Tony Levin and Band of Brothers wrapup

For those who made it to the Nectar Lounge last night, there was a stellar night of music on hand. Seaprog was proud to have had a part in presenting this great show.

Dennis Rea and James DeJoie at Nectar Lounge, 1/22/2024, photo by Jon Davis
Dennis Rea and James DeJoie, photo by Jon Davis

The show was opened in lovely fashion by two locals who are no stranger to Seaprog stages. Dennis Rea and James DeJoie are both members of chamber-rock favorites Moraine, but they also do a lot more. For this special event, they performed as a duo of acoustic guitar and flute. This is a far cry from the intense and complex music of Moraine, featuring gentle and jazzy takes on a variety of material drawn from many sources.

Band of Brothers at Nectar Lounge, 1/22/2024, photo by Jon Davis
Band of Brothers, photo by Jon Davis

It probably goes without saying that many of the attendees were drawn by the presence of bass legend Tony Levin. His work in King Crimson, Stick Men, and with Peter Gabriel (and hundreds of others) has cemented his status as one of the all-time great bassist, but for this outing he was in pure jazz mode.

This was an augmented version of the Levin Brothers band featuring Tony on bass and his brother Pete on keyboards. They’ve got several albums out, but this time they were combined with the LaBarbera brothers Joe (drums) and Pat (woodwinds). They drew their setlist from the jazz repertoire as well as from creative arrangements of tunes associated with Tony’s other work. All of these guys have extensive careers that have touched on many of the giants of jazz, and they all have fascinating stories to tell, so it wasn’t just an evening of outstanding playing.

Artist profile: Rea / DeJoie Duo

Dennis Rea and James DeJoie
Dennis Rea and James DeJoie

Dennis Rea and James DeJoie are both fixtures on the Seattle progressive and experimental music scene, both together and separately. They are both members of Moraine, and individually have associations with Tempered Steel, Zhongyu, The Machine That We Built, Flame Tree, Zubatto Syndicate, and The Central Committee — and that’s just the ones which have been involved with Seaprog events!

Personnel:

  • Dennis Rea — Acoustic guitar
  • James DeJoie — Flute

Artist links:

Performances:

Artist profile: Band of Brothers

Tony Levin with Band of Brothers
Tony Levin with Band of Brothers

Bassist Tony Levin is a legend in progressive rock due to his tenure with King Crimson and in Peter Gabriel’s band, not to mention studio work with hundreds of other artists. But he started out in jazz and with Band of Brothers, featuring the famous bassist with his brother Pete on keyboards along with brothers Joe and Pat LaBarbera on drums and saxophone respectively, we get a taste of that side of his musical work.

Pete Levin has a long association with Gil Evans and his groups, in addition to Carla Bley, the Brecker Brothers, Charles Mingus, Annie Lennox, Bryan Ferry, Jaco Pastorius, and dozens more.

Pat LaBarbera is perhaps best known for his tenure in the Buddy Rich band, but he also worked extensively with Elvin Jones, and has released around a dozen albums as leader. Joe LaBarbera has played drums with many of the luminaries of jazz, including Bill Evans, John Abercrombie, Chuck Mangione, John Scofield, and Woody Herman.

Personnel:

  • Tony Levin — Bass
  • Pete Levin — Keyboards
  • Joe LaBarbera — Drums
  • Pat LaBarbera — Woodwinds

Artist links:

Performances:

Seaprog Presents an evening of guitar music

The next in our Seaprog Presents series events will take place on September 21 at the Royal Room. This show will feature Guitar Cult, a collection of guitarists assembled by composer Ben McAllister to play his multi-guitar pieces. Also on the bill is the Seattle Guitar Circle, a long-running project of flexible membership coordinated by Steve Ball.

Seaprog Presents poster
Seaprog Presents poster

Seattle composer / guitarist Ben McAllister (Degenerate Art Ensemble, Wizard Prison, Tuktu, Medicine Hat) has been growing the Guitar Cult over the last 6 years — first as an 11-piece Ebow choir in 2017 for a one-off show at UW’s Meany Theater, evolving into a tight unit of six electric guitars. At last, they rise from the pandemic ashes, playing their first show together since 2020. Honing McAllister’s interlocking communal guitar excursions and adding drummer Neil Wilson has sharpened the work into precise hypnotic windows, which may call to mind the early phase musics of Steve Reich or Louis Andriessen but with a rock vocabulary.

Seattle Guitar Circle was founded in 1993 by Steve Ball, Bill Rieflin and Bill Van Buren. For 30 years, they have been playing eclectic, polyrhythmic prog chamber music arranged for large acoustic guitar ensemble all over the Seattle area. Seattle Guitar Circle has many related sub-groups such as Tuning the Air (seven years of weekly shows at Freemont Abby), Tiny Orchestral Moments (7+ years of workshops and live shows), and Argentina’s Electric Gauchos, recording and performing in Seattle since 1997.

This international community was initially born via Robert Fripp’s ‘Guitar Craft’ workshops that began in 1985. Each SGC performance is a combination of tightly-arranged chaos, layered guitars, ‘circulations’ — where each guitarist plays one note at a time in evolving melodies — and more.

SGC performs collaborative repertoire for layered guitars and voices including structured improvisation that sounds composed and composed collaboration that sounds improvised. This 2023 ‘Simple Songs’ performance brings to life new arrangements of pieces by Charles Ives, Chick Corea, Erik Satie, Hanai Rani, John Coltrane, Jon Brion, Jonny Greenwood, Leo Brouwer, Meredith Monk, Robert Fripp, Ryuichi Sakamoto — as well as new work from composers within the core SGC team.

Doors at 6:30, music begins at 7:30. Tickets $15 advance, $20 at the door.

Seaprog Presents Moraine and Spine Readers at Darrel’s

Seaprog Presents poster
Seaprog Presents poster

We’re happy to announce another in our ongoing series of Seaprog Presents events. This one will take place on Saturday, May 27 at Darrel’s Tavern in Shoreline.

Moraine continues to unveil new tunes, alongside Bellingham’s formidable Spine Readers and the debut of Dennis Rea’s new psych-rock cover band, the Whateverly Brothers, in that order.

Moraine has built a reputation as an electrifying, wide-ranging instrumental band, gaining an international audience with their unique amalgam of art rock, forward-thinking jazz, Asian-inspired music, and more.

Spine Readers is a Bellingham power trio specializing in all sub-genres of pop music.

The Whateverly Brothers finish off the evening with their debut set of psych- and space-rock gems. With Ffej on vocals and electronics, Peter Comley and Dennis Rea on guitars, Cary Kindberg on bass, and Doug Wilkerson on drums.

Charley Churchill & The Heathens will open this stellar bill.