Out! Festival 2024

Got the opportunity to check out the Out! Festival courtesy of our friends at Arts For Art where artists from different genres come together to engage with the cultural pot that is New York City. The subtitle of the festival is "The Future Is Pissed!" and from the performances that we witness the artists understood the assignment. We caught the opening night and was blown away by the excellent performance of Chris Williams History Dog who set off the evening after the listening session from Crossing Tones, a non profit that acts as a custodian of rare jazz recordings and artifacts. More on the opening from Crossing Tones which was a listening session of rare recordings of FreeJazz from the 80s primarily from the Sound Unity Festival in 1984 which is a predecessor to the Out! Festival. It was a great selection of performances that have not been heard in decades. It also serve as a great build up to the artist that performed that night.

Chris Williams History Dog played after the Crossing Tones session and they pick up where the listening session left out. Shara Lunon provided a eloquent voice backdrop to the sounds of the other members playing their instruments. The drums of Lesley Mok and the bass playing of Luke Stewart gave a great balance of sounds that even out the performance. Whenever the trumpet by Williams came in a calm comes in as Shara voices on the pedal. The performance was very organic and rich with incredible sounds and you feel the waves of eclectic images coming out of the instruments as the perfomance endures. A incredible performance where if you miss it and then you missed out,

Ava Mendoza was next and it was a serious tour de force on the electric guitar. Her set feature just her and her guitar nothing else. The performance was something special. Her riffs was explosive and pulsated. For a first time listener it was not only impressive but radiated. She definitely got some new fans from us.