Roughhousing, Susan Alcorn And Bob Stagner Play At Barking Legs Sept. 25

  • Thursday, September 15, 2016

CoPAC and the Shaking Ray Levi Society will present Roughhousing (Zach Darrup, Evan Lipson, Jack Wright), Susan Alcorn - pedal steel guitar innovator and Bob Stagner in concert on Sunday, Sept. 25, 7:30 p.m. at Barking Legs Theater.  Admission is $10 at the door. 

Set one will be Roughhousing, set two will be a Susan Alcorn solo and set three will include all performers. 

Review for the performers:  

One of the world’s premiere musical innovators on her instrument, Baltimore-based Susan Alcorn has taken the pedal steel guitar far beyond its traditional role in country and western swing music. Known among steel guitarists for her virtuosity and authenticity in a traditional context, Alcorn first paid her dues in Texas country and western bands. Soon she began to expand the vocabulary of her instrument through her study of modern classical music (Messiaen, Varèse, Penderecki), the deep listening of Pauline Oliveros, free jazz and world musics (Indian ragas, South American songs and gamelan orchestra). 

Alcorn’s pieces reveal the complexity of her instrument and her musical experience while never straying from a very direct, intense, and personal musical expression. Her latest critically acclaimed album, Soledad, explores the music of Argentine tango composer Astor Piazzolla. 

Roughhousing is the right word for what this group does. At first you might think this is pure dissonance, even hostility, until you realize it's all synchronized close listening to each other from years of playing together. The three musicians - Zach Darrup, Evan Lipson and Jack Wright - have all been residents of the Spring Garden Music House in Philadelphia, and Jack and Evan have been playing for over 10 years together, most recently in Wrest with percussionist Ben Bennett. 

Described 25 years ago as an "undergrounder by design," Jack Wright is a veteran saxophone improviser based mainly in Philadelphia. Since the early 80s he has been touring through the US and Europe, finding interesting partners and playing situations. Now at 73 he is still the "Johnny Appleseed of Free Improvisation," as guitarist Davey Williams called him back in the 80s. He continues to inspire players outside music-school careerdom, playing sessions with visiting and resident players old and new. His preferred partners over the years have been mostly unknown to the music press, and too numerous to list here. He's said to have the widest vocabulary of any, an expert at leaping pitches, punchy, precise timing, sharp and intrusive multiphonics, surprising gaps of silence, and obscene animalistic sounds. (Someone heard a recording and asked if it was a baby elephant.) A reviewer for the Washington Post said, "In the rarefied, underground world of experimental free improvisation, saxophonist Jack Wright is king." Wright has written a book to be released Oct. 2016, The Free Musics. For more info, discography and sounds go to www.springgardenmusic.com and for writing try this: http://jackiswright.wordpress.com/ 

Zachary Darrup is an improvising guitarist currently living in Philadelphia. During his early teenage years in the rural coal region of Pennsylvania a strange boy appeared like an angel, carrying a large CD booklet of wild musics of all sorts. This chance meeting at a pizza shop, plus tumultuous relationships with his home turf, school teachers, and other agents of law and rule enforcement led Zach to drop out and skip town, devoting himself to following music wherever it would take him--somewhere else. His techniques are informed by the musical possibilities of film language, jovial mockery and mimicry of plants, animals, and audience members, thoughtful room listening, word play, colors, and culinary experiments. 

Evan Lipson (b. 1981) has operated as a musician since adolescence—intuitively seeking the liminal zones in which intellect and instinct, history and myth, and creative and destructive force intersect. Drawn towards aberrant perspectives at an early age, his formative experiences were primarily rooted in extreme and often discordant forms of rock, free improvisation, modernist composition, jazz, outsider pop, soundtracks, noise, and electronic music. Lipson has written music for several films, as well as a new collaboration with Duplex Planet-creator David Greenberger and Bob Stagner of the Shaking Ray Levis. Lipson also may or may not have some degree of involvement or association with an organization known as Meinschaft. Past units include Normal Love, Satanized, Dynamite Club, Femme Tops, Psychotic Quartet, and the Weasel Walter Trio. Lipson has performed throughout North America, as well as Brazil, Taiwan and Japan. His music has been released on several imprints including SKiN GRAFT, UgEXPLODE, High Two, Public Eyesore, Badmaster, Caminante, New Atlantis and Damage Rituals. Lipson is currently scheming to actualize an all-in-one dystopian tiki lounge, mystical grotto, and occult ritual chamber. He has concocted over 70 original faux-tropical cocktails since 2013. 

Bob Stagner is the only artist to have ever performed with both Dolly Parton and Derek Bailey. He is a percussionist, teacher, speaker and leader in arts advocacy for over 25 years. He co-founded the free improvisation duo, The Shaking Ray Levis, and the Shaking Ray Levi Society, an arts education organization that supports emerging artists in performance, art and film. He is the Southeast director of The Rhythmic Arts Project that provides music workshops for people with physical and mental disabilities. He has performed and recorded with a wide range of artists, including Derek Bailey, Rev. Howard Finster, Wayne White, Bob Dorough, Fred Frith, Min Tanaka, Amy Denio, Shelley Hirsch, and John Zorn. 

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1780809375499386/

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