Solo piano excursions at the Firehouse are always a treat. The artist is the main attraction, but the Firehouse house piano adds to the wonder. I have lovingly described this behemoth many times, and will take this opportunity to try again. Spanning a city block, this monstrous beauty looks like a 1970s Cadillac complete with tasteful spotless whitewalls. On this evening the hood was propped, allowing Sanchez access to install capos or clamps to modify the sound output. “Prepared” piano prompts panic palpitations in some listeners. Messing with the piano’s mallets or strings takes some musicians to the absurdist dark side of the avant garde. I still remember some would-be plinker dropping fruit on the strings for some cacadadaphonous effect. Sanchez stayed closer to the true sound which was refreshing. Soft-spoken, diminutive, Spanish, and about five months pregnant added to the allure. Marta said the evening’s compositions were pulled from her recent recording “For the Space You Left”. Her accent made it difficult to understand, but the gist of the record focused on two periods of isolation. One was the COVID pandemic which evokes a certain level of dread and uncertainty. The other was a retreat of choice where Sanchez traveled to a remote Spanish cabin to unplug and commune with nature. The music was beautiful and careened toward chamber offerings. Before each tune, Marta would climb under the hood and install the preparations. The clamps made a focused metallic wheeze for a few locations among the 88. The songs beautifully danced around these locations offering percussive glitches in her gorgeous runs. The visual of this tiny pregnant Spaniard under the hood was memorable. One can only imagine the in utero experience of that child.
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