Musician-composer Stanley J. Zappa, together with pianist and musical theorist Andrew Wedman have created The First Annual Untempered Festival of Dissonant Arts, an event celebrating sonic adventures and musical exploration.
One of the highlights of the festival is an appearance by legendary guitar genius Peter Walker, whose performance will blur the boundaries of raga, flamenco and folk. Walker, who was a fixture of the Greenwich Village folk scene in the '60s and studied under greats including Ravi Shankar, has recently come out of retirement to tour and release new recordings. His music is being discovered by a whole new generation.
The festival will also feature The Jooklo Duo, Virginia Genta and David Vanzan. Cosmic free jazz giants from Italy, they will perform along with Stanley Zappa as Jooklo Zappa. Together, their frenetic approach is propelled by unhinged dual saxophones and primal drumming, creating musical transcendence, chaos and cacophony.
Festival founders Zappa and Wedman will perform improvised sonorities unique to Wedman’s bass piano (a piano de-tuned one octave) in combination with Zappa's clarinet and saxophone. Their work rarely complies with principles of tonality dominant in western music. Their focus on so-called “untempered” and “dissonant” tones was the inspiration for the festival.
Wedman and Zappa hope that the Untempered Festival can be a part of a larger circuit. According to Zappa, “There are a number of BC music series that feature improvised and sonically adventuresome music. Casse-Tête in Prince George along with Skin and Bones in Kelowna get world class musicians to perform. I want them to come here, too, so that we can open up to more experiences of the truly new music these artists are creating.”
The First Annual Untempered Festival of Dissonant Arts will be held at the Shatford Centre on Saturday, June 18th. Performances begin at 7 p.m.
The Shatford Centre
760 Main Street
Penticton, BC (parking entrance on Eckhardt Avenue)
Saturday June 18th, 2016
Doors at 6:00 p.m.
Concert 7:00 – 11:00 p.m.
$10
Tickets available at the Shatford Centre office and at the door.
Stanley J. Zappa's new album, Sing-Song Songs, is available from New Texture.
