Luggage Store Creative Music Series
1007 Market Street SF
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8:00pm The Holly Martins
Eric Vogler- guitar, Kasey Knudsen- alto sax, Lorin Benedict- voice
9:00pm Jack Wright with Evan Lipson
Jacob Felix Heule, and Danishta Rivero

Described twenty years ago as an "undergrounder by design," Jack Wright is a veteran saxophone improviser based mainly in Philadelphia. He has played mostly on tour through the US and Europe since the early 80s in search of interesting partners and playing situations. Now at 75 he is still the "Johnny Appleseed of Free Improvisation," as guitarist Davey Williams called him in the 80s, on the road as much as ever. He continues to inspire players outside music-school careerdom, playing sessions with visiting and resident players old and new. His partners over the years are mostly unknown to the music press, and too numerous to mention. He's said to have the widest vocabulary of any saxophonist, including leaping pitches, punchy, precise timing, sharp and intrusive multiphonics, surprising gaps of silence, and obscene animalistic sounds. He has had a book published, Jan. 2017, The Free Musics, which is becoming very popular among improvisers. A reviewer for the Washington Post said, "In the rarefied, underground world of experimental free improvisation, saxophonist Jack Wright is king". But for a true assessment listen to the music he and his partners create: Spring Garden Music, for sounds and writings.


Named after the main character in the classic postwar film, The Third Man, The Holly Martins is a trio of Bay Area musicians dedicated to exploring the boundaries of jazz-infused improvised music, but without the trappings of a traditional "rhythm section". This configuration requires each individual to simultaneously take on multiple roles typically assigned individual players (soloist versus accompanist), thereby promoting more open-ended explorations of the material. As to said material, The Holly Martins often construct mutations of normal jazz standards, transformed from their more familiar forms in the time domain. Likewise, their original compositions are often "jazz-like", but with twists and turns such as asymmetric harmonic rhythms, cycling rhythmic and pitch patterns, etc.


Cost: $6-15 sliding

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