Sat 7/9
If only everyone could experience music this way. In a cool Cleveland Heights backyard, with friends new and old, sounds filling the garden but not to overflowing.
As a bonus, the band provided refreshments and a program guide with set list, lyrics and stories. Not that you needed the guide. Uzizi ringmaster Craig Matis articulated his tales of mature matters, conflating traditional Scottish hymns and American tunes into free-flowing medleys and chamber works.
The subtle six-person choir enchanted the evening with suspended sequences, echoes and clouds of sound based in sacred-harp singing. Choir was composed of Jordan Davis, Kathy Jo Gutgsell, Terry Gutgsell, Charlotte Newman, Mattie Rodgers & Denise Walters. Darren Frate on bass, Jim Van Cleef on lead guitar and Noel Howard on drums locked in tight as a garden gnat’s ass, offering contrapuntal counterpoint to Matis’ tales and strumming. Jo Folger’s clog dancing accompanied a few tunes on a small box to the side of the patio/stage.
Uzizi’s traditional violin by Reed Simon was replaced at the last minute with an improvised blues harp by David Krauss, grounding their progressive folk in an earthy funk, belying their bizarre instrumentation and offering a strangely calming continuity.
View the PHOTOSTREAM here.
