Susie Ibarra’s recent project with Electric Kulintang speaks of her upbringing within a community of Filipinos. She seeks to bring the folk traditions manifest in Filipino culture into the setting of contemporary music. With only two of four members of the group performing, Ibarra and Roberto J. Rodriguez carried out her intention at the last concert of the Magic Triangle Series at UMass, Amherst. The major component of Kulintang is a group of eight distinctly pitched gongs, charact

The Northampton, Massachusetts Center for the Arts was the venue for the last of three concerts in the annual "A World of Piano Series". The artist for the last concert was Dave Burrell. Alone and sitting at a piano in the front of a mid-size room, Burrell captivated the packed house with the sound he produced with his exceedingly long, lithe fingers which when they touch the keyboard become a logical extension of it. Logical, but more importantly, human. It is important to Burrell that hi

In the last concert of the year’s Solos and Duos Series produced by the University of Massachusetts Fine Arts Center, two of the most celebrated creative music improvisors performed one set for about two hours. The duo: William Parker and Hamid Drake. Both musicians are known for their rhythm section acumen. This time, they acted as their own lead instrumentalists as well as their own rhythm section. The stage was set in pre-performer-entry frozen time with so many music making objects that I

In a rare live performance, Bill Frisell & his Trio played to a standing room only audience, some of whom came from over 100 miles away, at the Iron Horse in Northampton, MA on November 17. When I attend concerts where the featured player is of the caliber of Frisell, I do it for the reason that it is a chance of a lifetime...and I had better seize the opportunity because the chance may elude me in the future. And I am so gratified with my decision that after the performance is done and all the

And it was so that the audience zeroed in and focused on Joe and Mat Maneri, father and son duo, at the second of the Solos and Duos Series of concerts at UMass/Amherst on October 28. The intimacy of the experience of making music surrounded the two players as an aura. A complementary interplay emanated from the performance for the reason that Joe plays sax and clarinet and Mat plays viola. Mat’s playing is as smooth as silk and Joe’s is sporadically temperamental and melodious. However, look