Playing material exclusively from the just released Forgotten Aspect album, saxophonist Elaine Alt’s Alt Jazz Ark Corpus X Quartet assembles at Bird & Beckett this Friday for a concert in celebration of the album — original compositions that swing mightily! This project is a retrospective of material Elaine wrote during the late 1980s and early ‘90s. The quartet’s rhythm section features Bay Area characters, all of whom have much more extensive credentials and play at more prestigious venues than Elaine, sez he/she/them in an excess of modesty! Elaine’s output is prodigious; the album is terrific.

Elaine Alt – alto & baritone saxophones & piano
Gaea Schell – piano & flute
Christopher Amberger – bass
Greg German – drums

$20 cover charge; cash at the door please. BYOB.
Students $10.

Elaine Paul Alt is a powerhouse musical/political activist, running jam sessions at the Mercury Cafe on Octavia, playing with Bohemian Knuckleboogien at the Sheba Lounge, working out repertoire with the Corpus X and Corpus Z groups, marching in resistance ensembles as they coalesce, all feeding on three decades of immersion in musical cultures and styles that include Jazz, western Classical, Afro-Cuban, Indian Classical and Nauntanki. Elaine studied clarinet performance, composition and conducting at the Manhattan School of Music with Herbert Tischman, New England Conservatory with Michael Webster, the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors and Orchestra Musicians under Charles Bruch, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Evan Ziporyn and Ian Greitzer. Vibrations happen! 

You can read more about them on the Forgotten Aspect album page at altjazz.org.

On Substack, Elaine has analyzed the evolution of a few of their early songs by comparing the original handwritten chart to the version they play today, including the songs Fade, Enclosure, and and the title track, Forgotten Aspect. Each song has gone through multiple stages of revision during the yearlong workshopping project that preceded the album, and continued through the rehearsal and preparation for the recording. It’s a delight to welcome the quartet to the bookshop tonight!