NEWS:

Dogma Dance Off - Oct 21, Cherry St. Tavern

A Night of Bob (Stagner) w/ Kenito Murray, The Heroes Are Horses, Jon Brumit - Nov 11, Barking Legs Theater

Trevor Watts & Jamie Harris - Nov 15, Barking Legs Theater

History Funhouse: The Wayne-O-Rama Story - through Dec 31, 2023

Wayne-O-Rama is now closed! It was open from Nov. 19, 2016 through Sept. 30, 2017. Designed by Emmy-winning artist Wayne White, it's a funhouse of Chattanooga history for all ages. Wayne-O-Rama is sponsored by See Rock City, Inc. and presented by The Shaking Ray Levi Society at the Tenn Arts space, with generous support from the Benwood Foundation, the Footprint Foundation, the Lyndhurst Foundation and the McKenzie Foundation.



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

Make a tax-deductible donation to the SRLS using PayPal:

100% of your donation goes directly toward our outreach and project work.

"Like" us on Facebook!

Check out our Store!

Watch our videos on YouTube!


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.

"Only in our country are our children not receiving the benefits of the dynamic energies taking place in our culture and in the heritage of our culture and so, the work of the Shaking Ray Levi Society in my opinion is very important because they are seeking to provide an alternative to the marketplace dynamics." - composer, saxophonist and MacArthur fellowship recipient Anthony Braxton (video)

"SRLS is a very sound organization that has made a strong contribution to Chattanooga over the years" - Dr. Thomas Wolf, WolfBrown


The Srls is a funded agency of Allied Arts.

 

Past Events: 2012
Easy Lemon and the Shaking Ray Levi Society present:

Thollem McDonas
Tim Hinck and Tyler Shepherd

Thursday, January 19, 2012, 8 PM
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:

Rebecca Furiosa

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:

Jack Wright

The Shaking Ray Levis

Evan Lipson

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)

Thursday, April 5, 2012, 8:00 PM
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

Saturday, April 14, 2012, 8 PM
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, 2012
Barking 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."



Flying Fingers Productions, New Dischord, and the Shaking Ray Levi Society present:

International Improvisors:
John Butcher, Thomas Lehn, Gino Robair, Shaking Ray Levis

Prelude to the New Dischord Festival
Tuesday, June 5
, 2012, 7:30 PM
Barking Legs Theater
1307 Dodds Ave
Chattanooga, TN 37404
$10 advance / $12 door

In the spirit of Derek Bailey's "Company Week" - the annual free improv festival that brought together unique combinations of diverse performers - this will be an evening of distinguished international improvisers in constantly changing configurations, promising to be the most unexpected music event in Chattanooga this season.

Thomas Lehn (Cologne, Germany) draws from his background in pianistic interpretation and plays exclusively on vintage analog synthesizers in numerous international ensembles. Rooted in the experience of a wide spectrum of musical fields based on his background as an interpreting and improvising pianist in classical, contemporary and jazz music and being involved in numerous other projects like music theatre, dance, and multi-media, he has been developing an individual language of electronic music.

"Lehn has a prodigious imagination as well as the rigor to keep things both fascinating and compelling." - All Music Guide

Gino Robair has performed and recorded with Tom Waits, Anthony Braxton, John Zorn, Nina Hagen, Terry Riley, Lou Harrison, John Butcher, Derek Bailey, Peter Kowald, Otomo Yoshihide, and the ROVA Saxophone Quartet. He is one of the "25 innovative percussionists" included in the book Percussion Profiles (SoundWorld, 2001), as well as a founding member of the Splatter Trio and Pink Mountain. His opera, I, Norton, based on the life of Norton I, Emperor of the United States, has been performed throughout North America and Europe.

"Robair and his buddies essentially gut the common preconceptions of their instruments in a bid to attain an unreal sort of beauty...startlingly original..." - San Francisco Weekly

The work of John Butcher (London, England) ranges through improvisation, his own compositions, multitracked saxophone pieces and explorations with feedback and extreme acoustics.  Originally a physicist, he left academia in 1982, and has since collaborated with hundreds of musicians - including Derek Bailey, John Stevens, Gerry Hemingway, The EX, Polwechsel, Gino Robair, Rhodri Davies, John Edwards, Toshimaru Nakamura, Paul Lovens, Eddie Prevost, John Russell, Mark Sanders, John Tilbury, Christian Marclay, Phil Minton, and Steve Beresford.

