Photo: Clare Shiland
Doors open 19:00
Event start 20:00
The concert will be followed by a talk featuring several of tonight’s artists, hosted by Rob Young.
The second of a two-night programme, curated by New York’s Blank Forms, in celebration of the life, art, and collaborative spirit of free jazz legend Don Cherry and visual artist-designer Moki Cherry. Don Cherry (1936–95) was a pioneering free jazz trumpeter who began his career with Ornette Coleman and eventually resettled in Sweden, where he met his wife, Swedish artist Moki (1943–2009). Cherry frequently performed in Norway and collaborated with local jazz luminaries such as Jan Garbarek, Arild Andersen and Karin Krog. With a collective of musicians and artists, they took their colourful spirit of spontaneous performance around Scandinavia during the 1970s and 80s.
Exotic Sin, TYSON & Neneh Cherry is a family affair. Don and Moki Cherry are the parents of Neneh and grandparents of Tyson McVey and Exotic Sin’s Naima Karlsson. The group mixes cosmic improvisation, minimalist sonic landscapes, and stream-of-consciousness words by Don and Moki and the poet Jayne Cortez. The evening features electroacoustic duets by Karlsson and improviser Kenichi Iwasa, creating instrumentals that are stark, spontaneous, often humorous, utilizing Don’s trumpet and handmade ‘zen saxophones’ alongside synthesizers, celesta, bells, a Yamaha keyboard and more. Karlsson’s sister Tyson McVey sings jazz-tinged electronic R&B, and, through her Ladies Music Pub non-profit organization, is an activist for women, non-binary, and gender-fluid people in the music industry. Neneh Cherry is a late 20th century icon of style and music. Her long career includes stints as a pioneering post-punk musician and a pan-global pop star. She is a life-long rhythm seeker who collaborates with artists such as free-jazz group the Thing and electronic producer Four Tet.
Support comes from a new Norwegian free music duo. Anja Lauvdal is one of Norway’s brightest young jazz talents in bands like Moskus, Skadedyr and Broen. Joakim Heibø has played drums in Ich Bin N!ntendo and MoE, and worked with Mats Gustafsson and Lasse Marhaug. The music on their forthcoming duet All My Clothes (Actions For Free Jazz) contain echoes of ECM-like sonorities and the explosive, rhythmic dialogues of Matthew Shipp and Whit Dickey.
