And then at The Cellar

I've decided to split up my last post as it was too rambling. And I'll add some pictures.

The last few Monday nights at the Cellar have been uniformly entertaining. As this series progresses, the bar continually gets reset to a higher level. I'll have to see what I can do about that when I return with the Bari Blizzard next month.

<- Cat Toren, Russell Sholberg and Dan Gaucher

Cat Toren's In Magnolia continues to grow as a group and they show more confidence moving from the scored material into improv, then back. Their evening was opened by Attention Diamond Shoppers, consisting of Rachel Wadham and Lee Hutzalak playing a combination of found materials and altered instruments with a high degree of musical sensitivity. They held court on a table in the middle of the room which they covered with a piece of pink fun fur. In lesser-skilled hands, this would have been a train wreck, but on this night, it was mesmerizing. And when both groups joined together for an extended improv, the delicacy and spatial placement of sounds around the room created something that I could guarantee had never been been heard before within the confines of The Cellar.

Rachel and Lee under Cory's watchful eye ->

My one regret was that both Rachel and In Magnolia bassist Russel Sholberg both had musical saws but never played them at the same time. I was dying for a cutting contest.

<- edgeffect

The following week saw another fine double-bill. Lisa Miller's edgeffect had the talents of Francois Houle, Jeremy Berkman, Stefan Smulovitz and guest guitarist Gordon Fitzell. Lisa's fine compositions mined a taut emotional territory and these talented musicians had a focussed energy about them.

The second set was another first for the NOW series, a group that had as its focus spoken, or sometimes semi-spoken word. cleftpallet featured Jonathan Wilke, Darren Williams, Nikki Reimer and Dave Chokroun. They applied the principles of slam poetry to music and some rules of improvised music to their texts. They were challenging, clever and often quite funny, but never resorted to schtick.

Last week was the return of Coat Cooke's new electric outfit, newly-named The Fiddlers. With Tommy Babin on electric bass, guitarist Chad MacQuarrie, drummer Skye Brooks and JP Carter on trumpet and electronics, Coat and the boys got into some deep groove. It was aided and abetted by Coat's compositional skills, which lifted the group above merely chugging over some twisted riff, something which bores me to tears. These guys are forming into a fairly badass unit.

Next up on March 5 is LSB 21 and The Microscopic. Check out www.noworchestra.com for details.