Friday, Saturday: Two nights of live music on Stowe Street
July 25, 2023 | By Lisa Scagliotti
There’s music in store on Stowe Street this weekend with the second summer Music in the Alley free concert on Friday night and the first in a new modern music series called “Outer Sounds” at The Phoenix Art Gallery and Music Hall on Saturday.
Two acts – the duo Cricket Blue and solo artist Reid Parsons are booked for the Music in the Alley, 6-9 p.m. Friday, co-hosted by TURNmusic, Blackback Pub and Landmark Realty. More details on that series held in the service alley between Blackback and The Phoenix are online in this post in Community.
On Saturday at 7 p.m. TURNmusic presents its first “Outer Sounds” event featuring three solo artists performing acoustic improvisations: Joe Moffett on trumpet, Zach Rowden on bass, and Jo Bled playing percussion.
Jo Bled brings his percussion improvisations to The Phoenix for Outer Sounds on Saturday in Waterbury. Courtesy photo
Bass player Zach Rowden is among the artists at Outer Sounds Saturday at The Phoenix in Waterbury. Courtesy photo
Hear Joe Moffett on trumpet at Outer Sounds, Saturday at The Phoenix in Waterbury. Courtesy photo
Curated by Greg Davis, The Outer Sounds at The Phoenix will look to bring cutting edge musicians to Waterbury to explore the worlds and intersections of electronic, experimental, avant-garde, improvised, ambient, drone, minimalist, free jazz, modern composition, psychedelic music and more. An electronic musician, Davis owns Autumn Records in Winooski.
These shows are intended to be accessible and open to anyone, regardless of knowledge or experience. TURNmusic Director Anne Decker says the shows will be designed to “encourage discussion, inquiry and feedback” about the music. “Come with open ears, minds and hearts,” she said in announcing the show.
Saturday’s performers at The Phoenix Art Gallery and Music Hall are:
Joe Moffett from Brooklyn, New York, with a trademark style of “unconventional sounds and forms, collective improvisation, and the intersection of action and stillness.” In addition to solo performances, his projects include the ambient improv trio Earth Tongues and the avant-art song duo Twins of El Dorado. More on Moffett at joemoffettmusic.com and moffjazz.bandcamp.com.
Zach Rowden of New Haven, Connecticut, takes on a variety of roles from performing to teaching to archiving to composing to improvising. Studying the double bass throughout undergraduate and grad school was just the beginning of a larger exploration into different instruments, tuning systems and histories of the world. These interests accompanied by a large dose of “why not?” has led to new ways of thinking, learning and experiencing music. He has toured the U.S. and Europe over the past five years with a variety of collaborators including Leila Bordreuil, Henry Birdsey, Iancu Dumitrescu, Robert Black, Paul Flaherty, Aki Onda and Julia Santoli at venues such as Fylkingen, Issue Project Room, The Kitchen, Bucharest National Radio Hall. More online at zachrowden.bandcamp.com .
Jo Bled of Vergennes is the percussion/electronics project of Vergennes, Vermont, fat queer composer and improviser JB Ledoux. The show preview says, “Jo Bled seeks to create gratingly meditative trance inducing sound & industrial soundscapes almost music, the obsessed waves produce some divine stars.” See more online at jobled.bandcamp.com.
Suggested donation for the all-ages show is $10. More information: turnmusic.org.