A Silver Mt. Zion

18+
Advance: $15
Day of Show: $18

Doors: 6:30 PM
Show Time: 7:30 PM

This is a general admission, standing event.
Artists
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra is a group led by founding Godspeed You! Black Emperor guitarist Efrim. Joined by fellow GYBE members Sophie (violin) and Thierry (contrabass), TSMZMO debuted with a performance at Constellation’s Musique Fragile concert series in spring 1999 and went on to record their first record in November of that year. Built around Efrim’s simple piano figures, the debut TSMZMO album also marks the first recording to document Thierry’s move from electric to acoustic upright bass, and the first recorded instance of Efrim on vocals since a rare 1996 GYBE cassette release.

The band expanded to six members in late 2000 with the addition of Beckie (cello), Ian (guitar) and Jessica (violin), and toured Europe in early 2001, returning to record a double album, released under the name The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band. With minor variations, the larger band has worked under this name ever since, releasing two more double albums in 2003 and 2005. These records have moved progressively towards a greater use of lead and group vocals, and an expanded vocabulary of influences and instrumentation, all rallied towards a highly original and uncompromising redefinition of punk-rock protest music. Multi-instrumentalist Scott (drums, mandolin, guitar) became the seventh Tra-La-La member, after joining the group for a 2004 tour.

TSMZMO has also been re-invented a couple of times in recent years, first as Thee Silver Mountain Reveries on a 2004 recording that originated with Efrim laying down song sketches in the studio and bringing in some TSMZMO alumni and others to fill out the arrangements, and more recently as Thee Silver Mountain Elegies Play War Radio, a band comprising four Tra-La-La Band members along with Gen and Eric from Hangedup, who wrote new music for a short tour in the fall of 2005.

Tra-La-La Band members play in a long list of other bands, including Black Ox Orkestar, Esmerine, Fifths of Seven, The Mile End Ladies’ String Auxiliary, Re:, Sloth is the Love and many others.

Their newest album is Kollaps Tradixionales.
Matana Roberts
Chicago born, Harlem based sound artist Matana Roberts is an alto saxophonist/composer/performer who works in various mediums of improvised sound and performance, and has been active in New York since 2001. A Vanlier and Brecht Forum fellow, as well as a 2008 and 2009 nominee for an Alpert Award in the Arts, she has appeared as a collaborator on recordings and performances worldwide with her own ensembles as well as with a variety of collaborative ensembles - such groups as Sticks and Stones, Burnt Sugar, Exploding Star Orchestra, the Oliver Lake Big Band, the Julius Hemphill Sextet, Myra Melford’s Happy Whistlings, Jayne Cortez’s Fire Spitters, Merce Cunningham Dance, and Savion Glover Dance. In 2008, the success of her leader debut, *The Chicago Project* (Central Control International), led critics to call Roberts “one to watch” (Kevin Legencre, *Jazzwise*) and “an eloquent, dramatic, tone warping free jazz artist right out of Ayler’s anti bop tradition.” (John Fordham, *London Guardian*) She has also recorded as a side woman on recordings with a large smattering of influential post rock ensembles such as Godspeed You Black Emperor, TV on the Radio, Savath and Savalas, and Thee Silver Mount Zion.