This article appeared in the April 16, 2003 Cambridge Chronicle.

Soundscapes a plenty

By Susie Davidson

CORRESPONDENT

A smorgasbord of note-bending awaits audiences this weekend at the Zeitgeist Gallery in Inman Square. Friday evening will lead off, in a co-production with Fishlung Piano Series, with Coniglio/DiMola/Gershon, an intergenerational confluence featuring Either/Orchestra founder Russ Gerson on saxophones, along with Andrew DiMola on bass, and David Coniglio pounding the drums.

Gershon, a mainstay of the local recording arts scene currently pursuing a masters degree in music composition at Tufts, has played with, among others, Cab Calloway, the Four Tops and Throwing Muses. He has guided E/O, a ten-piece jazz ensemble based in Cambridge, through more than 1000 performances in 34 states and seven countries. The ensemble, which features two trumpets, trombone, three saxophones, piano, acoustic bass, drums and congas, has released eight CDs and won five Boston Music, as well as many other awards. Since 1990, Gershon’s Accurate Records label has issued over 1000 records which have included the debuts of Medeski, Martin & Wood, Morphine and the Jazz Mandolin Project. Afro-Cubism, the E/O's current album, reached the top ten on college radio last fall.

Coniglio, who began playing drums at age 10 and is 22, is from Peekskill, New York. A junior at Berklee School of Music, he has studied with Rick Considine; music remains his passion. “I favor it over girls, because if you put time into music it will always give you something back,” he said.

Groton native DiMola has studied with Brooklyn, New York musician Trevor Dunn. The 22-year old bassist plays with the Boston quartet Bar Rot and pianist/composer Will Canzoneri.

“We will be playing free-improvised music on Friday,” Gershon said. “You might regard it as a collaboration between two young and hungry musicians and a local veteran.”

Playing two sets that evening will be New York-based pianist Angelica Sanchez’s quartet, with Tony Malaby on tenor sax, Drew Gress on bass, and Tom Rainey on drums. A Phoenix native, she studied piano and composition at Arizona State University from 1990-1994. She taught improvisation and composition at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, and has played with Susie Ibarra, Joe Lovano, Tim Berne, Mark Dresser, Matt Manieri, Joe Manieri, Drew Gress, Ed Schuller and many others.

Malaby, a Tucson native who taught at Arizona State University, leads the quartet Sabino; their first record was chosen in 2000 as The New York Times Top Ten Jazz recordings.

The quartet will be releasing their first record on the OmniTone label later this year.

The following evening, NODE, an assemblage of noted local experimental composers, will work a spontaneous, autonomous format within a fluid, yet tangible whole. Playing drums will be Will Buchanan of the Fishlung Trio and BopAnts; Birdsongs of the Mesozoic and the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble’s Ken Field will join in on alto sax and flute. Steve MacLean, who initiated the ensemble, will play guitar/kora and electronics. Dan Soltzberg on bass and looping, Mobius Artists Group’s Jed Speare on laptop with concréte sounds, and Jonathan Wobesky on trumpet percussion will round out the sound.

“NODE is not a group in the traditional sense, but rather an affiliation of musicians who are exploring sonic experimentation and composition,” said Soltzberg. “We hale from diverse musical backgrounds that include jazz, electronic, ambient and experimental music, as well as a few styles that perhaps have yet to be named.” The dictionary defines node as a point at which subsidiary parts originate or center; an entangling complication.

The jamming began during a 2002 summer residency at the old Mama Gaia's Playground. “Players take cues from each other and from the music, as each performance evolves in its own unique direction,” added Soltzberg. "The idea of spontaneous composition is that the music leads the musicians. We do sometimes talk about where we think we'd like it to lead us, though."

Coniglio/DiMola/Gershon with Angelica Sanchez on April 18, and Node on April 19 will appear at The Zeitgeist Gallery, located at 1353 Cambridge St. in Inman Square, Cambridge. For ticket information, visit www.zeitgeist-gallery.org, e-mail robchalfen@hotmail.com or call 617-876-6060. Performers’ CDs are sold at the shows.