Monday, February 8, 2021

The Bleeding Edge: 2/8/2021

It has been almost two months since this site ran a Bleeding Edge column. Back then there was only one item on the calendar. This week there are three! To be fair, however, two of them have already been announced. These are the only two concerts planned for this month at the Center for New Music with the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the National Association of Composers/USA on Friday, February 12, and solo sets by saxophonist Phillip Greenlief and pianist Evelyn Davis on Saturday, February 13.

Poster design for Sharmi Basu’s CCRMA live performance (from the BayImproviser event page)

The remaining event would normally not be included, because it does not take place within the city limits of San Francisco. However, readers probably know by now that, when concert performances depend on streaming, jurisdictional boundaries no longer signify. In this case the performance will be streamed from Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). It will be a solo offering by Sharmi Basu, an Oakland born and based, disabled, South Asian, woman of color creating experimental music as a means of decolonizing musical language. Basu holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College, specializing in Electronic Music and Recording Media. Key influencers have included Fred Frith, Roscoe Mitchell, John Bischoff, Pauline Oliveros, Chris Brown, and Maggi Payne.

The title of Basu’s program is Beast Nest, named after a project that utilizes multi-dimensional soundscapes to transmute trauma and suffering into moments of deep presence. The performance will begin at 6 p.m. on Friday, February 12. The live-stream will be the latest Quarantine Sessions offering through the CCRMA live Web page. There will be no charge for admission. Those wishing to chat have the option of registering, again without charge but with acceptance of the Vimeo Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

No comments: