Wayward Music Series: Don Berman’s 'Ascension Northwest' & CHA

Don Berman and his Big Band Thing celebrate the release of their new CD with a performance of Ascension Northwest. Berman’s work is dedicated to the feeling of deep spirituality in John Coltrane’s music that heavily impacted Don when he first encountered Trane’s Live at Birdland and the Village Vanguard recordings during the summer of his sophomore year in college. The 11-person ensemble includes Kenny Mandell, Dick Valentine, and Jenny Ziefel on tenor saxophones and bass clarinet; Seth Alexander and Jim Paul on alto saxophones; Jim Knodle and Christian Pincock, trumpet and valve trombone; Matt McCluskey, piano; Abbey Blackwell and Jeff Johnson on basses; and Don Berman on drums.

Opening the evening will be the excellent trio CHA. Carol J. Levin (electric harp), Heather Bentley (violin, viola, electronics), and Amelia Love Clearheart/the Indigo (spontaneous poet, vocalist, dancer) make up the improvising trio CHA. Each artist incorporates loops and effects, interwoven in a synergistic, immediate performance ranging from tender to wild.

Proceeds from the door will be donated to the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center (KCSARC).

About Wayward Music Series

Each month, Nonsequitur and a community of like-minded organizations and artists present 10 concerts of adventurous and experimental music in the gorgeous Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center: contemporary/post-classical composition, free improvisation and the outer limits of jazz, electronic/electroacoustic music, new instruments, phonography, sound art, and other innovative musics.