The Shaking Ray Levis (Dennis Palmer and Bob Stagner) use analog synths, vocal-tellin' and percussion to achieve their Southern Ol' Time Avant-Garde sound.  They are the first American group to have recorded for Incus Records, one of the world's most important improvisation-based record labels, founded by legendary guitarist Derek Bailey.  Along with Bailey, they have also performed and recorded with the Rev. Howard Finster, Min Tanaka, David Greenberger, Fred Frith, Amy Denio, John Zorn, Borbetomagus, Tom Cora, Roger Turner, and Tony Oxley.


New Dischord and the Shaking Ray Levi Society present:

New Dischord Festival

June 14, 2012, 8 PM
Evan Lipson & Tim Hinck
Barking Legs Theater
1307 Dodds Ave
Chattanooga, TN 37404
Free admission

June 15, 2012, 8 PM
CTRL + ALT + SPEAK (A collaboration with artist Ashley Hamilton)
Easy Lemon
1440 Adams St.
Chattanooga, TN 37408
$5 suggested donation

June 16, 2012, 10 AM
New Dischord Ensemble
Aquarium Plaza
1 Broad St.
Chattanooga, TN 37402
Free admission

June 16, 2012, 3 PM
Songs of the Sea - vocal chamber music and world premiere
Hunter Museum of American Art
10 Bluff View
Chattanooga, TN, 37403
Museum admission required

June 16, 2012, 8 PM
CTRL + ALT + SPEAK (A collaboration with artist Ashley Hamilton)
Easy Lemon
1440 Adams St.
Chattanooga, TN 37408

$5 suggested donation

June 17, 2012, 3 PM
New music for chamber ensembles
Hunter Museum of American Art
10 Bluff View
Chattanooga, TN, 37403

Museum admission required

June 17, 2012, 8 PM
Blue Monsters: 12-year-old Ethan Dickenson premieres Tim Hinck's new composition for brass quintet, boy soprano, and multimedia
Lindsay Street Hall
901 Lindsay St.
Chattanooga, TN 37402
Free admission (donations accepted)

The New Dischord Festival is a 4-day, Summer event that presents the latest innovations in serious concert music and experimental art, and it is the perhaps the only festival in the South-Eastern United States where new music, movement, and conceptual art, and experimental performance can be experienced together. This June, members of the New Dischord Ensemble will bring composers, artists, and stage performers together to showcase new works that cross boundaries from electronic to acoustic music, both composed and improvised, from conceptual art to new media and multimedia.  At the New Dischord Festival you might witness performances of a string quartet playing alongside a DJ, or dancers moving through the light of a multimedia projection.  These boundary-pushing performances might take place in a warehouse, in a coffee shop, in a back alley, or as is the case this year, in the beautiful atrium of the Hunter Museum of American Art.



The Arts & Education Council, Chattanooga Theatre Centre, and the Shaking Ray Levi Society present:

Basically Frightened: The Musical Madness of Colonel Bruce Hampton (documentary film)

AEC Back Row Film Series
Thursday, June 21
, 2012
Chattanooga Theatre Centre
400 River St
Chattanooga, TN 37405
6:00 PM: Reception / 6:30 PM: Film screening / 7:45 PM: Q&A with filmmaker Michael Koepenick
$10 per person, includes film, reception and program.
Call 423-267-1218 to reserve tickets or BUY ONLINE.

Why is it that Billy Bob Thornton, Peter Buck, Derek Trucks, and Phish are all huge fans of Colonel Bruce Hampton, but you've never heard of him? Bruce began his career with an unprecedented six figure record deal in 1970. The Hampton Grease Band's first album went on to be the worst selling album in the history of Columbia Records. He made a brave decision and continued his musical career, devoting himself to creating pure art rather than attempt any commercial success. The result has been an amazing, influential 50 year catalog of music and philosophy. Dubbed the father of the Jam Band music scene, he is a guru to many a celeb.




