Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet at Rozz-Tox -- May 4.
Saturday, May 4, 8 p.m.
Rozz-Tox, 2108 Third Avenue, Rock Island IL
On May 4, San Francisco-based guitarist and composer Bill Orcutt lands at Rock Island venue Rozz-Tox to present his latest project: an all-electric Guitar Quartet performing the music from Orcutt's 2022 Music for Four Guitars, and an ensemble that Pitchfork lauded as “a rigidly structured quartet that weaves tiny rhythmic phrases into expansive tapestries."
Orcutt is the former guitarist and founder of the notorious '90s group Harry Pussy, and his sound is a stuttered reimagining of blues guitar, weaving looping melodic lines, and angular attack into a dense, fissured landscape of American primitivism, outsider jazz, and a stripped-down re-envisioning of the possibilities of the guitar. Whether he’s playing his decrepit Kay acoustic or gutted electric Telecaster (both stripped of two of their strings, as has been the musician's custom since 1985), Orcutt’s jagged sound is utterly unique and instantly recognizable, compared with equal frequency to avant-garde composers and rural bluesmen. The New York Times has called him a "powerful musician" and "a go-for-broke guitar improviser," and described his sound as "articulated sprays of arpeggiated chords and dissonance."
Among Orcutt's Guitar Quartet collaborators, Wendy Eisenberg is an improviser and songwriter who uses guitar, pedals, the tenor banjo, the computer, the synthesizer, and the voice. Their work spans genres from jazz to noise to avant-rock to delicate songs; their performances span venues from international festivals to intimate basements. Though often working solo as both a songwriter and improviser, with acclaimed releases on Tzadik, VDSQ, Out of your Head, and Garden Portal, they also perform in the rock band Editrix, and in endless other combinations of their heroes and peers including Allison Miller, Carla Kihlstedt, John Zorn, Billy Martin, and Caroline Davis. They are also a writer on music and other things, with published essays on music in Sound American, Arcana, and the Contemporary Music Review.
A Brooklyn resident, Ava Mendoza has gained a deserved reputation in recent years for being one of the most exciting musicians on the New York scene, appearing on stages and records with John Zorn, Matana Roberts, Fred Frith, Hamid Drake, William Parkers and Mike Watt. Although also performing with the trio Unnatural Ways (with whom she appeared at Jazz in August in 2016), here Mendoza presents her beguiling solo work whose latest chapter, 2021's New Spells, brings together her own compositions with pieces written by Trevor Dunn, Devin Hoff, and John Dikeman. Marc Ribot has described New Spells as “a beautiful, powerful and highly original solo electric guitar record – not just another record, but a new sound, a new voice."
Shane Parish, meanwhile, devotes much of his time to developing his singular and expressive voice on the guitar. He communicates through emotion, unexpected melodicism, technical whimsy, a nuanced sense of form, and rich timbral variety, simultaneously drawing from the guitar’s history and aiming for its future. He is known for fronting the electric instrumental prog-punk band Ahleuchatistas, and for his uniquely beautiful solo acoustic finger-style work, often creating modern re-interpretations of traditional folk tunes. He has released records on Tzadik, International Anthem, Cuneiform, and other labels.
With their concert event preceded by a 30-minute opening set featuring Orcutt and Mendoza, the Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet take the stage in Rock Island on May 4, admission to the 8 p.m. all-ages show is $25, and more information and tickets are available by calling (309)200-0978 and visiting RozzTox.com.
