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This Week in Shows: Dr. Lonnie Smith, Cyrus Chestnut, Jack Wright, Future Night, Joey Molinaro and More

 Concerts  No Responses »
Mar 252014
 
Dr. Lonnie Smith. Photo by Jimmy Katz.

Dr. Lonnie Smith. Photo by Jimmy Katz.

This week is absolutely packed to the brim with great shows.

Thursday, March 27th, 9 p.m., Betty’s Grill, 407 49th Ave N, Nashville, Tennessee 37209

Underground free jazz saxophonist Jack Wright teams up with experimental percussionist Andrew Drury. The press release states,

The core of this duo is the depth and originality of the individual voices combined with their intense listening and commitment to the present moment. It is intimate music, often raucous and always adventurous. And it is executed with minimal materials—a couple saxophones and usually, instead of a full drum set, just a floor tom and some percussion accoutrements. Wright is a somewhat underground figure in the U.S., at the same time legendary for giving revelatory performances that reach both experienced listeners and people unaccustomed to free improvisation. Drury works some kind of promethean magic on a floor tom, using it as a stage for a theater of small objects that he charms into producing amazing sounds.

Also appearing are People (Noa Ben-Amotz and Chris Davis) and Onika & Allen. UPDATE: Noise artist/circuit bender Derek Schartung got added to the bill.  More info on the Facebook event page.

Friday, March 28th, 9 p.m., Boheme Collectif, 919 Gallatin Ave., Suite 8, Nashville, Tennessee 37206

Mike Kluge brings you the first Future Night of 2014. This one features the music of The Perfect Hours, Autran, Lust and the Black Cat, and Gay Vibes and the installations of Adrienne Outlaw, Zach Adams, Yospeh Kennerly, David Wright Lagrone, and Dale Liska. The show will feature projections by Devin Lamp.

More info on the Facebook event page.

Sunday, March 30th, 10 p.m., Betty’s Grill, 407 49th Ave N, Nashville, Tennessee 37209

Thrash violinist Joey Molinaro is passing through Nashville and will be joined by Graphic Tease, Marid, and Pleasuredome. I wrote about it here.

Monday, March 31st, 7 p.m., Fisk Memorial Chapel, Nashville, Tennessee 37208

Legendary organist Dr. Lonnie Smith will be performing with pianist Cyrus Chestnut. Don’t miss this one!

More from the press release:

The evening will begin with an energized set of solo piano from master jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut making his 1st return to Nashville in over a decade. The New York Times notes Chestnut as a “highly intelligent improviser with one of the surest senses of swing in jazz.”

Since last year’s sold out appearance in Nashville last April, Dr. Lonnie Smith released the double CD “In The Beginning” featuring tunes originally composed and recorded during the 1960s alongside peers such as trumpeter Lee Morgan, saxophonist David “Fathead” Newman, guitarists George Benson and Melvin Sparks and drummer Idris Muhammad. The recording topped year end “top album” jazz lists in such publications as Jazz Times, Downbeat and The New York City Jazz Record. Throughout his five decade career, Dr. Lonnie has topped both the Jazz Journalist Association and Downbeat Critics and Readers polls as “#1 Jazz Organist”.

All ticket proceeds will go to benefit Fisk University and Daniel Payne Outreach Ministries. Founded in 1866, Fisk is Nashville’s 1st university. Fisk received a charter for the first chapter of The Phi Beta Kappa Society on a predominantly black campus in 1953. Fisk’s outstanding faculty and students continue to enhance the University’s national reputation for academic excellence that is validated year after year by the leading third party reviewers, as well as by the pool of talented applicants and the large percentage of alumni who complete graduate or professional degrees and become leaders and scholars in their fields.

More info on the Facebook event page.

Tuesday, April 1st, 10 p.m., Betty’s Grill, 407 49th Ave N, Nashville, Tennessee 37209

Chris Murray is curating some “April Fools wackiness at Betty’s” for this show featuring Close Your Eyes I’m Changing, Flesh Control, Harvest Team, Night Moves, and a special guest. More info on the Facebook event page.

Experimental April: Wayne Shorter, Jack Wright, Ustad Lakha Khan, Chris Corsano, Leslie Keffer, The Cherry Blossoms & More!

 Concerts, Noa Noa  No Responses »
Apr 102013
 
Dane Khan and Lakha Khan.

Dane Khan and Lakha Khan.

So many great shows have been happening in Nashville lately that I haven’t been able to keep up with them all. Concurrence’s Greg Bryant had a hand in bringing the legendary organist Dr. Lonnie Smith to town. (By the way, check out Greg’s excellent new podcast JazzWatch.) Chris Davis organized a show with Carter Thornton, Malocchio, and Grandpa Egg. And Sunday brought Michael Holland’s magnum opus in art curating: VORTEX and the BAD BOY!

If you missed any of those shows, don’t fret. The rest of April is loaded to the gills with rare opportunities!

On Friday, April 12th, there’s the legendary jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter at Schermerhorn. Ben Ratliff of The New York Times called Shorter “jazz’s greatest living composer.”

Chris Davis organized at least three amazing lineups in the coming weeks, including Saturday at Betty’s Bar & Grill: The Wrest Trio (Jack Wright/Evan Lipson/Ben Bennett) and Craig Schenker/Tommy Stangroom.

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.