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March 19, 2025 Music » Music News + Views
Published March 19, 2025 at 10:00 a.m.
Some readers out there — bless ‚em — are under the misconception that your friendly neighborhood music editor is a walking repository of knowledge on all things music, especially when it comes to the Vermont scene. The truth is, while I like to think I cover a lot of bases, there are many, many cool things happening in the Green Mountain music world that I need help to find and signal boost. (And a hearty thank you to all who do that!)
Case in point: When intrepid Seven Days news reporter — and jazz fan — Derek Brouwer popped by my desk to ask if I knew about the upcoming event at Bennington College celebrating the school’s long relationship with Black music, I replied with a particularly dumb-sounding „Uh, say what now?“
Hey, you learn something new every day.
Bennington’s Black Music Division was founded in 1974 by the late, great trumpet virtuoso and composer Bill Dixon. To celebrate the program’s 50th anniversary and highlight its ongoing mission to explore the cultural significance of Black music, the school is holding a symposium this Friday and Saturday, March 21 and 22, including speakers, performances and workshops.
Percussionist, composer and Bennington College faculty member Michael Wimberly organized the event, which features musician alumni such as Stephen Haynes, Jackson Krall and Lisa Sokolov.
„This symposium honors the improvisational brilliance of the Black Music Division’s foundational figures, Bill Dixon and Milford Graves,“ Wimberly said in a press release. „I’m thrilled to share this moment with so many talented artists and students who continue to carry this tradition forward.“
Admission is free, but the school strongly urges those interested in attending to register, as space may be limited. For more information, visit bennington.edu.
Accordionist and composer Ben Richter is finishing up his residency at Epsilon Spires in Brattleboro by presenting the world premiere of his new experimental piece, „VAALBARA,“ this Saturday, March 22.
Richter, who also directs the Massachusetts nonet Ghost Ensemble, is known for his microtonal compositions and use of unorthodox — by Western standards — time signatures on albums such as 2023’s Aurogeny. For the final performance of his March residency at the converted former church, Richter is joined by Mexican American cellist Laura Cetilia and experimental composer and sound recordist Mike Bullock. Epsilon’s historic Estey 3-manual pipe organ, built in 1906 by the Estey Organ Company, will also feature in Richter’s new piece.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit epsilonspires.org.
Local percussionist and experimental musician JB Ledoux, aka Jo Bled, has launched a new, Bandcamp-exclusive netlabel called Flux ov Time. According to Ledoux, the imprint will focus on „percussion/beat-forward experimental, noise, contemporary classical, absurdist, yazz, unlistenable, and avant-garde“ music.
One of the label’s first releases is Repository of Irritated Sounds by experimental composer nd dentico, aka Nick Dentico. The East Montpelier musician, who operates his own experimental cassette label, Histamine Tapes, describes his newest piece as a drone-heavy mix of baritone guitar, played with various metal objects such as dowels and whisks, and field and hydrophone recordings of local flora, rivers and brooks.
Dentico wrote the majority of the music during the final months of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, which resulted in some pretty politically influenced song titles, such as „By the Bootlicking Dog Whistles of the Plains States“ and „I’m in the Stage of Naming My Grief as Opposition to the Incoming Fascists.“
„I imagine, to many, the songs on the album could be interpreted as the irritated sounds,“ Dentico wrote in an email. „But this also represents my frustration with the rhetoric of the Republican Party right now.“
Flux ov Time will remain an online-only label for now, according to Ledoux, who isn’t sure if he can „philosophically support putting more plastic, physical media into the world … and if it would ever break even if I put out tapes or CDs (probably not).“
The label launch caps off a busy few months for Ledoux, who released Baby Is a She-Ghost on Serbian label Splitting Sounds Records in February and announced the August return of his Burlington experimental music fest, Yazz Fest. Stay tuned for more info on what’s already shaping up to be a busy festival season this summer. And learn more about Flux ov Time at fluxovtime.bandcamp.com.
TR3 FEATURING TIM REYNOLDS, SHAKEDOWN LOUNGE AT STOWE CIDER, SUNDAY, MARCH 16: Live at Luther College, the acoustic duo album that Dave Matthew and longtime collaborator Tim Reynolds released in 1999, was my first introduction to the real Tim Reynolds. Disc two, track two was a Reynolds tune I didn’t recognize called “Stream.” On first listen, the song’s intense energy felt out of place, the playing frenetic and out of control. I enjoyed the performance, but I didn’t “get it.” I eventually came to recognize the intentionality of the composition, performed with exacting precision, and realized that Reynolds didn’t actually “write” this song, he channeled it from his own, well, stream of consciousness. Twenty-six years later in Stowe, and I’m shaking hands with Reynolds and the band, knowing that this show will be my first real introduction to TR3, Reynolds’ rock-funk fusion project started in 1988. The performance echoed my previous experience in ’99 — a roller coaster of wild energy shifts, unpredictable genre mashups, chaotic rhythms and ferocious guitar playing. I’m sure it all went to plan, and those already familiar with TR3 knew they didn’t have to “get it” — they just needed to buckle up for a wild ride.
Tags: Music News + Views, Bill Dixon, Stephen Haynes, Jackson Krall, Lisa Sokolov, Ben Richter, Flux ov Time, Tim Reynolds
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