La Sonora Clandestina is Paolo, a non-binary Bolivian-Mexican. LSC is the clandestine sound. Songs that wander and make you wonder. (PayPal: dreamdiverdiscos@gmail.com)

Sonic translations of desire to find peace in an unrelenting society of overprivileged prideful dolts. This music is a facet of returning and readjusting to Amerika during a pandemic and the nation’s decay of acquiesced subservience. Aural and societal growth.

(photo: Silvia Martinez)

With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Music Series moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of previously unreleased material.

Originally scheduled for March 2020, the 35th annual Seattle Improvised Music Festival rises from the ashes of COVID-19 in the form of two streaming video programs on September 27 and October 4.

STREAM TONIGHT’S CONCERT HERE AT 5 PM PACIFIC TIME!

This first night is presented as part of Baltimore’s venerable High Zero Festival (Sept. 24 – 27), with each program co-curated by a presenter in a different city: Elastic Arts (Chicago, 9/24), High Mayhem (Santa Fe, 9/25), High Zero (Baltimore, 9/26), and SIMF (9/27).

SIMF curators Haley Freedlund, Chris Icasiano, and Steve Peters  have invited four esteemed visiting artists – clarinetist Ben Goldberg (Berkeley), New York saxophonists Joe McPhee and Sam Newsome, pianist Dana Reason (Corvallis) – to perform featured solo sets, and a small but mighty sampling of Seattle artists representing several generations and a wide range of musical activity.

Presented by Nonsequitur, with generous assistance from 4Culture and the Raynier Institute & Foundation. We are especially grateful to the Royal Room for providing a venue in which to record our video programs.

Soloists:
Allison Clendaniel, voice (Baltimore)
Marina Albero, piano (Seattle)

Ensemble:
Jim Knodle, trumpet
Casey Adams, percussion
Heather Bentley, viola
Evan Woodle, drums
Jenny Ziefel, clarinets

Video + Sound:
Dana Reason, piano (Corvallis)
Melody Owen, video (Portland/Sydney)

Ted Poor is a New York-born, Seattle-based drummer whose adventurous, soulful playing has vaulted him to the stages of some of today’s most vital artists. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Ted has toured and recorded with such renowned artists as Paul Simon, Bill Frisell, Andrew Bird, Pat Metheny, Blake Mills, Madison Cunningham, and performed in the house band of the NPR radio show Live From Here with Chris Thile. Ted is an Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. His debut album on Impulse! (Verve/UMG), “You Already Know,” was released on February 28th, 2020 to critical acclaim.

Trumpeter/composer Cuong Vu is an internationally acclaimed artist, recognized by jazz critics as an original voice and innovator with his work with the Cuong Vu Trio. Collaborative works include projects/recordings with a wide range of artists such as Bill Frisell, Myra Melford, David Bowie, and Pat Metheny (on recordings that earned Cuong two Grammys). He is currently professor and head of jazz studies at the University of Washington.

In this concert, Cuong Vu and Ted Poor draw on 18 years of music together to weave a compelling set of music interlaced with brand new compositions and unique improvisations. Melody and groove are at the forefront of the sound, with Ted simultaneously adding ethereal synth chords and bass notes to round out the songs. Having performed countless concerts around the world, the duo sets up in the familiar, airy Chapel at the Good Shepherd Center to further expand their ongoing musical narrative.

(photo: Zephyr Visuals)

With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Music Series moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of previously unreleased material.

Jenny Ziefel is a Seattle-based clarinetist and saxophonist with diverse performing interests. Her activities range from orchestra, ballet, and pit orchestra to jazz, free improvisation, new music, and chamber orchestra. She has performed regularly with Lake Washington Symphony Orchestra (Bellevue Philharmonic), Spiritus Winds, Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra, Blackwood and Silver, Neum (with Jesse Canterbury and Paul Hoskin), and other Seattle area ensembles.

This piece was inspired by the events of 2020 and the passing of William O. (Bill) Smith and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In a time of great upheaval, there are moments of grace, of action, of reflection, and of unraveling. Each of these pieces is a reflection of these shifting frames of perception.

(00:00) In Memoriam (for Bill Smith and Ruth Bader Ginsberg)
(12:27) Uncertainty and New Realities
(19:10) Clarion Call
(24:15) Prayer and Hope for the Future

With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Music Series moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of previously unreleased material.

Solvej Noa, aka Amelia Love Clearheart: A freed being. Fluent in the language of pain. Relaying reparative vibrations, familial tones and tunes. Love-seed sower, self owned, following the moon. (pronounced Soul-vigh)

Purveying timeless, channeled Soul Family singalongs, utilizing vocal looping & layering. Rhythm and rhyme as remedy. Both stumbling, and bounding steadily into ever deeper surrender to the mystery of creation.

With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Music Series moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of previously unreleased material.

Dave Knott – gathers, plays with sounds; nurtures change with music; enjoys dialogue with movement, listening and dreaming. Further listening on BandCamp and SoundCloud.

Requia

memory’s tempering improvisations
playing with the dead
who have all dispersed in wonder
as loss is lifted
off a Fahey record from 1967

With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Music Series moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of previously unreleased material.

