Once described as “hackable karoake with live visuals and improvised text” this score was pulled from the journals of the late Matthew Sperry. He envisioned an ensemble of singers and musicians attempting to keep up with someone writing extemporaneously on an overhead projector. The results are irresistible, at once vertiginous, hilarious, and touching.
John Shiurba conducts this edition with:
Val Esway, vocals
Karl Evangelista, guitar
David James, guitar and vocals
Dan Plonsey, reeds
Gino Robair, electronics
Maw Shein Win, extemporaneous writer
Cory Wright, reeds
Lisa Mezzacappa, bass
Jordan Glenn, drums
Kathleen Quillian, Gilbert Guerrero and Ellie Vanderlip, projection
Suki O'Kane, latkes
Cost: $10
Videos featuring musicians playing at this event
Gino Robair and John Butcher, 2008
avantNOIR, a suite of compositions for jazz quartet plus guests, is a musical companion to the crime novels of Dashiell Hammett and Paul Auster. All music by Lisa Mezzacappa.
Fred Frith, Guitar; Jordan Glenn, Drums; Jason Hoopes, bass