Tortoise/Minneapolis Jazz All-Stars

Comments (0) By Rick Mason Wednesday, May 2 2012

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Walker Art Center

1750 Hennepin Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55403

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Region: Minneapolis (Downtown)

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In what's being billed as a "612-meets-312 experiment," the Walker has arranged for what promises to be an intriguing, ear-opening collaboration between veteran Chicago avant-garde rock band Tortoise and a quintet of local jazz musicians. Although often saddled with the curious term "post-rock," Tortoise has conjured over its two-plus decades a multi-dimensional, multi-textured, predominantly instrumental sound that's essentially a vortex of indie and prog rock, jazz, electronica, dub, minimalism, and themes from imaginary Westerns. Often there's a good bit more to it as well. The quintet's last album, 2009's Beacons of Ancestorship, includes the aggressive, punk-noise "Yinxianghechengqi," the gliding jazz-rock of "Prepare Your Coffin," and samba-funk on "Gigantes" — like all Tortoise's pieces ebbing and flowing through cascades of variously fleeting/expansive musical ideas. The All-Stars who are joining Tortoise at the Walker will be ingenious conceptual multi-instrumentalist Douglas Ewart, saxophonist/bassist Mike Lewis of Happy Apple and Fat Kid Wednesday, trumpeter Greg Lewis, nearly ubiquitous drummer JT Bates, and cellist Michele Kinney of Jelloslave fame. (Photo by Susan Anderson)
Fri., May 4, 8 p.m., 2012