Front porch concerts - a high five lineup on July 25th

Sarah Sully and Bill Cole will be hosting another Free Form Jazz Front Porch extravaganza at 1590 Tucker Hill Road at 1:00 pm on Sunday, July 25th. Bring your own chair. Hopefully sunscreen will be needed too. But rain or shine, the show will go on.

It’s an opportunity to hear musicians who have appeared before, all thanks to Bill Cole’s connections from a lifelong presence on the jazz improvisation scene.

But - the mix will be new and different. Now the gracefully melodic kora (African harp) played by Althea Sully Cole will be up against some serious riffs on the tuba from Harlem-born Joseph Daley. While Althea studied kora with masters in Senegal and New York City, Joseph has performed and recorded with some of the most provocative players in cutting edge jazz. He’s been called the “tuba maestro.”

Multitalented Ras Moshe will add his soaring flute and sensuous saxophone. Since 1987 NYC-based Ras has been performing and recording with many of the prominent jazz ensembles in the world of contemporary and improvisational music.

Taylor Ho Bynum, director of The Coast Jazz Orchestra at Dartmouth, adds more brass to the ferment. Taylor is primarily a cornet player, but seems equally happy on trombone, trumpet - or a plastic funnel. One reviewer of contemporary music likened Taylor’s style to “a litany of buzzes, whistles, drones, pinched fanfares and garrulous brass muttering in acrobatic arcs that twist and somersault.”

Host and convenor of this potent mix is Bill Cole who will sprinkle in the voices of uncommon instruments from far off continents. Bill is known as a professor of ethnomusicology and as a virtuoso on non-traditional, non-western wind instruments, such as the Chinese suona, the Korean hojok and piri, the Indian nagaswaram and shenai, and the Australian didgeridoo. He’s been described as “a rare breed of jazz artist who has focused his efforts on uniting Eastern sounds with the American art form.”

It’s safe to say that one should expect the unexpected. These musicians will be performing together, unrehearsed, to ad lib something unique on the spur of the moment. However, “free form” is not about chaos, but about listening carefully to each other and building on, or playing off, the ideas that arise spontaneously. The delicate notes of the kora will be sure to elicit complementary creation and years of musical experience will bear fruit in compositions on the fly.

Photography credit: Li Shen