New “Music for People” Event from Evangelista

Some readers may recall the video recording of guitarist Karl Evangelista’s Apura, which took place before a selected audience in July of 2021 and was subsequently available for a limited period of time on YouTube. The music was conceived to honor the spirit of a mixed-race group of South African exiles active when their country was under Apartheid rule. The title of the composition was the Filipino word for “very urgent.”

Andrew Cyrille at his drum kit during the performance of Apura (from the YouTube video of the performance)

Since that work was performed, Evangelista has worked on a new composition that would explore the intersection between intergenerational resistance and revolutionary music. The title of the result is Bukas, the Filipino word for “tomorrow.” Five of the Apura performers will return for Bukas: Evangelista, Francis Wong on saxophone, Lisa Mezzacappa on bass, Rei Scampavia on piano, and, appearing again as a special guest, Andrew Cyrille on drums. They will be joined by saxophonist Lewis Jordan, a leading figure in free jazz.

The work itself will be more involved that Apura had been. It will still be grounded in jazz and free improvisation. However, there will also be prerecorded interviews involving musical innovation as presented by veteran artists with histories in musical innovation; and the jazz performance will be augmented with electronic music and noise sources. As a result, Bukas will unfold as a “media-rich sequel” to Apura, which will provide an extended setting for exploring the “social” dimension of the earlier composition.

The premiere performance of Bukas will take place near the end of this month on Saturday, May 27, at 7:30 p.m. The venue will be The Lab, which is located at 2948 16th Street in the Mission, a short walk from the intersection with Mission Street. This is particularly good for those using public transportation, since that corner provides bus stops for both north-south and east-west travel as well as a BART station. As with other events presented by The Lab, it will probably be the case that doors will open half an hour prior to when the performance will begin. There will be no charge for admission, but donations will be encouraged and applied to supporting local arts spaces.