Tag: Crosstown Arts

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Music Music Blog

The Peace Chronicles: A Homecoming for NY Composers and Blueshift

Blueshift Ensemble (Photo courtesy of Blueshift Ensemble).

Blueshift Ensemble has been at the cutting edge of New Music in Memphis for years now, often collaborating with jazz, hip hop, and alternative artists, but one of its most fruitful partnerships could have easily fizzled out when Covid brought everything to a halt. From 2017-2019, the ensemble of local classical players favoring music a bit left of center had an impressive run with New York’s ICEBERG New Music Collective, presenting works by the collective’s 10 composers at the Crosstown Concourse for three summers in a row. Then 2020 arrived, and lock-downs put the future of the collaboration in doubt.

But next week, ICEBERG will be back in Memphis for the first time in three years, as Blueshift Ensemble performs a collaboration between the composers — Drake Andersen, Victor Baez, Stephanie Ann Boyd, Alex Burtzos, Yu-Chun Chien, Derek Cooper, Jack Frerer, Max Grafe, Jessica Mays, and Harry Stafylakis — and poet Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz in a suite of new works, The Peace Chronicles, Parts 1 & 2. Recently, the Memphis Flyer reached out to ICEBERG’s composer and board member Alex Burtzos to learn more about what he calls “the best thing we’ve ever done.”

Memphis Flyer: It seems ICEBERG New Music is based in New York, yet I see that some of the composers work elsewhere. Would you still call it a New York collective?

Alex Burtzos: That’s a good question. When we first started in 2016, we were all based in New York City. But since then, as our careers have gone in different directions, I would say we’re now a global organization, because we have members that live in four different states and three different countries. But we’re incorporated in New York, and we always have two concerts every spring in New York City. So we’re still based in New York as an organization. But our members are based all over the place. Only three ICEBERG members are based in the city now. The rest of us are in and out. And we do meet in New York. For example, almost all of us were together for our two concerts with the Decoda Ensemble in April and May of this year. The pandemic continues to complicate things, but we do convene as much as possible. I’m looking forward to much more of that as the pandemic relaxes.

Alex Burtzos (Photo: Stephanie Ann Boyd)

Do you work together as you create compositions, playing each other works in progress and that sort of thing?

Yeah. I would say that for the most part, the craft of composition is not collaborative. So we’re still on our own a lot of the time, staring at dots. But to have a collaborative atmosphere that you can participate in is really valuable. So I’m constantly sending scores to the other members of ICEBERG and asking for feedback, and they do the same with me. Both artistically and professionally, it’s a really valuable thing to have that collaboration. And it’s kind of rare for a composer to have that sort of network.

The Peace Chronicles represents a whole new type of collaboration for us, because it was the first time we’d collaborated with someone from outside the music world — an artist from another discipline. Yolanda is an incredible poet, so we all read her most recent book, The Peace Chronicles, and selected poems from that book to act as the catalyst or inspiration for our pieces. And each one of us chose a different text, sometimes several texts. Then, having composed the pieces, we worked together to put them into a program that really led the listener on a journey from beginning to end.

Of course, Yolanda physically being a part of the show and reading her poems as part of the performance was an enormous part of that. To my mind, this is the best thing we’ve ever done. We are really, really proud of this program because it brings together so many artists. We have the artists from Decoda who are the ones who performed at the premier; and now Blueshift Ensemble’s stepping in. And then we have the composers, and Yolanda working with us. So it’s a really special show.

I gather all the pieces were written with her recitation of her poetry in mind, from the outset?

Yes, we always knew that she would be reading as part of the show, and it was up to the composers whether they would incorporate that spoken word into the piece, or whether that spoken word would precede the piece, and composers took different approaches. We also had members take very different tacks to how the words inspired them. Sometimes Yolanda’s words provided a sort of program for the piece; sometimes the words provided an image; sometimes the words were decoded, and individual patterns of letters became the basis of the composition’s form. And everything in between. So it was a nice demonstration of the diverse perspectives that the ten composers bring, and the ability of the collective to take those diverse perspectives and combine them into something that feels very unified and organic.

Does it flow like a single piece, with transitions from one piece to another?

There are no transitions; they are discrete pieces in the program. But of course we were in constant communication about the flow of the music in the concert, and the way each piece would prepare the listener for the next. There were a lot of conversations discussing that question.

Did Yolanda have input into how her words were woven into the music?

Yes. She was a fantastic collaborator. She immediately grasped what we had been talking about from a musical perspective, even though she’s not a musician. She was fantastic to work with as we plotted the trajectory of the show. Yolanda’s previous book was called Love from the Vortex, and her latest one is called The Peace Chronicles. And when I was reading these collections, I saw them as sort of a yin and yang, where they were meant to be complementary. Love from the Vortex is very concerned with feelings of hurt and regret, and The Peace Chronicles is very focused on healing. That’s a generalization. Not every poem fits into that mold, but taken together, that’s how I interpreted them.

