The Beats Go On

HATS: If the name Carla Kihlstedt isn’t as well-known as it should be, you can’t fault her for not trying. The fluidly adventurous and genre-goosing Bay Area violinist has actually been sneaking around the back rooms and brain zones of the general public for a while now. She has played with Tom Waits and Mr. Bungle and has been the beguiling violin (and vocal) presence in the atmosphere-generating group Tin Hat Trio, which recently changed its name to just Tin Hat, to allow others into the club. Check out last year’s beauteous and somehow onomatopoeically titled The Sad Machinery of Spring (Hannibal) for a taste of Tin Hat’s cool brew.

But wait, there’s more: Kihlstedt has also been involved in tougher, more experimental provocations from the edge, in the projects Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, 2 Foot Yard, and a project with guitarist Fred Frith. We can assume Kihlstedt will be bringing out more of those hats when she performs a solo show at Contemporary Arts Forum this Friday and Saturday. The appearance is brought to you by Iridian Arts’ Strike series, designed to fall between the cracks of new exhibitions at CAF. This should be a hot, strange, and seductive evening.

DRUMS ALONG THE JAZZ PULSE: Some of us have a hard time getting our heads around the idea of Roy Haynes, 82, as a senior statesman in his musical world. Numbers tell us one thing; the vitality and subtlety of his playing tell us another. Or maybe he’s just living proof of jazz as a longevity enabler, and an argument against the fallacy of our ageist preconceptions regarding who should sound like what at this or that age.