A laptop orchestra, a distinctive organ and other non-traditional approaches to music are featured at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall’s annual spring festival.
“Sonic Divergence: A Confluence of Musical Originals” includes a mix of different styles and instruments that will break the mold of typical music, said Richard Van Kleeck, Pick-Staiger’s director of concerts.
The series, which runs through Saturday, includes the Chicago-area debut of the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, Bang on a Can All-Stars, singer Lura and other artists. Thursday night will feature The Juliet Letters, with music by Elvis Costello and others.
“The point is to bring in a lot of new things we don’t present,” Van Kleeck said. “It broadens our horizons artistically, and it’s good all around musically and from an audience standpoint.”
Paquito D’Rivera, an eight-time Grammy-winning classical and jazz musician, will perform Saturday with Evanston-resident Howard Levy on the harmonica.
Levy said he expects their performance to bring a lot of humor, virtuosity and feeling. Though the style they’ll perform is mainly Latin jazz, there will be many offshoots of the style, which includes Cuban, Brazilian and classical influences, he said.
Levy said he enjoys any opportunity to interact and collaborate with other musicians.
“You achieve things you could not hope to achieve at the recording studio,” he said. “You understand what they mean as they’re playing.”
He looks forward to working with longtime friend D’Rivera because D’Rivera brings a sense of fun to the performance and gets the audience involved, Levy said.
Levy also finds there is something special about playing in his own town rather than Chicago or New York.
“I get a real charge from playing for my friends and neighbors,” Levy said. “Every place you play is different, and for an improvising musician you really do get a lot of ideas from the different places you play.”
Chris “Hambone” Cameron will be playing the B-3 organ Friday and said he’s excited to showcase originals of pieces he has been recording with a new band.
“There’s an immediacy to playing live,” he said. “It’s an of-the-moment thing.”
Cameron will perform with Dan Trudell and the Greater Harvest Missionary Baptist Church gospel choir, as part of a celebration of the B-3. The B-3, which was invented as a cheaper alternative to the church pipe organ, has a sound that spans a variety of musical genres including soul, pop, jazz and blues, Van Kleeck said.
The series will serve as an opportunity to bring together a mix of acts, Van Kleeck said. Despite the diversity of these musicians, he said they share a desire to experiment.
“It’s a great surge of different kinds of music,” Van Kleeck said. “Good musicians are good musicians. They’re doing something that has a unique voice, and we’re thrilled.”
