Event Details
Saturday Sept. 18, 2010 • The Music Gallery presents
ARTHUR’S LANDING
“Old Music: The Songs of Arthur Russell”
With Nick Storring (opening set) + Glissandro 70 DJs
Pop Avant series
Arthur's Landing
Mustafa Ahmed — percussion
Joyce Bowden — vocals and guitar
Ernie Brooks — bass guitar and vocals
Steven Hall — vocals and guitar
Bill Ruyle — drums
Peter Zummo — trombone
with Toronto guest, James Duncan — trumpet
Doors 8pm, concert 9pm
Tickets $20 regular, $15 member + senior, $10 student
Or $15 advance at Rotate This, Soundscapes + online at TicketWeb — BUY NOW!
Arthur Russell truly contained musical multitudes. A classically trained cellist and composer, this New York artist (1952-92) was an associate of Philip Glass and Allen Ginsberg, acted as musical director of seminal NYC performance space The Kitchen — and also made some of the most influential disco records of the late ‘70s, as well as accidentally inventing shoegaze/dream-pop in the ‘80s. His legacy has only grown in recent years, through numerous reissues, the 2008 documentary Wild Combination, and artists such as Jens Lekman, The Hidden Cameras and Electrelane paying him tribute. Arthur’s Landing is a New York-based group of Russell associates and collaborators who perform his work. Led by singer/guitarist Steven Hall, the band also includes Ernie Brooks, former bassist of The Modern Lovers as well as Toronto/New York trumpeter James Duncan. Toronto-based cellist, composer and electronic musician Nick Storring, who freely admits to being artistic progeny of Russell, will open the concert, while Russell acolytes Glissandro 70 (Sandro Perri and Craig Dunsmuir) will play a DJ set.
Arthur’s Landing have been playing their friend Arthur Russell's music for more than 30 years. In this collaborative context, they continue to revisit this body of work as the starting point for sonic pilgrimage. The group’s live performances feature improv as the fountain which refreshes this source of inspiration, a left-field approach to the catalog which is seemingly casual but operates from a deep shared understanding of the dazzling complexity which informs Russell’s gorgeous soundscapes. Such an intimate knowledge of the material is what the group strive to share in our ongoing celebration of Arthur's fabulous legacy!
"We play this music because it's part of what we know from the years we all spent, in widely varied contexts, experiencing and helping to create it at Arthur's side." — Ernie Brooks, bass/vocals
"When I lived in Bangkok, there was this club Kamikaze across the river where local musicians would meet early in the evening before their regular paying gigs to play for each other and our friends — just for fun. This is how I see Arthur’s Landing — a band's band or what they call "deep play" in anthropology, when baby animals learn life skills when playing together — serious fun!"
Steven Hall, guitar/vocals
The structure and line-up of Arthur’s Landing keeps morphing —there are eight members and a shifting array of guest musicians including Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads), Nomi Ruiz (Hercules and Love Affair), Gary Lucas, Peter Gordon, Peter Zummo, Brennan Green, Nick Storring, James Duncan and Alex Waterman.
Arthur’s Landing will visit the Music Gallery, as well as the LOLA Festival in London, Ontario, in conjunction with the release of their new LP/CD for Strut UK.
