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Past Events: 2012 | |||
| Easy Lemon and the Shaking Ray Levi
Society present:
Thollem
McDonas Easy Lemon 1440 Adams St, Chattanooga, TN, 37408 $5 Thollem McDonas is an astounding solo pianist, vocalist, and collaborator who tours perpetually, playing free music and free free free music in punk clubs, museums, concert halls, and riots. He creates extremely diverse musical experiences, using an ever-expanding variety of approaches resulting in dramatically new and different outcomes, and he's collaborated with a mind-bogglingly wide array of equally fascinating artists and dancers, such as filmmaker Matthew Barney, Minutemen bassist Mike Watt, Jad Fair (of Half Japanese), free improv guitarist Henry Kaiser, and many others. Hear him play a solo performance as he was meant to be heard - on a grand piano, at a cozy, intimate loft performance at Chattanooga's exciting, new performance space, Easy Lemon. Opening the evening will be a performance of Composition for Two Performers by composer Tim Hinck, featuring Hinck and Tyler Shepherd on prepared and natural piano, double bass, aluminum foil, bells, recorded sound, whisky bottle, bolts, plastic, rubber, and water. "He inhabits a world uniquely his own, rhythmically, harmonically and formally. A true original." - Terry Riley, on Thollem McDonas New Dischord, Theater for the New South, and the Shaking Ray Levi Society present: February 25-28, 2012, 8:00 PM Barking Legs Theater 1307 Dodds Ave Chattanooga, TN 37404 $10 at the door Rebecca Furiosa is a character study of a young woman, Rebecca, as she enters adulthood and struggles to find her place in her unusual family environment. Both the music and story were written by local composer Tim Hinck, with Blake Harris (Resident Director of Theater for the New South) as director of the production. The piece showcases five musicians (Chattanooga Symphony players and UTC faculty) who play Hinck's music live on stage while two dancers (Cayce Gearrin as Rebecca, Mary Sartain as Mother) perform in front of a series of video projections created by local filmmaker Megan Hollenbeck. The musicians include Daniel Lee (violin), Dr. Nikolasa Tejero (clarinet), Eddie McCrary (bassoon), Tyler Shepherd (string bass), and Tim Hinck (composer/electric guitar). For Rebecca Furiosa, all of the elements come together to form a stunning piece of modern theater, enveloping the audience with overwhelming combinations of sight and sound. Flying Fingers Productions and the Shaking Ray Levi Society present: Saturday, March 24, 2012, 8:00 PM Barking Legs Theater 1307 Dodds Ave Chattanooga, TN 37404 $10 advance/$12 door/$8 under 25 at the door "In the rarefied, underground world of experimental free improvisation, saxophonist Jack Wright is king" - Washington Post "Raw, visceral, urgent, his music demands to be heard" - The Wire, on Jack Wright Flying Fingers Productions and the Shaking Ray Levi Society present: Endangered
Blood (feat. Trevor Dunn of Mr. Bungle) Barking Legs Theater 1307 Dodds Ave Chattanooga, TN 37404 $12 advance/$15 door/$8 under 25 at the door The new Brooklyn acoustic jazz super-group ENDANGERED BLOOD has been garnering international attention for its exciting, dynamic jazz reboot that flirts with stimulating rock elements and skillfully integrates the contrasting methods of its unique performers. The quartet, originally called simply The Benefit Band, was assembled in 2008 to play a one-time benefit concert for a friend who was being treated for brain cancer, and the musicians soon discovered that there was a large interest and demand for them to keep playing shows. Fortunately, the friend was eventually completely cured of cancer, and the performers forged ahead under a new name: Endangered Blood. Tenor saxophonist Chris Speed, the band's main composer, has played with groups such as The Claudia Quintet and those led by jazz notables Dave Douglas and Myra Melford. Speed and drummer Jim Black, who has worked with Nels Cline (Wilco) and Laurie Anderson, have been collaborators since becoming friends in high school in Seattle in the early '80s. Multi-reedist Oscar Noriega (of Slavic Soul Party) has built up a reputation in the NYC downtown jazz scene for his exuberant, imaginative playing. Double-bassist Trevor Dunn is best known as a member of the California band Mr. Bungle alongside Mike Patton (Faith No More), which has earned a fervent cult following for its outrageous, genre-defying, breathtakingly schizophrenic music. Dunn has an extensive musical history, featuring work with bands Fantômas, Secret Chiefs 3, Trevor Dunn’s Trio Convulsant, and The Melvins, and he is a frequent collaborator with MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient saxophonist/composer John Zorn. “You were wondering where a rock aesthetic has improved jazz rather than compromising it? Here.” – New York Times, on Endangered Blood “[Endangered Blood] deserves attention from jazz fans of every stripe.” – L.A. Times The
