Inspiring flute jazz

Lofty’s 287 E. Fountain Blvd (at Weber) Presents:

Freebird: An evening of poetic jazz on Thursday February 9 7-9 PM

Freebird: A new group and a new sound

Freebird is our new group featuring FluteDaddy on flutes, Lee Gardner on bass and Dick Cunico on drums. We play what we call poetic jazz - imaginative, emotional, expressive. We begin with a familiar pop or jazz standard  arranged in a new beat, and we use that as a platform to enter into an free dialogue between the instruments. The music conversation can be like life – sometimes dull, sometimes thrilling. And in peak moments it is magical!

Dick and Lee each have prior experience playing with modern jazz and free jazz style groups – Dick in Los Angeles and Lee in New York. I started to explore this style recently after being intrigued by some music by Ornette Colman, Sam Rivers and similar others. As a listener, I was turned off by the frenetic, non-melodic sounds of some  groups and found some to be surprisingly  satisfying and artful.  We three were motivated to express ourselves in this style and at first we groped and fumbled until we started to trust, and as the relationship became intuitive, we started producing some compelling musical experiences.

Lofty’s was the IndyPick • Best Of 2011: Hangout for Bagel Sandwiches, Local Music, Lattes and Libations.

Follow Weber Street south to where it dead-ends in the historic Lowell School neighborhood, and you’ll find Lofty’s, a quaintly cool café/eatery that recently began offering well-chosen beer, wine and spirits. Opened by Rubbish co-founder Josh Kennard in the wake of the gallery’s late 2010 closing, Lofty’s captures the atmosphere of pre-Starbucks coffeehouses, where owners are on-site and, in the case of Kennard, culturally aware and conversational. In September, the venue celebrated its new liquor license and expanded hours (10 a.m. to 10 p.m.) with 10 hours of live performances from some of our best local musicians. — Bill Forman, Independent

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