BRATTLEBORO-The final weekend of Nu Mu 3, The Land of Mu Music and Art Festival at 118 Elliot combines great performances by visiting artists with opportunities for local musicians to showcase their music. All events are free, but a $20 donation is suggested at the door.
According to a news release, "The Land of Mu is a mythological continent much like Atlantis. The concept was best put forth by Augustus Le Plongeon, who promulgated the idea of an ideal society that originated on a lost continent. The idea has been completely discredited but the myth persists in art and literature and the music of Sun Ra and Don Cherry."
Organized by musician Jeff Lederer, of Guilford, in collaboration with John Loggia of 118 Elliot, Nu Mu 3 performances have followed that imaginative thread, ranging from new music rooted in the jazz tradition to the "way-out and sonically experimental," say organizers.
"We imagine that the people of Mu were telepathic astral travelers and artistic spiritualists who lived in harmony," Loggia says. "This festival aspires to bring people together in a similar way through music and art."
"Each weekend was its own mini festival curated by different leads for that weekend's programming," he adds. "Each weekend had its own distinct flavor and historical context."
One feature of this year's festival was XFest, "a creative convergence of over 50 musicians and artists," he adds. "The festival provided an opportunity for local musings to join."
Loggia describes XFest, which has run for 15 years at a venue in Lowell, Massachusetts, as "an improvisational challenge. Groups of musicians are put together to play without any guidance."
And last weekend "was of particular cultural interest," he says of the program, which featured musicians who mostly came through the Bennington College Black Music Division that ran from 1968 to 1984 under the direction of Bill Dixon, a Bennington music faculty member, American composer, and visual artist described by the college as "a seminal figure in free jazz." A leading teacher in the program was Milford Graves, an internationally acclaimed jazz musician, theorist, and free jazz pioneer.
This weekend's offerings
This final weekend highlights what Loggia describes as "great up and coming talent, especially Ayumi Ishito. She's deeply involved in the New York City jazz scene as are the other musicians playing with her. They are of particular interest because they are developing a following and getting coverage."
Friday, Aug. 30, showcases "Masters of Sonic Liberation," an evening of improvised music and movement organized by Bonnie Kane, featuring Ayumi Ishito, Eric Plaks, Aron Namenwirth, Tom Law, and Cilla Vee (Claire Elizabeth Barrett).
The previous night features a performance from Holyoke Media in Massachusetts streamed on YouTube.
As described on her website, Kane, a "dedicated improvisor and electro-acoustic pioneer," creates music that "lives equally in the avant-garde, hard core and psychedelic arenas."
Her work integrates saxophone, flute, feedback and electronics, and it travels through genres of noise, free jazz and improv, psych rock, jam band, and bio-composition, manipulating sound into magic. ("Not for the timid," her website warns.)
Ishito, a Brooklyn-based saxophonist and composer, was born and raised in Japan. After graduating from Berkee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where she studied performance and composition, in 2010, Ishito, based in New York, has received accolades for her jazz in DownBeat magazine in 2022. Her project Ayumi Ishito & The Spacemen Vol. 1, described in its liner notes as "a valiant attempt at capturing the interstellar experience," was selected for the Best Jazz of 2021 in Bandcamp.
Plaks, a pianist, has lived his entire adult life in Harlem, where he teaches music in the New York City public school system and engages in his own performing and recording projects. He directs one of the city's top innovative large ensembles, the 14-member Shrine Big Band. He performs with Namenwirth, a guitarist based in Brooklyn.
Law, who performs as BigSphinx, is a composer and improviser from Saugerties, New York who performs laptop-based electroacoustic music with viola da gamba.
Barrett's publicity materials describe her as "an interdisciplinary artist with a performing arts background. Based in Asheville, North Carolina, she is the director of Cilla Vee Life Arts, an arts organization with a focus on cross-media collaboration. Her work utilizes artistic disciplines of dances, music, text, media, visual, and installation art."
Law and Barrett perform as Renaissance Noise Restoration, "a touring group that stages Baroque and Renaissance music as a kind of performance art."
Margolis, a composer/performer, improvisor, and painter based in Chester, New York, has worked in the field of "non-commercial, non-popular music and sound," often under his project name If, Bwana, since 1984. His "abstract ruminations will round out the bill," Loggia says.
Nu Mu 3 will end with a "Sonic BBQ," billed as "a joyous open jam for all," on Saturday, Aug. 31, from 6 to 8 p.m. at 118 Elliot.
A display of Mu music and literature will accompany the festival. For more information, visit 118Elliot.com.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.