There is No More Firmament

At the Warehouse Theater, 2/24/2006
Produced by Theatre Du Jour

[Note: This post is written by special guest blogger, Cameron McPhee.]

Yay, I have always wanted to be a guest blogger!

To preface, I should say that both Jonathan and I agree that any serious attempt to perform this kind of experimental theater in Washington is an asset to the DC arts scene. Setting aside, for the moment, that this piece has often been referred to as theatrically “unstageable,” it is certainly not something that the traditional DC theater audience is used to seeing (or paying for), making it, in some ways regionally unstagable. So I thank B. Stanley for taking on this project and I hope that there is more to come.

That said, I think this production “missed the point” a bit when it comes to creating the sort of theater Artaud called for. Artaud’s theater was, in most simplistic terms, grotesque. It is a “pre-logical” theater, which exists “halfway between thought and gesture”. Artaud’s mission was to create theater that physically (possibly violently) engages the audience and changes their perceptions of reality. Artaud’s technique is grounded in movement, breath, gesture, in essence – in the body. And while Stanley clearly understands this and articulates it when discussing the evolution of this piece, it does not seem to have translated to the stage. His actors were entirely too self-conscious, concerned about being “actors” and worrying about how they look on stage. This sort of vanity is the opposite of the theater of Artaud, which is about baseness, vulgarity, and often the more disgusting bodily functions. It is not about looking pretty.

My first justification for this was that this is a very amateur cast (demanded, of course, by the fact that, unfortunately, no-one can make any money off such a project). Many of the performers are young, some still in school. However, I don’t think inexperience is necessarily the problem. The best members of the ensemble, the ones I felt were the least concerned with “looking good on stage,” were actually those cast members who have never been in a theatrical production. Both Jerry Herbilla and Aaron O. Martin seemed to give themselves fully to the ensemble.

Along similar lines, I felt that the cast could have spent much less time changing costumes and moving back and forth various props and more time trying to work symbolically. B. Stanley’s bio in the program states that he was a student of Jerzy Grotowski (another theater director and theorist who explored many of the same issues about theater and it’s role as a manipulator of consciousness). Where Artaud called it “Theater of cruelty,” Grotowski’s was a “poor theater” by which he meant a theater that eliminated all that was superfluous and extraneous (props, costumes, etc.) and in its place left a “stripped” and vulnerable actor. An actor who can abandon the ego-protection provided by such amenities and transform themselves and the audience. He, like Artaud, desired a theater that was simultaneously a ritual. And I think the sparseness and open-endedness of There is No More Firmament could lend itself to just such a ritual experience.

This is not to say that there were not glimpses of true Artaudian theater in this production. At one point, three actors, draped in some kind of gray fabric onto which has been sewn several disembodied limbs, slither across the stage like war-ravaged slugs. This, more than any other moment, elicited the sensation that our society is slowly adjusting to increasing levels of violence, which we have learned to ignore just like we ignore, say, poverty -- covered in blankets and freezing on the street.

Similarly, one member of the ensemble, towards the end (during a scene in which the cast all wear lab coats and listen to the “scientific explanation” of the catastrophe they are experiencing) used gesture and movement in an exaggerated fashion, much like what I had hoped this whole production would attempt. Too bad she just seemed so out of place doing so.

B. Stanley and the Theater Du Jour ensemble have taken a much-needed step towards destroying the very rigid boundaries of Washington DC theater. I hope (though doubt) that this production will inspire other experiments along similar lines.

Vijay Iyer Quartet

at the Kennedy Center "KC Jazz Club," 2/23/2006


Pianist / Composer / Genius Vijay Iyer came to town with his quartet, which included: Rudresh Mahanthappa (alto sax), Stephan Crump (bass), and Marcus Gilmore (drums).

Yow. It was quite a performance. Olympics O'schmipics... the real skillz were on display right here at home. This was a group of virtuoso players / improvisers. Iyer's music is pretty damn complicated: intricate layers of polyrhythms, thorny twisting melodic lines, and surprising harmonic changes -- but woven together with real purpose and meaning. This wasn't simply a show of cerebral-dexterity-pyrotechnics, this was some heady music that also had great depth.

I'd love to write something that explains the rhythmic complexity in simple terms, but honestly, I couldn't do the math... lots of odd meters and cool juxtapositions, but that was just the basis for further exploration, not an end in itself. These players have all been in the orbit of Steve Coleman, and his M-Base collective. I think the rhythmic vocabulary, especially, is heavily influenced by that work.

