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.
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
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.
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.
In many ways, our 2022 event was the odd one out — a one-night show versus a full weekend, at a new venue, and of course the fact that Covid was still with us in many ways. Still, we made the best of it, and there was some great music to be had for the small but enthusiastic crowd at Madame Lou’s in Belltown.
The evening began with Portland’s Rainbow Face.
Rainbow Face at Seaprog 2022, photo by Jon Davis
This band was an unknown quantity to many attendees, though their debut album has been out since 2020. Their take on progressive rock is loud and aggressive, with more than a little punk attitude.
Rainbow Face at Seaprog 2022, photo by Jon Davis
But we’re all about bringing the variety, and their music is complex enough for old prog-heads to get into.
Next up was a long-time favorite, Cheer-Accident. This was not their first time at one of our festivals, and as much as we hate to repeat ourselves, the fact that the musicians in Cheer-Accident are not the kind who repeat themselves!
Cheer-Accident at Seaprog 2022, photo by Jon Davis
This is a rather different lineup than we saw when they played our 2018 festival, and most of the musicians played more than one instrument.
Cheer-Accident at Seaprog 2022, photo by Jon Davis
But all of the instrument-switching was part of the show, and resulted in a great variety of sounds and textures.
Cheer-Accident at Seaprog 2022, photo by Jon Davis
This set was truly extraordinary, easily one of the best performances at any of our events. You just never knew what was going to happen next.
Cheer-Accident at Seaprog 2022, photo by Jon Davis
There were a few tracks recognizable to those familiar with Cheer-Accident’s albums, but much of the set seemed arranged just for us.
The evening finished with Bent Knee, though not exactly the Bent Knee we expected. Two of the members — guitar and bass — came down with Covid and were unable to make the journey from Boston, so the remaining four members did their best to adapt to the situation.
Bent Knee at Seaprog 2022, photo by Jon Davis
As it happens, Bent Knee was already in the process of changing to this new four-piece version, as the other two were already planning to leave. The timing of our event and the unexpected illnesses forced them to make the transition sooner than planned.
Bent Knee at Seaprog 2022, photo by Jon Davis
The performance had some of the magic the band is known for, though slanted more towards atmospheres and grooves. Some of the material came from new songs that the band was just working on.
Seaprog 2022 audience, photo by Jon Davis
Again, we’d like to offer our sincere thanks to all the brave music lovers who came out for this event. It would be dishonest to say that the turnout wasn’t a disappointment — but certainly no one who came was disappointed. Thanks to the staff and management at Madame Lou’s, our volunteers, and the good people at Shunpike and 4Culture who helped to make this possible
The ink is now dry, and we can announce the participation of Portland’s Rainbow Face in this year’s Seaprog mini-festival. They’ll be joining Bent Knee and Cheer-Accident for a night of amazing music.
Guitarist Jake Rose is the chief composer of Rainbow Face, which he formed in 2015. Their debut album, Stars’ Blood, came out in 2020, and has garnered praise from within the progressive rock community, making several writers’ Best of the Year lists. He’s joined by bassist Dominique Reveneau, keyboardist Salvador Altamirano-Farrell, and drummer Connor Reilly, whom we’ve seen before with The Mercury Tree (2014 and 2018).