Because we were primarily concentrating on the second of those two books, that translated into two programs that are very optimistic overall. It’s not always happy music, but it’s a program that trends towards a healing feeling. And getting the opportunity to produce this show in the spring of 2022, when we’re still coming out of two years of complete isolation, was very meaningful for us. We had people in the audience who were in tears, and who came up to talk to us afterwards about how much it meant to be out, listening to music, and getting to experience that show. So it meant a lot to us, and I’m sure it meant a lot to Yolanda, and it seemed to mean a lot to the listeners as well.

The book was written before Russia invaded Ukraine. So it’s not a topical book, exactly.

It is not a specifically topical book. It pre-dated the war in the Ukraine.

Yet what a perfect way to give voice to what we’re all preoccupied with these days.

Because we premiered it in New York, and because the war in Ukraine was somewhat young at that point, people that I spoke to tended to associate the program more with their own lived experience during the pandemic. But the more I’ve thought about the poems, the more it seems like their message is applicable [to the war]. So that would be a perfectly valid reading of the program, even though it wasn’t specifically created thinking about that.

The mark of a good ICEBERG concert is that it has a little bit of everything. These shows are no exception to that. There are moments that will feel very abstract, and moments that will feel very direct, and everything in between. There are some pieces that use extended techniques and more noise-based compositions, and pieces that utilize triads and chords you would recognize in any pop song. And we always encourage audience members to come and talk with the composers. If you liked the piece, or if you didn’t, come and say so. We’re always happy to engage with listeners in that way. That’s what we want as composers.

What kinds of instrumentation will be involved?

The two concerts both feature a quintet. The first will feature four string players with piano, and the second concert will feature four wind players with a piano. So the instrumentation is traditional, but that doesn’t mean that you’re not going to hear anything unexpected. For example, my piece utilizes two e-bows, and electromagnet that’s used mainly with guitar, but I’ve placed those on the piano strings to create a drone effect. So there are touches here and there that will be something you don’t expect.

I want to add a personal note of thanks to Crosstown Arts, to Blueshift Ensemble and specifically to Jenny Davis. This will be our fourth visit to Memphis. We feel like we know Blueshift very well, both personally and artistically. We’re frequently working with the same performers every time we come back, and they always do an amazing job. Memphis is our home away from home.

You know, it would have been easy for this collaboration to fall by the wayside during Covid, and it never did. So that’s a testament to everyone on both sides being committed to doing this. So, a huge thank you to those organizations and to Jenny in particular. We’re really looking forward to seeing everyone in Memphis. We’ve missed you!

The Peace Chronicles, Part 1 will be performed on Thursday, August 18, 7:30 p.m. – 9 p.m., at the Crosstown Concourse East Atrium. The Peace Chronicles, Part 2 will be performed on Friday, August 19, 7:30 p.m. – 9 p.m., at the Crosstown Theater. Visit crosstownarts.org for more information.

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Art Art Feature

Comedian Lucy Wang Represents at the Green Room

Lucy Wang (Courtesy Lucy Wang)

Comedian, playwright, and Crosstown Arts resident artist Lucy Wang has been in Memphis for about three months. In that time, she’s weathered an ice storm, discovered an appreciation for the Bluff City’s famously clean drinking water, visited Elmwood Cemetery, and cultivated her own Memphis Mafia. In other words, though she’s based out of Los Angeles, California, when she’s not an artist in residence at Crosstown anyway, she’s more or less an honorary Memphian now. And this Friday, Wang will bring Represent!, her one-woman comedy show, to Crosstown Arts’ Green Room. 

“I did something on WYXR,” Wang says, discussing the work she’s done to promote her upcoming performance. And, it turns out, that performance is something of a milestone for the still relatively new event space. “I’m going to be the first comedian to perform at the Green Room.”

When asked which, if any, of her art forms she prefers, Wang says, “Both mediums you have to respect your audience.” But, she continues, “Comedy is very engaging and it’s instant feedback. It’s one of the greatest sounds, right? Laughter.”

Comedy can be like tricking someone into eating their vegetables. Wang knows people want to laugh — need to laugh — and not everyone is prepared to sit down and have their heart wrenched in a theater. Even though her comedy often deals with serious subjects, there’s an element of levity that helps the medicine go down, so to speak. “Sometimes you can cross the red/blue line with comedy,” she says. “Maybe what you were talking about has some validity because you found an angle.”

