If you're an experimental composer with classical roots, you'll probably face an uphill battle finding performance venues. The problem of getting your music heard may be compounded if you're a woman. Avant Fest, which opened last night at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis, pairs three female-led bands from Minneapolis with three from New York.
It's designed to break down barriers between experimental classical, jazz and pop music, and hopefully, establish a new scene. Minnesota Public Radio's Chris Roberts reports.
Transcripts
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[MUSIC PLAYING] (SINGING) Na na na na na na na
CHRIS ROBERTS: Part of the life of an experimental composer is waiting, waiting to find musicians to perform your pieces, waiting to find venues, willing to take a chance on your work. Sometimes composers grow tired of waiting and form bands themselves, which is true for many of the groups showcased in Avant Fest. When you're trying to build a scene with new, somewhat challenging music that crosses the boundaries of classical, jazz, rock, and pop, it probably needs to be identified in some way. Non-com is the label Avant Fest producer, Jeff Brooks, came up with meaning, of course, non-commercial.
JEFF BROOKS: We didn't want to say it's like classical music, only this, or it's like pop music, only this. We wanted to say it's this. So we came up with a name for it.
CHRIS ROBERTS: The fact that all six groups in Avant Fest are led by women is a distinguishing characteristic, but not of sole importance. Maura Bosch helped husband, Jeff Brooks, organize the festival and will perform with her band, Zelda. The majority of the women artists featured, including Bosch, come from East Coast or Ivy League academic backgrounds, where they were heavily schooled in classical composition.
MAURA BOSCH: We all studied counterpoint. We all studied classical music. We all studied music theory. We all learned about the things composers learn about now, electronic music, and all kinds of studio techniques. And we're doing this music. We're writing our string quartets or even our electronic pieces. But we all found ourselves to be in a situation where we're just operating on the fringes of classical music. After so many years of operating on the fringes of that scene, and particularly as women composers operating on the fringes of a scene that was dominated by men, we all said, well, let's try this.
There are places in New York, where the city's anarchic. An accommodating spirit.
CHRIS ROBERTS: Is it hard for these bands to find gigs?
JEFF BROOKS: Yeah, it is because of the more composed nature of this music rather than just jamming, or something like that. They don't want to play in bars, where people aren't listening to them, or talking over their music. So it's hard to find an appropriate venue. And that's part of what we were trying to provide for them in this presentation at the Southern Theater-- good sound system, good lighting, an audience that, for the most part, is sitting still and being quiet, and giving them a chance to soundcheck before they come on-- actually paying them, all sorts of things that most rock bands aren't used to.
MAURA BOSCH: Passageways of almost transcendent sordidness. Certain sites of torn-down buildings, where parking lots have silently sprung up
JEFF BROOKS: They're looking for a different audience than avant garde new music. Most people who are creating experimental, avant garde new music are doing it pretty much for each other-- other people who are practitioners. And this is music that is trying to do some audience building, trying to create an audience of people who are maybe bored with rock music, may be frustrated with the dryness of classical music-- like to listen to music, but would like to have some drums and amplification to.
[MUSIC PLAYING] The stars are u-u-u-uttering
Sickle moon prepares to harvest every part of symbol in the sky
Speechless
CHRIS ROBERTS: Avant Fest is a three-night affair, which will feature two of the six bands every evening. Of the six, the jazzy Minneapolis quintet, Mary Nail, led by singer Wendy Lewis, is most likely to use traditional pop structures in its music. Twisted Tutu from New York blends electronic sounds and spoken word and lays it over a hip-hop beat. Maura Bosh's group, Zelda, features a drummer, bassist, accordion player and singer in arrangements that rely on melody and uneven rhythms. Bosch says Zelda is an expression of the kind of music she's been writing for years. Only this time, there's a beat.
MAURA BOSCH: It's not nearly so crass as that sounds. I'm not just having somebody turn on a drum machine on 4/4. In the case of Zelda-- maybe this is one of the most distinguishing characteristics of my band-- I'm writing in pretty complicated changing meters all the time. It would be a little tricky to dance to. But meanwhile, it has a fast, catchy, engaging beat to it that's beautifully realized by my drummer.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(SINGING) Every time I think I'm free of my desire to have you, I want you
It can make a girl crazy
It can make a girl mad
It can make a girl crazy
It can make a girl mad
MAURA BOSCH: What non-com does is it provides a space, where the music can happen, where it's not being heard, in relation on the one hand to commercial rock music, or on the other hand, being heard in relation to classical new music. So it seems to me that if we could take this music and put it, just lift it out of this context that it's been in and put it in a whole new context where it's not being heard in relation to anything else but just heard all by itself, then I think it would sound different. And there would just be more possibilities for what these composers could do.
CHRIS ROBERTS: Avant Fest runs through Saturday night at the Southern. Maura Bosch and Jeff Brooks hope to release a CD that captures the live performances sometime in the future. This is Chris Roberts, Minnesota Public Radio.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(SINGING) It can make a girl crazy
It can make a girl mad
It can make a girl crazy
It can make a girl mad
It can make a girl crazy
It can make a girl mad
It can make a girl crazy
It can make a girl mad
Every time I think I'm gonna take a new step forward, I fall back
Every time I think I'm going to take a new step forward, I fall back
It can make a girl crazy
It can make a girl mad
It can make a girl crazy
It can make a girl mad