At 'Structured Impulse,' expect the unpredictable

By Tom Keogh

Audience interaction will play a part in Pacific Musicworks' next concert (Feb. 3), which will feature Seattle jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, lutenist/early-music expert Stephen Stubbs and Seattle Symphony violist Mikhail Schmidt.

In a conversation last October about the scope of Pacific Musicworks' ambitions for its current — and first complete — season, artistic director Stephen Stubbs described an intersection of the venerable and the experimental.

"We'll have a home base in Baroque times, but that doesn't shut out new music and new ideas," he said.

Following a season opener featuring late-Medieval-to-20th-century compositions dedicated to the "Song of Songs," and a mid-January program of oratorios by 17th-century Italian composer Giacomo Carissimi, PMW is ready for a musical high-wire act.

"Structured Impulse," an evening of time-and-genre-spanning improvisations scheduled Friday (Feb. 3) at Daniels Hall, will find Stubbs — a highly regarded lutenist, harpsichordist and conductor in the international early-music scene — sitting down with his Baroque guitar and chittarone (a large lute).

The Seattle native will be joined by two other Emerald City string luminaries: jazz guitarist Bill Frisell and Seattle Symphony Orchestra violinist Mikhail Schmidt.

The event's host, Canadian radio broadcaster and musician Tom Allen, is also the source of the idea behind "Structured Impulse," thanks to a commission Allen received from the Detroit Symphony for a summer series.

"One of his ideas was to get three musicians, from different walks of life, on a stage together for a spontaneous, improvised concert with his commentary," Stubbs says.

Allen invited Stubbs, Frisell and violinist Mark Fewer to play together, unprepared, for the first time at a June 2007 show, but Frisell canceled and was replaced by Allen.

"It was such a successful event," Stubbs says, "and Tom really made it interactive with the audience, getting them to ask us questions, provoke us to do this or that. I liked the concept so much, and I was so disappointed not to do the show with Bill."

This time around, Stubbs met with Frisell and Schmidt to identify ground to explore. Each artist offered something the others, in their own fashion, can participate in. Among the program's possibilities are riffs on Baroque-based chord patterns, Frisell's original music, and folk music spontaneously reshaped and arranged for the trio's instruments.

Also on the menu: the Beatles. Frisell's most recent recording, "All We Are Saying ... ," is an instrumental adventure in John Lennon territory.

Allen will tell stories and encourage questions and challenges from the audience. Stubbs says that at the Detroit show, an audience query led to Mark Fewer bursting into Cape Breton fiddle tunes.

"The only thing I can be absolutely certain about with this program is that I can't be certain about much," Allen says via email.

"Improvisation is the great thread through music history. From the Venetian masters to Bach or Handel to Mozart, Beethoven or Brahms ... they all improvised. They did it for fun, for work, as part of their composing regime, and sometimes simply because they didn't have anything prepared."

Tom Keogh: tomwkeogh@gmail.com

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