The first full week of the new season will be a busy one. However, six of this week’s events have already been reported accounting for four familiar venues. Due to that abundance of content, there will be only three new events to take into account, all of which will take place at the end of the week. Those “familiar venues” are as follows:
- Brava Theatre, hosting this year’s “Emerging World Premiere” concert, supported jointly by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and the ARTZenter Institute
- The Lab
- Center for New Music
- Old First Presbyterian Church
The new events will be as follows:
Thursday, September 10, 8 p.m., Peacock Lounge: This week there will be the usual four-set program: We Micromanage ∞, DJ Female Convict Scorpion, Shatter Pattern, the duo of Ron Heglin and Lorin Benedict. This month BayImproviser has provided relatively lengthy accounts for each of the sets, but I must confess that I am not sure how much of that verbiage will serve as a positive influence for the attentive listener. Personally, I would advise those of my generation that grew up watching the Mickey Mouse Club to approach this gig as an example of what happens after dark on Anything Can Happen Day!
Friday, September 11, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: This week Other Dimensions in Sound will be, as usual, hosted by Boohaabian multi reed player extraordinaire David Boyce. The entire evening will be a quartet performance. All four performers are likely to be familiar to those following this site regularly: Larry Ochs (saxophone), Darren Johnston (trumpet), Lisa Mezzacappa (bass), and Ben Davis (cello). The venue is located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street. As always, there is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book.
Darren Johnston with his trumpet (from his BayImproviser Web page)
Saturday, September 13, 1 p.m., San Francisco Botanical Garden: Last year the annual Flower Piano event hosted a piano quartet playing compositions by both Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn. This year will be “something completely different” with a performance by the Rob Reich Swings Left Legacy Band. Reich was a keyboardist, who died on May 15, 2025. He was as comfortable with an accordion as he was with a piano keyboard. He studied composition with both John Luther Adams and Pauline Oliveros, graduating from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 2000. The Band is now led by Daniel Fabricant; and, for this performance, trumpeter Darren Johnston will be a visiting soloist.