Most of the set was devoted to a suite of pieces called "Tragicomedy" (he explained the title as a reference to Cornel West's use of the term to describe our current situation in the world). It was powerful and effective stuff - very well played. I don't know how these guys could solo over all of these tricky rhythmic patterns. The through-composed form also caused some confusion in the audience - people who wanted to applaud after every solo were somewhat stymied by the unconventional forms. It wasn't always clear when one solo had ended, or even started for that matter... It wasn't always obvious what was composed and what was being improvised.

Anyway, there's been a lot written about Vijay, and particularly about this group, since their album, "Reimagining" was on so many top-ten lists of last year (JazzTimes, ArtForum, Village Voice, and many more) - so I don't have to duplicate anything... I guess all I have to say is: damn. That was something. I'm dizzy.

Chris Porter wrote a review in the Post. Also up on his blog.

Washington Musica Viva

at the Czech Embassy, 2/21/2006

(note: I'm on the board of directors of Washington Musica Viva, so once again, I can't really be impartial. ok?)

After a brief hiatus, WMV has returned to the Czech Embassy to present a series of concerts presenting a nice mix of music by Czech composers. This program included one composer I hadn't heard before: Petr Eben. He's referred to as, "one of the leading composers of the Czech Republic," so I guess that's good that his work was included... His "Six Minnelieder" was performed by Karyn Friedman (mezzo-soprano) with Carl Banner at the piano. This collection of six short songs are all settings of medieval texts, in Czech, English, German, Italian, and French. Since I'm not multi-lingual myself, I found that to be somewhat alienating. The songs were sung beautifully, but I've never been really drawn to "art song" per se, and this was no exception. Just my own personal bias... but that being said, WMV has performed lots of vocal music that I really loved - which is pretty impressive since I'm really hard to please in this area. I just couldn't really get into these songs.

Next up was the "Rhapsody-Concerto" by Bohuslav Martinu. The piece, originally for viola and orchestra, was performed in a transcription for viola and piano. I'm really curious to hear the orchestra version (and I'm in luck... it's not in the DC Library, or Montgomery County Library, but there's a recording at eMusic.com) WMV has performed quite a bit of Martinu's music in the past, and I've always found it to be totally captivating. This work, however, didn't have as much fast material. He's a composer who really knows how to write fast music... and his jazz-inflected style keeps me more engaged than most classical music. This piece is overall, more moderate in tempo, but there are a few rockin' parts - and even slowed down a bit, Martinu's music is still very engaging. Philippe Chao did a super job with the viola. Someday I'll write something for viola... when it's played well, it's totally worth the trouble of dealing with the damn C-clef.

The program closed with Dvorak's "Piano Quartet No.1," played by Carl along with Hasse Borup (violin), Amy Leung (cello), and Phillipe Chao (viola). So far, I've led a seriously blessed life - some evidence of that is the fact that I've been able to hear Hasse and Amy play several times over the last few years. While I was in grad. school at Hartt, they were there with their string quartet - the Coolidge Quartet - studying with the Emerson Quartet. Then they followed me to Maryland, where they were studying with the Guarneri Quartet. Unfortunately, the Coolidge Quartet is no longer, but these two are really fabulous musicians and when they're playing in the area you would be well served by dropping everything and going to hear them. This was a crisp and lively rendition of the Dvorak. Sometimes I have a hard time with his longwindedness, but this performance kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish, and I'm not just saying that because I want to publish nice things about WMV...

Hasse has a project in the works to record a CD of violin and piano music by Schoenberg, as well as music by Schoenberg's American pupils. It's an interesting concept - and we're now "in conversation" about bringing him in to perform in next season's "New Music Salon" series presented by the American Composers Forum. Hopefully we can make the dates work out!

WMV's next concert is coming up on March 19th at the Atlas, click here for more info.

Will Scruggs, featuring Charles Phaneuf

at Twins, 2/18/2006

Will Scruggs is a sax player from Atlanta. He was in town, playing with a group of local musicians, including my friend Charles. I met Charles because he's helping out with the upcoming Capital Fringe Festival. This was the first time I got to hear him play. Turns out Will is an old buddy of his.

Scruggs has a really nice sound - on tenor, alto, and soprano. No easy feat. His tenor sound has the smoky, full bodied goodness of someone like Joe Henderson. His alto playing had the lightness and agility of someone more like Michael Brecker. I'm not suggesting his playing is quite what those guys do... but he's got a wide ranging set of skills (and he can sing pretty well too).

