The high ceiling and good piano of this modern Pasadena church brought out the subtlety of Joshua White's touch. With ears hovering over keyboard, he clearly enjoyed the way a couple of stroked high notes could blend and slowly disappear into the rafters. Alex Cline also knew there were times when an audience member's knee crack sounded louder than the little cymbals he was tapping, and that every motion of his wrists within the initial quiet was making us aware of our own breath. Then they cut loose.
White and Cline worked every part of the piano and an extensive drum/percussion kit in several phases of improvisational communication. They gathered energies separately while listening to each other, and united into a light-stepping freedom march that spoke of limitless possibilities, for themselves but especially for us. They unleashed enormous fury and strength, showing special solidarity at the point one backed down when he was dominating. White conjured a fascinating rhythmic/melodic pattern, and Cline listened until he was ready to join. They rose and fell, ending as quietly as they had begun. This was spontaneous music, not always synchronized but always in tune with the same spirit. And our emotions.
Cline has been one of L.A.'s primary musicians and composers for 40-some years; SoCal native White has gained universal admiration over the last decade or so. More to come.
The evening's second part felt like an outgrowth of series co-host Will Salmon's mutable Open Gate Theater, this time accommodating the skills of Daniel Goldblum (bassoon) and Dominyka Šeibok (flute and piccolo), a.k.a. Five Skins Interdisciplinary, plus Garth Powell (drums) and Salmon (voice, flute, organ).
Wearing mystical black attire, the four drifted in from the front, trailing long veils and interacting directly with the audience. Then they interacted with one another while a projection representing natural and cosmic images screened behind. Sometimes, as in a duet between Goldblum and Šeibok, the improvisations harmonized beautifully. Other times, as when Goldblum interacted with Salmon, they ran at cross purposes -- just as in real life, which was the point, as Salmon mutated through a virtuosic series of flute expostulations, extreme high-low vocal reactions and comical facial expressions that turned him from priestly dictator to helpless blob. Powell's accomplished abstract drumming, meanwhile, acted as the engaged but indifferent mechanized backdrop of this mini-society. This was one of those performances that makes a more vivid impression in retrospect than it did at the time. Congrats for thinking outside the box, curtain, tabernacle, cranium, whatever.
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The next Sunday Evening Concert at this venue is Sun. Feb. 7, 7pm, with bassist Miller Wrenn's Large Ensemble and the band of the excellent abstract pianist Ben Rosenbloom, who was in attendance this night; details here.