Tag: Ars Nova

Barry Altschul’s Swinging Freedom with 3Dom Factor

Drummer Barry Altschul Opens Ars Nova’s winter-spring 2013 season with a storming set at Philadelphia Art Alliance. It’s been a while since I’ve seen drummer Barry Altschul live.  In the 70s and 80s he came through Philadelphia all the time, powering bleeding edge improvisations with the Sam Rivers Trio, The Anthony Braxton Quartet and others. …

Agnes Obel leads Philly Concerts This Week.

Concerts You Should See in Philly This Week LAST WEEK Henry Threadgill performed a nice, if overly cerebral set in the second of Ars Novas AACM series.  He showed you can still be out there and hit a groove.  I just wish he did it more often. Dustin O’Halloran-He fought bar noise, fire engines and…

Instant Joy with The Instant Composers Pool Orchestra.

Instant Composers Orchestra’s Joyful Noise at Christ Church Neighborhood House 4-3-2011. When you’re talking about avant-garde jazz and free improvisation, joy is often left out of the mix.  You get aggression, exuberance, chaos and hushed, meditative space, but rarely is there simple joy.  That is, unless you attended one of the three nights that the…

Heaven is Torn Asunder by The Celestial Septet.

Two storms collided when The Celestial Septet hit the International House stage on February 22. This was a rare meeting between the Rova Saxophone Quartet and the Nels Cline Singers.  They put out a CD last year, The Celestial Septet, but this show, produced by the Ars Nova Workshop, was their first live public performance. …