Creative Alarm Inventions Festival of New and Improvised Music at CSU Dominguez Hills presents a concert featuring composer and flutist Ellen Burr guiding participants of the CSUDH improvisation workshop and the Decisive Instant, a large, improvising ensemble co-led by Jeff Schwartz and Charles debuting compositions by Jonathan Grasse and Charles Sharp. Tuesday, March 17, 2015. 7:30pm. $5. Marvin Laser Recital Hall, La Corte A103, CSU Dominguez Hills.
Category Archives: Gigs
Live Human + Charles Sharp this Friday
Sometime in the summer in the mid-1990s, Albert Mathias, Andrew Kushin and I had a gig in a art gallery in the mission district of San Francisco for an opening reception. When we got there the gallery owner greeted us, provided with cans of very good Dutch or German beer — procured from Trader Joe’s, I forget the exact brand, the cans were white and I had never heard of it before or since. No one was in gallery but the owner and ourselves; we began playing. I am fairly certain it was my own composition, though we had tunes by Monk, Mingus, Coltrane, and others in our regular set lists. I closed my eyes and took an extended solo. I opened my eyes at the end of the solo to discover the room had filled with people. It was hard to focus and I felt a bit dizzy–it was a hell of a solo. I was convinced, if only for a moment, that my solo had conjured the crowd of people from the ether. It was not, and still is not, that unusual for my solos to make people disappear. Albert and Andrew went to on to become famous in Japan with DJ Quest in the fantastic group Live Human while I turned into a doctor of music (caring for sick music since 2008). Albert, Andrew, DJ Quest and myself join forces again this Friday in Long Beach following local hero, Dave Williams, who will playing a set of jazz standards with his trio. And there’s art on the walls. Conjuring will happen, regardless of whether or not you appear or disappear.
Friday, January 23, 5-8pm in the CALB art gallery above Shenanigans Irish Pub. 423 Shoreline Village Drive, Suite A. Long Beach, CA 90802. Free – donations accepted.
Baast, your neighborhood intergalactic mystical free form funk band, opens to the portal to inner space tonight at 4th Street Vine, 8-11pm. 2142 E. 4th St. Long Beach, CA 90814.
Tour of the Bay Area
Jeff Schwartz and I will be playing all over the Northern parts of California from the 19th to the 24th with master percussionist Andrea Centazzo and two gigs with our own Northern compatriots.
- July 19: Dagny’s Coffee, Bakersfield. 4-6PM. $5. Performances by Morphic Resonance, the C#4 (with Kris Tiner and Vijay Anderson), and a joint set of Sun Ra’s music. (Facebook event)
- July 20: Berkeley Arts, 8PM. $TBD. Next, followed by Moe!/Thollem McDonas duo. (Facebook event).
- July 21: Luna’s, Sacramento. 7:30PM. $5-20 sliding scale. Next + Byron Colborn Group. (Facebook event)
- July 23: Tom’s Place, Berkeley, 7:00PM. $TBD. Next with guest star Jon Raskin.
- July 24: Studio Grand, Oakland. 9:30PM. $10-15. California Unification Process: improvisations by combinations of Jeff Scwartz, Charles Sharp, Jordan Glenn, Motoko Honda, Lisa Mezzacappa, Tim Perkis, Jennifer Wilsey, and Francis Wong. (Facebook event).
Next Trio at Battery Books
Improvised music from Andrea Centazzo, Jeff Schwartz, and Charles Sharp on June 20th, at The Battery Bookstore in South Pasadena from 8-11pm. Free as the weather. Buy a book!
Paso Doble Sábado
*very slim chance of actual pasodobles. I have two gigs this Saturday.
1. Music for and near the Keith Glassman Dance & Performance Company. 5pm, Unurban Coffee House, 3301 Pico Blvd. LA, CA 90404 with Jeff Schwartz and Rich West on bass drums. Free. More info here.
2. Excursions: Rhythm and Hue – a mini jazz festival, free in cost and in attitude. Next with Andrea Centazzo, Jeff Schwartz and myself will go on at 10pm. Before us a stellar line-up of local improvisors starting at 7pm. MADhaus Long Beach 624 Pacific Ave., Long Beach, California 90802 – The facebook page with more info is here.
charles sharp music 