On Friday, May 17, 2019 at 8pm, Crying Out Loud will perform all original music at Arts + Literature Laboratory. Crying Out Loud [The Bridge #2.1] features: Dan Bitney (drums, electronics), Rob Frye (woodwinds, electronics), Olivia Scemama (double bass, electric bass), Simon Sieger (trombone, tuba, accordion, piano). Tickets are $15 in advance (https://thebridge.bpt.me), and $20 at the door. Student tickets are $5 off with valid school ID. Advance ticket sales end 1 hour before the show. Doors open at 7:30pm.
Crying Out Loud is a quintet based on improvisation around tiny written compositions acting as pretexts for interaction. Fragments of melody, rhythm or texture form an environment in which all musicians evolve in an interdependent organic manner. According to the sound and intention of the individual, the other musicians adapt in the manner of an ecosystem with premeditated conditions. The keyword of this ensemble is adaptation: adaptation to the context in which the ensemble is playing, adaptation to the unknown as none of the musicians have played with each other before, and adaptation in terms of sound and concept to the particular fragment that is being interpreted. The quintet format is even more interesting as it is asymmetrical and creates an unbalance, whatever happens. Furthermore, the ensemble can act as a regular band, with the bass inside a rhythm section and two horns in the frontline, but everything can be reversed with three horns playing against an electronic section. The reason why fragments are being used as pretexts for improvisation is to bring the attention to the infinite possibilities of structuring improvisation, as well as to the richness of pure sound making for defining form.
Echoes of an upcoming conversation. Simon Sieger: “The name Crying Out Loud is a reflection of the sad times the world is going through and a paraphrase for the anecdote concerning Peter Brötzmann. Upon being asked why he always played so harshly he answered he couldn’t do otherwise when the world was going such a sad direction.” Rob Frye: “I've also wondered why Brötzmann plays so harshly, I see how that style reflects his view of the state of affairs in our world. A friend reminded me of Adorno asking 'how can you write lyrical poetry after Auschwitz?' In many ways it would be inappropriate! But I think precisely because of the dark direction we are witnessing, it is even more important to show the world how humans can work together. Art can also teach us about community and about why it is worth remembering that something like beauty exists. Believe me, I too feel like screaming into my horn sometimes! And if I hear that power, it can make me raise a fist.” JayVe Montgomery: “Now is the only moment. As improvisers we engage the ‘if’ in the middle of life, exhibiting to other humans our greatest shared instinct-improvisation. Playing freely with listening compassion; talking and listening all at once; we aim to exhibit democracy in a form truer that has yet to be seen in the governments of nations.”
The Bridge
Jazz – owing to its particular history – has always been an unmatched medium that allowed the sounds and music of different worlds to express themselves with passion and singularity, shaped by a musical art dedicated to collective invention and reinvention. Jazz was the original “world music,” long before this label became widespread.
In the recent years, after a century of stories and legends when every improviser, group, and scene grew ever more specific, many French and American musicians have expressed a renewed interest in experiencing the musical and sociomusical realities of their transatlantic counterparts. To really create mutual knowledge. But often with the regret that these adventures, swift to go “beyond expectations,” do not continue beyond a few concerts, a tour, or a recording, due to the lack of adequate structures.
The Bridge intends to form such a network for exchange, production, and diffusion, to build a transatlantic bridge that will be crossed on a regular basis by French and American musicians as part of collaborative projects. And, in addition to the scheduled projects, encourage meetings and relationships between creative musicians and perpetuate them. In other words: to give them the times and spaces to join and rejoin on both sides of the ocean and to deepen their exchanges.