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| Boundless Voices at the Knitting Factory NYC Three of New York's most acclaimed ensembles blending live music with poetry and prose will be appearing at the world famous New York music club. Boundless Voices: A Collision of Music + Poetry is an evening of performances by groundbreaking artists Merge, Clockwork Mercury and Lunar Ensemble at the Knitting Factory Tap Bar, 74 Leonard Street, New York, NY, on Thursday, December 13, 2007. Master musician of the Beats, David Amram calls MERGE “an exciting and highly creative new collaboration between the intimate and innovative poetry of Cassandra Cleghorn and the brilliant supportive music created on the spot by Erik Lawrence (Sonny Sharrrock, Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra, Levon Helm Band, Chico Hamilton) and members of his band Hipmotism, Allison Miller and Rene Hart...MERGE is another step forward in celebrating the marriage of poetry and music.” Moving beyond conventional roles, the members of this ensemble take part in the true jazz tradition in which each player assumes equal responsibility as supporter and soloist: the drummer plays a melody from a Bach cello suite; the bassist taps on his instrument like a drum, the poet creates an underlying pulse for the saxophonist's vocal line. CLOCKWORK MERCURY, the duo of Eric Mingus and Catherine Sikora, combines the powerful insights of poet/bassist Mingus with the free playing of saxophonist Sikora, in a blend of aural offerings that's creating a buzz in the new music community. Eric Mingus comes by innovation honestly. He is bold and unafraid to mince words. Echoing Marvin Gaye crooning about death and taxes, or Gil Scott Heron looking for “Whitey on the Moon”, Mingus is bleakly sweet, slyly political, pissed off and informed. Catherine Sikora is from Ireland, and spent some time in Leeds, England (at University) and in Berlin, Germany before moving to New York, where she embarked on a serious study of abstract/chromatic improvisation. She spends her time practicing, reading poetry and hitting things. Sikora believes that even when she is not playing the saxophone, she is always playing the saxophone, and also that she is never playing the saxophone. It's very simple, really. Called “legendary” by Bruce Gallanter of Downtown Music Gallery, LUNAR ENSEMBLE is back on the NY scene with their latest CD on the MuWorks-MussoMusic.com label titled, “OFFBEAT”. In his review of the CD, Bruce writes, “Lunar Ensemble is a great improv/rock band that backs [poet] John “Lunar” Richey with a great groove and two or three inventive guitarists creating riveting textures and occasional solos. This was true of their earlier recorded gem for MuWorks, their live gigs and is still the case with the current version of the band found here... John Richey and the Lunar Ensemble [which are Slugger on guitar, Greg Di Gesu on guitar and keys, Tom DiEllo on bass, Chris McKenna on drums, Dave Dreiwitz (Ween) on coronet and percussion] do a fine job of captivating us with their version of a modern tale and create the scenery to match the images described within. Welcome back Lunar, you and your fine crew did it again!” write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Jazz News :: home page |