NEWS:

Shaking Ray Levis on cover of Signal to Noise

Malcolm Goldstein/New Dischord Festival, June 6 and 8, Barking Legs Theater

What Cheer? Brigade, July 16, Location TBA


Founded in 1986, the Shaking Ray Levi Society is a volunteer-run, 501(c)(3) non-profit arts education organization.

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The mission of the Shaking Ray Levi Society is to nurture and support music, film, and performance art that is challenging, non-traditional, and falls outside the mainstream, in order to help nourish the cultural growth of Chattanooga.

This is done by sponsoring shows by artists recognized on a national and international level, supporting original work by area musicians and filmmakers, and engaging the community through workshops and educational outreach programs.


The SRLS is a funded agency of Allied Arts.

 

NEWS AND UPCOMING EVENTS:

Contemporary Performing Arts of Chattanooga, New Dischord and the Shaking Ray Levi Society present:
Malcolm Goldstein

An Evening with Malcolm Goldstein:
Thursday, June 6
, 2013, 7:30 PM
$17 advance, $20 door, $10 students

Malcolm Goldstein Directs the New Dischord Ensemble:
Saturday, June 8, 2013, 7:30 PM
$12 advance, $15 door, $10 students

Barking Legs Theater
1307 Dodds Ave
Chattanooga, TN 37404

Esteemed composer and violinist Malcolm Goldstein has been described as having “reinvented violin playing,” having a distinguished career in music and performing arts for half a century, straddling the worlds of classical music, jazz and improvisation in a unique and extraordinary fashion. He is one of the violinists most identified with John Cage and has collaborated with jazz icons Ornette Coleman and Archie Shepp.

Trained as a classical violinist, Goldstein gravitated to the works of American composer Charles Ives early in his career and recently completed an authoritative edition of Ives’s Second String Quartet for the official Ives Edition. Goldstein’s entry into the vanguard of music dates back to his participation in the early ‘60s in the Judson Dance Theater—an important showcase for independent, postmodern dance—in Greenwich Village and being a co-founder of the Tone Roads Ensemble, which tackled modern music including Olivier Messiaen, Fluxus pieces and everything in between.

Goldstein has created an impressive and extensive catalog of “structured improvisation compositions,” including stage, orchestral, chamber, vocal and choral works, along with multimedia and radio productions.

He has taught at some of the most prestigious colleges in the nation, including Columbia University, Dartmouth College and the New England Conservatory of Music and has written extensively about musical improvisation including the book Sounding the Full Circle.

Now living in Montreal at the age of 77, his skills are undiminished although his appearances in the U.S. are becoming increasingly rare.

Malcolm Goldstein will visit Chattanooga as a guest artist of the 3rd New Dischord Festival, and on Thursday, June 6, he’ll present an evening of solo violin and duo pieces with dancer Ann Law. On Saturday, June 8, he will direct the New Dischord Ensemble, as the culmination of a weeklong workshop. The two evenings together will offer an exceedingly rare opportunity to experience the work of this historic musician and composer in an intimate setting.


AC Faux and Flying Fingers Productions present:
Faun Fables
Joshua Songs

Sunday, June 9, 2013, 8 PM
Barking Legs Theater
1307 Dodds Ave, Chattanooga, TN, 37404
$8

Faun Fables (on Drag City Records) is Dawn McCarthy's songtelling and vivid imagination come tolife at a crossroads where ancient ballad, art song, physical theater, and rock music meet.  With partner and multi-instrumentalist Nils Frykdahl (co-founder of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum), McCarthy makes "...music of near-frightening beauty, at times sweetly sad, other times heartrending and disquieting,rendered with an intensity akin to supernatural force" (Nashville Scene).

(This is not a Shaking Ray Levi Society presentation, but presented by our partners and worthy of attention.)


What Cheer? Brigade

Thursday, July 25
, 2013 - *NEW DATE*
More details TBA

The WHAT CHEER? BRIGADE from Providence, RI is a 19-piece mobile party, like a marching band on an atomic fireball sugar rush that darts from New Orleans brass band tunes to Bollywood dance numbers to whirlwind Balkan folk to bombastic hip-hop, with a ton of surprises along the way. It has been four years since the SRLS brought their merry insanity to Chattanooga, and their return will guarantee to deliver an unforgettable outdoor dance 'splosion.

“Thrillingly competent, with undimmable energy…an explosion of good cheer.” - The New York Times
 
“They never actually took a stage, but Providence, RI’s What Cheer? dominated the Newport Folk Fest like a headliner.” - SPIN



We at the Shaking Ray Levi Society are deeply saddened by the passing of Dennis Palmer, SRLS co-founder and artistic director for over 26 years, on February 15, 2013.

Dennis Palmer

Chattanooga native Dennis Palmer, 55, was a beloved musician, visual artist, storyteller, educator, mentor, and devoted friend of many.

A singular vocalist and nontraditional musician, called "the world's most colorfully inventive synthesizer player" by Creative Loafing, he co-founded the acclaimed free improvisation group The Shaking Ray Levis with drummer Bob Stagner in 1986, which was the first American band to record an album for the legendary British label Incus Records. Palmer has performed internationally with collaborators including Derek Bailey, Steve Beresford, Reverend Howard Finster, David Greenberger, Col. Bruce Hampton, Shelley Hirsch, Frank Pahl, Roger Turner, and Davey Williams.

As a visual artist, Palmer has exhibited his paintings, silk-screened prints, and other unconventional artwork both locally and internationally in cities including London and Los Angeles, and he has designed many CD and record covers.

A leader in the arts community, Palmer promoted the ideas of improvisation and creativity in thought, performance, and visual art to students of all ages through his work with the Shaking Ray Levi Society and developed outreach programs for under-served populations including students with developmental, emotional, or physical disabilities. Palmer served as President of The Association for Visual Arts (AVA) and on the board of directors for Mark Making, and he taught art in Hamilton County schools.

When teaching children, Dennis would ask them about the last time they had a good feeling.  In his own words: "Clap your hands once and put your hands over your heart and give that good feeling to yourself. Next is to clap your hands again and sound off and give that feeling to everybody within the room. The third thing is to clap your hands, sound off and give that feeling out off to the whole universe."

Dennis was an inspiration for many and a strong advocate of "living in the moment" and "doing the highest good for all" in the community and beyond.



Body tribute 
Chattanooga Pulse tributes: one, two
Chattanoogan obit.
Creative Loafing tribute
Times Free Press tribute

Memorial Service for Dennis Palmer
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Visitation: 2 to 4 PM
Service: 4 PM

Chattanooga Funeral Home, East Brainerd Chapel
8214 East Brainerd Road, Chattanooga, TN 37421
423-698-2541



The Shaking Ray Levis are featured in the latest issue of Signal to Noise magazine (issue #64, Fall 2012), gracing the cover (photography by Bob Wright) and interviewed by Chad Radford in a fascinating and provocative article.




PAST EVENTS ARCHIVES
The Shaking Ray Levi Society celebrates its 25th anniversary
25th anniv SRLS cartoon

p.o. box 21534 chattanooga, tn 37424 - phone: 423.910.9729
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