[NewMusicEvents] Thurs 7/24 - William Hooker + Weasel Walter Quintet - it's 21 Grand's 8th Anniversary summer

[Sarah - 21 Grand]

Thursday, July 24th 21 Grand presents:
NY Percussionist William Hooker performs live to African-American filmmaker,
Oscar Micheaux's rarely screened silent film "Symbol of the Unconquered"
(1920)  w/Damon Smith (bass) and opening set by the Weasel Walter Quintet
(Liz Allbee - trumpet, Aurora Josephson - voice, Jacob Lindsay - clarinets,
Weasel Walter - drums, William Winant - percussion).
8:30pm, $7-10 sliding scale
-- 
21 Grand
416 25th St.
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 444-7263
http://www.21grand.org

About William Hooker:
Black drummer William Hooker, who moved to New York in 1974, remained
fundamentally faithful to the aesthetic of free-jazz (despite a passion for
exoteric/spiritual themes), starting with the double-LP Is Eternal Life (may
1975), a set of collaborations with other improvisers (including tenor
saxophonists David Murray and David Ware. Rediscovered by Sonic Youth's
guitarist Thurston Moore for the rock audience, Hooker returned to a more
abstract and free-form kind of creative improvisation in the main works of
his prolific middle age: Darkness (november 1992) and The Spirits Return
(april 1994) on the live Radiation, by Hooker's band featuring Donald Miller
(Borbetomagus), electronic musician Brian Doherty, Compo, Kono; a duet with
Moore (Sirius) and an electroacoustic duet with guitarist Elliott Sharp (The
Hat) on Shamballa (1993), and recordings with Zeena Parkins, Billy Bang, and
Lee Renaldo (Sonic Youth), DJ Olive, and Christian Marclay.

The albums with Ranaldo were heavily influenced by his screeching sounds,
just like the albums with Donald Miller were heavily influenced by his
turbulent wall of noise. Armageddon (february 1995) marked a change in
direction, both because the improvisations turned towards a more
sophisticated kind of soundpainting and because the stylistic palette
expanded dramatically, ranging from a dadaistic duet with turntablist Gregor
"DJ Olive" Asch to the 16-minute free jam State Secrets for drums and two
guitars. 

http://www.scaruffi.com/vol5/hooker.html


About the film:
Oscar Micheaux was an independent filmmaker and entrepeneur, whose earliest
and most significant films were responses to D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a
Nation," portraying the African-American struggle against white racism and
the KKK. These films were "Within Our Gates" (1919) and "Symbol of the
Unconquered" (1920), both lost for decades and restored in the 1990s. In
Symbol of the Unconquered, the black hero holds his ground and chivalrously
protects a lovely light-skinned mulatta neighbor (who is passing as white)
as a local gang of thieves and hooded, torch-carrying Klansmen plots to
frighten him, steal his land and finally, to kill him. Though how they do it
remains unknown due to a key missing reel, the amorous "black" couple
emerges from the ordeal unscathed and thrilled to discover their shared
racial identity. Laced within these (and many other) Micheaux melodramas are
themes of inter- and intra-racial tensions and hatred, many of which are
expressed sexually.

About the Weasel Walter Quintet:
This quintet featuring five idiosyncratic, skilled improvisers from the
bay area scene creates a music that tempers microscopic detail and nuance
with bloodyminded humor and chaos. Bizarre studies in insanity and
asymmetry featuring vocals, the entire range of the clarinet family,
trumpet and duelling percussionists.