Clavius Productions presents a rare area performance by groundbreaking violinist LaDonna Smith:
Monday, July 28
Velvet Lounge
915 U St NW WDC
http://www.velvetloungedc.com 202-462-3213
$8, doors at 9pm, 18+
String Trek (improv violin/guitar duo featuring legendary violinist LaDonna Smith!)
Tradition (solo folk-psych from Toronto)
Aaron Martin-Britton Powell-Scott Verrastro Trio (alto-upright bass-percussion free jazz)
String Trek http://www.myspace.com/stringtrek http://www.myspace.com/ladonnaviola http://www.myspace.com/mishafeigin Alabama native violinist/violist LaDonna Smith and Russian-born, now Kentuckian guitarist, Misha Feigin have rustled and ripened into a sympatico of old soul kindreds, thrashing the bushes, vibrating violas, painting portraits from rhythms and words, from out of the deeps of Russian to the southern soil and the homelands of dreams, and longing for the trails that lead to floating bridges and yokel yens. This new collaboration is called STRING TREK.
LaDonna, a mistress of instrumental prowess and trailblazing catalyst for improvised music in the South teams with Misha Feigin, long-time poet, guitarist, musician of many languages, initiated a new collaboration some 8 or so years in the making, and flowing from the stream, launched their 2007 extended tour of Europe.
"Smith's story of musical discovery and adventure led her from the recital rooms in Tuscaloosa to collaboration with Davey Williams in the 1970s to underground surrealist groups to some of the first notable American cross-pollination with vanguard European free improvisers to tours in Soviet-era Russia and a long-running festival in her home base of Birmingham, Alabama. The following interview from the Perfect Sound Forever site does an excellent job at putting Smith's career into context and touches on many highlights, recommend reading it to get an idea of her background, worldview, and body of work" (Rob Cambre)
http://www.furious.com/perfect/ladonnasmith.html http://www.the-improvisor.com/transmuseq/ladonna Born and raised in Moscow, Misha Feigin left behind an established position in the local arts scene highlighted by his four albums on the "Melodia" label, features on major radio and television shows, and national and international tours when he immigrated to the US in 1990.
Since his move to the West, Misha has performed in concerts in 47 US States and around the world in countries such as Canada, England, Scotland, Israel, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, and others. He is a published writer of poetry and prose. His books can been found at
www.mishafeigin.com and his recordings are on Leo Records and Transmuseq.
Remember the old saying from El Kabong, "Have guitar, will travel". That's what STRING TREK loves most.
review from All About Jazz:
Floating Bridges radiates with high energy interplay from the first notes and reveals a musical dynamism of fluid invention and sympathetic creation from the String Trek duo of violist La Donna Smith and guitarist Misha Feigin.
Recorded in June, 2007 at the ??Meeting of Improvisers? in Krakow, Poland, the set opens with the nineteen-minute ??Krakow Concerto.? After the initial shock but superficial comparison to the duo of Smith and guitarist Davey Williams heard live during the 1970s-80s, String Trek comes crisply into focus with its own characteristic sound and approach. This well-recorded live performance captures the duo at a high point of artistic collaboration.
Throughout ??Concerto,? Feigin ranges over his instrument, picking glittering and articulate lines, pulling strings and producing massive rhythmic chords ??- drawing sounds out, at times, both delicate and tough, but constantly inventive and responsive to his musical partner. He doesn't sound like any other free improvising guitarist and has the energy and technique to be the perfect musical foil to the energetic and expressive Smith.
Smith bows clean lines as well as smeared resonances, often joining her voice to that of her unmistakable viola. Neither is the leader, but the two blend into a perfect and satisfying union. ??Concerto? fluidly travels from free invention into the players' shared European folk and Southern blues influences. The melodies that appear seem completely organic and natural with only a hint of cultural exoticism.
?Tribal Reverberation? has both performers vocalizing from z'aum abstractions to extended vocal technique, from folk melodies to rhythmic cadences. A wonderful, but brief, piece of mouth music.
?Klebnikov? is a sober meditation on the transience of life, penned by Velimir Hlebnikov in 1920 and recited here, first in Russian, and then translated by Feigin with pizzicati and chordal accompaniment. The mood continues with ??Die to Live,? picking up first with muscular and virtuosic sequences interleaved with rhapsodic lyricism and then integrating Feigin improvising on his poem, ??The wind blows through space...,? which ends the sequence as a paean to the fleetness of experience. The integration of the reading with the music is so seamless as to avoid comparison to most jazz/poetry collaborations. In all, a beautiful connection to the Russian language exploration of the Futurist years ??- a sensibility shared by both artists -?? and the tenuousness of the art of improvisation.
The concert ends with ??Crossed Currents,? an extended exploration of string color restlessly moving from technique to technique and culminating with an energetic vocal and slide guitar send-off. Ending, Smith announces in her characteristic way, ??That's all folks.? A brief encore of a few seconds, ??Something Reduced? follows.
Smith's early Trans Duo recordings were often marred with mediocre recordings and abbreviated sets. The quality of this release, both in clarity of recording and artistic achievement, makes up for that lack. Together, Smith and Feigin have moved beyond Yokel Yen (Transmuseq, 2004) with an organic rightness to their approach.
Tradition http://www.myspace.com/tradition From all the secret corners of planet Earth, we present Tradition -?? the work of one James Klassen. The bedraggled and lucid conscience of the animal kingdom, Tradition performs songs that are equal parts poetic, complex, sad, wild and full of joy.
Tradition has played shows with Avey Tare & Kria Brekkan, Marissa Nadler, Microphones, Nalle and People, to name a few. He is a wise fixture in the psych/noise/folk/indie shows of Toronto, having shared the stage with bands like Polmo Polpo, The Creeping Nobodies, Wyrd Visions and countless more.
The first self-titled official album Tradition was released by Blocks Recording Club (home to Final Fantasy and others) in 2006. Tradition has a 7" and LP forthcoming in 2008.
What some people have said:
"Klassen makes the most of his limited means, fashioning droning acoustic riffs and subliminal floor-tom stomps into claustrophobic fever-dream phantasmagorias..." -Stuart Berman, Eye Weekly
"While the songs seem benign at first, they snowball into dark, hypnotic drones that are made eerier by Klassen's abstruse lyrics and his slightly slurred singing...Style-wise, Tradition's Blocks debut rests somewhere between the Godz and Young God Records. Heavy credentials but Klassen certainly has something." -Alex Molotkow, Exclaim! Magazine