Flying Fingers Productions and the Shaking Ray Levi Society present:

Trevor Watts and Veryan Weston

Thursday, July 12, 2012, 7:30 PM
Barking Legs Theater
1307 Dodds Ave
Chattanooga, TN 37404
$12 advance / $15 door

For nearly half-a-century, British saxophonist Trevor Watts has been a trailblazing pioneer of free improvisation and has built a mighty reputation for having a bold, compelling voice on the sax.  He co-founded the legendary Spontaneous Music Ensemble in the mid-’60s, which included other heavyweights such as Derek Bailey and Evan Parker, and has recorded for some of the most important contemporary music record labels, such as Emanem and ECM Records.  Watts also formed the outfit Amalgam in the late ‘60s, exploring blends of jazz, improv, rock, and traditional music, and in the ‘80s, he established the Moiré Music ensemble, merging jazz and African music with an emphasis on rhythm.  Among his collaborators are jazz giants such as Archie Shepp, Don Cherry, and Steve Lacy.

Music maverick Veryan Weston is a world-class improvising pianist and composer, demonstrating a rare talent for creating astounding, freely flowing, unexpected musical ideas, brimming with joy and energy.  A prolific recording artist and collaborator, Weston has been active since the ‘70s and has worked with notables such as saxophonist Lol Coxhill, percussionist Eddie Prevost, and vocalist Phil Minton, and he has been involved with the London Jazz Composers’ Orchestra.

Together, Watts and Weston explore the conversational nature of spontaneous music creation, and they have received glowing praise for their incredible, stunning duets, on both record and in live performances, from media outlets such as The Wire, All About Jazz, and Jazz Review.  These are two veteran improvisers and virtuoso musicians at the height of their powers.

"Two giants of the improv scene...highly recommended"  – All About Jazz




Normal Love, The Stacker Three, Whoremones

Thursday, August 16, 2012, 10:00 PM
Sluggo's North
501 Cherokee Blvd.
Chattanooga, TN 37405

$6

Since forming in 2005, NORMAL LOVE has stood firmly in the zone between feral intensity and strategic rigor; bypassing existing standards and inhabiting a strobing black-lit world where apocalyptic decadence meets the iron fist of Draconian law. Members are currently based in Brooklyn and Philadelphia.   Taking cues from a number of influences, Normal Love draws from the vast well of pioneering artists transcending the confines of no wave, industrial, contemporary composition, extreme metal, noise, outsider pop, oddball punk, musique concrète, and free improvisation. At times, Normal Love has even invoked the creative talents of a select few of their unsung contemporaries, challenging them to write compositions of immense depth and complexity for the band.  Their latest LP, Survival Tricks, was recently released on both Public Eyesore and ugEXPLODE.

"[Normal Love] is the future of music. Buckle up and get ready." - Music Meridian

NORMAL LOVE is: Rachel Bell - voice/sampler / Jessica Pavone - amplified violin / Amnon Freidlin - guitar/electronics / Evan Lipson - bass / Eli Litwin - drums

Related projects: Satanized, The Anthony Braxton Sextet and Twelvetet, Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone, Weasel Walter Trio, Intensus, Dynamite Club, and Personal Heat.  Members have also worked with: Dirty Projectors, Ruins, Vampire Weekend, Glenn Branca, William Parker, Pauline Oliveros, Col. Bruce Hampton, Zs, Dr. Dog, Elliott Sharp, David Grubbs, Weasel Walter, and more.

Praise for NORMAL LOVE and the new album Survival Tricks:
“Avant rock fans: this is your album of the year.” - Scott Scholz (Killed In Cars)
“Brutally intricate music, aggressive and perfectionist...a shiv-wielding chamber ensemble” - Shaun Brady (Philadelphia City Paper)
“…like a Rorschach blot — heavy, intriguing, and infinitesimal in possible meanings” – Tiny Mix Tapes

Normal Love - Lend Some Treats (Official Music Video) from Haoyan of America on Vimeo.

Normal Love is funded in part through New Music USA's MetLife Creative Connections Program

THE STACKER THREE are Chattanooga, Tn. based musicians who are undertaking a long term project where various different cultural and religious sects are studied, and then the ideas and the events of these groups are intrepreted into music. The first release, "Healter Skelter", is based on the events surrounding the notorious exploits of the Manson Family, and the latest release, a 10" vinyl EP entitled "The Seven Seals," documents the demise of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. Without bearing the burden of having to adhere to any particular process or style in order to create music that is compelling, The Stacker Three mixes musical genres while retaining an overall emotional quality and style unique to the band and project.


