Search the Community

Sunday, April 29th at 3 p.m. please join clarinetist Ben Goldberg and keyboardist Michael Coleman as they present “Practitioner,” a concert realization of soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy’s album “Hocus Pocus (Book H of ‘Practitioners’)” in The Underground Concert Series at LaFontsee Galleries, 833 Lake Drive SE, Grand Rapids. In 1985 Ben Goldberg took a lesson with Steve Lacy where, remembers Goldberg, Lacy, “prescribed some exercises for investigating the basic elements of music. At the end of our meeting he gave me a copy of a new record of his called ‘Hocus Pocus.’” “Hocus Pocus” is an album featuring six etudes for solo soprano saxophone, each titled with a word beginning with the letter “H,” that Steve Lacy described as, “Deliberately made so as to be hard to play,” yet containing many of the characteristic ‘licks’ which comprise the language Lacy used in different kinds of improvisational music. He said, “Each piece is also a portrait of, and an homage to, a distinguished practitioner of a particular art.” Keyboardist Michael Coleman and clarinetist Ben Goldberg studied and recorded Lacy’s compositions over a period of three years and envisioned a kind of dreamlike multidimensional sonic collage which they call “Practitioner.” Pianist, improviser and composer Michael Coleman is a graduate of the Oberlin College where he studied history and jazz piano before moving to Oakland, CA, where he dove into the improvised music scene, working with Scott Amendola, Marcus Shelby, many others, and developing three different bands of his own. Clarinetist Ben Goldberg was a pupil of the eminent clarinetist Rosario Mazzeo and studied with jazz greats Steve Lacy and Joe Lovano. Since 1992 he’s “shaped a career through curiosity and experimentation across genres and styles.” The New York Times wrote Ben’s music, “conveys a feeling of joyous research into basics of polyphony and collective improving, the constant usefulness of musicians intuitively coming together and pull apart.” The Downbeat Critics Poll named him the #1 Rising Star Clarinetist in both 2011 and 2013. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door ($10 for students or musicians). For information about www.AdventureMusic.org please call (616) 745-4353. This year’s Underground Concert Series is underwritten in part by The Grand Rapids Therapy Group, providing West Michigan with experienced and innovative family, individual, and couples counseling at 500 Cascade W Pkwy SE #240, Grand Rapids, MI Phone: (616) 591-9000. “Experience the difference.”