Body Music Festival promises dizzying variety

November 4, 11:41 AMBay Area Jazz ExaminerDavid Becker

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Parisian LeeLa Petronio is among the performers set to make skin music at the festival.
IBMF/LeeLa Petronio

I'm not sure if the work presented at the International Body Music Festival qualifies as "jazz" in any strict sense. But there's sure to be a lot of creative improvisation going on as a dozen or so international artists flood into the Bay Area next month, and that's good enough for me.

Basically, we're talking music without instruments other than the human body, which might sound a little limited if you're only thinking about clapping and foot stomping. But factor in beat-boxing, a dizzying array of belly-slap techniques, precisely tuned underarm farts and stuff that may not even have a name yet, and you get a rich variety of tones and rhythms that can carry anything from hip-hop to rhumba,

This year's festival, organized by local polymath Keith Terry, runs Dec. 1-6 at various Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco venues. A number of shows during last year's inaugural festival sold out, so get tickets now.

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