"Charged rock that goes from ominous to furious in a heartbeat...[a] twisted sort of mayhem that's at various times heavy and sleazy, with bits of psychedelic and hard fuzz-rock." - Chattanooga Pulse

WHOREMONES are a Chattanooga femme-driven group that brings a new energy to the enduring punk canon of the Ramones.  Hoey, Joannie, Fe Fe, and Tammy Whoremone are, in their own words, "less 'tribute,' more 'parallel universe'" when injecting their own infectious spirit and unstoppable momentum into some of the most beloved punk-rock tunes ever made.

"Part punk, part geek, part cool and a little awkward...the band delivers a unique take on the beloved 'brothers' who spawned from New York's CBGB in the mid-1970s." - Chattanooga Pulse



Flying Fingers Productions and the Shaking Ray Levi Society present:

Vox Arcana: Tim Daisy, James Falzone, and Fred Lonberg-Holm

Wednesday, September 26, 2012, 7:30 PM
Barking Legs Theater
1307 Dodds Ave
Chattanooga, TN 37404

$10 advance/$12 door

Vox Arcana is a new music trio organized by percussionist Tim Daisy, and includes two mainstays from the Chicago improvised music scene: James Falzone on clarinet and Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello and electronics. The tightly structured compositions are written for the purpose of investigating the dynamic between thematic material and open improvisation, and how these elements can affect the overall shape and character of each composition.

Daisy is probably best known for his work as the longtime drummer of choice for the quintessential Chicago jazz musician of the past decade, saxophonist/composer Ken Vandermark, and the two continue to work together as a duo and in Vandermark’s globetrotting ensembles The Frame Quartet and the Vandermark 5. In addition to his 11 recordings with Vandermark, Daisy’s extensive résumé also includes over 50 other releases and longstanding membership in groups such as Aram Shelton’s Arrive, Kyle Bruckmann’s Wrack, The Engines, The Rempis Percussion Quartet and Triage.

"An interesting hybrid, drawing on three distinct spheres of musical thought: the New York school of modern classical, Chicago's AACM, and early minimalists...intricate use of space, dissonance, and jagged rhythm helps launch the improvisations in an exceptional way." - Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader Critic's Choice, on Aerial Age by Vox Arcana



The Shaking Ray Levis

Saturday, October 6, 2012, 9 PM
Conundrum Music Hall
626 Meeting Street
West Columbia, SC, 29169


The Shaking Ray Levis (Dennis Palmer and Bob Stagner) use analog synths, vocal-tellin' and percussion to achieve their Southern Ol' Time Avant-Garde sound.  They are the first American group to have recorded for Incus Records, one of the world's most important improvisation-based record labels, founded by legendary guitarist Derek Bailey.  Along with Bailey, they have also performed and recorded with the Rev. Howard Finster, Min Tanaka, David Greenberger, Fred Frith, Amy Denio, John Zorn, Borbetomagus, Tom Cora, Roger Turner, and Tony Oxley.



Flying Fingers Productions and the Shaking Ray Levi Society present:

Ullmann/Swell 4 featuring Barry Altschul and Hill Greene

Thursday, October 18, 2012, 7:30 PM
Barking Legs Theater
1307 Dodds Ave
Chattanooga, TN 37404

$10 advance/$12 door

The Ullmann/Swell 4 is an intense, exuberant, and emotional quartet founded in 2004 with a powerhouse of endlessly creative musicians that has garnered international critical acclaim for its dynamic recordings and unforgettable live performances.

Reedist Gebhard Ullmann (born on November 2, 1957) grew up near Bonn, studied medicine and music in Hamburg starting 1976, and moved to Berlin in 1983 to live as a professional musician. One year later, the 27-year-old was leading (and co-leading) his own bands, releasing his first albums in 1985. The next few years saw him working with Alexander Von Schlippenbach and Paul Bley (among many others). Since the mid-90s, Ullmann has split his time between Berlin and New York.

Born in Newark, New Jersey, trombonist Steve Swell has been living, working and performing in New York City for all of his adult life. He has toured and recorded with such diverse jazz personalities as mainstreamers Lionel Hampton and Buddy Rich, to so-called outsiders like Anthony Braxton, William Parker and Jemeel Moondoc. Swell has twelve recordings as a leader or co-leader and is a featured artist on more than sixty other releases.

