Denton, 1.22.2025

My first night out of this already daunting year was the premiere event of Joan of Bark Presents, the monthly series curated by Sarah Ruth Alexander and Stephen Lucas at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios. (Molten Plains is dead, long live Joan of Bark Presents.) The Improv Lotto was scheduled to feature 12 musicians, but percussionist Bobby Fajardo and dancer Sarah Gamblin were unable to perform, so the evening's program consisted of a quartet and two trios. I missed the drawing of names, between a stop at Recycled Books and another at a friend's house, but 75% of the opening quartet was already familiar, in one way or another.

Said quartet comprised cellist Will Frenkel, drummer Cade Bundrick, vocalist Julia Eva Boheme, and guitarist Mike West. Frenkel was familiar from previous improv appearances. Bundrick (whose uncle used to play keys for some English band) fronted BIGHAND/BIGKNIFE, whom I witnessed at a skateboard event in Fort Worth a few years back, and currently kicks the traps with post-rockers Please Advise and Southern gothic songster Chris Welch. West was in experimental improv outfit Violent Squid, and works with Bundrick at Recycled. 

Only Boheme was new to me, and she definitely made an impression with her paroxysmal physical presence and wordless vocal utterances. From the beginning, the group was surprisingly cohesive, with Frenkel starting things off, Bundrick playing mutant one-drop groove, with West responding with chorused chords, like Andy Summers but out. They all ended together, then resumed with a second piece, and finished with a third that was more bombastic and ended with a yelp from Boheme that was definitely conclusive and brought laughter from the audience. Free improv can be fun, and funny.

Second set was a vocal-with-electronics trio comprising another improv stalwart, Sarah Jay; a newcomer, Grae Gonzalez, and Lotto co-curator Alexander. The three women blended their voices, and Jay and Alexander interwove their electronic sounds, in a manner that was cosmic and ethereal and almost begged for visual accompaniment. 

The concluding set was a keyboard-and-strings trio with Lotto co-curator Aaron Gonzalez on stand-up bass and vocal, Matthew James McNabb on electronic keyboard (using an acoustic piano sound), and the always stellar Kourtney Newton on cello. Gonzalez met McNabb when they were working on a production at Dallas' Ochre House Theater, and the keyboardist brought many influences to bear in his extemporization. Newton responded empathetically with virtuosic chops, including mastery of extended techniques, and deployed a melodica to break things up texturally. 

At one point McNabb attacked the keys percussively and Newton picked up on his rhythm; another time, she started a three-note ostinato that he took and developed. Throughout, Gonzalez provided the tonal foundation with arco drones and made occasional vocal interjections. There were a couple of times I saw the string players reach a conclusion, only to hear McNabb start a new thought stream. Finally Gonzalez signaled closure with a guttural vocalism. Improv's a good metaphor for life: You start with what you have, you respond to what's around you, you follow it where it takes you. I'm glad Joan of Bark is continuing to present these evenings.