On Friday June 28th at 7:30pm, Tom's Place presents
David Rothenberg (clarinet)
Elliott Sharp (guitar)
Nightingales in Berlin & IrRational Music
Elliott Sharp is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, and performer. A central figure in the avant-garde and experimental music scene in New York City for over 30 years, Elliott Sharp has released over eighty-five recordings ranging from orchestral music to blues, jazz, noise, no wave rock, and techno music. He has pioneered ways of applying fractal geometry, chaos theory, and genetic metaphors to musical composition and interaction. And he's a wicked guitar player.
David Rothenberg is, as well as being a composer and jazz clarinetist (see his 2010 recording "One Dark Night I Left My Silent House" with Marilyn Crispell on ECM https://www.ecmrecords.com/catalogue/143038751902/one-dark-night-i-left-my-silent-house-marilyn-crispell-david-rothenberg ), well-known as an author and naturalist, concentrating on animal sounds viewed as music. I first knew of him from his book "Why Birds Sing", which I now see was the source for a BBC documentary (part I here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_cqJsdnOrg ), but his work doesn't stop with birds; he has also worked on insect and especially whale song.
His new book is "Nightingales in Berlin", a meditation on urban birdsong, about which he writes: ... have you ever listened closely to a nightingale's song? It's a strange and unsettling sort of composition--an eclectic assortment of chirps, whirrs, trills, clicks, whistles, twitters, and gurgles. At times it is mellifluous, at others downright guttural. It is a rhythmic assault, always eluding capture. But what happens if you decide to join in?
http://www.nightingalesinberlin.com
Elliott also has a new book out, a manifesto and memoir called "IrRational Music", a mix of tales from the road with thoughts on music, art, politics, technology, and the process of thinking itself
https://www.terranovapress.com/books/irrationalmusic
With any luck, we'll get some stories in addition to the music. I want to hear about the one where Morton Feldman went after Elliott Sharp ("Improvisation -- I don't buy it").
Tom's Place
3111 Deakin Street, Berkeley CA
Directions: http://4-33.com/directions.html
Information: http://4-33.com/toms-place/index.html
Admission: donation. All proceeds go directly to the musicians.
Doors open at 7:00. Wheelchair accessible.