The three Satellite performers: Bucket List (left), Koollooꓘ (upper right), and Trust Me (lower right) (from the San Francisco Performance Web page for this event)
The title of the second of the three programs in this season’s annual PIVOT Festival was a bit more enigmatic than the first: Satellite. It was a three-set evening with The Living Earth Show duo of guitarist Travis Andrews and percussionist Andy Meyerson playing in all of those sets. (As some readers may recall, Meyerson is also the Festival’s curator this year.) Each set involved a different combo as follows (in order of appearance):
- Bucket List is a trio with Andrews and Meyerson joined by Mark Applebaum (previously their mentor) on keyboards.
- Koollooꓘ is a punk dance quartet with Babatunji and Dennis Aman playing with the Living Earth duo.
- Trust Me is a trio with Lynnee Breedlove providing vocals to sing in a Living Earth setting.
All this made for a generous share of diversity. Nevertheless, I could have sworn that, somewhere along this full-evening event, one of the players managed to sneak in a reference to Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust!” However, that was just a reminder of one of the more playful epithets in “the business:” “It’s all music!” What was more important was that, in this abundance of off-the-beaten-path invention, each of the three sets had its own way of both capturing and sustaining attentive listening.
Mind you, a more than generous amount of attention was in order. Fortunately, there were breaks each time the stage had to be reorganized, along with a fifteen-minute intermission prior to the final set. As a result, the entire evening proceeded at a manageable clip, having its full say without ever letting fatigue set in!
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