Saturday, March 8
Balance
andPlay
Gleb Kanasevich
Doors 7:30pm | $12-$20 suggested
The Detroit duo Balance is a hometown favorite that fuses knowledge and reverence of multiple musical traditions with forward-looking creativity and open ears. It results in a sound that is satisfyingly musical, but fresh and adventurous. Like their music, pianist Michael Malis and multi-wind player Marcus Elliot are warm, open and thoughtful, and Balance is the perfect expression of their personalities and friendship. Their collaborations include such heavy hitters as Gerald Cleaver, Phil Ranelin, William Hooker, Marcus Belgrave, Doug Hammond, Brian Eno, Rod Williams, Talib Kwali, Shigeto and many others. Conjure, their 2022 release on our own label Two Rooms, is ready to go into its third pressing—making it the label’s best-selling record to date.
Wednesday, March 12
Thollem Infinite-Sum Game
Solo performance
BoxDeserter Ensemble
Doors 7:30 pm | $12-20 sliding scale
Thollem is a pianist, keyboardist, composer, improviser, singer-songwriter, activist, author and teacher. He has toured throughout North America and Europe as an itinerant artist for two decades, performing, teaching and collaborating in myriad situations across the idiomatic spectrum. Thollem’s known in concentric circles as an acoustic piano player in the free jazz and post-classical worlds, as the lead vocalist for the Italian agit-punk band Tsigoti, and as an electronic keyboardist through a multitude of projects. His lifelong interest has been to work with people from all walks of life, bringing artists and communities together in ways that may create something uniquely valuable to everyone involved. He is currently focused primarily on his multimedia collaboration with New Mexican visual artist ACVilla, his solo piano work Infinite-Sum Game, and workshops on the collaborative process.
Saturday, March 15
Skeeter Shelton’s Spectrum 2
featuring Ali Colding
Doors 7:30 pm |N$10-$20 suggested at entry
We’re excited to present the original version of Skeeter Shelton ‘s Spectrum 2 duo, featuring percussion great Ali Allan Colding. A veteran of groups with James Blood Ulmer, Kenn Cox, Fred Anderson, Charles Moore, Marcus Belgrave, Noah Howard, Faruq Z Bey and Hakim Jami, Ali often worked with Skeeter in those ensembles, but it’s been about twenty years since they’ve reunited as Spectrum 2. The idiom of wind and drum duos has a long history, and this version of Spectrum 2 is one of few groups in Detroit today that has the depth and vitality to be a serious contributor to that cannon.
