2nd Century Savage

A lot of you missed a really good show tonight at the final concert of the July concert series Jazz: The Second Century at the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford. It turned out not to be as hot as it was last night. There was a cool breeze drafting in the windows as the Good Shepherd Center sits on top of a hill and the space is on the 4th floor with a view of the sun setting over the Olympics.
The duo put on an interesting program mixing live instruments with electronic. I recommend checking them out the next time.

2nd Century Savage is saxophonist, flutist, and composer John C. Savage with electronica artist, vusac (aka Isaac Peachin). Their mission, they say, is to expand the definition of jazz to include electronic instruments and live production techniques in tandem with contemporary jazz improvisation. The results are haunting, transporting, and strikingly novel. Their performances give the impression of swirling planes of sound, some melodic and familiar, some protean and mysterious, folding through untold dimensions of space and the mind.

They say: “Although we are a duo, we have the potential to suspend a single note in space, or to summon the power of an orchestral wall of sound. We achieve this dynamic range with interactive software sampling, effect processors, and virtuosic instrumental technique.”
Vusac, who arrived in Seattle recently from Brooklyn, was a founding member of the electro-rock combo Lution where he developed a transporting style of acoustic collage locked down by drum-and-bass grooves. He pulled material from TV and online media and created a trance-inducing sense of collective unconscious.

John C. Savage has won high praise for his performances from his performances from such publications as Down Beat, which called his flue sound “yearning”; The Guardian (UK), which praised his “exquisite” soloing; and Willamette Week (Portland), which called him “an extremely thoughtful and rigorous improviser” and “a badass, knock-down-drag-out force.” A PhD candidate in flute performance and improvisation at New York University who also teaches at Western Oregon University, Savage collaborates often with musicians, poets, dancers, painters, and technologists. He has performed and recorded with the late, great jazz pianist, Andrew Hill, and with the Kitsune Ensemble, his duo Cartridge with Will Redmond (aka BlipVert), Groove Revelation, The Savage 3, and poet Claudia F. Manz.

More photos to come in a day or two.

July 30, 2009 | Categories: new music | Tags: jazz photography, seattle photographer | Leave a comment