Image credit: Lili Zaneta
Tuesday November 12 * 7pm * $15-25 * TICKETS
Jordan Sand is a bassist, vocalist, improviser, and composer living in Trondheim, Norway. Her solo music, described as "Joni Mitchell meets Ligeti" (Omaha Under the Radar), blends song, free improv and noise to haunting effects. Blurring the lines between bowed bass and siren voice, Sand delivers new myths from a familiar acoustic space, fusing strings and chords into an organ-like sound beyond the sum of two parts. After four years abroad, Sand returns to the U.S. for a Northeast solo tour. In Washington, D.C., she invites Simone Baron (accordion) and Susan Alcorn (pedal steel guitar) for a second set in trio, delving into the raw fusion of lungs, reeds and strings.
Image credit: Kitty Paranagua
Simone Baron is a polyglot pianist, accordionist, improviser and composer whose work “ego-less, genre agnostic and without expectations” (JazzTimes) engages curiously and charismatically with a broad spectrum of idioms. Educated at Oberlin and Tel Aviv University and joyfully de-educated at festivals and performances across Europe and the Americas, Simonehas won grants, fellowships, commissions and residencies from Chamber Music America, South Arts, the Hambidge Center, Sacatar Foundation, Strathmore, Marble House Project, Avaloch Farm, the Banff Centre, and Spectrum Toronto to name a few. In 2016 Simone founded Arco Belo, a diasporic chamber music ensemble that has toured nationally. Simone is a Victoria Artist and plays a Poeta XB Accordion, and is a founding member of the Boulanger Initiative.
Photo credit: David Lobato
One of the world’s premiere exponents of her instrument, Susan Alcorn has taken the pedal steel guitar far beyond its traditional role in country music. Having first paid her dues in Texas country & western bands, she began to expand the vocabulary of her instrument through her study of 20th century classical music, visionary jazz, and world musics.
Though known for her solo work, she has collaborated with numerous artists including Pauline Oliveros, Eugene Chadbourne, Chris Cutler, the London Improvisors Orchestra, the Glasgow Improvisors Orchestra, Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, Nate Wooley, Ingrid Laubrock and Leila Bourdreuil, George Burt, Evan Parker, Caroline Kraabel, Michael Formanek, Zane Campbell, and Mary Halvorson among others. In 2017 she received the Baker Artist Award and in 2018, along with saxophonist Joe McPhee, the Instant Award in Improvised Music. Her album “Pedernal, released in 2020, was included in several “Best of theYear” lists including the New York Times.
Wild and beautiful and disturbing and downright bloody odd in turn. Frankly, trying to describe Alcorn’s music is bit like trying to paint wind: you’re better off just turning it on and letting it happen. – Bob Fitzpatrick, The Guardian
A pioneer of the pedal steel guitar in improvised music. – Bill Milkowski, Downbeat
Susan Alcorn pulls an energy out of the pedal steel that feels both ancient and otherworldly. – Lars Gotrich, NPR