Hilliard 'Hill' Greene is an extraordinary musician and composer. For the past fifteen years, he has served as bassist and musical director for the great Jimmy Scott and the Jazz Expressions. Notably, he has also played and recorded with Dave Douglas, Charles Gayle, Oliver Lake, Jack Walrath, and Kenny Barron. A rare bassist who not only exemplifies the art of swing through his masterful walking bass lines, Hill Greene also brings something entirely new and fresh to the instrument.

Barry Altschul was the drummer for the influential band Circle in the early '70s - a band which also included Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Anthony Braxton. His drumming with that band was stylistically all-encompassing - in his own words, "from ragtime to no time" - thanks to his background in traditional jazz styles, which gave him a solid grounding on which to build his free playing. Altschul's sound is very tight and exceedingly well-defined. a strict attention to rhythmic and tonal detail has always characterized his playing.  Altschul has also performed with Paul Bley, Sam Rivers, George Lewis, Roswell Rudd, Billy Bang, and many others.



VSA Tennessee presents:
VSA Animation Showcase

Friday, October 26, 2012, 5:30 PM
Palace Theater
113 West Broadway

Maryville, TN 37801

Catch the spirited, humorous, and imaginative animated short films of the young artists of VSA Tennessee, coming to life on a big screen.  This showcase presents the work created during a two-day workshop in March 2012 at Hiwassee College in Madisonville, TN.  In the Foley workshop, participants worked with music educator Bob Stagner to learn about Foley techniques and how sound enhances the power of words and pictures that tell stories, and together, they recorded the sounds for their collaboratively produced stop-motion animation films.  Visual artist Anne Winsauer worked with participants to plan their stories, create the needed characters and props, and to set up the images for the frames of the films.

Support for the workshop was provided by:  The John D Grubb and Louise G. Sumner Fund for Monroe County, an Affiliate Fund of the East Tennessee Foundation, the Autism Society of America, East TN Chapter, and Mark Henry.


Flying Fingers Productions and the Shaking Ray Levi Society present:

Ahleuchatistas

Thursday, December 20, 2012, 7:30 PM
Barking Legs Theater
1307 Dodds Ave
Chattanooga, TN 37404

$10 advance/$12 door/$8 students

The Asheville, North Carolina instrumental rock duo Ahleuchatistas belongs to the beyond-category sector of such iconic, genre-flouting combos as John Zorn’s Naked City, Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band, Swans, Tortoise, and Sun City Girls. A duo armed only with guitar and drums, Ahleuchatistas combines wicked precision with intense abandon, droll humor with analytical construction, and a sly gregariousness with uncompromising vision. This pair interweaves elements of punk rock, jazz, classical music, speed metal, grindcore, progressive rock, noise, folk music from Asia and North Africa, electronic music, and ambient aesthetics, along with volatile, unpredictable improvisation, flowing organically in a virtual world of its own. With a devoted international cult following, Ahleuchatistas is considered by many to be one of the most innovative and ever-developing instrumental groups of the past decade. Cerebral but never ponderous, Ahleuchatistas makes immediate music that reaches for the mind, heart, and gut.

The seventh album, Heads Full of Poison is a sonic brew that reveals new flavors, new spices with every aural taste. Now a duo of charter member Shane Perlowin (guitar and bass) and Ryan Oslance (drums), Heads Full of Poison was developed over a two-year period, road-tested and honed with numerous performances, including nearly 100 in Europe. It combines highly detailed composition with a looseness that encourages a range of interpretation. Throughout the album, Perlowin and Oslance perform with a rare unity of purpose, without any self-indulgence or water-treading, displaying a virtually orchestral palette.

“Music doesn’t get much closer to the edge than this.” – Alternative Press
“…exhilarating and even awe-inspiring…these guys do the instrumental nerd-rock thing right.” - The Wire
“They lurch swiftly from speed metal to thrash punk to a kind of heat-stroke minimalism. There’s noise and fire in their playing, but most of these tunes are also studded with signposts, demanding close attention and clear execution.” - The New York Times
“Loud, rebellious, and riotously invigorating, the band tears down convention to impart a unique identity” - All About Jazz
“…remarkably tight, with the ability to turn complicated and seemingly unrelated phrases on a dime.” – NPR
“…ragged, high-tempo garage prog brutality and spine-chilling soundscapes” (4-star review of Location, Location) - DownBeat




contact us
an oak street design