The fade-out: When a song ends, we hear it and usually
ignore it. Classical music has a more poetic term for the fade-out,
morendo. Italian for “dying away.” A morendo may last
from a beat or two to a minute or longer. In pop music, most fade-outs
last up to four seconds; when a recording of a symphony ends on a
triumphant chord, you can count on several seconds of smoothly fading
reverb to ease your ears back into the world.
If the fade-out is a gentle farewell, then Dorsey
Dunn‘s Resonances bids an incredibly long good-bye. After
his laptop performance at Jack Straw’s New Media Gallery on April 4,
Resonances continues to fade out until the installation closes
in June.
I visited Resonances in mid-May and sat amid the four
well-placed speakers. Against one wall sits a black keyboard stand for
Dunn’s long-gone laptop. Shrouded in black fabric, the room doesn’t
have much to see; it feels abandoned, but not sepulchral, and is
a perfect setting for listening.
A slowly arcing tone, perhaps a stretched-out human voice,
gradually rotates around the room. Some grit, like that of an old vinyl
record, sloshes from speaker to speaker; tiny melting icicles of static
linger. Briefly, feedback sighs behind a louder sound and dissipates.
Everything I heard in the installation moves clockwise to the right,
like a clock slowly running down.
I have no hope of hearing the entire fade-out of
Resonances. Like Alan Licht‘s 2003 installation
Twilight of the Idols, which subjects Led Zeppelin IV to
a side-long fade-out, Dunn beckons the ears to an overlooked crevice in
music, one we’ve heard all along. 
Jack Straw Productions, 4261 Roosevelt Way NE, 634-0919,
Mon–Fri 9 am–6 pm, free. Through June 20.
Thurs 5/22
Pocket Change
Unlike their fusion forebears, these funk-inflected improvisers
refuse to indulge in pointless blizzards of notes, long solos, tricky
but emotionally sterile chord progressions, etc. Instead, Pocket Change
get deep in the pocket, mining interstitial grooves and serving up
tight, anthemic solos. Reservations recommended. Tula’s, 2214
Second Ave, 443-4221, 8 pm, $8.
The Bad Plus
Any decent jazz musician can cover a pop song. Yet the Bad Plus do
more than just pick interesting tunes such as “Smells Like Teen
Spirit,” Rush’s “Tom Sawyer,” and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”
by Tears for Fears. Pianist David King and his cohort cover not only
songs but the recording themselves, riffing on the tempos and textures
ingrained in anyone who has heard the originals. Tractor Tavern,
5213 Ballard Ave NW, 789-3599, 8:30 pm, $25/$27.
Nate Wooley
After Miles Davis, where might an improvising trumpeter go? To the
inside of the instrument. Like Bill Dixon (and his descendants Axel
Dörner and Greg Kelley), Wooley transforms extended
techniques—-buzzing, pinhole embouchure, unusual mutes, huffing
into the mouthpiece, etc.—-into the basic materials of his music.
An attentive user of silence, the New Jersey—based trumpeter
collaborates in a trio with Wilson Shook and Tom Yoder. Wooley also
duets with Eric Barber, one of the few saxophonists in Seattle equally
at home playing standards and peeling paint with shrieking, scabrous
tones. Also Sat May 24 in a trio with Gust Burns and Jeffrey Allport,
and a large ensemble. Gallery 1412, 1412 18th Ave, 322-1533, 8 pm,
free, but donations accepted.
Fri 5/23
Seattle Occultural Music Festival
The second weekend of this festival—-a portmanteau of “occult”
and “culture”—-includes the blipping, echoing thumb pianos of
Tempered Steel, KRGA, electronician Matt Shoemaker, Red Squirrels, and
guitar saboteur Bill Horist. See somf.info for venue and performer details. Also
Sat May 24 at the Rendezvous Jewel Box Theater at 10:30 pm.
Underground Event Center, 2407 First Ave, 8 pm, $5—$15
suggested donation.
David Haney & Friends
One of our burg’s unsung pianists, Haney seems to tour constantly,
gigging everywhere but Seattle. Here, the avant-jazz virtuoso teams up
with an equally adventurous front line of horns and reeds including
Doug Haning, Dan Blunck, and Marc Smason. Expect scorching out-jazz
polyphony laced with Dolphy-esque lyricism. Juan Pablo Carletti, an
attentive percussionist from Brooklyn, rounds out the band. Egan’s
Ballard Jam House, 1707 NW Market St, 789-1621, 11 pm, $6.
Sun 5/25
Seattle Symphony at the Triple Door
Musicians from the Seattle Symphony showcase the bottom end of the
orchestra, the double bass. Along with rarities by Prokofiev and Erwin
Schulhoff (the Concertino for Flute, Viola, and Bass), Joe
Kaufman tackles an avant classic, “Failing: A Very Difficult Piece for
Solo String Bass” by Tom Johnson, who once said, “I want to find the
music, not to compose it.” The Triple Door, 216 Union St, 838-4333,
7 pm, $15/$20.
Walrus Machine
I tried to improve this ferocious out-jazz combo’s own description,
but how can I top “a trio of dudes hyperventilating with a
poltergeist,” especially when it’s true? This drums-sax-trombone trio
shares the bill with Yokai No Uta, Du Hexen Hase, and Mute Socialite, a
quartet from San Francisco featuring percussionist Moe! Staino and
members of the legendary Caroliner. The Rendezvous, 2318 Second
Ave, 441-5823, 9 pm, $5.
Tues 5/27
Kenny Barron
A compadre of Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, and other jazz giants,
Barron is an expansive pianist whose brawny, masterly runs up and down
the keyboard draw upon bop, the blues, and funk. The rest of his trio,
bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer Francisco Mela, cook too. Also Wed
May 28. Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley, 2033 Sixth Ave, 441-9729, 7:30 pm,
$22.50.
Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares
Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares is a fancy name for the
Bulgarian State Radio and Television Female Vocal Choir, an a cappella
ensemble that catapult folk songs into the stratosphere with gently
dissonant harmonies and piercing, nonamplified vocal projection. If you
were in college in the early ’90s, you probably own their anomalous hit
disc, Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares (Nonesuch), but this
performance inside Town Hall’s reverberant space should be the real,
goose-bumps-inducing deal. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, 547-6763, 8
pm, $24.
