Seattle’s most enduring and unpredictable experimental music group
is not named after a soft-focus 1970s porno film, as you might
think. With a moniker borrowed from an Edwardian-era tobacco tin,
Climax Golden Twins have been fashioning singular and brilliant
music since 1994.
Core members Robert Millis and Jeffery Taylor along with occasional
collaborators—including drummer Dave Abramson, Jesse Paul Miller,
and Scott Colburn—sumptuously blend field recordings, odd
electronics, and vintage 78 rpm records. Recently, Millis told me that
CGT “have become more of an improv/rock/noise/free hillbilly/collage
band with a drummer… or something like that.”
I’ve caught CGT live many times since the mid-1990s. The following
notes, scrawled during or immediately after the performance,
encapsulate my favorite CGT shows.
Club Mercury, September 13, 1999: I finally “get” CGT. Seen ’em a
few times before, but tonight they made the bravest, greatest fade-in I
have ever heard. Over 40-plus minutes, drones, pulses, scratchy field
recordings, and quietly echoing crackles ramp up, gently getting louder
and louder. Then it stops. Suddenly. My ears feel incredibly
open: What remains—a hushed conversation and clinking
glasses—has become music.
Funhouse, September 11, 2005: Equipped with broken electric guitars,
a straw hat, and a pile of ancient, shabby rackmount gear, CGT whip up
feedback howls, sped-up tambourine jangles, and children’s lullabies.
Amid the applause, some guy next to me shouts, “Rock and roll!”
Nope.
Rendezvous, March 22, 2007: Buzz and hum from the guitars sound like
rattling chains smothered in static. In front of the stage, coins get
pitched into a bare, throbbing speaker cone. Afterward, Millis strums a
guitar and sings old folk songs; experimental music is the true folk
music of today. 
Climax Golden Twins, Alvarius B, and David Daniell perform Thurs
Jan 17 at the Rendezvous, 10:30 pm, $5.
Thurs 1/17
STANLEY CLARKE
This great bassist found fame in the 1970s with one of the era’s
seminal fusion outfits, Return to Forever. In those halcyon days,
Clarke and Weather Report’s Jaco Pastorius redefined the bass guitar
with rapid, flamenco-inspired melodic riffs. On his latest disc,
The Toys of Men (Heads Up/Telarc), Clarke occasionally detours
into smooth ballads but still fires up the funk. Through Sun Jan 20.
Jazz Alley, 2033 Sixth Ave, 441-9729, sets at 7:30 and 9:30 pm,
$27.50.
Fri 1/18
FAR CORNER
What’s a jazz group without a piano? Led by saxophonist Dick
Valentine, this pianoless quartet is lithe, limber, and sonically
translucent. Flutist Fraser Havens adds sunny counterpoint and angular,
but not obtuse, solos. With Ken Strong (bass) and Bradley Papineau
(drums). Egan’s Ballard Jam House, 1707 NW Market Street, 789-1621,
7 pm, $5.
LAKE UNION CIVIC ORCHESTRA
LUCO’s concerts have a homey feel missing from most classical music
gigs; before the show, people laugh and chat casually as if at home.
Yet when the music begins, the audience’s attention becomes steadfast
and quieter than most other orchestral performances I attend. Debonair
conductor Christophe Chagnard leads the band in the jubilant Roman
Festivals, the seldom-played final chapter of Ottorino Respighi’s
“Roman Trilogy.” In addition, Adam LaMotte is the soloist in
Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave,
652-4255, 7:30 pm, $10/$15.
IVAN SOKOLOV
Next week the Seattle Chamber Players sally through their Icebreaker
IV festival, but here they back up pianist Ivan Sokolov in a bold
concert of avant piano music. On the docket: works by Erik Satie, Sofia
Gubaidulina, Cathy Berberian, Edison Denisov, and Alexander Raskatov,
along with John Cage’s classic “Imaginary Landscape” and “Bacchanale,”
as well as the “Three Graphic Studies” by Sylvano Bussotti, Karlheinz
Stockhausen’s Klavierstücke XIV and more.
Fourth-floor Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, 4649
Sunnyside Ave N, 286-5052, 7:30 pm, $8—$12.
HADLEY CALIMAN QUARTET
Once nicknamed “Little Dex,” this friend and disciple of Dexter
Gordon still sounds robust and lyrical. Caliman and his tenor saxophone
were superb at the Ballard Jazz Walk last November, smoldering his way
through Herbie Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage” with trumpeter Tom Marriott.
Tula’s, 2214 Second Ave, 443-4221, 8:30 pm—12:30 am,
$15.
Sat 1/19
MESSIAEN CENTENARY
The Cathedral Organist, Soloists, and Chamber Orchestra get the jump
on everyone else and celebrate the 100th birthday of Olivier Messiaen
(1908—1992) with one of the French composer’s many masterpieces
for solo organ, Le Banquet Céleste, and the Trois
Petites Liturgies de la Présence Divine. Impractically
scored for chamber orchestra, piano, women’s chorus, and the eerie,
wailing ondes Martenot, Trois Petites Liturgies shimmers with
tiptoeing rhythms, frothy piano chords, and blissed-out, surreal
chanting. I’m also keen to hear the Suite for Ondes Martenot and
Piano by Darius Milhaud and a section of Pli Selon Pli by
one of Messiaen’s most renowned students, Pierre Boulez. Call ahead for
good seats. St. James Cathedral, 804 Ninth Ave, 382-4874, 8 pm,
students pay as able/$22 suggested donation.
