I was starting to think that I had the address wrong. Walking through an area of San Francisco I had seen frequently from the car getting on to Highway 101 stuck in traffic, staring fearfully at pan handlers behind locked doors and raised windows. In the shadow of an ominous castle in the urban grit, among the sounds hip hop blasting from suped-up car stereos, the roaring freeway overhead, and sirens in the distance, came the sound of a string quartet.
The Revolution Quartet (Jory Fankuchen, Rachel Noyes, violins, Charith Premawardhana, viola
Samsun van Loon, cello) played selections from Debussy and Brahms the first performance in a series of Classical Revolution’s residence at Coda, a “Jazz Music Supper Club.” The audience at the restaurant/bar was silenced by the beautiful music but still enjoyed their food and drinks—an ideal combination. Expert microphone placement and discrete amplification gave the acoustic instruments a subtle boost and brought out colors and inner voices that are often lost in the balance.
Jazz Mafia was up next with a mesmerizing new composition by Adam Theis for trombone (played by the composer) and string quartet. The work featured a curious mix of directed improvisation, written-out melodies that sounded like improvisation, and world-music-like ostinato patterns. Trombone and a small string ensemble is difficult combination—the sound spectra of the instruments are so different that they are very difficult to blend—one is dark and rich, the other bright and metallic, creating an unusual blend.
The show’s headliner, also backed up by a string quartet with the addition of clarinet and trombone, was Rupa and (members of) the April Fishes. The band played Moulin-Rouge-like set of beautifully arranged dark Waltzes with lyrics in French and English. Recently returned from their European tour and with a new album, Este Mundo, the sound is elegant with a distinct unique character drawing on early 20th century idioms but also imbued a with contemporary singer-songwriter feel.
The Tuesday night concert was well attended, with a night-long happy hour of half priced drinks. Between affordable booze and beautiful muse’ the night did not fail to amuse.
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