Although he’s considered one of the seminal figures of avant-garde music, Tony Conrad also is a man with a hidden history.
In the early ’60s, Conrad co-founded the New York minimalist ensemble that variously was called Dream Music, the Theater of Eternal Music and, most prominently, the Dream Syndicate. Along with a pre-Velvet Underground John Cale, La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela and Angus MacLise, Conrad became a leading light in the avant-garde scene.
“It became called minimal music,” says Conrad, 55, currently a professor of media study at the State University of New York at Buffalo. “We were dealing with timbre and sonority more than rhythms.”
Refiguring the traditional function of the composer, the ensemble explored the ideas of texture and timbre within the collaborative process.
“I was playing mainly violin, sometimes guitar,” says Conrad. “John Cale was playing viola. Between the two of us, we created a very strong voice for strings. Ordinarily, strings are expected to be sweet and mellow, and what we were doing was much more aggressive, if not grating. Discordance in a certain way, expanded ideas about harmonic tools. By this time we were including combinations of pitches which were very raucous and weird, but in some sense very logical as well.”
Young taped many of those early sessions, but has retained control of them through the years. Although Conrad says both he and Cale negotiated with Young in the ’80s in an attempt to gain access to these influential recordings, the tapes remain unavailable.
“La Monte said we could have copies of the music for ourselves if we would sign statements that he is the composer and that he should have the publishing and composing rights,” says Conrad. “I said I wouldn’t do that.”
After the ensemble broke up in 1966, Conrad went on to pursue experimental film, and in 1972 recorded “Outside the Dream Syndicate” with the German band Faust.
More than two decades later, Conrad returned to the studio. His current release, “Slapping Pythagoras,” was recorded in Chicago by Steve Albini and produced by Chicago experimental composer and performer Jim O’Rourke.
Conrad comes to Chicago as part of a two-night Table of the Elements showcase at Lounge Ax. Tortoise, Richard Youngs and Simon Wickham-Smith, and Gastr Del Sol perform Friday. Saturday’s lineup includes Conrad, Gastr Del Sol and Tortoise. Saturday’s show also serves as a CD release party for “Slapping Pythagoras” and for Gastr Del Sol’s “The Harp Factory on Lake Street,” both on the Atlanta-based label Table of the Elements.
At Lounge Ax, Conrad will play violin, with Alex Gelencser on cello and Jim O’Rourke on violin. Conrad will perform a piece from a series of compositions he calls “Early Minimalism,” compositions that consciously explore his original work in the early ’60s that has long been suppressed.
“When I play this music now, I play it behind a sheer cloth with a light behind me, so I’m projected in a shadow on a screen,” he says. “It’s not to obscure me, but to create the sense there’s a ghost of something else, a visual echo.” It’s the echo of Tony Conrad’s hidden history.
Falling Wallendas, Friday at the Empty Bottle: Going against the more fashionable indie-noise grain, Chicago-based Falling Wallendas aren’t afraid of the expansive pop hook or vocal harmonies on its self-titled IMI Records debut. The quartet includes vocalist-bassist Scott Bennett, formerly of local band Scott Bennett and the Obvious.
Lori Lieberman, Saturday in the Grand Ballroom of the Palmer House: Singer-songwriter Lori Lieberman first surfaced in the early ’70s Los Angeles scene that included Linda Ronstadt, Melissa Manchester and Karla Bonoff. Lieberman’s terrific 1994 Pope Music release, “A Thousand Dreams,” sets the addictively dulcet singer against spare but gorgeous acoustic piano and cello arrangements. The title cut, recorded with members of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, devastates with emotional honesty. Lieberman appears at 7 p.m.; her showcase is part of the CES Specialty Audio & Home Theater Show.
Bonnie Raitt, Charles Brown, Ruth Brown, Saturday at the Arie Crown Theater: Living proof that perseverance can sometimes pay off in the music industry, singer-guitarist Bonnie Raitt now has the Grammies and multiplatinum success to show for all those years down in the trenches.
Seal, Des’Ree, Saturday at New World Music Theatre: With his sultry vocals tinged with a slight grain, British singer-songwriter Seal brings a complex romanticism to his lush, swirling arrangements. His second album, 1994’s “Seal,” resonates with a sophistication that extends beyond the limitations of club dance. English-born and Barbados-reared chanteuse Des’Ree opens.
Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, Tuesday at HotHouse: Founded by multipercussionist and vocalist Kahil El’Zabar, the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble also includes former Defunkt member Joseph Bowie and Edward Wilkerson Jr. The musically wide-ranging ensemble employs a variety of percussion, woodwinds and brass.
Michael Smith, Wednesday at Schubas: Chicago-based singer-songwriter Michael Smith has had his songs covered by a number of other artists, including Jerry Jeff Walker, Steve Goodman and Jimmy Buffett. He also composed the music for the theater production of “The Grapes of Wrath,” and performed in the Victory Gardens Theatre production of his critically lauded, autobiographical musical account “Michael, Margaret, Pat and Kate.” His current album “Time,” is his third release on local label Flying Fish.
