Wednesday August 17 – 10 pm (SC)
Saint Dirt Elementary School
“Saint Dirt Elementary School is a fearless nonet whose music at times suggests a kind of Bill Frisell-meets-Nino Rota hybrid with a smattering of Carla Bley (circa Music Mecanique and Social Studies) thrown in for good measure. The group’s songs are dizzying carousels of glockenspiels, piano, bass, guitars, and woodwinds that pack an abundance of ideas into tracks running no longer than five minutes at a time. The whimsical and irreverent tunes aren’t standard, solo-driven jazz compositions, though they are infused with a loose jazz sensibility and performed by players who could parade their chops if the music demanded it. Myk Freedman’s lap steel brings a Frisell-like twang to the material, while alto saxophonists Kai Koschmider and Evan Shaw, clarinetist Julia Hambleton, and pianist Tania Gill complete a powerful front line that attacks the material with high-wire abandon; Wes Cheang’s acoustic guitar, Ryan Driver’s synthesizer, and drummer Jake Oelrichs’ glockenspiel also add complementary colour. “ Textura
