By ERIC GAG
By Friday night, you may be just getting your engine primed; see how high it will idle comfortably. This is good. It’s smart to understand the machinery, before you cruise, coast, or drive it into the ground. Friday’s another easy night time-wise, but regarding content, it’s another story.
One of my objectives when curating The Thing is to present new sounds to the people who attend. We have what you might call a niche following; none of these groups are on the radio, and almost none of them are even from New Hampshire. So the folks who attend year after year, are after unique experiences, beyond even one group’s particular sound; they’re after that extraordinary alchemy that happens with the combinations we concoct.
Layers, dimensions, a new lens; all important factors to consider when constructing it all. Also, imperative to keep in mind when you sail out onto these waters.
Friday opens at 5 p.m., with the closing ceremony of Contemporary Works In, On, and Around Music, a show The Glass Museum is curating at the newly renovated Sharon Arts Center gallery. It includes work by artists that have contributed to The Thing over the past eight years; stage backdrops, installation participants, or even just those that have been in close proximity to our mission, and helped us pull it all off. Photographs, paintings, 3D work, video, and more will all be shown from mid-May through the Thing weekend.
This particular night is extra special because it will feature a free performance by Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano. The saxophone / drums duo has scorched this planet since around 2000, bringing otherworldly free-form power to the people with purity of mind and soundness of vision. To see two people launch themselves so far into the stratosphere without any semblance of net, is so inspiring, and to me, the apex of human expression. This kind of performance is a perfect summation of the artists featured in this gallery show, as well as a testament of what we strive to present each year in our music program.
From there, walk to the end of Grove St, and cross Main, as Mr. Forbes Graham, trumpeter and experimental sound philosopher, weaves holy curtains, meant to catch the wind, and jangle like leaves. He plays it straight with a pocket trumpet, and the next minute he’ll be piercing the upper registers with only a mouthpiece, throughout it all, he achieves a serenity that will guide you through whatever deconstruction he has planned for us. The UU Church has been a gorgeous spot to present music, and we were thrilled to see the Black Lives Matter banner appear there a few weeks back. Forbes’ performance outside of the church is this evening’s fanfare, heralding the arrival of the Friday evening show.
Headlining this evening is the heroic Chicago Underground Duo, made up of trumpeter Rob Mazurek and drummer Chad Taylor. Between the two of them, they’ve played with Pharoah Sanders, Fred Anderson, Bill Dixon, Yo La Tengo, Tortoise, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Jim O’Rourke, and countless more. Their work uses these hypnotic and cascading rhythms as a conduit of sorts for a mix of dreamy, muted modal work and ebullient jags spiraling into space. This is jazz as high art.
And speaking of that, we’re humbled to be able to bring Susie Ibarra to Peterborough as part of this year’s program. Having studied and jammed with Milford Graves and Denis Charles, Ms. Ibarra went on to drum in David S. Ware’s most potent group, alongside William Parker and Matthew Shipp. Ibarra’s work on these records is indispensable, both pushing and cradling Ware’s superheavy tenor. Her solo work, as well as in duo performance with guitarist Derek Bailey, is crushing and beautiful.
She will be performing solo percussion pieces at this show, and this after her John Zorn selected solo residency at The Stone in New York. She strings together patterns like a deft rhythmic squid; darting through an ether of bright sound and dark silence, contemplative and decisive, with a rumbling genius.
To start things off inside the church, the Philadelphia duo of harpist Mary Lattimore and guitarist Jeff Zeigler is sure to get our minds right. Like watching slow motion rain, the duo makes an immersive and meditative music that will inhabit the sacred space wholly and naturally.
After such a survey of experimentation, we’ve cued up a night of serious soul for you at Harlow’s Pub for the late portion of the day. Julie Rhodes, who will be playing Newport this year, will be closing out the night with her Joplin-esque growl and serious band.
Opening for her is New York psychedelic bluesman, Yazan, back with Kris Kuss on drums. Both performances will set the pub ablaze with a great mix of Allman Bros electricity and old blues vocals. This is not to be missed for fans of blues, soul, and rock and roll.
Eric Gagne is CEO of the Glass Museum and co-founder of The Thing in the Spring.