’round midnight

Joining a large ensemble to realize John Schott’s durational performance of Thelonius Monk’s ‘Round Midnight over an eight hour session. This is music as 1) music, 2) performance art and 3) spiritual opportunity where quarter note = 2-1/2 minutes.

The performance intentionally takes place on Shavuot, when Jews are encouraged to stay up all night studying the holy texts together. Check out the one hour reduction from last year, though my experience of it was a bit different: sitting in John’s garage for hours as he played, studying, as instructed, the sound and being eternally surprised by the neighborhood birds joining in with their dawn chorus. A couple of them got quite close, standing in the doorway to see what they were harmonizing with.

• Mark Clifford, vibraphone
• Aurora Josephson and Cecilia Englehart on vocals
• Scott Larson, trombone
• Nikita Manin and Cory Wright on woodwinds
• Lisa Mezzacappa and Safa Shokrai on bass
• Kanoko Nishi-Smith, Koto
• Crystal Pascucci, cello
• Me, Jason Levis and John Hanes, drums and percussion.

Yes, of course, attend in person with mask and vax, or find your virtual level.