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It’s absolutely killing me that I can’t be in two places at once this Saturday night. I’m hosting an experimental series at Noa Noa (which I’ll discuss more in my next post) concurrently with the Matthew Shipp Trio and Lambchop concert at VFW Post 1970.
Piano player Matthew Shipp is national treasure, and if you’re even remotely interested in free jazz, you need to be at this show. Matthew was a longtime member of the quartet led by saxophonist David S. Ware (who sadly passed away last October). As I type this, I’m listening to the quartet’s Renunciation, also featuring William Parker and Guillermo E. Brown. Matthew has also performed with Roscoe Mitchell, Joe Morris, Mat Maneri, Daniel Carter, Barbara Januszkiewicz and DJ Spooky. He’s known for his wholly original piano-playing style which somehow manages to convert dissonance into harmony. Never resting on tradition, Matthew also experiments in other genres, including contemporary classical, hip hop, and electronica.
Matthew Shipp is performing with his trio featuring Michael Bisio on bass and Whit Dickey on drums. Big thanks to Chris Davis for putting this amazing show together.
Nashville’s own alt-country phenomenon Lambchop opens the evening.
Matthew Shipp Trio w/ Lambchop
Saturday, May 11th, 2013, 8pm, $15
@ VFW Post 1970
7220 Charlotte Pike
Nashville, TN
Thomas Lehn & John Butcher, St. Louis, 06-08-2012. Photo by Joseph Raglani
For the 100th Theatre Intangible podcast, we’ve been saving a very special performance: the Thomas Lehn and John Butcher artist showcase.
This is a recording of their spectacular June 7th, 2012 performance at Downtown Presbyterian Church. Thomas and John very graciously allowed me to release the recording as a podcast.
This rare event was organized by Brady Sharp, Chris Davis, and David Maddox.
“Thomas Lehn and John Butcher are two of the most important players in the European free improv scene. Lehn plays unearthly sounds out of an EMS Synthi A, a unique 1970s analog synthesizer that supplants the Moog-style patch bay for a matrix of Battleship-like resistor pegs. His sputtering, crackling, and at times combative timbres are just as unique as the instrument he plays, and a far cry from the soothing tones of ambient electronic music.
If Evan Parker is the pioneer of extended saxophone technique, John Butcher is the lab scientist. Formerly a theoretical physicist, Butcher meticulously catalogs every sound he discovers on the sax — and I do mean every sound. Where most musical adventurers remain content mapping out the big spaces in the middle, Butcher charts every crack, crevice and blind alley. He’s famous for treating the room as an extension of the instrument (having recorded in caves, oil tanks and underground reservoirs), and you can be sure the amazing acoustics of the chapel at DPC will play a big part in both players’ performances.”
The acoustics of the space did play a big part of the performance. The reverb you hear on the recording is in fact the chapel’s natural room reverb.
This was a very special performance, and I’m indebted to Brady, Chris, and Dave for putting the show together and to Thomas and John for bringing their talents to Nashville.
Also, I’d like to take a moment to thank all of the talented performers who have ever appeared on Theatre Intangible. 100 episodes down. Here’s to 100 more.
The Chestnut/Houston/4th-Avenue art triangle I like to call “NoHo” is the place to be this Friday. In my last blog post, I told you about Robbie Hunsinger’s reactive sound sculpture opening at Seed Space. That exhibit is open from 6pm to 8, but you should plan to arrive right at 6.
That will give you enough time to head over to Zeitgeist Gallery at 7pm to catch NYC avant jazz guitarist Mary Halvorson‘s new band Secret Keeper (with double-bassist Stephan Crump). I’ve been to nearly all of the Indeterminacies programs, and this one has me the most excited. Rodger Coleman writes on his blog NuVoid,
I was recently asked to curate the May 2013 “Indeterminacies” event at Zeitgeist Gallery. At first, I wasn’t sure what to do but after some thought, I decided to really go for it: Why not bring Mary Halvorson to Nashville? Well, as it turns out her new band, Secret Keeper, a duo with bassist, Stephan Crump, will be touring the states in support of their upcoming CD on Intakt, Super Eight. Fortuitously enough, we have them confirmed for Friday May 10! … The New Yorker has labeled Mary Halvorson “the current it girl of avant jazz guitar” while The New York Times just decreed Nashville “the nation’s ‘it’ city.” I suppose this is just a confluence of events. Whatever, it is going to be awesome!
Friday night at Zeitgeist also marks the opening of Greg Pond‘s new art exhibition. Greg is an installation artist, hacker, 3D printing pioneer, filmmaker, musician and Associate Professor of Art at University of the South in Sewanee. He most recently created, along with Benton Bainbridge, the interactive installations at the Ballet Mécanique show at Blair School of Music. I’ve certainly gushed about him in the past.
Greg writes,
I have a solo show of sculpture, images generated from software, and sound for the first exhibition at the new home of the Zeitgeist Gallery. It will be on view from May 10 to June 8. The reception for the exhibition will be June 1. On the evening of May 10 there will be an Indeterminacies performance in the gallery. I will be on hand during this event.
Greg also recently completed a multi-year documentary project about contemporary life in Kingston 12, Jamaica called Born in Trench Town. Greg will screen the documentary at some point during the exhibition’s run. I’ll let you know the screening date as soon as it’s announced. Based on the trailer below, it looks like a must-see!
Oh, by the way, all of these Friday events are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!
Nashville musician and multi-media artist Robbie Lynn Hunsinger has a new exhibit opening up at Seed Space on Friday, May 10th from 6pm to 8pm. The reactive sound sculpture is a collaboration with Middle Tennessee Robotic Art Society members Patrick Becker and Steve Ghertner. Skitter Flutter sounds absolutely fascinating, and I can’t wait to check it out on Friday.
Skitter Flutter is also heavily influenced by Hunsinger’s years of pre-dawn bird rescue in the Chicago area as Founder of The Chicago Bird Collision Monitors program, a very successful conservation effort in which volunteers save injured and stunned migratory birds that have struck buildings.
She became fascinated with the idea of creating an invisible array of reactive sounds similar to small mammals, insects or birds but created entirely by motors. Sounds pull the viewer in but dissipate upon investigation, much as crickets grow quiet as we approach.
The mirror neuron creates a reaction in an observer which reflects the chemical changes in the person actually experiencing an event firsthand, which seems to manifest the neurological existence of empathy.
“You get hit, I flinch.” These interactive sound sculptures encourage this type of response. They are as much felt as seen or heard.
