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James Falzone’s Allos Musica, Lamentations @ Chicago Cultural Center : Falzone is one of the city’s most focused and inquisitive clarinetists, and his compositions favor a rigor and precision that’s rare. He uses the Allos Musica name as an umbrella for several distinct projects, including the fine sextet that performed on the impressive The Sign and the Thing Signified earlier this year. This weekend he revisits the trio setting he first utilized last year during a commissioned series at Gallery 37. Working with the great Palestinian oudist and composer Issa Boulos, the group—rounded out by drummer Tim Mulvenna, who plays mostly frame drums in this context—explored an intersection of jazz improvisation and Arabic maqam. A live recording from last October displays an impressive fluidity, with Boulos and Falzone finding an agreeable comfort zone; the loose arrangements give the participants plenty of space, but structurally the pieces don’t cling too tightly to the often rigid demands of maqam. The 3 PM concert at Preston Bradley Hall features Ronnie Malley of Mucca Pazza and Lamajamal replacing Boulos. The group will also perform on Monday night at Koten Chapel on the campus of North Central College in Naperville, where Falzone teaches.
International Contemporary Ensemble @ various venues: This new music ensemble started in Chicago and now enjoys a split residency with New York. As this recent piece in the New York Times suggests, the group has quickly become an important presenter of contemporary classical music, encouraging young composers through commissions. They also ditch the rarefied air of classical music that bums out and alienates so many young people. Expediency and comfort guide their venue choices as much as the sound of the room. This weekend kicks off ICE’s fifth annual festival, with concerts all over the city—including the Velvet Lounge, Elastic, and Katerina’s—and it’s hard to imagine the opportunity to hear so much contemporary work in such a concentrated burst any other time of the year. The complete schedule is here.
