Mute The Commercials

Thursday, February 23, 2017, at 7:00 pm

This is an archived event, not part of the current festival.

Mute the Commercials is a collaborative project between musicians/improvisers Jeff Miles, Alex Feldman, John Gray, and Alex Clough.  Most compositions are refined improvisations: ideas bounced around during rehearsals, refined on the spot, and then performed.

Although there is no vocalist singing lyrics, songs usually explore many topics, from works exploring beauty and truth, such as "Will We Remember You Tomorrow" to more surreal topics, such as a tone poem exploring life as an earthworm in "Earthworms". They also perform their arrangements of jazz and popular standards.

The group also participated in the 2016 Midi Sans Frontiers contest, sponsored by the electronic/jazz musician Squarepusher.  A response to the wave of nationalistic and xenophobic politics shaking the western world, Squarepusher asked musicians of all backgrounds and nationalities to compose music based on a composition of his, called Midi Sans Frontiers.  Mute the Commercials produced an arrangement of his work, adding their own signature blend of synthetic sounds mixed with live guitar, upright bass, and drums. Their work was featured on his website.

On February 23rd, they will perform their original compositions as well as certain standards as a double bill with the Matt Robbins Group.  Mute performs at 7pm, and Matt Robbins Group performs at 8:15pm.

Mute The Commercials is:

Jeff Miles - Guitar
Alex Cough - Synths
John Gray - Bass
Alex Feldman - Drums

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