The Bleeding Edge: 4/8/2019

Once again this site has done a reasonably good job of accounting for almost all of the relevant events taking place this week:

• Things will be busiest at the Center for New Music, which will be hosting an impressive diversity of offerings on April, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14.
• Outsound Presents will have another “double-header” week with an LSG (Luggage Store Gallery) Creative Music Series concert on April 11 and a Static Illusion Methodical Madness (SIMM) Series concert on April 14.
• The Chamber Music series of Sunset Music and Arts will present the Ensemble Illume, a piano trio in which the “upper voice” will be taken by violist Jessica Chang, joined by cellist Laura Gaynon and pianist Allegra Chapman, on April 13.
• Old First Concerts will present a recital by pianist Hadley McCarroll on April 14.

That leaves two events yet to be taken into account, both of which will involve names familiar to regular readers:

Friday, April 12, 6 p.m., Southern Exposure: It has been a while (over a year) since this site has reported on activities by percussionist Marshall Trammell, founder of Music Research Strategies. Trammell calls himself a “performing-ethnomusicologist;” and he is currently working with the Mutual Aid Project on a four-part suite entitled What Does a Harm Free Zone Sound Like? Each movement of the suite will capture, through music, one of the Four Pillars of Critical Resistance: Prevention, Intervention, Transformation, and Reparation. The Mutual Aid Project is Trammell’s trio in which he is joined by Tracy Hui on banjo and electronics and Nick Obando on alto saxophone and electronics. The suite consists of individual solos, parallel solos, collective improvisation and a recitation. The performance will be followed by a conversation with labor activist Tanya Hollis.

The entire event is expected to last for about three hours. Southern Exposure is located in NEMIZ (the NorthEast Mission Industrial Zone) at 3030 20th Street at the corner of Alabama Street. There will be no charge for admission.

Bruce Ackley playing soprano saxophone (from the BayImproviser event page)

Saturday, April 13, 4 p.m., San Francisco Public Library, Richmond Branch: Bruce Ackley, one of the founders of the Rova Saxophone Quartet, will present an informal survey of the history of the soprano saxophone. There are still any number of jazz aficionados that think they know all about saxophones and then look funny the first time they hear the sound of the soprano member of the family. Ackley himself describes the instrument as “barely tamable, and little celebrated.” Nevertheless, some of the best jazz saxophonists have mastered this instrument, often with uncanny results. They include Sidney Bechet, Johnny Hodges, Steve Lacy, and John Coltrane. Ackley will talk about these players along with a slideshow to introduce the instrument’s background. This presentation will then be followed by a live performance. The Richmond Branch of the Library is located at 351 9th Avenue; and there will be no charge for this event.