Music Review: A drummer teams up for ‘free music’
Drummer Alex Cline will team up with two other musicians for the Open Gate Concert series’ 19th anniversary at the Center for the Arts in Eagle Rock.
When drummer and percussionist Alex Cline and theater maven Will Salmon began their Open Gate Concert series, they had two modest goals. “One was to do new music concerts on the other side of town,” says Cline, from his Culver City home. “The other was because the Westside places like Alligator Lounge and line-space-line were fading. We thought we’d go for a couple of years.
Open Gate Theatre observes its 19-year anniversary this Sunday at the Center for the Arts in Eagle Rock, with two duet sets from Cline. He will exchange with San Francisco saxophonist Phillip Greenlief and vocalist Dwight Trible.
NEWSLETTER: Stay up to date with what’s going on in the 818 >>
Greenlief, 57, a native Angeleno, has been a San Francisco resident for 30 years. He has the reputation of connecting musicians and, like Cline, presenting music. “I grew up in Santa Monica and studied at USC,” the saxophonist says, “but I don’t hold up any regional banners. I like traveling and connecting with people from all over.” No stranger here, he recently conducted a master class at Orange County’s Chapman College, as he has at Cal Arts.
Greenlief works from notated music as easily as no music, and he enjoys the options. “I have a lot of musical interests,” he maintains, “and there are a lot of ways to convey ideas to an audience.”
“To me,” he continues, “free music means being able to go where the music wants to go — whether I’m playing with a koto player or an electronic musician using frequencies instead of notes. I’m glad I’ve studied those traditions and others.”
Cline and Trible have previously performed together at Open Gate. Salmon wanted to stage some poems by Thomas Merton with music, so Cline brought a handful of Merton poems that he had long admired to the singer. “It proved to be a fantastic context for Dwight,” Cline says. “He sang those poems, acted them out, and added to them as he performed.”
“Dwight’s a true genius,” Cline pronounces. “He can walk into any kind of context and make serious music within it. And he can bring a tremendously moving spiritual dimension to the music — that’s a rare thing!”
Trible has a strong baritone-tenor voice and an extraordinary ability to move it in a sliding, mercurial way. He can glissando up a scale, gaining volume and power, and still retain his pitch. Just watching him manipulate a microphone to accommodate the acoustics of a room is itself a tutorial. “When I play with Dwight,” Cline offers, “I usually can’t believe what I’m hearing and I can hardly believe I’m participating in it.”
Follow Times Community News Entertainment on Twitter >>
Cline notes a civic aspect to Trible’s role that only happens to a few local musicians, like the bust-out tenor saxophonist Kamasi Washington. “Dwight now has national outreach and recognition,” the drummer states. “So he has brought attention to Los Angeles music, like Kamasi and multi-instrumentalist Miguel Atwood-Ferguson.”
Free music is a continual experiment and the soufflé doesn’t rise every night. “Thankfully I haven’t been in too many projects that didn’t come off,” Cline avers. “But playing this music is dancing on a razor’s edge. If a bass player’s draggy, you can’t change that.”
Greenlief can relate. “You’ve got to be able to work through things,” he holds. “Sometimes you try to push through, sometimes you have to just stop and wait. Improvisation has made me a lot better at human relations.”
As a presenter, Cline has a code: “My own history with other musicians informs my outlook. I never act as a producer who throws people together with no prior experience. When I play with people in an ensemble I get a sense of their strengths and weaknesses. I tend to pair people through sound reasoning,” surprising himself with an unintended pun.
“So far my hunches have paid off pretty consistently.”
--
What: Alex Cline with Phillip Greenlief and Dwight Trible
Where: Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock
When: Sunday, March 6, 7 p.m.
Admission: $10
Contact: (626) 795-4989, www.cfaer.org
--
KIRK SILSBEE writes about jazz and culture for Marquee.
--
ALSO:
Frank Miller has more in store for Batman
Theater Review: Guest director sees modern possibilities in original language of ‘Romeo and Juliet’
Theater Review: Cultural details are essential to Autry production of ‘They Don’t Talk Back’