Good Day Bad Day this Wednesday @ ADA Gallery

January 22, 2008; 6:38 AM • by Dean Christesen

Brian Jones will be presenting an evening of music at the ADA Gallery on Wednesday, January 23rd, at 8:30 PM. Jones is known for his creative drumming style and the arsenal of groups he composes for, performs and records with. The evening will start off with a collection of original numbers featuring one of these groups – his “Ballad Quartet” – with J.C. Kuhl (soprano sax), Cameron Ralston (bass), and Taylor Burton (bass/cello). Jones comments that he “Always liked J.C. [Kuhl]’s soprano sax sound and wanted an excuse to work with Cameron Ralston” as the justification for this new line up. As documentation of this group, The Brian Jones Ballads Quartet (sub Matt Hall for Burton) CD Sub Rosa has been recorded and is awaiting release in the near future. “I was listening to a lot of Tomasz Stańko and I wrote a few ‘free’ ballads,” said Jones while describing the sound of this new group.

Headlining the evening is Emre Kartari’s latest group, Good Day Bad Day, consisting of Kartari (drums), Zulfugar Baghirov (sax), and John Lee (guitar). Kartari is a 2001 VCU graduate now living and playing around Washington D.C. and his resume ranges from the seminal almost-famous rock band The Brindley Brothers (now Luke Brindley) to the Jazz Poet’s Society. He holds an extensive track record of performing and recording with greats like Charlie Byrd, Jim McNeely, David Liebman, John D’Earth, Darius Jones, and Mike Richmond, and has released CDs as both a leader and a sideman. He elaborates on his new group’s sound, accenting that “Like some of the projects I have done before, our music involves strong dialogue, with minimal boundaries,” and that their “improvisations may vary from nonlinear sounds/textures to bebop vocabulary.” As for the composition of the music, Kartari draws influence from his comrade in music, Jones. Jones’ use of sketches – as opposed to thorough arrangements and instructions – inspired Kartari to put down on paper “just enough to give us an idea of the mood, and to give us a road map of when to start and finish.”

Against the backdrop of downtown Richmond in one of its more chic art galleries, this evening of music promises to live up to the expectations by the fans of two of the most creative drummers to come out of the River City.

Wednesday, January 23, 8:30 – 10:30 PM
$5, all ages.
ADA Gallery
[where: 228 W. Broad St., Richmond, VA 23220]