Ron Stabinsky
photo by Rob Lettieri
Jack Wright, left, and Evan Lipson
photo by Ernest Paik
Luciana Arias
CoPAC and the Shaking Ray Levi Society will present Minimal Disturbance (Jack Wright and Ron Stabinsky), Luciana Arias (from Argentina) and Evan Lipson on Sunday, Jan. 26, at 7:30 p.m. It will be at Barking Legs Theater, 1307 Dodds Ave. Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 at the door, $5 for ages 25 and under, and available here.
Review for the performers:
This evening will be a feast for the senses, featuring astounding improvisational sounds from Minimal Disturbance, accompanied by dancer Luciana Arias (from Buenos Aires) and special guest contrabassist Evan Lipson. The event will end with a book reading from Jack Wright from his acclaimed tome about improvisation, "The Free Musics," along with a question-and-answer session.
The improvisational duo Minimal Disturbance, featuring saxophonist Jack Wright and pianist Ron Stabinsky, has the ability to shift from near-classical to near-jazz to nearly insane, bringing in bits of melody from virtually anywhere, kicking and screaming.
Ron Stabinsky is a member of the notorious jazz band Mostly Other People Do The Killing (now a trio with Moppa Elliott and Kevin Shea), and in 2018, he joined the reunited rock band Meat Puppets and toured with them. In 2016 Ron finally released his first solo album, Free for One, the culmination of more than a decade of evolving his improvised solo language. It received four stars in DownBeat and tied for number one debut of the year in the 2016 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll.
At 77, Jack Wright is one of a small number of musicians in North America who have played free-form improvised music exclusively for four decades. He is an original and virtuosic saxophonist, a recognized improviser who is deeply lyrical, despite his wide distance from the mainstream.
After being a history lecturer and revolutionist in the late sixties, Mr. Wright has been playing freely improvised saxophone exclusively in the U.S. and Europe and has been dubbed the “Johnny Appleseed of Improvised Music” by the legendary guitarist Davey Williams. He is among the few true believers in absolutely free, unrestrained, unstructured, unselfconscious improvisation, played at soberingly high levels of musicianship.
Luciana Arias is a contemporary experimental artist, dancer and choreographer from Buenos Aires, Argentina, currently traveling throughout Europe and the Americas, making art and performing for brave, extraordinary audiences. Her art is challenging, requiring remarkable venues and communities to bring it to life, and it asks questions and brings awareness to issues such as women's health, sexual identity, consent and human trafficking.
Evan Lipson has operated as a musician since adolescence—intuitively seeking the liminal realms in which intellect and instinct, history and myth, and creative and destructive force intersect. Lipson most frequently tours playing bass with Roughhousing (featuring Zach Darrup and Jack Wright). He is also active with Virtual Balboa (featuring Ben Bennett and Zach Darrup), a collaborative duo with dancer Luciana Arias, and The Flying Luttenbachers. Mr. Lipson has recently composed music for several films, as well as a number of collaborations with Duplex Planet-creator David Greenberger. He also may or may not have some degree of affiliation with an organization known as MEINSCHAFT. Past units include Normal Love, Satanized, Wrest, Hisswig, and Dynamite Club.
For more information visit the Facebook page, the Minimal Disturbance website and the Luciana Arias website.