The Monday Make-Out: Labor Day, 2018

A “visual summary” of the next Monday Make-Out (designed by Lorin Benedict for the Facebook event page)

We are coming up on Labor Day weekend. Once again, because Labor Day is the first Monday of next month, the Monday Make-Out will be scheduled as usual. Since this event had not made it to the BayImproviser Calendar when I was writing this week’s Bleeding Edge column, I figured that this particular occasion should be cited on its own. As was the case last year, the Labor Day Make-Out will involve a lot of performers familiar to not only the Make Out Room but to those who read this site on a regular basis and manage to retain some of the content with a memory sounder than that of many public officials and/or heads of state. As usual, the evening will be organized into three sets, opening with a duo, which will then be followed by two trios.

The duo set will present improvisation work by clarinetist Ben Goldberg and guitarist Karl Evangelista. They will be followed by a trio that calls itself The Holly Martins, named after the protagonist of Graham Greene’s novella The Third Man. (Their Web page on the Edgetone Records Web site claims they are named after the character in the movie; but I try to be a purist in such matters, no matter how much I like Joseph Cotton!) Kasey Knudsen on alto saxophone and Eric Vogler on guitar improvise along with the vocals by Lorin Benedict. Readers may recall that Benedict works with phonemes, rather than more “meaningful” linguistic primitives; and I have previously written about how he has “escalated scat singing far beyond its roots in jazz.” The final set will be taken by the Green Mitchell Trio; and, in this case, I have not the foggiest idea how the name was chosen! The group was assembled by reed player Cory Wright, who joined forces with Lisa Mezzacappa on bass and Jason Levis on drums. Wright is the group’s composer; but, since this is a jazz trio, improvisation is part of the performance.

Doors open at 8 p.m., and the music starts half an hour later. The Make Out Room is located at 3225 22nd Street in the Mission, near the southwest corner of Mission Street. The Make Out Room is a bar. That means that tickets are not sold, nor is there a cover charge. Nevertheless, a metaphorical hat is passed between sets; and all donations are accepted, not to mention welcome!