The splendid Californicorn presides over PianoFight's musical and spiritual offerings
I’m very excited to start my second Jazz++ residency @ PianoFight, “SF’s Next Landmark Entertainment Venue”, 144 Taylor St., SF (map), 5:30-7:30pm, 4th Wednesdays starting from Wed 27 Jan.
+ see also: Examiner.com preview: here
Formed by Rob Ready, Dan Williams and Kevin Fink (called “the bad boys of San Francisco theatre” by Theatre Bay Area), PianoFight has successfully managed venues (Off-Market Theater Complex); recklessly invited audiences to Throw Rotten Veggies at the Actors; formed two critically acclaimed sketch comedy groups (Mission CTRL and ForePlays); and built a three-man producing team into a 46-member company of artists.
PianoFight, SF's Next Landmark Entertainment Venue
Their latest adventure is PianoFight — a new theater complex with restaurant and bar at the former site of the San Francisco landmark restaurant Original Joe’s, 144 Taylor Street, with two theaters in the back of house, + in the front of house a 60-seat restaurant and bar with a full liquor license — and a cabaret stage, the site of my latest adventure.
This great new venue, in the heart of SF’s Central Market Arts District, takes forward the development of a music axis on Taylor Street, stretching from the Luggage Store, the Warfield, and Center For New Music to its northernmost and newest boîte.
My totem animal, Morgana, keenly looks forward to again joining forces with PianoFight’s totem animal, the Californicorn. We’ll be there on 4th Wednesdays.
Joe Lasqo & Morgana perform w Jim Ryan's Green Alembic in the sfSoundSalonSeries at Center for New Music, San Francisco, 15 Apr 2014 (Photo by Carly Hoopes)
On offer will be classic modern jazz from the “Birth of the Cool” era to the best of current Bay Area jazz composers and more (some of these standards noted in the captions below).
Blue In Green & So What?, from Kind Of Blue, by Miles Davis
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, from Mingus Ah Um, by Charles Mingus
Humpty Dumpty, from This Is Our Music, by Ornette Coleman
Round Midnight from Thelonius Monk, Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1
Stolen Moments, from The Blues And The Abstract Truth, by Oliver Nelson
The cool energy of classics by Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Thelonius Monk, Oliver Nelson…
… plus the fresh compositions of today’s Bay Area greats like Darren Johnston, Steve Adams, Larry Ochs, and others provide the jazz backbone of the repertoire on offer.
Apples, by Darren Johnston
Squeamish, by Steve Adams
Failure, by Larry Ochs
Brochevārevarurā, (ப்ரோசே வாரவெருரா), by Tyāgarāja (త్యాగరాజు)
Chalte Chalte Yun Hi Koi (चलते चलते युंही कोई), from the film Pakeezah (पाक़ीज़ा)
Every now and then bit of India, Bollywood…
Georges Gurdjieff (Георгий Гурджиев)
Portrait of Komitas (Կոմիտաս), 1969, by Tiraturyan Karapet (Կարապետ Տիրատուրյան)
or the mystic songs of Georges Gurdjieff (Георгий Гурджиев), Komitas (Կոմիտաս), Stockhausen and other modern composers will appear as a basis for improvisation.
Stockhausen, WDR Studio, 1962
Listeners who have heard me in the erstwhile afternoon piano series at Viracocha (21st & Valencia, SF) will find this repertoire both familiar but also containing some beautiful new material.
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Joe Lasqo and ASHA The Cat @ Viracocha, drawing by Jenna Paul-Schultz (jpstravels.wordpress.com)
Bio: Pianist / laptopist Joe Lasqo studied classical music in India; computer/electronic music at MIT, Columbia, Berkeley/CNMAT; has been a long-time performing modern & avant jazz musician; & has lived, played and listened in several Asian and European countries (now in San Francisco). He’s keen on the application of artificial intelligence techniques to improvisation and the meeting of traditional Asian musics with the 21st century.
Joe had a weekly residency for 3½ years+ in the piano series at Viracocha, will be resuming a residency at PianoFight in January 2016, and has appeared recently with Bruce Ackley and Steve Adams of ROVA Saxophone Quartet, Aaron Bennett’s Electro-Magnetic Trans-Personal Orchestra, Phillip Greenlief’s Orchesperry, synthesist Thomas Dimuzio, clarinetist/vocalist Beth Custer, pianist Thollem McDonas, percussionist Suki O’Kane, sound artists Joe Snape (UK) & Lucie Vítková (Czech Rep.), technodivas / electronic musicians Pamela Z & Viv Corringham (NYC/London) as well as his own Renga-kai (連歌会), Mukaiji-kai (霧海箎会), & Fushigi Kenkyūkai (不思議研究会) ensembles.
au quotidien, a new album with German-Swedish saxist/flautist Biggi Vinkeloe, master drummer Donald Robinson, and cello madman Teddy Rankin-Parker is in production for release later in 2015.
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Join me for food, drink, jazz, and improvisatory adventure after work on 4th Wednesdays at PianoFight, “SF’s Next Landmark Entertainment Venue”.
どうぞ。。。
Joe