements fused together, which doesn't
necessarily sound natural. Brewed on the other hand sounds like
something you took the time to develop, and that's what I've been
going for."
It's worked, as the music made by Brewed by Noon has none of the
self-aggrandizing, often indulgent characteristics of fusion. Much as the Hub has been able to bring together elements of jazz, classical, hip-hop and punk rock without sounding derivative, Brewed by Noon borrows from a bouillabaisse of elements that includes Celtic music, West African folk, as well as jazz and hard rock, but winds up sounding nothing like any of these things.
With a grant from American Composers Forum, Sean was able to create music that reaches back into the story-telling traditions of Ireland and Africa and while telling us something about how we live today. To put legendary musicians like Marc Ribot and Jamaaladeen Tacuma on stage with African musicians, an Irish folk singer, and a rising young guitarist of Armenian decent, and watch them bring to life the music that Sean has dreamed up, like a phoenix rising from the ashes of a near-death experience, is not just uplifting, but life-affirming. And like the difference between something fused and something brewed, it is a subtle distinction, but one that means everything.
October 16 2007
I am back and have been meaning to get in touch. Check out some of the new tracks on the music player box on the flash page that will include new Brewed by Noon live tracks that go from New York to Europe and back. Just wanted to thank all the great photographers from sharing these great photos. keep tuning in since there will be a new BBN album and other surprises!
November 17
Dont hesitate to get one for x-mas!
Brewed by Noon will release its new CD, Stories To Tell, on Songlines Records, which is described it as “tribal rhythms by an Irish griot. On January 13, 2007 I will premiere the first of 12 new works commissioned by the American Composers Forum that
feature; Susan McKeown and Abdoulaye Diabate-vocals, Marc Ribot and Aram Bajakian-guitar, Jamaaladeen Tacuma and Thierno Camara-bass, Mat Maneri-viola, and
Sean Noonan-drumset.
This is a must see event!
Tickets: $18; Day of Show $20; Members $16; Students, Seniors $15; Children $10; Rush $10 call day of show for availability
Venue: Symphony Space Leonard Nimoy Thalia
2537 Broadway at 95th Street, NY
Showtime: Jan 13, 2007, 8:30pm
June 06
This summer take advantage of the sun and eat some pineapple
Now you can listen to some live tracks with Jamaaladeen Tacuma at Tonic and also get a sneak preview of the next Brewed By Noon album featuring Marc Ribot-guitar, Mat Maneri-viola, Susan McKeown-voice, Abdoulaye Diabete-voice, Dawn Padmore-voice, Jim Pugliese-percussion, Thierno Camara-bass, Jon Madof- guitar, Aram Bajakian-guitar, and Sean Noonan electro-acoustic drum set
COMING TO YOUR EARS IN 07!!
The latest HUB album “LIGHT FUSE AND GET AWAY” is now available
December 05
It is so great to see all our loyal listeners in Europe and America and would like to thank you for allowing our music to be apart of our lives. There have been so many special moments this year and these are just some of the highlights. I received a commission from the American Composers Forum and over the next couple of years I will be communally re-creating original compositions based off my own "wandering" folk music concept. Brewed By Noon released their first album.
February
2004: My Recovery Well, 2003 had great moments like
having the opportunity to perform with THE HUB throughout Europe
and America. The music was a tremendous success where we were meeting
new fans and see old ones all the time. Disaster struck when THE
HUB had only 2 concerts to go on our Fall European tour. Driving
from Cuneo to Sicily, Italy we where struck by a drunk driver destroying
our equipment and breaking both my legs. After 6 days of surgery
I laid in bed recovering and realizing how thankful I was to be
alive. There were numerous telephone calls, emails, and letter from
my mom, dad, girlfriend, friends, and fans that brought my spirits
up. Thanks everyone and I greatly appreciate your prayers.
3/8/03
THE HUB and Marc Ribot, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, and Calvin Weston at
North Six, Brooklyn, NY
Last Saturday over 300 people witnessed the old guard and new trade
riffs. New York music listeners were brought on an awesome musical
journey which was remembered as one of the best nights out by many.
First was THE HUB that quickly set the mood invading the stage like
naughty school children. Next was manic, eclectic Ribot whose performance
was easily described as “punk, funk, and harmelodic hell,”
but in the end it was Tacuma the free-funk prophet that ultimately
stole the show!
3/24-5/26/03
THE HUB Spring 2003 European “Trucker” Tour Check out
“Shows” for upcoming shows in your area!
5/1/02
Upcoming Album Release: Sean Noonan and Aram Bajakian release their
first album “Chips” on Innova Records. Noonan matches
with the “mysterious” guitarist Aram Bajakian to present
a collaborative concept for playing duets that has only just begun.
Dont hesitate to get one for x-mas! 
It is so great to see all our loyal listeners in Europe and America and would like to thank you for allowing our music to be apart of our lives. There have been so many special moments this year and these are just some of the highlights. I received a commission from the American Composers Forum and over the next couple of years I will be communally re-creating original compositions based off my own "wandering" folk music concept. Brewed By Noon released their first album. 
February
2004: My Recovery
