Battle Trance performs a free jazz concert at Lytton Plaza, rain or shine, trick or treat by Earthwise -- one of these fellows went to Gunn High of Palo Alto, his name is Nelson, Matt Nelson. All four of them play saxophones. We will put out a canopy --like a tent - -at Lytton Plaza which will protect the band from rain. If there is no rain, there will be a second tent -- for example, for sun -- for the sound crew. If there is rain, there will be no sound crew, just the guys and their axes. Get it?
The all-tenor sax quartet, Battle Trance, specializes in the uncanny transformations of their instruments. Together they perform longform, meditative pieces with a strong emphasis on drone, circular breathing, and trancelike repetition, bringing to mind the works of 20th Century minimalist composers like Philip Glass or Steve Reich, but with an added primal energy and urgency reminiscent of Pharaoh Sanders or Joe McPhee.