Her upcoming comedy show represents only some of her artistic output though. As with most of Crosstown’s resident artists, Wang has been putting in time on a larger work while she’s in Memphis. As part of her residency, Wang is working on a musical comedy about Dr. Morris Fishbein and Dr. John Brinkley, two historical figures on opposite sides of a fight over the ethics of medicine. “Brinkley was a charlatan quack doctor, and he got famous by doing goat glands transplants,” Wang says.  She has been outlining the musical and doing research — lots of research, an important component of Wang’s comedy and playwriting — while she is in town. 

“Fishbein is the first Jewish doctor to be the head of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medicine Association. He made JAMA what it is today, and AMA, the American Medical Association,” Wang explains. At the time, she continues, “The medicine was the Wild Wild West. … There was so much reckless disregard.” Fishbein made a practice of exposing reckless doctors, which is certainly a category Brinkley would fall into. Wang says the play is also about the national obsession with youth, noting that the transplanting of goat testicles (yes, you read that right) was advertised as a miracle cure to help people stay young and to aid in flagging fertility or virility. “It’s like if you’re over a certain age, you’re over the hill,” Wang quips, noting that the national obsession with youth is particularly evident in L.A.

The comedian says she hasn’t noticed the same mania for youth in Memphis, but it would be hard to compete with Hollywood in that regard. It’s safe to say that Wang’s observations are on point, though. She is clearly a keen observer and someone driven to know more about the world in which she lives. Memphians who attend her Represent! performance will be the beneficiaries of her observation, as she has worked on weaving in her experiences to give her comedy show a little “Memphis flavor.”

“When I first came to Memphis — it’s the first place I’ve really traveled after the pandemic — a lot of my friends told me not to come. They panicked. They told me not to come. That’s part of the comedy, ‘You’re gonna die!’ Because the Asian-American population here is very small,” Wang recalls. “When Tommy Kha’s photograph got taken down, they said ‘See! See? You’re going to be erased! You’re going to be marginalized!’ But I think the South is more than that. Memphis is more than racial and civil rights strife. We have these stereotypes because we don’t leave our house. We have these stereotypes that Southerners are conservative and anti-Asian and don’t read books. I mean, the thing about Maus came out, and people were like ‘You can’t go there! They don’t value good books. They don’t value history.’ And that’s the comedy. I am scared. But if I don’t leave my house, I’ll never know, and if I do leave my house, I’ll see that there are some really great people here.”

She continues, “I have a Memphis Mafia. I came her with three names, and they basically helped me get through this ice storm. I arrived here the day before the ice storm, and I thought, ‘Oh my god, my friends are right. I am gonna die here!’ … But I had the names of three women, and they helped me. They barely knew me, but they were friends of friends.” The friends of friends snapped into action after the February ice storm, and asked if she needed blankets, a flashlight, or a ride to the grocery store. “Southern hospitality is real,” she says. 

It can be difficult to draw hard distinctions between Wang’s comedy and her plays, because the latter helped pave the way for her comedy. And vice versa. “When I get a theater interested in my work, they would often tell me they couldn’t cast. They would say there are no good Asian-American actors, or nobody funny,” she says. “So Gloria Steinem is the one who convinced me to do comedy. She’s the last person who told me to do it, and then I decided to do it.”

“I felt like if I didn’t go up there, then the final word would be ‘well, we cannot cast,’” Wang says. “So I got into comedy because I wanted to be included. … It was a way for me to say ‘Hey, I exist.’ Because diversity is a fact, and inclusion is an act.”

Lucy Wang performs in Represent! at the Crosstown Arts Green Room, Friday, April 15, 7:30-9 p.m.

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Same City, New Eyes

Back in the days of lockdown (Photo: Jamie Harmon)

To anyone who may have been driving around Memphis last weekend, please accept my sincere apology. I was playing tour guide to my aunt and uncle, who were visiting from North Carolina, and, being somewhat distracted, I made what my sister called some “interesting” driving decisions. So if you saw someone still stopped at a green light, pointing out a particular piece of architecture or a local landmark, that was probably me. I hope I didn’t make you late for an appointment.

Besides being absolutely roasted for my inability to be a somewhat competent distracted driver, the day was a delight. My aunt is from Memphis and my uncle was stationed here when he was in the Army many years ago, so they’re not totally new to the city, but it still felt like a chance to see my hometown with new eyes.

Before I delve into our itinerary, know that I know we barely scratched the surface of any meaningful Memphis to-do list. But I tried to cater to everyone’s personal interests as much as possible.

First, we went to Crosstown Concourse, which my aunt pointed out has been much transformed since its time as a Sears building. Indeed.

We took in the last day of photographer Jamie Harmon’s “Quarantine Portrait” exhibition, and I was struck again by the power of so many faces seen through so many windows and screen doors. Though I had seen many of the portraits before — even written about Harmon’s work while it was still in progress — seeing them all collected was another experience entirely. Though I don’t truly believe we’re fully out of the Covid woods just yet, it brought home how much has changed in the past two years. Often, perhaps as a side effect of my profession, I tend to focus on the seemingly negative changes — the loss of trust, the fragmentation of communities — but I was forced to confront the many ways things are better than they were in April 2020. It was a catharsis to revisit that time from the safety of an art gallery, and with loved ones in the same room. That is a blessing I must endeavor not to take for granted.

