A World of Piano: Myra Melford

Myra_melford
Myra Melford

Friday, February 10, 7:30 PM
Northampton Center for the Arts (Map)

Tickets: $15/general admission and $10/students. Available online at Brown Paper Tickets or sold at the door. Door sales are cash or check only.

“Melford is the genuine article,” writes Francis Davis, “the most gifted pianist/composer to emerge from jazz since Anthony Davis." A fearless musical adventurer, Melford recasts the blues and boogie-woogie of her native Chicago, folds in elements of the music of Eastern Europe and India, and blends them with the rangy, percussive avant-garde approach she cultivated in studies with Don Pullen and Henry Threadgill. This personal musical vocabulary is further enriched by a lush lyricism and organized by an architectural sense of composition that she derived from classical training. In addition to her ongoing performance ensembles, including Be Bread, Melford continues to pursue collaborative work with dancer/choreographer Dawn Saito, architect Michael Haberz, Butoh master Oguri, and duets with Satoko Fujii and Marty Ehrlich. She also makes guest appearances with multi-reedist Roscoe Mitchell, flutist Nicole Mitchell, and drummers Allison Miller and Alex Cline. She has been on the music faculty of the University of California, Berkeley since 2004.