Ned Rothenberg's Inner Diaspora 12/11/15 Firehouse 12

Downtown reed-man Rothenberg takes his current group to the Firehouse. Rothenberg played clarinet, bass clarinet, and Japanese skakuhachi flute. Mark Feldman on violin, Erik Friedlander on cello, Jerome Harris on acoustic guitar/bass, and Satoshi Takeishi on percussion.
The second set started with a mournful clarinet-centric tune. I am currently reading "New York Noise", Tamar Barzel's book chronicling John Zorn's radical Jewish music and the downtown scene of Knitting Factory fame. I can' help but relish the thought of Freidlander, Feldman, and Rothenberg as being instrumental ( no pun intended) in this movement of the mid-90s. With masterful command of their instruments, these guys veer from ethnic to avant grade and back. Tight compositions with airy spaces to improvise keep them moving. The textural elements of Takeishi colored and shaded these songs to a sharp delivery. Great end to the winter season.

Dawes w/ Hiss Golden Messenger 12/5/15 College St Music Hall

Opener HGM from North Carolina showed some good songwriting and guitar-centric rock. Lead singer had a Ryan Adams flair (even sported the tight denim jacket). Drums, bass, sax, and keys/slide guitar rounded out the group. Singer had just enough twang for an enjoyable lead-in for Dawes.
 The hall was packed to see Dawes, which seemed to surprise leader and singer Taylor Goldsmith. The crowd had an interesting demographic, mainly young couples aged 20-40. Dawes has a few records with minimal hit recognition but a seemingly fervent following. The plateau where jam, rock, and pop reside is a tiny space with slippery slopes on all sides. Dawes tried to maintain balance on this coveted real estate, but inevitably fell off. Comparisons to Jackson Browne and Counting Crows should have tipped me off. Thankfully they didn't try to recreate the Brown classic "Lawyers in Love" which is one of the tunes I seem to despise most. Tame songwriting and un inspirational musicianship flowed from Dawes. On one tune, the refrain was "I'll take some mashed potatoes and some chicken wings cause I'm a little bit of everything", I guess they have as much "everything" as a KFC value meal.

Nik Turner (Hawkwind), Hedersleben, MV and EE 11/24/15 Cafe 9

Opener MV and EE are a guitar psych duo. Matt Valentine played some blistering leads and his female cohort EE played lap rhythm guitar.  The songs meandered and the vocals were Flaming Lipsesque.
Bay Area psych group Hedersleben played a set and stayed on as Nik Turner's band. Guitar, bass, drums, and dueling young female keyboards/vocals had some decent originals. The main female singer donned a Muslim headscarf and took a backseat when Turner took the stage. Between sets, I chatted with Turner about hitch-hiking, our kids (his son just earned a law degree from Cambridge), drugs, traffic, and the kindness of strangers. Hawkwind released the Prog-metal-psych live opus Space Ritual in 1973. With Turner on sax, flute, and vocals Hawkwind owns a special place in the rock continuum. Their concerts were happenings that lasted hours, with light shows, go-go dancers and such. On this evening, Turner was in good form, chugging through old and new material.

Steal Your Funk w/ Charles Neville Pacific Standard Tavern 11/1715

One can gauge the "hippie-ness" of a show by the crowd. In pulling up to the Pacific Standard Tavern on Crown Street, I saw legendary New Haven hippie, Carrot Man entering the venue. Carrot Man, a 60-something, scraggly, gray, carrot suit wearing, grateful dead dancing, all around vegetable propagandist is plugged in to the jam scene. Steal Your Funk is a loose, local Dead/funk amalgam with Jen Durkin on vocals (Deep Banana Blackout fame), and various members of Legion of Jerry as the house band and a revolving case of sit-ins. On this particular evening, Carrot Man was definitely in the right because Charles Neville of The Neville Brothers came to funk. The set list included: The House That Jack Built, Muffin Man tease, Roll Away the Dew, Tippi Toes, a Sly Stone number, Iko Iko, Eyes of the World, and closed with Led Zep's Talk About Love. With Durkin's Joplinesque delivery (Janis, not Scott), and Neville on sax and vocals, this was more than local funketeers out for a stroll. Considering Neville is legitimate co-progenitor of Iko, this evening dripped with genuine Nawlins funk.

