From February to March at the Luggage Store

Keeping up with the concerts that Outsound Presents offers in its LSG (Luggage Store Gallery) Creative Music Series is not always an easy matter. Regular readers probably know by now that I usually follow the series on a week-by-week basis thanks to the BayImproviser Calendar Web site. When possible (usually thanks to Facebook), I try to provide notification earlier than using Monday to announce what will be happening the following Thursday. However, Outsound scheduling does not always lend itself to early announcements. This sometimes leads to my initial efforts having gaps (as was the case when I accounted for last month) and then using Facebook to notify readers when those gaps have been filled.

With that in mind, I would like to use this article to summarize what will be happening between now and the end of next month. That begins with the reminder that this week’s Bleeding Edge column has the information about tomorrow’s gig. Current information about future sessions at the Luggage Store are as follows:

Jakob Pek’s “Iterations of a Multiverse in 3–9 Parts” (courtesy of Outsound Presents)

February 28: This will be a three-set evening that definitely deserves earlier notification. The opening set will be taken by the duo of guitarist Jakob Pek and bassist Lee Hodel. Their improvisations will involve contemporary reflections on domains that interested many of the more adventurous composers from the twentieth century. These include Pauline Oliveros’ explorations into what she called “deep listening” and the abandonment of equal-tempered tuning in favor of just intonation. Pek and Hodel will also present their own takes on the always fascinating relationship between what we take to be noise and what we take to be music. They will be followed by Sandy Ewen taking a solo set on prepared guitar. The final set will then present the first time that guitarists Nick Millevoi and Bill Orcutt have come together to perform duo improvisations.

[added 3/2, 10:50 a.m.:

March 7: The opening set will be taken by the DNR Trio, which gets its name from its members: Devin Gray on drums, Nathaniel Morgan onalto saxophone, and Ryan Feirrira on guitar. They will be followed by Elliott Levin, who will be performing with the New Olduvai Ensemble. That group brings Tom Rollison together with the members of Cartoon Justice.]

March 14: The first of the two sets to be presented will be taken by real-time performance on a modular synthesizer by French-born Franck Martin. He will be followed by Murder Sewage, a new band that came together this past fall at Mills College. The performers are Naomi Harrison-Clay (saxophone), Joel Nelson (guitar), Maia Ziaee (synthesizer), and Rowan Mathews (vocals). Inspired by both noise rock and punk jazz, the group takes original written material as a point of departure for improvisation by all players, usually involving extended techniques with electronic enhancement.

[added 3/2, 11:35 a.m.:

March 21: The opening set will be taken by Music for Hard Times. This is the duo that brings Tom Nunn, playing his experimental invented instruments together with Paul Winstanley, who plays an electric bass enhanced by multiple effects pedals. Specifics for the second set have not yet been announced.]

[added 3/25, 9:20 a.m.:

March 28: The final concert of the month will be a two-set evening with an emphasis on reeds. Woodwind multi-instrumentalist Sheldon Brown will give a solo performance in the first set. He will be followed by the Mike Monford Quintet. Monford himself is a saxophonist. Presumably, he will be performing with the players that joined him on his debut CD Perseverance: pianist Marc Cary, Tarus Mateen on bass, Steve Williams on drums, and Rayse Biggs on trumpet.] 

For those who do not already know, the concerts in this series are scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. on Thursday evenings. (That means that there are gaps remaining to be filled; and notification of those updates will be posted on the “shadow” Facebook page for this site.) Admission is on a sliding scale between $8 and $15. LSG is located at 1007 Market Street, across from the Golden Gate Theatre, which is at the corner of Golden Gate Avenue and Taylor Street.