Tuesday, September 9, 2008 at 8pm
Sax, Sex, Six, Sox, Sux
Curated by Rebecca Cleman
In the immortal words of Cecil C. Sharp, poet of pulp and porn, the saxophone is an instrument comparable to a “disgorged stomach, full of wine and batter.” Since its arrival in the mid-nineteenth century, born to be carried in military marching bands, the saxophone has matured into a machine of intense and tainted sentimentality.
The saxophone’s cry is of the disappointed bank heist, a working man’s blues, the teenager’s rebellion, chintzy love poems, the burlesque dancer’s grinding pelvis, a killer’s flight down city streets, a rich man’s tumble, a descent into drunken violence, God’s lonely man, and that squall that echoes through the laser-lit streets of Vegas, the call of a lone wolf scavenging for change, surrounded by tourists gawking at the instrument’s sustained wail.
Tonight we’re going to kidnap that lovely wind instrument, and we’re gonna make it sing. We're gonna divert its song from the eternal fonts of dime-store muzak so we can hear it, stripped down, naked and raw. We’re gonna take a good long look at that which usually comes to us in the dark, like a night sweat. By the time it’s done your ears will be ringing with its ecstatic squeal. In desperate times, the sax is our smoothest mediator, cycling subcutaneous passion from toe to eyetooth. Kinky sex, murderous rampages, the song of the crooked grin – the saxophone’s cries twist our insides.
Sharp, again, in a haiku circa 1933:
A man, shot thrice, prone
Dark blood oozing from his poor
Farting saxophone
The evening will include:
Live sax, whiskey shots, found films and videos, and a dead man’s dance.
About the Saxophonist
Briggan Krauss is a New York based saxophonist/composer/sound artist. He is a founding member of Sex Mob and has worked with many of the most prominent musicians on the New York creative music scene and beyond. He leads several of his own projects as well as collaborating with many other improvisers and composers. For more information about Briggan, click here.
Rebecca Cleman is a writer, and the Distribution Director of Electronic Arts Intermix.
Tickets - $6, available at door.