I attended only the preceding evening, where ROVA plus Yoshihide, Ikue Mori,
and nels Cline performed Lacy's Saxophone Special.
I thoroughly enjoyed the concert. Not sure I can provide a helpful review...
To my ears success was aided by the instrumental balance of 4 saxes against
three non-saxophonists. Each non-saxophonist had their own distinct sonic
palette. The audio balance in the room was excellent, thanks to sound-guy
myles boisen and a thorough pre-show sound check.
The Lacy themes were a joy to (re)hear.....ROVA's interaction with
themselves and the guests was spirited and almost never tentative. ROVA and
the others used their longstanding set of handsignals to nudge the
proceedings along. Yoshihide was using early ROVA albums in some of his
turntable maneuvers.....nels enlisted his full-blown arsenal from toys to
old delay boxes and fuzz...I think Mori was running her drumsamples through
max/msp on a laptop (as was recently discussed here).
I liked the constant noisiness, the constant high-density of activity, with
only a few brief moments of "calm". The continual reoccurrence of Steve
Lacy's melodies took it from pretty damn good to almost exquisite.
(superlatives for otomo and nels are redundant but......man!!)
ROVA opened the evening with two saxophone 4tet pieces from the late
seventies.
I heard from others that on the following evening, for Ascension, Frith
played bass.
--G. Connah
> From: "Arthur Gadney" <a_gadney(a)hotmail.com>
> Hey!
>
> Did anyone go to the ROVA concert with Otomo Yoshihide, Fred Frith and
> others playing John Coltrane?? I'd love to hear a review! That ought to be a
> killer show. Lets hope they release a live CD.
>
> Thanks!
