A home for new and unusual music from all corners of the classical genre, brought to you by the power of public media. Second Inversion is a service of Classical KING FM 98.1.
SMQ thinks way outside the box when it comes to percussion – and classical music. Join us for a showcase classical favorites (Bach, Mahler, Ravel), a unique blend of drumming styles from around the world, and modern marimba repertoire from the 20th and 21st centuries. Best of all, YOU will have a chance to learn and perform Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, and African drumming rhythms right along with them! Presented by Second Inversion, KING FM’s project dedicated to rethinking classical music.
SMQ formed in 2007 by members Christian Krehbiel, Chris Lennard, Craig Wende and Brian Yarkosky while earning music degrees at the University of Washington. SMQ strives to engage audiences with their unique blend of drumming styles from around the world, as well as modern marimba repertoire from the 20th and 21st centuries. Much of their current repertoire consists of their original mallet keyboard arrangements with works by such composers as Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Mahler, and Bach. SMQ’s showcase of the diversity of percussion makes for an interesting and entertaining concert experience.
And – SMQ has just released their new album, A Thousand Pictures, which offers a great preview of what you’ll hear live on Saturday, March 11!
The next edition of New Music Happy Hour (co-hosted by Second Inversion & Live Music Project) is TONIGHT, Wednesday, February 22 at 5:30pm at theQueen Anne Beerhall!
Join Seattle’s vibrant community of musicians, music-lovers, and open minds for an evening of casual banter and meaningful dialogue about music and art in Seattle and beyond.
Sign up for alertsfor future happy hour dates and day-before reminders so you won’t miss a beer, er, beat.
Symmetry Series No. 1: Danny Clay & Joseph M. Colombo is the first release of a new series of EPs on Pinna Records, all of which feature pairs of works by two emerging composers from the San Francisco Bay Area. The two works featured on this disc contrast dramatically. Danny Clay’s the first and the last is a warm and intimate journey that implies friendship, while Joseph M. Colombo’s Ouroboros is a fascinating, if emotionally cold, study derived from the mythical image of an autophagous serpent. Both pieces are certainly intriguing on their own, but are also heightened by their contrast with the other.
Clay’s the first and the last is a pleasant exploration of two different kinds of string playing. Written for the Mobius Trio and the Friction Quartet, this piece delves into the commonality and differences that exist between guitar and bowed strings. This music winds through a wide variety of modes of expression, recalling the music of John Luther Adams, Vivaldi (the Winter concerto, in particular), and Sigur Rós. The healthy measure of pop influence combined with strings here also has much in common with some of the music of Matt McBane and Bill Ryan. Despite the widely varying styles here, the first and the last returns to certain material often enough to have a secure structure. By the time the conclusion begins, a calming sense of peace has become the overriding aesthetic. This recording contains expert playing by all involved. Particularly notable is the attention to articulation shown by both the trio and the quartet. The subtle (and sometimes obvious) shifts between articulations make Clay’s music sparkle.
Pinna Records describes Joseph M. Colombo’s Ouroboros as “an immersive study.” That is a particularly apt description for this interesting piece. As the piece begins, a single chromatic line descends through the entire range of the piano. As the initial descending voice exits the low end of the piano, it reappears at the top, and is eventually joined by more lines moving in the same manner at increasing speeds. As more descending voices appear, there seems to be room for additional musical material-which never arrives. It then becomes clear that these descending motions are the only element of this piece; it truly is a study. Despite the awareness that the piece is crafted solely from a single idea, Ouroboros eventually becomes engrossing music as the independent lines, which are quite sterile on their own, create rich and varied sounds through their interactions with the others. This piece is certainly more enjoyable upon a second or third listening.
The stark contrast between these two works would seem to be the reason they were packaged together on the release. It will be interesting to see if the following “Symmetry” EPs in are presented in this arrangement as well. This engaging duo bodes well for future of the series!
Second Inversion presents new and unusual music from all corners of the classical genre… and we mean NEW. Sneak Peek Audio Leak is your chance to stream fresh sounds and brand new music of note with insights from our team and the artists.
