Dennis Rea & Stuart Dempster: Tanabata

This date marks the only 07-07-07 convergence in 100 years as well as the observance of Tanabata (“Seven Evenings”), an Asian festival celebrating the annual meeting of the celestial lovers Altair and Vega. It is also the birthday of Seattle creative musicians, guitarist Dennis Rea and trombonist/’Sound Gatherer’ Stuart Dempster. To celebrate the occasion, Dennis and Stuart have invited a number of musical friends to join them in an intimate, wide-ranging concert featuring acoustic and electric improvisations, unusual arrangements of traditional Chinese and Japanese pieces, and invocations of the Tanabata spirits. During the performance, visual artist Suiren (Renko Ishida Dempster) will improvise artwork to accompany the music.