While at Crosstown, we stopped at the little reading area, where my nephew enjoyed finding books about dinosaurs. It’s a place I’ve walked past many times but hadn’t taken the time to appreciate. How many such spots must there be in town?

Next, we made our way to Broad Avenue, to give the out-of-towners a chance to peruse some arty knick-knacks and to reward my nephew with some ice cream after his patience with the exhibition. He’s 4 years old, so his tolerance for the gravity of any situation is tenuous at best. My fiancée, who is passionate about the built environment, enjoyed being able to talk about the work done in both locations. My nephew enjoyed a cup of chocolate ice cream and the faux-flower-wearing skeletons at Sugar Ghost Ice Cream and Bubble Tea.

We spent a little bit of time talking about and looking at Summer Avenue, then we hopped back on North Parkway to hustle down to Greenbelt Park by the Mississippi River. It was a sunny, breezy spring day, and there were picnickers, joggers, dog-walkers, pot-smokers, cyclists, and everyone in between enjoying it. There’s something special about being close to the river, and we all felt it. Until I accidentally knocked my nephew off a tree while we were playing some game in which we were both (I think?) territorial spiders locked in bitter combat. Oops. Everyone was okay, though it was decided that perhaps it was time to move on.

We drove through the South Main Arts District, where my uncle used to pick up his contacts. We talked about the trolleys, the changes, the things that had stayed the same. We drove past a busy FedExForum and saw young people popping wheelies on ATVs. We waved as we passed both business and entertainment districts Downtown, and I pointed out a billboard of Ja Morant in the Vitruvian Man pose.

Eventually we made it back to my house to make dinner and play board games, not unlike how we used to spend so much time at my Grannie’s house when I was a child. It was modest, but not without its own magic.

I guess, in many ways, that’s true of Memphis, too.

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Film Features Film/TV

Music Video Monday (on Tuesday): Frog Squad Live

Technical difficulties delayed this week’s Music Video Monday until Tuesday, but we’ve got a special treat for you today. Memphis jazz ensemble Frog Squad recently played the Crosstown Arts Green Room. The group, which consists of saxophonists Chad Fowler, Hope Clayburn, Franko Coleman, and Aaron Phillips, keyboardist Cedrick Taylor, bassist Khari Wynn, drummer Jon Harrison, and the bandleader, guitarist David Collins, loves to reset the music of composers from across the ages to their psychedelic free jazz mood. For this performance, it was eccentric French composer Erik Satie. Memphis Flyer Music Editor Alex Greene said, “One might compare it to the finer instrumental work of Frank Zappa, or perhaps the wilder, latter day efforts by Gil Evans, but ultimately it was its own sound. There were even lighthearted moments, as when the horn section’s oom-pah-pah dynamics were amplified by all the players doing knee bends in time to their parts. And an intriguing bit of futurism was added by effects pedals that Clayburn and Phillips played through, not to mention some fine synth renderings by Taylor.”

Justin Thompson filmed the performance for Crosstown Arts, with music mix provided by engineer Daniel Lynn and mixer Shelby Edwards. You can see the entire performance here, or if you just want a beautiful 7-minute jazz respite from the world, you can watch “Gnossienne No. 3” below. Frog Squad are currently crowdfunding their first full-length studio album Special Noise, so if you like what you hear, drop a few coins in their Indiegogo.

If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.

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Music Music Blog

Big Ears, Junior: Echoes of Knoxville Festival at Crosstown

The Bang On a Can All-Stars (Credit: Peter Serling)

Since its founding in 2009, Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival has become one of the premier events in alternative music. The city’s downtown springs to life with genre-bending, exploratory music events in historic theaters, clubs, churches, parks, galleries, and repurposed industrial spaces, leading The New York Times to call it “one of the world’s greatest music bashes,” and the Oxford American to pronounce it “one of the most quietly earth-shattering, subtly luminous festivals the world over.” This year’s lineup alone features such artists as Patti Smith, John Zorn, Sparks, and Marc Ribot.

It’s a breath of fresh air in a state too often associated with banned books and other radical right flash points, but the drive to Knoxville can prove daunting to many Memphians. Luckily for those of us in such far western lands, Crosstown Arts has curated a taste of Big Ears right here at home, as artists performing at this year’s festival, from March 24th-27th, make pit stops on their way to or from Knoxville.

Those in the know have already seen some of these artists. Pianist Craig Taborn, who’s worked with the likes of Lester Bowie, John Zorn, Evan Parker, William Parker, and Vijay Iyer, appeared at the Green Room on Wednesday. And last night, trumpeter jaimie branch performed with cellist Lester St. Louis, double bassist Jason Ajemian, and percussionist/mbira player Chad Taylor. But there’s still more to see.

