Performers to honor acoustics of Troy Music Hall in variety show – Times Union

After settling on a roster, Vastek explains, “We purposefully left the directive open-ended so that the artists could write something that was true to their own language and practice.” As preparation, each of the commissioned artists was given time alone in the hall to play with the acoustics, explore the space and find inspiration.

While the Music Hall is the overarching theme, Vastke says they also wanted the evening to have an ongoing “musical thread.” For that, they turned to Burke, who wrote short interludes plus a grand finale in which all the artists, plus some surprise guests, can participate. The interludes will come between the different acts and be played by Vastek at the piano, with violinist Jessica Bowen and percussionist Nicholas Tariello.

For some participants, the invitation to perform on the hallowed Music Hall stage came as an unexpected honor. More daunting, at least initially, was the charge to create something brand new that speaks to some aspect of the historic venue.

The rock and soul artist Buggy Jive says he was contacted about the event early in the summer and that the commission “came out of nowhere.” On his website, Jive is described as “a singer-songwriter quietly uploading music from a basement somewhere in upstate New York.”  

Despite the reclusive persona Jive has a growing presence. He’s been honored at the last three Eddies, the Proctors Collaborative-sponsored award show which salutes leaders in the Capital Region’s music scene. He also performed at the 2022 ceremony and this year won in two categories: Video of the Year and Album of the Year. Just weeks ago, Jive got a jump on the Kaleidescape event and made his Troy Music Hall debut opening for Macy Gray. 

Jive recalls that a little while after receiving the Kaleidescape email, he got panicky and tried to dredge up whatever Troy history might have lodged in his memory from his days at WMHT, where he worked on documentaries about local communities. Instead, he’s relying on his experiences as an audience member at the Music Hall.   

He recalls great nights with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Randy Newman, to name only a few. But Jive seems to have fixated on a 2013 show by Elvis Costello when the star spontaneously stepped away from the microphones, trusted the hall and performed one song without amplification. “The audience was more attentive to that song than the entire rest of the show,” recalls Jive. So how will that inform his new song? “Well, I don’t want to give anything away,” replies the artist, using a line heard frequently from theater people but rarely from musicians.

For Sara Ayers, who works in the experimental and electronic realms, it’s been more than 15 years since her last live performance, but the invitation was just too good to pass up. “How could you say no to that? I’ve seen so many life-changing shows there,” she says, citing a short list of memorable nights that includes performances by two a cappella ensembles, The Anonymous Four and the chorus of Bulgarian women who toured on a best-selling recording “Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares” during the late ’80s.

For her new work, Ayers will blend her singing voice with electronics. “I don’t think I’ll have a keyboard but there’s definitely going to be an element of performance. I’ve played gigs with other musicians, they press a button like a player piano. I’ve never done that, it’s always live,” she says.

Ayers relished spending an hour or so alone in the Hall listening and walking around. She assessed and counted architectural details, like how many moldings there are or how many steps. That gave way to making and recording sounds, which will likely be sampled and processed in her piece. “I’m excited and a little nervous, but what could go wrong? I think it’s going to be great because of the acoustics. You could play a kazoo…”

Patrick Burke, who’s composed for the Dogs of Desire and teaches music theory at UAlbany and RPI, describes his task of wrapping the whole evening together as “tricky” and “a fun challenge.” After listening to previous work by the other artists, he says, “I found some similarities, blues sounding things that I can do. Blues harmonies and scales are common to most American pop music.”

He’ll also be playing with the spatial aspect of music. The positioning of a couple of musicians in the hall (and not onstage) should highlight the acoustics in a fresh way and also wrap the audience more closely into the process. “I could have done things that are specific to each group, but we wanted something consistent, a background that has its own coherence,” says Burke.

“The hall is known for its acoustics,” continues Burke, “but it’s the people inside who make it so magical — the people who run it, the musicians and also the audience. I did what I could to bring it all together.”