John Zorn's Simulacrum 11/14/15 Firehouse 12

The listing for Zorn at the Firehouse made me circle the date at the beginning of the season. Knowing that music is usually on Friday nights, I circled the wrong date, which made me show up on Friday for what was actually a Saturday show. I have followed Zorn's career from way back. The Albert Collins spoken word piece on Spillane, the obsession with Morricone and soundtracks, the bowing at the altar of Ornette on Spy vs. Spy, the many downtown incestual incarnations of Masada, the far reaching tentacles of his Tzadik label, but it was the metal-punk-jazz of the Naked City release that came to mind on this evening. Zorn has taken the composer or puppeteer stance for these happenings, giving up his Albert Ayler free jazz sax blowouts for behind the scenes architect of sound. The group was a trio: Matt Hollenberg on electric guitar, Kenny Grohowski on drums, and the venerable John Medeski on organ. Hollenberg careened through metal riffs that had one audience member assuming the headbang throb that rarely appears at the Firehouse. Grohowski, who I saw at the kit a few weeks back, appeared different. The drummer looked like Charles Manson, and played with frenetic abandon that drove the start/stop nature of this music. The back was off Medeski's organ laying bare a tangle of wires and amps that looked like an un-defusable car bomb. The music was jagged and assaulting. Some uninitiated squirmed and snuck out, I don't blame them, Zorn's output is so varied that it can take many forms. From the punk growl of  Faith No More's Mike Patton to the breezy cello of Erik Friedlander John Zorn is truly a jazz renaissance man. The prolific output makes it impossible to follow him completely, but his footprint is all over the Jazz world. An enjoyable set and the ability to shake the hand and thank one of my heroes......wow.

Mates of State w/ Alex Bleeker and the Freaks 11/11/15 Bar

Opening act Alex Bleeker and the Freaks had a serious case of the west coast 70s vibe. Two guitars, bass, drums and organ put out a full sound. Sounding a bit like Blitzen Trapper crossed with America,   AB and the F had some chops even stretching out a long blues tune. Good harmony vocals could have pulled off a cover of Horse With No Name.
Local duo Mates of State was sharpening their songs for a date later this month at Cafe 9. Pure pop and solid guy girl harmony vocals are their weapon of choice. Guy on drums and girl on keys with some help from Pencilgrass trumpet player made for an enjoyable set. Bar was packed with this popular local band's followers.

Refuse The Hour 11/7/15 William Kentridge Yale Drama School

Billed as an "experimental opera" by South African multimedia artist Kentridge, this was truly a sight to behold. Refuse The Hour was truly multimedia experience. Instead of trying to explain the opera, it might work better to list my observations.
1) A drum set suspended upside down from the ceiling, plays a computer controlled percussion sequence.
2) Narrator Kentridge tells the story of his father telling the story of Perseus inadvertently killing his grandfather.
3) African dancers with megaphones perform in front of super sized metronomes.
4) "Band" consisting of trumpet, trombone, tuba, and violin (which was made from a bicycle seat hooked to a mini-megaphone) accompanies the opera.
5) Opera singer in the balcony sings aria while singer on stage copies by singing same sequence backward.
6) Kentridge speaks on images traveling at the speed of light and that visions of his youth may just be passing Saturn by now.
I' m sure that I am missing or misconstruing some or all of the events in Refuse the Hour, but this Kentridge production was thoroughly enjoyable. With equal parts Laurie Anderson, Rube Goldberg, Alvin Ailey, Samuel Beckett,Audra Macdonald, and Carl Sagan....Refuse the Hour was all that.