Kaki King with the Porta Girevole Chamber Orchestra: Live at Berklee

BEST OF 2017
12
HCTF

It was a very special night for the audience when guitar virtuoso Kaki King and the 12-piece Porta Girevole Chamber Orchestra hit the stage of the Cafe 939 in Boston in April 21 this year. King is an orchestra on her own, so it was interesting to find out when she was joined by an actual one, using her own arrangements, quite a few written by DeVotchKa multi-instrumentalist Tom Hagerman and one each by two Berklee students, Takuma Matsui and Shereen Cheong. After checking each other out in the opener So Much For So Little, with both parties being careful not to drown out the other, everything falls in its right place. Solipsist is a true collaboration of guitar, strings and brass turning into a haunting (and fast) excursion.

King's tone is unique - just a few notes will suffice to identify her signature sound and she can show it in full during Night After Sidewalk and The Surface Changes. The team effort really paid off when both parties take turns at leading the way, like they do in Neanderthal, Hababout and the album's closer Magazine. By taking two acts out of their comfort zone Live at Berklee is a memoir of a memorable concert, showing the possibilities of 21st Century modern classical collaboration.

Live at Berklee will be released via BirnCORE on September 22. The label is an off-shoot from the student run Berklee Internet Radio Network (Birn). It's available for pre-order.

Tracks:

1. Tune Up
2. So Much For So Little
3. Fences
4. Solipsist
5. Doing the Wrong Thing
6. Neanderthal
7. Night After Sidewalk
8. Skimming The Fractured Surface To A Place Of Endless Light
9. The Surface Changes
10. Fortuna
11. Hadabout
12. Magazine

Live dates:

• 09/14 Salt Lake City, UT - Kingsbury Hall, Univ. of Utah *
• 09/15 San Antonio, TX - Tobin Center *
• 09/16 Austin, TX - Rollins Theatre @ Long Center *
• 10/05 Brooklyn, NY - Littlefield (album release party)
• 10/12 Nevada City, CA - Miners Foundry Cultural Center *
• 10/13 Eugene, OR - Hult Center for the Performing Arts *
• 10/14 Portland, OR - Dolores Winningstad Theatre *
• 10/20 Berkeley, CA - Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse *
• 10/21 Carlsbad, CA - Museum of Making Music *
• 10/22 Cottonwood, AZ - Old Town Center for the Arts *
• 10/24 Tucson, AZ - Centennial Hall *
• 11/07 Crawfordsville, IN - Wabash College *
• 01/20 Aliso Viejo, CA - Soka Performing Arts Center *
• 03/10 Atlanta, GA - Robert Ferst Center for the Arts *

* Performance of “The Neck is a Bridge to the Body”
+ w/ Derek Gripper

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