ON the Beat | On the Plugged/Unplugged Trail

Jlin + Third Coast Percussion | Photo: Courtesy

In some circles, the worlds of digital music creation and the old-fashioned methodology — of hitting, plucking, bowing, and otherwise producing sound from physical instruments in real time — occupy their own separate orbits. But the twain can meet, and with artistically fruitful results, as heard at Campbell Hall last week. In this special case, a show hosted by UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L), the skilled percussionist adventurers in the Chicagoan Third Coast Percussion (TCP) crossed paths with inspired minimalist electronician Jlin (born Jerrilynn Patton).

Campbell Hall was duly transformed into an entrancing groove house, an artsy party zone. This was a special occasion for the performers and audience alike, a kind of warm-up and preview for both a recording project and a future official tour.

If there remains any question that groove music and minimalism are or aren’t joined at the hip, this concert settled the debate. Aside from its predominant focus on music composed by Jlin — performed with and without her as performer in the mix — the program also pivoted towards a connection to minimalist superstar Philip Glass, a friend and sometime collaborator with these musicians.

It is a soft pivot, as heard on the Jlin/Glass piece “Precision of Infinity” and Peter Martin’s arrangement of music from the Glass score for Paul Schrader’s film Mishima.

Things took a different, fascinating, and much less pulse-driven direction with the world premiere of David Longstreth’s Butterfly Dancing Over a Barrel, arranged by TCP. In this inviting new music by Longstreth (leader of the Dirty Projectors), the multi-sectioned score morphs into varying moods and densities, shifting from a gently cascading tone into hard-edged terrain, a mallet mash, and a soft fade into the moonset to close.

The upshot: Plugged and unplugged sound sources got along famously.

TV or not TV

Chinwag with Heather Grosch, Meredith McMinn, and Alaina Dean| Photo: Courtesy

In the subculture of self-referential artworks, we’ve grown accustomed to the face of films about film, songs about songs, writings about writing — and the list goes on. So why not add “public access about public access?”

That is the implicit ontological question posed by polymath David Starkey, a novelist, poet, book critic (regular contributor to the Independent), musician, and, yes, veteran TVSB Public Access host of Creative Community. He taps into two of those résumé elements with the intriguing new play called Chinwag, about a public access show in the 1970s and the mayhem which ensues therein, presented in the belly of the beast — the very TV Santa Barbara studio where Starkey does his show-hosting business.

From the outset, the fourth wall was busted open — sort of — as our anti-hero Russ O’Sullivan (Matt Tavianini, in a sharp, shady performance) introduced himself to audience members. He approached me with a fat showbiz grin and asked, “Are you from Santa Teresa?” (the play’s surrogate for Santa Barbara). “We’ll have to have you on the show!”

In his queasy green leisure suit and oily, swaggering manner, O’Sullivan is put in an extra-hot seat when his guest Dorothy (Meredith McMinn, whose performance is properly arch) turns out to be a quasi-militant feminist foe. When he mentions warming up to the coming bicentennial, she retorts, “200 years of men subjugating women.” She ends up negotiating a hostage situation in the studio, during which the young accomplice, Cindy (Heather Grosch), arrives and aids in the shakedown. Alas, there is more to the backdrop of the story and a twist of presumed heroism — reminiscent of the switch-up in the film Bugonia. Who is the crazy and/or culpable one here? Only the TVSB audience knows, for sure.

‘70s kitsch slips into the play’s mix, including bubbly disco moments. For local winks, footage on the monitor, and updates on the eventual fates of the characters decades hence, we see local hero (literally) John Palminteri in his smiling, tall form as a cardboard cutout in the scenes.

Starkey has pulled off something special with his project, logically presented under the aegis of “site-specific theater.” Art imitates and irritates life and circles back to art.

TO-DOINGS:

It’s always a ripe and right time to catch the distinctive singer-songwriter-vibe-maker Madeleine Peyroux, who returns to the Lobero Theatre on Tuesday, March 3. Her folk-jazz and inherently Billie Holiday–esque palette is unique on the music scene, whose 1996 album Dreamland went widely public and elevated her from her original busking days.

Speaking of milestones, her current tour goes by the title of the “WE ARE AMERICA Tour: American Songs That Give Us Hope,” celebrating the 10th anniversary of her album Secular Hymns. Joining her are bassist Barak Mori and the remarkably tasty guitarist Jon Herington, who we just heard with Boz Scaggs at the Granada last year and several times with one of his long-standing gigs, Steely Dan. He invariably plays the right thing.

A&L is hitting its winter/spring stride with shows you want to check out, including last week’s Jlin/Third Coast Percussion outing and the remarkable solo cello performance by the eminent and affable Yo-Yo Ma at the Granada on Sunday (review in the works). On Sunday night, the style radar turns to Celtic and Cape Breton fiddle-fueled likes of Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy and the Celtic All-Stars.

Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy | Credit: Courtesy

Tonight, Februaury 26, at Campbell Hall, don’t forget to bring your New Orleans party garb to catch Jon (see artsandlectures.ucsb.edu).

The Santa Ynez Valley Concert Series continues its current season of great excuses to go out and (for downtowners) over the 154 hill to hear refined classical music in the clement setting of Los Olivos’ St. Mark’s in the Valley Church. Coming to the space on Sunday, March 1, is “An Afternoon of Soaring Songs,” featuring tenor Giorgi Guliashvili and pianist Carrie-Ann Matheson, who happen to be alumni from the Music Academy of the West. On tap are songs by Verdi, Puccini, Liszt, Donizetti, Leoncavallo, and more.

A rare keeper of the contemporary music flame in the 805, UCSB’s Ensemble for Contemporary Music (ECM), settles into Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall on Wednesday, March 4. The current director is Jonathan Moerschel, violist in the respected Calder Quartet. The program reportedly includes music by Eleanor Alberga, Daníel Bjarnason, Philip Glass, Thomas Kotcheff, Jessie Montgomery, and Caroline Shaw.

New Orleans–ian jazz saxophonist and educator Derek Douget has been a regular visitor to Santa Barbara, landing in residencies sponsored by the Lobero Theatre and disseminating his education and message to schools in the area. Douget and band are the centerpiece of a community-welcoming jam session night at SOhO on Monday, March 1.