Maeve Gilchrist (Photo courtesy Crosstown Arts)

Saturday, March 26 brings Maeve Gilchrist to the Green Room, playing the relatively rare Celtic lever harp. As with so many Big Ears artists, she’s re-imagined this ancient instrument in decidedly postmodern ways. She’ll be playing selections from her recent album, The Harpweaver, for harp, voice, samples, and electronics. As she told NPR recently, “I really enjoy exploring some of the grittier sounds of the harp. We all know it can make this ethereal, kind of luminous sound. But actually, it’s such a versatile instrument.” Her hybrid approach should appeal to fans of ambient, classical, Scottish folk, and experimental music.

Arooj Aftab (Credit: Blythe Thomas)

As it happens, Gilchrist also plays with the following evening’s ensemble, backing Arooj Aftab at Crosstown Theater on Sunday, March 27. The Brooklyn-based Pakistani vocalist, composer, and producer blends jazz, minimalism, neo-Sufi music, and other genres, and has been nominated for the 2022 Best New Artist and Best Global Music Performance at the at the 2022 GRAMMY Awards. Aftab’s latest album, Vulture Prince, has been widely praised, as has the haunting single, “Mohabbat.” The track was named one of the best songs of 2021 by Time and The New York Times, and Brenna Ehrlich ranked the album sixth on Rolling Stone‘s “Best Music of 2021” staff list.

Finally, Tuesday, March 29 brings not just a musical group, but an entire experience to Crosstown Theater. The six-member Bang On a Can All-Stars are recognized for their dynamic live performances, freely crossing the boundaries between classical, jazz, rock, world, and experimental music. The New York Times called the All-Stars “a fiercely aggressive group, combining the power and punch of a rock band with the precision and clarity of a chamber ensemble,” and one can imagine no better venue than Crosstown Theater to match both the nuance and the energy of such a show.

Being a notable music city, it seems only a matter of time before Memphis can play host to its own major alternative music festival. Of course, with the Continuum and Memphis Concrète festivals, we are inching toward that. And thanks to the curation of world class, edgy music that continues apace at Crosstown Arts, we already have a taste of the Big Ears Festival here at home.

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Art Art Feature

Waiting by the Window: “Memphis Quarantine” at Crosstown Arts

This photo perfectly encapsulates the feeling of March 2020. (Credit: Jamie Harmon)

On March 13, 2020, Jamie Harmon took a photo of his friends Ryan Azada and Maria Applegate peering from behind a screen door. When he posted the photo to Instagram, he asked if others would be interested in participating in this new project of documenting families inside their homes from the outside looking in. It was the beginning of the lockdown period of the pandemic, when naiveté told us that this coronavirus would pass soon enough, that a new hobby, project, or binge-watch would keep us sane in the meantime.

“I was thinking it was only going to be a two-week project,” Harmon says. “Over that two weeks, I had over a hundred people texting me and messaging me [to sign up].” Soon enough, word of the project spread in newspapers and even on CBS Sunday Morning. “I started getting more diverse kinds of people and locations once it left social media.”

Barbara Schroeder poses as a T-rex. (Credit: Jamie Harmon)

Over the two-and-a-half-month course of this project, Harmon photographed more than 1,200 residents at over 800 homes across the Greater Memphis area, as far out as Millington, Mumford, and even Hernando. Each participant received a weblink with edited photos that they could download, free of charge.

“This was just something we were doing because we had nothing else to do and it felt like something good to do,” Harmon says. “A lot of people were dealing with stuff, and I had one singular focus and that made it easier for me because I was doing what I loved to do anyway.”

Self portrait of the artist (Credit: Jamie Harmon)

Each shoot took around 15 minutes, so Harmon could visit as many homes as possible in a day. During the sessions, Harmon, geared with only one light and one camera, shot three locations at every house, letting the family pick one of the spots while he chose the others. With the photographer outside and his subjects inside their homes, the two parties communicated via phone. “Everything’s a collaboration,” Harmon says. “I wanted the families to be involved; I wanted the kids to have ideas. … A lot of the times the parents were like, ‘I don’t have a creative bone in my body; I’ll just do whatever you want,’ and then you start telling them what to do and then they start having ideas and they chime in.

“Everybody was excited that something was happening,” Harmon continues. “It was something to break up the day.” Despite this excitement spurred in these 15 minutes, Harmon would make sure to have his subjects try on a stoic face for at least a few of the photos — the photos that would later make up his current exhibition.

