Baghdad/Seattle Suite

Comments (0) By Rick Mason Wednesday, Feb 3 2010

More About

Innovative guitarist and music visionary Bill Frisell returns to the Walker, one of his favorite playgrounds, bringing along his insatiable curiosity and two equally unusual musicians to perform the world premiere of the Walker-commissioned Baghdad/Seattle Suite. The Walker describes the composition as an East-meets-West piece combining traditional Iraqi maqams (classical Arabic scales), Americana, and jazz. Indeed, the trio not only spans the globe with each member's interests and trajectory; far-flung genres, ideas, and cultures are bridged, fused, and spun in unique directions by each on a regular basis. On dozens of singular projects, Seattle resident Frisell has found fresh expression by entangling jazz, country, classical, blues, and more exotic threads into dazzling, cutting-edge pastiches. Baghdad-born composer and oud virtuoso Rahim AlHaj was forced to leave Iraq in 1991 and eventually made his way to New Mexico, where he's been living for a decade. His music is exquisite and beguiling. Oregon native and Seattle resident Eyvind Kang is a violinist who principally studied with Sun Ra associate Michael White and Indian virtuoso Dr. N. Rajam in Bombay. A longtime Frisell collaborator, Kang has also performed with Robin Holcomb, Laurie Anderson, and Sun City Girls, as well as created original music spanning a vast spectrum from shards of Americana to free improv and minimalism. $29 ($25 for Walker members). (Photo by Michael Wilson)
Sat., Feb. 6, 7 & 9:30 p.m., 2010