Unfortunately, this was an ad-hoc group playing mostly standards - pretty straight ahead. My personal preference is for something a little more out-there, but they were good. Most of the solos of the evening were really clear and logically structured. I appreciate that kind of composing, but I also want something a little more visceral. The pianist especially - he has a fondness for circular little sequential patterns, and uses them quite creatively, but it struck me as kind of cold (although technically very solid).


Scruggs, on the other hand, pulled off a few Jimmy Smith like tricks - sitting on a single trill or ornament for a really really long time and making it sound powerful. That wasn't something he did often, which helped make it work.

I was impressed - and I think he's a promising talent. I hope he has the chance to stretch out some more, and play some more original music. The one original that was included in the set I heard was good (but still very straight-forward). Certainly someone to keep an eye on.

Great Noise Ensemble

at the Charles Sumner School, 2/17/2006

A new, local, chamber group dedicated to contemporary repertoire? Am I dreaming? No. It turns out this town has enough classically trained performers who have a collective screw loose to form a unique little chamber orchestra of sorts.

The program featured some nice tasty morsels: Steve Reich's "Clapping Music," Adam Silverman's "In Another Man's Skin," a chamber concerto in progress by Blair Goins, "Tango Variations" by one of the founding members of the group (and conductor), Armando Bayolo, and a goofy setting of "The Walrus and the Carpenter" by Tom Schnauber.

Full disclosure: I'm working with the group to figure out how they might function as an "ensemble in residence" for the ACF Chapter, so I'm a little biased.

The room at the Sumner School is fairly dry sounding, which made it difficult to achieve a nice ensemble sound, I'm not sure if that was made worse by the fact that this is only their second (I think?) performance. But overall, this was a promising evening and I'm looking forward to their upcoming concerts: next one in DC is May 12 at the Sitar Center - presented by ACF.

Mary Timony, The Aquarium, Picture is Dead

at Black Cat, 2/9/2006

The Picture is Dead sucked. I want to do this briefly, so as not to waste bandwidth or time - they don't deserve either. They violated both cardinal rules of being an opening band:
1. Don't Suck (more about that in a moment)
2. Don't play too long (they plodded through an interminable 8 songs)

Wow did they suck. We knew we were in trouble when they took the stage in "costume" of white lab coats... two synth players, one violin/guitar player, and vocalist. Plus one other lab-coated "video artist" who played DVD tracks of slideshows related to each song in terribly obvious ways. Imagine if you will, Devo - with no sense of humor and no drums. Or maybe one of those old Brian Eno albums with all the interesting qualities removed, so all you're left with is electronic "experimentation" and bad vocals. Watching their set was like watching a train wreck. They were so blissfully unaware of their suckitude it was like watching American Idol or something...

The Aquarium was ok. Their performances are kind of charming, with Jason Hutto flopping around like a muppet and Laura Harris rocking out on the drums. Unfortunately, Jason really can't sing. Seems like they are a successful local band more because of hipster credentials than quality rockin', but they're still kinda fun. And the projected old-timey science class films were amusing as well.

Maybe it was because it was so late by the time Mary Timony took the stage, or maybe I was just tired after going out to shows too many nights this week, but I didn't stay for her whole set. Her vocals were pretty sloppy - she actually can sing, but was choosing not to sing very carefully, it seems... Devin Ocampo is a great drummer and he delivered the perfect mix of ferocity and accuracy (two of my favorite qualities in a drummer). I guess it was my own fatigue, but I felt like I'd rather have been listening to Ex Hex at home then hearing it sloppified in an overcrowded club. That being said, Mary Timony still rocked and was pretty good.

Feist and Jason Collett

at Black Cat, 2/8/2006

Hooray! There's a decent review of the show at DCist, so that saves me some time...

They missed Jason Collett's set, so I'll add a bit about that:
He's a good singer (kind of a mix of Dylan, back when he could sing, and M.Ward with a few less marbles in the mouth). His band was quite good, and I suspect his new record is pretty solid although I haven't heard it yet. The style seemed to me like alt-country / indie rock, but more on the alt-country side. He'd make a perfect opening act for Lucinda Williams. During the last song, he un-ironically invoked The Boss, quoting the refrain of "Prove it All Night" in the midst of his own song. Curious. At several points, he took advantage of the Broken Social Scene "guitar orchestra" effect (five people on stage playing guitars, playing pretty much the same thing) - which created a nice wall-of-sound sorta thing. The poor man's alt-country Glenn Branca perhaps.