Fourth Ward Afro Klezmer Orchestra 5th Annual Faux Bridges Art & Literature Festival in conjunction with Hatch Chattanooga Winder Binder Gallery & Book Store 40 Frazier Ave, Chattanooga, TN 37405 $5 suggested donation The Fourth Ward Afro Klezmer Orchestra is an original Atlanta musical entity: a nine piece jazz orchestra playing original compositions and arrangements that combine West African influenced rhythms with Eastern European Klezmer melodies. "...tunes that swing like Ellington’s jungle nights at the Apollo, carve soulfunk grooves reminiscent of Fela Kuti’s Africa ‘70 and rock the bar mitzvah like there’s no Second Coming. It’s a mash-up of seemingly incompatible styles that, nevertheless, sounds like some of the freshest jazz ever generated by a gang of (mostly) ATL homeboys." - Doug DeLoach - Stomp and Stammer, Atlanta "Unwilling to settle for restaurant gigs spent politely playing jazz standards, The Fourth Ward Afro Klezmer Orchestra demonstrates a formidable balance of African-inspired rhythms and Yiddish inflections. The group’s original compositions, under the direction of trumpeter Roger Ruzow, are a barrage of disciplined, baroque big-band numbers that evoke the sights and sounds of South Africa, Israel...and Cabbagetown. That sense of old-world style mixes with humor that’s both classy and rollicking to produce an old-world sound, attitude and direction." - "Best of Atlanta" Issue: 2009 - Creative Loafing, Atlanta Col. Bruce Hampton and TWO MAMA (Dennis Palmer and Davey Williams) Wednesday, April 18, 2012Barking Legs Theater in conjunction with Hatch Chattanooga 1307 Dodds Ave Chattanooga, TN 37404 Prepare yourself for an insane evening of improvised avant-weird music featuring an unbelievable lineup assembled by the legendary Col. Bruce Hampton (from the Hampton Grease Band, Aquarium Rescue Unit, and Quark Alliance), with vocalist and Moog synthesizer wizard Dennis Palmer from the Shaking Ray Levis, and the astounding guitarist and one of the three "founding fathers of American free improv guitar" Davey Williams. "Bruce is the 8th Wonder of the World" - Billy Bob Thornton Wayne White and The Shaking Ray Levis Friday, April 27, 2012, 6:00 PM Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) 4454 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI, 48201 $5 The Shaking Ray Levis, comprised of Dennis Palmer and Bob Stagner, will play a composed soundtrack to accompany a musical spoken-word artist-talk performance by Wayne White. Don’t expect this one to be anything like any other artist’s lecture, as White will perform on the banjo while presenting his work and life adventures from puppeteering for Pee-wee’s Playhouse to making award-winning music videos. Additionally, The Shaking Ray Levis will also create a live improvised soundtrack accompanying the video Abstractiony Jones, created by filmmaker Ernie Paik using Dennis Palmer's artwork as source material. The Shaking Ray Levis—an ongoing collaboration comprised of musicians with a common interest in improvisation—use storytelling, synthesizers, samplers and percussion to achieve their distinctive sound. And you might remember Wayne White’s work from his puppeteering and set designing (alongside Gary Panter) for Pee-wee’s Playhouse, his award-winning music video work for Peter Gabriel or the Smashing Pumpkins, or his crisp and surreal text paintings overlaid on thrift store paintings. A feature-length documentary about White, Beauty Is Embarrassing, will debut at the 2012 SXSW festival. This collaboration with the Shaking Ray Levis is part of the ongoing exhibit "Joshua White and Gary Panter's Light Show." The Fourth Ward Afro-Klezmer Orchestra, The Shaking Ray Levis at Finster Fest Sunday, May 6, 2012 Howard Finster's Paradise Gardens 84 Knox Street, Summerville, GA 30747 The Shaking Ray Levi Society (Drum Workout Workshop) at Who-Fest Sunday, May 13, 2012 Coolidge Park 150 River St., Chattanooga, 37405 Flying Fingers Productions and the Shaking Ray Levi Society present: Travis Laplante & Peter Evans: Solo Explorations for Sax and Trumpet Sunday, May 13, 2012, 7:30 PM Barking Legs Theater 1307 Dodds Ave Chattanooga, TN 37404 $10 advance/$12 door/$8 under 25 at the door Travis Laplante is one of the true explorers of the saxophone. A member of the group Little Women, Travis has received acclaim for his solo work from the NY Times: "There’s tremendous technical control behind what Mr. Laplante does here, splintering notes as if through a prism, using circular breathing for purposes of hypnotism. ... he shows himself ready for the rigors of solitude, which can be daunting." Peter Evans is an astonishing new voice on that most demanding of instruments - the trumpet. Evans is a quartet bandleader and a member of the acclaimed quartet Mostly Other People Do The Killing. According to Evan Parker, he is "at the centre of the next generation of players." Peter says, "Over the past couple of years one of my main creative outlets has been solo trumpet performance... Jazz musicians have often referred to the playing of a solo as 'telling a story', which is essentially how I look at this music; it is an opportunity to state possibilities and tell stories that are short, long, true, false, unfinished, overlapping, fantastic and mundane." |
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|
news
| introduction | meet
the society | projects & outreach | discography
| MP3 & video | store
| links |
contact
|
||||
