November 2017 – a couple of London get-togethers – another Society of Imaginary Friends Soiree (3rd November) and the return of Staggerlee Wonders to IKLECTIK (17th November)

Society Of Imaginary Friends present:
“Day After the Day of the Dead”: I Am Her + Magdalena Grabher + John Glyn + Richard Bolton + Martin Wakefield + Lord Buckley Of Hackney + Cian Binchy + DJ Miracle Rhythm
Kabaret @ Karamel Restaurant, The Chocolate Factory 2, 4 Coburg Road, Wood Green, London, N22 6UJ, England
Friday 3rd November 2017, 7.00pm – information

Celebrating both the success of their latest music video Beautiful Boy (down as a potential winner at the Birmingham International Film Festival) and the life and times of recently departed cohort Sheila (“a lovely, lively woman”), art-pop band-cum-eclectic curators Society Of Imaginary Friends are throwing another soiree party in Wood Green.

Alongside the regulars – the Society themselves, poet-raconteurs Cian Binchy and Martin Wakefield, plus singer/songwriter/“punk goddess” I Am Her – this one sports Austrian “electronically enhanced genius of chanteuse” Magdalena Grabher. There’s also what’s described as “improvised mayhem from two smoking barrels” courtesy of a pair of current music healers with delightfully chequered pasts (saxophonist John Glyn of Republic and the ’80s socialist big band The Happy End; guitarist Richard Bolton from all manner of London jazzings up to and including fencing with spass-guitar berserker Billy Jenkins, now mostly fixing auras with therapeutic fusion band Symbiosis). The DJ set will be provided by DJ Miracle Rhythm (via a “left-field life enhancing corduroy collection of surreal sounds from the undergrowth” and as ever there’ll be vegan food a go-go.

For more on the Society (and I Am Her) have a look back at previous soiree postings; for the Glyn/Bolton improvs you’ll just have to show up and wonder; but meanwhile, here’s Magdalena…

* * * * * * * *

Mid-month, IKLECTIK sees another visit from the Staggerlee Wonders project, who swung by last last December (and have made it to Cafe Oto at least once in the interim)…

I K L E C T I K presents
Staggerlee Wonders
IKLECTIK, Old Paradise Yard, 20 Carlisle Lane, Waterloo, London, SE1 7LG, England
Friday 17th November 2017, 8.00pm – information

As I mentioned last time, the project’s title is taken “from James Baldwin’s blazingly scornful, almost conversational poem – itself named for the black outlaw/hoodlum who flits and thunders through a set of conflicting American tales and songs, taking on the roles of murderer, proud badass, pimp and more.” Staggerlee Wonders itself is a freewheeling band with a changing cast, mingling free jazz with black radical words from the jazz renaissance (not just by Baldwin, but by the likes of Langston Hughes and Amiri Baraka)

Last year’s concert featured contributions from various remarkable polygenre musicians (including vibraphonist Corey Mwamba, dazzling bass player John Edwards and singer/movement performer Elaine Michener). This year there are three returnees – geologically slowhanded pianist Robert Mitchell (Epiphany3, Panacea), singer and storyteller Debbie Sanders and drummer extraordinaire Mark Sanders. John Edwards’ place on bass is taken by the similarly cosmopolitan Neil Charles (of BlackTop, Zed-U and Tomorrow’s Warriors, among others), Cleveland Watkiss adds his outstanding repertoire of vocalisations and loopings, and the latest Staggerlee wildcarding is provided by Emi Watanabe on a variety of Japanese traditional flutes.
 
 

Tags: BlackTop, Cian Binchy, Cleveland Watkiss, DJ Miracle Rhythm, Emi Watanabe, Her (Julie D. Riley), IKLECTIK Art Lab (promoters), James Baldwin, John Glyn, Kabaret @ Karamel (event), London (England), Lord Buckley Of Hackney, Magdalena Grabher, Martin Wakefield, Richard Bolton, Society of Imaginary Friends, Society of Imaginary Friends Soiree (event), Tomorrow's Warriors, Zed-U