“It’s almost a joke because when somebody tells you to have no expression, generally you start laughing,” Harmon says. “So even though it looks pretty somber, it’s a very different experience.” Yet these opposing emotions that wavered between concern and relief, boredom and excitement, reflected the rollercoaster of quarantine, for even on days when we celebrated birthdays or cheered on virtual graduation ceremonies, Harmon says, “Definitely in the middle of the night, I think we all felt a little panicked.”

But as much as this project was a comfort for Harmon, the project was also a comfort to its participants, who felt like they were a part of something larger than themselves, a part of a bigger picture. Harmon says, “I think a lot of the people who signed up saw it as something I didn’t notice at the time, which is two years later there’s an exhibit up.”

The exhibit will remain on display at Crosstown Arts until April 10th, with a closing reception on April 10th at 3-5 p.m. A book of the photos seen in the exhibition is available for pre-order at memphisquarantine.com.

“Memphis Quarantine” is on view at Crosstown Arts. (Credit: Jamie Harmon)
Categories
Music Music Features

Todd Snider on Cutting His Teeth in Memphis

Todd Snider

Memphis is known for its sound, but which sound you consider that to be is all over the map. There are the historic sounds of Sun and Stax. There are the many variations of the trap sound that rose to world popularity this century, Young Dolph being exhibit A. Then there are the punk sounds, from the Oblivions through Jay Reatard and beyond, making their mark. But then there are the songwriters, who often combine more intricate lyrics with a full-throttle band’s wallop. Of the latter genre, Todd Snider is a prime example.

Snider is not a Memphis native and has been based in Nashville for many years, but living in the Bluff City in the ’90s marked him in ways that he carries to this day. “I’ve got a ton of friends down there,” he says. “What you call ‘cutting your teeth,’ I cut mine at the Daily Planet. And all around, all up and down Highland. Keith Sykes got me my first record contract. He was like a life coach at that time. Not only did he help me with making songs and melodies, he taught me about time, tempo.”

Memphis, it turned out, introduced young Snider to the mysteries of rhythm and groove, after he moved here from Austin. “I came to Memphis from Texas, where it was all about lyrics,” Snider recalls. “Keith and others showed me how to have the Booker T. sound as a benchmark: bass and drums and playing in time. I didn’t even know there was a way to play in time or out of time until I got to Memphis. The whole town is in the pocket.”

All those lessons came out in force with the release of his last record, First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder (Aimless), which delves into funk more than any of his other works. “That was a fun project. I was using old Memphis records as models. The drummer Robbie Crowell and I would both listen to old beats and things. Soul and funk grooves. And I think we got away with it for the most part.”

Another aspect of the album was trying his hand at all the parts himself, except the drums. “I always wanted to make an album where I play all the instruments. And since there was a pandemic, I had a good excuse. I couldn’t just call a better guitar player. And I got to play bass!” All told, he plays electric bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, banjo, and piano, and sang all the backing vocals. The end result is not unlike the arrangements of songwriters like early Beck or Ani DiFranco, but it bears Snider’s own distinctive lyrical stamp. His trademark wit and the teeth of his most politically charged work is still there in full force.

Alongside songs like the funky, spoken/sung environmental wake up call, “That Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” there are more quiet moments, like the piano ballad honoring John Prine, “Handsome John,” or the wistful “Sail On, My Friend.” Others revel in off-the-cuff lyrical riffs, as in “Stoner Yodel Number One,” or a sardonic preacherly prayer to God, the funky closer “The Resignation vs. The Comeback Special.”

“When I started, I only had the song ‘Sail On’ and one about John Prine. And the rest, I just had to come up with stuff. So I just made up the last two songs quickly. The last song’s my favorite, and I don’t think I would have been able to come up with that unless I felt I was doing a concept album or something. [laughs] I always compare it to when WASP did a concept record. Or like when Kiss did The Elder [laughs].” Snider even has a name for the recurring preacher character. “We call him Willy B. Wasted.”

This week, Snider will appear at the Crosstown Theater. “I’m gonna play five or six songs. I used to have this band called the Nervous Wrecks, and two of those guys still live in Memphis. And Will Kimbrough, who was also in the band, is coming to open the show. So we’re going to work up eight or nine songs as a full band, and then we’ll wing the encore. We had so much fun with the Nervous Wrecks. I miss it sometimes. Lots of times. I still really, really enjoy this job.”

Todd Snider plays the Crosstown Theater on Friday, February 4, and Saturday, February 5, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $38. Visit crosstownarts.org for details.

Categories
Music Music Blog

With a Single Guitar, Marc Ribot Levitates Crosstown Concourse

Marc Ribot live at The Green Room. He never touched the guitar on the stand. (Credit: Alex Greene)

“Whew!” was the general response in the crowd as guitarist Marc Ribot sounded his last note of the night and disappeared backstage. Eyes wide with amazement, the audience seemed to be emerging from a roller coaster ride, and indeed they had, after a fashion. Ribot had just taken us on a mystery tour of his weathered Gibson acoustic (possibly a pre-War model) and every musical method he could muster to coax sound from it.

