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Chris Davis is putting on a great noise show tonight at Betty’s featuring Crank Sturgeon (Williamstown, MA), PCRV (Billings, MT) and Nashville’s own Textbook Punk (Chris Murray from Square People).
Accompanied by ridiculous costuming, pointed instructions and parables (gone awry), and even the occasional dirigible or two, these elements intertwine, transforming into space-defying interventions, and invariably involving audience participation.
But you really need to watch a few videos to get an idea of what you’re getting yourself into:
And here’s PCRV:
Crank Sturgeon, PCRV, Textbook Punk
Wednesday, May 15th, 9pm
@ Betty’s Grill
407 49th Ave N
Nashville, Tennessee 37209-3442
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.
Jack Wright is the legendary underground experimental saxophonist whom Davey Williams called “the Johnny Appleseed of Free Improvisation.” (Yes, I’ve used the word “legendary” three times so far. It’s the right word in all cases.) To see a force of nature like Jack Wright engulf the tiny room at Betty’s, well that’s just an experience you can’t afford to miss. The saxophone/percussion duo of Craig Schenker and Tommy Stangroom open the show.
The very next night, catch, yes I’ll say it, the fourth legend this month: Ustad Lakha Khan at the Downtown Presbyterian Church. Lakha Khan plays the sindhi sarangi, a bowed North Indian folk instrument with a tone similar to the human voice.
Lakha Khan, 63 is a sarangi player and vocalist, and perhaps the greatest exponent of the sindhi sarangi. He was born in the village of Raneri in Jodhpur district, Rajasthan, India into a family of traditional musicians from the Manganiyar community. He was trained at an early age by his father Tharu Khan and later, by his uncle Mohammad Khan, in rendering the compositions of the Multan school of Manganiyars. His first public performances were in the late 60’s and 70’s under the guidance of the late Komal Kothari, a highly regarded Indian historian and ethnomusicologist. Today, Lakha Khan is one of the last remaining Manganiyars to have mastered this complex instrument and to carry forward the centuries-old musical tradition of Rajasthani folk and Sufi music. He has performed extensively across Rajasthan and India, and internationally in the U.S. and Europe. — Amarrass Records
Nashville’s Kirby Shelstad opens the show on tabla and vocal. Chris Davis organized.
On Tuesday, April 23rd, DJ’s Pub & Grill welcomes Chris Corsano, Leslie Keffer, and The Cherry Blossoms. Percussionist Chris Corsano is a member of Drag City’s Rangda and plays in a duo with saxophonist Paul Flaherty. He was a touring musician with Bjork and was featured on her album Volta. He also recorded with Evan Parker, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Jim O’Rourke, Jandek, and C. Spencer Yeh.
Leslie Keffer is an internationally-known noise artist who currently calls Nashville home. The Cherry Blossoms describe themselves as “Middle Tennessee’s finest anarchic post neo-skiffle collective specializing in kazoo-exotica.” Keffer and Chris Davis organized this show.
In addition to all of that, we at Noa Noa are hosting an Electro-Dance party featuring Nudity, Scale Model, and The Prime Ordeal on Friday, April 19th. Nashville Film Festival pass-holders get in free. This show isn’t experimental per-se, but it does feature three great acts incorporating electronics into their sound. This will be the first public performance by The Prime Ordeal, an electronic duo comprised of Robert Amsbary and Shawn Jenkins who “explore exotic and subconscious soundscapes through an improvised medium of rhythmic sample looping, steeped in elektronische musik and pseudo-musique concrète.” For those of you in Huntsville, Alabama, catch rising stars Nudity the very next day at Happenin Fest 2013 at Lowe Mill.
