Folger’s gig book must be quite a sight. Yet even by his own standards of ubiquity, this week needs a big red circle around it for the two gigs in a three-day span that say a lot about his restless curiosity.
The first comes Thursday at Brothers Lounge with a new band, Resonance In The Field: Folger, saxophonist Brad Wagner, bassist Aidan Plank and drum magus Carmen Castaldi. “This is the first time that the four of us are getting together and playing,” Folger said. “Aidan, Carmen and Brad had a trio for a long time. So I kind of figured I’d bring them together again; it’s just something I put together [and] I’m throwing myself in the mix.”
Also thrown into the mix will be the music of Old And New Dreams, the quartet of former Ornette Coleman sidemen that had the same instrumentation. So expect to hear “Dewey’s Tune” from that band’s 1977 debut recording and compositions by Gary Peacock and Plank, most likely in spacious arrangements with plenty of solo space.
On Saturday the setting, scale and scope will expand for an evening-length composition Folger calls “May’s In Summer’s Arms” presented by the Third Law Collective at BOP STOP.
The title is drawn from a collection of poems, some of which will be read by Joshua Tucker, who will also play keyboards, and some will be sung by Raquel Roman?Rodriguez.
“I just turned 30 in April, and there’s feelings of transition and reflection that go along with that. So that’s kind of where the title came from,” Folger said by phone last month. “There’s also a lot about the physical body and how that responds to time and to age. One of the pieces I’ve written for Third Law sets some words by D.H. Lawrence from ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ as a way of connecting these ideas with the corporeal.”
Another piece sets “The Hours” by Cleveland poet Jo Sinclair. “I chose that poem because of the title and it’s how it deals with time,” Folger said, pointing out that “We deal with time as musicians too.”
Musicians also deal with the balance of individual expression brought to life by collective means. This, too, has been on Folger’s mind.
“For a good chunk of my 20s, I’ve been learning how to write in Third Law. So this is, in some ways, a dedication to the people in that group who have supported me and allowed me to make a lot of mistakes and try to learn a thing or two,” Folger said. “It’s a commentary on mentorship as well, and on community, on what that means.”
Folger acknowledged that confrontation and violence can arise from community as easily as can cooperation and benevolence. “It’s very multifaceted.” Yet being a part of Third Law has been transformative for his musical practice.
“I’ve written for larger ensembles before, [but] very few things I had ever written had been performed,” he said. “And here was a group that I could just write for every month, bring something in, and they would play it [and] play really well.”
Third Law, Folger said, “are some of the baddest players in town, who show up every month and they play the music not because they’re getting paid, not because there’s all these accolades, but because there’s a community in town that is striving to create something Incredible here and striving to uplift the scene of composers around town and to put us on the map, so that when you think of Chicago and you think of New York you can think of Cleveland too. That’s community.”
Resonance in the Field (Folger, Wagner, Plank, Castaldi), Thursday, June 11, 8 p.m., Brothers Lounge, 11609 Detroit Ave. Cleveland, free
Third Law Collective presents ‘May’s In Summer’s Arms’, Saturday, June 13, 8 p.m., BOP STOP, 2901 Detroit Ave. Cleveland, tickets $25 available here
For the most complete listing of jazz and jazz-adjacent events., look to Jim Szabo’s essential, weekly Northeast Ohio jazz calendar.