Most know the guitarist for his work as a session and side man with the likes of Tom Waits, Caetano Veloso, John Zorn, Jack McDuff, Wilson Pickett, The Lounge Lizards, Arto Lindsay, T-Bone Burnett, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Cibo Matto, Elvis Costello, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Susana Baca, The Black Keys, Elton John, Madeleine Peyroux, Marianne Faithfull, Diana Krall, Allen Toussaint, and Robert Quine. But he’s led his own groups for over 30 years as well.

The music he played last Saturday in The Green Room was closest in spirit to the free jazz he typically creates with his group Ceramic Dog. But while that trio certainly casts a wide, anarchic net, the variety of music evoked at his most recent Memphis performance was even more inclusive. It ran like a dream one must have to fully process a day of travel, skipping from scene to scene, and in that sense, encompassed some very lyrical and folk passages that were downright traditional. Yet no style or melody was allowed to linger for long, as Ribot’s restless creativity soon replaced it with another musing.

From the start, the musical quotes seemed to fit Memphis, and perhaps the show really was Ribot’s way of processing his visit here. Opening with a quiet folk melody and chords reminiscent of “Shenandoah,” he quickly moved to more dissonant territory, while somehow still incorporating quotes from “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”

One might consider him a master of the guitar, both acoustic and electric, but he speaks more of his limitations than his talents. As he told Guitar Player magazine in 1997, he’s been handicapped to a degree by having learned to play with his right hand, despite being left handed. “That’s a real limit, one that caused me a lot of grief when I was working with Jack McDuff and realizing I wasn’t following in George Benson’s footsteps. I couldn’t be a straight-ahead jazz contender if you held a gun to my head.”

Yet that same limitation has somehow caused Ribot to approach the guitar almost like a pianist. Multiple melodies wove around each other, as he sounded the low, middle, and high strings nearly independently, creating stunning counterpoint and chordal accompaniments.

At times, you’d hear echoes of other projects he’s led. After one far-ranging flurry of improvisation, he noted that parts of it referenced Marc Ribot Plays Solo Guitar Works of Frantz Casseus, a 1993 album of solo guitar works written by the Haitian-American composer. Other portions evoked his work with Los Cubanos Postizos, comprised of Cuban music, or other eclectic world music sources, including echoes of Bahamian folk singer Joseph Spence.

Other portions were more closely related to John Cage’s music for cacti or other such “outside of the box” works, as when he simply drummed on the guitar body or frailed the fret board with rhythmic abandon. The audience remained galvanized, The Green Room being a perfect venue for those who show up to listen deeply.

Memphis seemed to creep into the journey more directly as well, including bluesy quotes (a snatch of “Blue Monk”?) that would have felt at home on Beale Street, or passages that alluded to standards like “Come Rain or Come Shine.” But Memphis also cropped up in the few sparse comments he made between performances. “Thank you,” he said. “I’m very glad to be back in Memphis. This very room was the last gig I did before the shutdown almost two years ago. So I’m glad to be here. In fact, I’m glad to be anywhere.” Judging from the roaring applause that brought him out for an encore, Memphis music fans were glad as well.

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Music Music Blog

Iris Artist Fellows Bring Diverse Cello/Violin Duets to Green Room

Cellist Gabriel Hightower and violinist Pedro Maia (Photo courtesy Iris Orchestra)

When violinist Pedro Maia and cellist Gabriel Hightower take the stage at The Green Room at Crosstown Arts tomorrow evening, they’ll finally be able to exhale. Named as the 2021-22 Iris Artist Fellows months ago, they’ve since faced an uncertain year ahead as the pandemic altered performance and educational expectations again and again. But now their work is at last coming to its fruition.

Performing as the Iris Artist Fellows Ensemble, Maia and Hightower will reveal how they’ve perfected playing as a duo, with a diverse set spanning the French avant-garde, Brazilian dance and traditional classical. All pieces were curated especially for the intimate listening space of The Green Room. 

The Iris Artist Fellowship Program, now in its sixth year, is a 10-month full-time residency position that mixes professional training with instruction, in-the-field experience, and networking opportunities. The program is designed to assist rising Black, African American, or Latino musicians who are about to embark on their professional careers in classical music. 

“We designed the fellowship to help bridge a gap in the classical music world,” Iris Orchestra Artistic Director Michael Stern said. “We are looking for not only skilled classical musicians but also those musicians who have a real passion for music as a tool to impact society. Our fellows participate in community engagement programs that impact the Greater Memphis community, particularly those that promote education, mentorship, and social equity.”