Note to extremely tall latecomers who weren't even interested in the show: please don't stand in front of me, or Cameron. It should be self-evident, but she's kinda small and can't see past you! And niether can I.

Cutest Puppy in the World, Insect Factory, Big Cats

at Black Cat, 2/5/2006

Big Cats played a very short set, hard to say much about it, other than I don't think I "got" it... maybe with a little more time I would've caught on, or things might have jelled a bit? Sean Peoples is such a driving force in the local indie/experimental/post-punk scene that I'm reluctant to post negative things about his work, since I wholeheartedly endorse what he's doing. So let's give 'em the benefit of the doubt and just leave it at "I was confused by their set."

Insect Factory was a pleasant surprise... they performed as a guitar/drum duo. Nice guitar textures and some good interaction between them. At times I wished the drummer either played much less, or much more intensely, instead of somewhere in the middle - but their set was promising (also really short).

Cutest Puppy seemed to have some troubles. Lots of feedback, and it looked like Layne was having a hard time with his microphone? Overall, not their best work - I think.

Ethnic Heritage Ensemble

at Sangha, 2/4/2006

The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, led by drummer Kahil El'Zabar, has performed in DC every February for the last five years. What a treat. I've been there for the last three and hope to be there for the next ones too...

I won't try to describe what happened, I'm sure I couldn't really give a sense for what this music does. But I will tell you my overall impression: yes... Yes... an overwhelming, life-affirming YES. This broken world is heading the right direction if four humans can join together and do what these folks did.

This show differed a bit from the last two performances of theirs that I heard. Things were more funk-driven, but that's maybe not the best term. The addition of trumpeter Corey Wilkes pushed the group towards the funk universe. He's an outrageous show-off, but that's not a criticism - given what he can do with a horn (or two, even) it's really something hearing him show off. I almost lost my girlfriend, but ultimately she decided he's not really her type... Anyway, he's got incredible chops (and be careful if you go hear him on a date)

The group was touring with a "special guest," guitarist Fareed Haque. I have one album of theirs which he's featured on, so I had high expectations going in... expectations which were met, exceeded, blown to pieces and shot out to the city limits. So this guy has incredible technique, but that's not ultimately what's special about his playing. He's got IDEAS. Beautiful, wonderful, from all over the world ideas.

And, as usual, Ernest Khabeer Dawkins gave several lessons / sermons on alto and tenor sax as well as accompanying other soloists with a variety of small percussion instruments (and on once occasion, accompanying Corey Wilkes' solo with two saxes at the same time).

And then there's Kahil El'Zabar... A true master musician and all around inspiring performer. I hope you have a chance to hear him (and this group) play live at some point. Don't miss it.

Pup Tent and The Beatings

at Black Cat, 2/2/2006

Pup Tent rocked. I'm not exactly impartial since the drummer is also the drummer in DC Improvisers Collective... but I think it's clear that the rhythm section is solid. I'd call them "garage rock" - although I'm no expert on what means, exactly. The majority of their material is tight songs, but they also took the opportunity for a few longer improvised excursions. Sort of garage rock via the Grateful Dead? Phil's vocals seemed problematic, though.

The Beatings, well, let's just say they're not my thing. Cameron and I left after 2 1/2 songs.

Dave Holland

at Birdland (NYC), January 22

Since this wasn't a "D.C." show I'll keep it short... just don't want to forget it! Cameron and I heard a gorgeous set of standards reinterpreted by Dave Holland and Steve Nelson (vibraphone). This was the final night of a week-long Dave Holland "festival" at Birdland that also featured his big band and quintet.

I was up in New York for the annual conference of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, and Cameron went up to meet with the production director for New York's Fringe. We had the best seat in the house right up front. Concert was amazing, lived up to high expectations. The duo texture necessitated thoughtful reductions at every turn - no piano and no drums meant these two had lots of work to do to keep the tunes clear and the rhythm swinging. They made it look easy.

There was the obligatory jazz club applause after every solo -- and these were remarkable solos. However, after one particularly thorny vibraphone solo which was done mostly with chords rather than a single melodic line, there wasn't applause - which seemed crazy to me since Mr. Nelson had just navigated the most outrageous trip through some otherworldly harmonic substitutions and I really couldn't believe it. Strange that this particular effort - which sounded like the most astonishing solo of the night to me, was not properly acknowledged. Wacky. Anyway, it was a real treat to hear them (and even worth the super high prices).