Nat Evans is a composer and artist based in Seattle. His work is regularly presented across the United States, and has also been presented in Europe, South America, Australia and China. Evans has received numerous commissions including The Henry, Odeon Quartet, San Francisco MOMA, Seattle Art Museum, The City of Tomorrow, Portland Cello Project, ALL RISE, The Box Is Empty, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art, among others. Works and events by Evans have been featured on WNYC’s New Sounds and BBC3, as well as in LA Weekly, WIRED, The New York Times, VICE, Tiny Mix Tapes, The Believer and numerous other publications. His work has appeared at galleries such as Interstitial, SOIL, The Frye Art Museum, Greg Kucera, as well as Mediate Art Soundwave Biennial, Aqua Art Miami, NEPO 5k, and other festivals.

Still Just Sitting Out Back is born from having an unusually large amount of time to be still and just sit in meditation during the pandemic of 2020. I started to feel like my own breathing is a sort of tone resonating inside myself, but also a universal tone we are all experiencing, even if we aren’t always aware of our own breath. Our own breathing is simply the manifestation of the universe, just as the universe is simply the manifestation of our breathing. Per Dogen, “green mountains are always walking.”

Elise Blatchford – flute, Evan Smith – bass clarinet, Nat Evans – field recording, shruti box

With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Music Series moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of previously unreleased material.

Neal Kosaly-Meyer is a composer and performer living in Seattle. He continues work on Gradus and hopes to present in-person performances again before too long. He is also memorizing and performing chapters of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, and has presented a new chapter annually at the Chapel since 2014. During lockdown he has been performing chapters on Facebook, and will perform three more between September and December. He is a founding member, with Keith Eisenbrey and Aaron Keyt, of Banned Rehearsal, an ongoing argument in creative expression. He and Karen Eisenbrey record and perform as the rock group Your Mother Should Know.

Gradus: for Fux, Tesla, and Milo the Wrestler – Three Rungs

The concise version of the score is “learn to play the piano one note at a time.” Since 2002, Neal Kosaly-Meyer has been devoting extended improvisation sessions to each single pitch on the piano, and then to systematically selected combinations of those pitches. So far he has worked through the A’s, E’s, C#’s, G’s and B’s, and is about halfway through the D’s. In performance three “rungs” are selected, one dedicated to a single pitch, one to two pitches, and one to three or more pitches (in the present case, ten pitches were chosen for the final section). Silence, in John Cage’s understanding, is always full of sounds, and is always an integral part of Gradus, and of equal importance with the notes played on the piano. At the session for this performance Julie Cascioppo had walked through the Chapel, unaware that a recording was in progress. Special thanks to Julie and her cat Baci for their contributions, along with the birds, dogs, outdoor musicians, sirens, planes, traffic and wind which are all very much a part of this music.

With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Music Series moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of previously unreleased material.

Blessed Blood is the project of Seattle vocalist Rachel LeBlanc. After years fronting experimental and punk projects, she desired an outlet that would showcase the ethereal side of her talents, discovering the utilization of hardware effects to process choral melodies. Lyrically, LeBlanc draws from dark wells of emotion, exploring topics like death on her self-titled first release. Her vocal phrasings have been described as “geometric” and “antediluvian spell-casting” with Tiny Mix Tapes declaring, “Blessed Blood is truly angelic work, which is why it is so frightening.” 

For her submission to the Wayward in Limbo series, Blessed Blood shares contemplations regarding the pursuit of Life’s meaning, along with lamentations for dreams lost. Inspired by the common threads of traditional music around the world, strong vocal leads are processed with guitar pedals and electronic modules, creating textures and noise breaks between stark minimalism.

“I’m thrilled to be included in this esteemed roster, especially as my best performances have happened at the beloved Chapel Performance Space.”

(00:00) Intention Setting
(04:52) speaking
(07:10) Folly, pt. 1
(08:37) Folly, pt. 2
(14:17) Folly, pt. 3
(24:00) speaking
(27:08) Nothing Knows Me
(29:00) Liquid Bodies

With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Music Series moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of previously unreleased material.

Remorselessly speculative composer/pianist/improvisor Keith Eisenbrey is a native of the Puget Sound area. He studied composition with Dell Wade, Ken Benshoof, John Rahn, and Benjamin Boretz. He is a cofounder of Banned Rehearsal, an ongoing argument in creative musical expression with over 1000 recorded improvisation sessions in the main sequence. His compositions center on solo keyboard, sacred song, and small ensembles. His listening journal is Now Music in New Albion.

16 Clavichord Improvisations, August 2020

The clavichord is a stringed keyboard instrument, dating back some 600 years. It is known for its quiet intimacy and sensitive touch and is possessed of a huge dynamic range that tops out at a thunderous mezzo piano. Since it doesn’t project effectively in any but the smallest spaces I thought it a perfect choice for these our so sadly secluded days. I am playing a 5-octave double-strung unfretted Zuckermann instrument that my dad and I built from a kit in 1984-5. The 16 improvisations shared here were made on August 16 and 22 of this year. Where one ends and the next begins is not crucial.

With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Music Series moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of previously unreleased material.