Each of the program’s eight alumni has gone on to pursue a full-time career in the classical music industry. “We’re pleased to be a part of the journey for these talented and dedicated musicians,” said Rebecca Arendt, director of the Iris Artist Fellowship. “We’ve learned a lot and that knowledge has helped to refine and evolve the program, and we’re thrilled we’ve been able to continue it — even during the pandemic year — thanks to our supporters and our partner, Memphis Music Initiative.”

Maia and Hightower have embraced the teaching and performing fellowship with gusto. In addition to performing with Iris Orchestra in October, they performed as a duo at a pop-up concert in the Memphis Medical District, a music time event for Memphis Oral School for the Deaf, and a Halloween family concert at the Morton Museum in Collierville. The fellows also work in the Shelby County Schools as teaching artists with the Memphis Music Initiative (MMI).

“In Memphis, we enjoy a rich musical history and heritage; we’re known for it around the world,” said Mike Mosby, fellows coach for MMI. “But there’s not a lot of emphasis on the string or orchestra instruments in the schools. Our partnership with the Iris Artist Fellows has allowed our Black and brown students to work with and to learn from skilled musicians who look like them. Working with Pedro and Gabriel on my team is a privilege, and we’re grateful for the rich experience they provide to these kids.”

The Iris Artist Chamber Concert featuring the Iris Artist Fellows Ensemble takes place Thursday, November 11th, at The Green Room at Crosstown Arts. General admission, $10; students, $5. Doors, 7 p.m.

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Music Music Blog

Frog Squad Gives Satie a Jumpstart

Frog Squad plays Satie at The Green Room (Credit: Alex Greene)

Frog Squad has been turning heads for a few years now, especially among free jazz aficionados. But unlike, say, Dopolarians or other strictly “free” combos based solely on improvisation, Frog Squad has a secret weapon: composition. Memphis Flyer readers know of Frog Squad founder David Collins’ compositions from our feature from this March, focused on his album Memphis, painstakingly scored for quintet. But fewer know that his gift for jazz ensemble scoring overlaps with his Frog Squad work.

Yet that was abundantly clear last night, when Frog Squad took to the stage in The Green Room at Crosstown Arts. And, ironically, Collins’ talent for arranging was brought to light not through his own compositions, but through his interpretations of the work of Erik Satie.

It was intriguing from the start: the work of one of classical music’s most minimalist composers re-imagined by an eight-piece free jazz ensemble. But this wasn’t just any ensemble. The group featured Hope Clayburn on alto saxophone and flute, Franko Coleman on tenor sax and flute, Aaron Phillips on baritone sax and bass flute, Cedric Taylor on keyboards, Khari Wynn on bass, Jon Harrison on drums, and Collins on guitar, with occasional group member Chad Fowler joining on saxello, C Melody sax, alto sax, and flute. This is a heavy band under any circumstances, but especially so when guided by Collins’ arrangements and one of the greatest composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The final sound achieved by the group revealed just how versatile and open to improvisation Satie’s music is. Collins’ approach was to transpose pieces most often known as piano works to full band voicings, using the four horn players sometimes as an integrated unit, sometimes as individual soloists. And solo they did, with great passion and abandon. Fowler and Clayburn especially made use of the full range of their reed instruments’ possibilities for honks, shrieks, and wails, then reined themselves in on a dime to return to the horn section’s arrangements. Meanwhile, the guitar, bass, keyboard, and drums held down funk/jazz grooves the likes of which have never been applied to Satie, one can be sure.

In all, eight pieces were featured: “Gnossiennes” 1-4, “Je Te Veux,” and “Gymnopédies” 1-3. Surely the highlight was Satie’s ethereal “First Gymnopédie,” with the delicate, waltzing chords played by the horn section, as Collins outlined the melody with echoing guitar.

The end result was beyond category. One might compare it to the finer instrumental work of Frank Zappa, or perhaps the wilder, latter day efforts by Gil Evans, but ultimately it was its own sound. There were even lighthearted moments, as when the horn section’s oom-pah-pah dynamics were amplified by all the players doing knee bends in time to their parts. And an intriguing bit of futurism was added by effects pedals that Clayburn and Phillips played through, not to mention some fine synth renderings by Taylor.

The nearly-full Green Room audience was fully engaged, cheering loudly for each fresh take on Satie, then demanding an encore and rounding off the night with uproarious applause.

As the band packed their instruments, I asked Collins how long it had taken him to craft this approach to Satie. “For about a month and a half, that was all I thought about,” he said, as he described driving, walking, or eating with Satie’s music looping through his head. Then there was one full band rehearsal, a smattering of play-throughs with the rhythm section, and a recent ‘incognito’ gig at B-Side Memphis, also known as “a rehearsal,” to quote saxophonist Chad Fowler.

“We recorded the B-Side show, and for tonight we have both the audio and video,” said Collins. “Soon I’ll be taking the best tracks from both shows and making an album out of it.”