Gregg, Chelsea, Raymond, and Carmen. Photo by Andrew Nicholl.
I sang to you and the moonis a brand new release from guitarist and composer Gregg Belisle-Chi, featuring vocalist Chelsea Crabtree, trumpeter Raymond Larsen, and bassist Carmen Rothwell. This quartet is a fusion of two preexisting groups – Gregg and Chelsea as a singer-songwriter duo & Tyrant Lizard, a trio of Gregg, Raymond, and Carmen.
The sonic landscape of this project captures overlapping musical influences from both groups’ past traditions with their hometown musical heroes Bill Frisell and the Fleet Foxes. It also dives gracefully into an interdisciplinary world, melding the poetry of Carl Sandburg. It’s a little bit jazz, a heaping spoonful singer-songwriter, a splash of folk, and seeping with originality, above all.
Second Inversion is thrilled to give you a Sneak Peek Audio Leak of the first track, Between Two Hills, prior to the album’s release on December 21!
You can hear this music live at theirRoyal Room release showon Wednesday, December 21 at 7:30pm (no cover, but all donations go directly to the musicians).
Join us tonight, Tuesday, December 6 at 7:30pm (PST), for a live video stream from Town Hall Seattle featuring composer and violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain with spoken word artist and arts activist Marc Bamuthi Joseph in “Blackbird, Fly,”a concert for voice, body, and strings. Together these two American sons of Haitian immigrants explore themes of family history, folklore, politics, and race, all of it coursing with the rhythm and energy of hip hop.
If you’re in Seattle, we’d love to see you there! Get your tickets here and be sure to hello at the broadcast table in the lobby.
Program Notes by Aaron Grad c/o Town Hall Seattle
Blackbird, Fly is the co-creation of Daniel Bernard Roumain and Marc Bamuthi Joseph, two powerhouse performers who demolish boundaries in their respective art forms. Roumain, otherwise known as DBR, combines his classical training in violin and composition with the energy of hip hop and pop music, whether he is accompanying Lady Gaga on American Idol or presenting a new orchestral piece at Carnegie Hall. Joseph is best known as a spoken word artist and a National Poetry Slam champion, but his career has spanned from acting on Broadway to arts activism in Oakland.
These two men, both born in the United States to Haitian immigrants, have used their personal histories and artistic talents as springboards to examine larger questions about our society’s past, present and future, especially as it relates to Black life in America. After coming together for a number of projects across the country, from the Atlanta Ballet to San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Roumain and Joseph distilled their collaboration into what they describe as “a concert for voice, body and strings,” a label that hardly captures the enormous range and impact of this evening-length duet.
Roumain’s music for Blackbird, Fly is a kaleidoscopic mixture of classical, rock and hip-hop sounds that he creates on several electric violins as well as piano and laptop. When he sends aggressive bow strokes through a heavily saturated distortion pedal, or when he holds the violin across his chest and strums it like a guitar, his sound and technique comes closer to Jimi Hendrix than any concert violinist. Other times he extracts a pure, clean tone from his violin, using subtle sound effects to thicken and amplify his musical gestures into textures that give the impression of an entire string ensemble playing.
Joseph’s words and expressive body movements likewise transcend any one style or narrative thread. Part storytelling, part folklore and part politics, his libretto touches on everything from fatherhood and friendship to mass incarceration and police bias, all infused with the fluid rhythms of hip-hop and spoken word. He introduces an international perspective, with vignettes that recall visits to Haiti, Paris, Tokyo and Senegal. There is also a deep sense of history as he reflects back on figures such as Huey Newton and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Blackbird, Fly is awash in paradox: It is personal but universal; it is high art and pop culture; it is unflinchingly honest and still joyful and optimistic; it is tender and vulnerable and outrageously powerful and virtuosic all at the same time. This is a performance that might generate more questions than answers, but isn’t that exactly what we need today if we hope to understand each other and ourselves?
