All-Stars provide unusual interpretations

From the first few notes played by the Bang On A Can All-Stars, it was apparent that this would be a truly unusual show. The force and volume of the first piece was more in tune with a rock aesthetic than a contemporary classical one.

The instrumentation of the band, with Robert Black on bass, Lisa Moore on piano and keyboards, Mark Stewart on electric guitar, Evan Ziporyn on clarinets and saxophones, Susannah Chapman on cello and David Cossin on percussion, allowed them the freedom to move among different genres. The performance was not only intellectually and emotionally engaging, it posed questions about the very nature of music.

The force of the first piece, "Cheating, Lying, Stealing," made a few listeners jump in their seats. Despite the odd rhythms and time signatures of the piece, it had a rhythmic appeal that didn't make it feel purely academic. It was played with a controlled, forceful virtuosity that demanded attention. The entire first set worked in this fashion, combining the intellectual stimulation of a classical piece with the energy and intensity of a rock concert. This energy continued through the next piece, "Lick" where disparate bursts of sound slowly intertwined to form a glorious and upbeat climax, which then deconstructed into variations on that climax.

The final piece of the set was "Electric Counterpoint," a "solo" piece performed by electric guitarist Mark Stewart. The piece consisted of Stewart playing over 10 sampled tracks of his own playing. Originally composed by Steve Reich for jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, the piece is typical of Metheny, using country, folk and bluegrass melodies as the basis for complex melodic and harmonic structures. The interlocking guitar parts shifted from complex tape-loop patterns to simple droning chords, and Mark Stewart's delicate playing atop these structures was truly inspired.

These songs seemed relatively conventional in comparison to the second set, which was certainly more ambitious and more challenging than the first. The ensemble had transcribed Brian Eno's ambient studio work "Music For Airports" for live performance. The result seemed to confuse the audience.

Eno intended the piece to be a passive listening experience, serving the same function as elevator music, but with more artistic thought involved. Before Bang On A Can started the piece, Ziporyn gave an introduction in which he said that the ensemble believed the piece could be appreciated as an active listening experience; whether that is true is debatable, as reactions were heavily mixed. A few of the students attending started to nod off during the long minimalist work, and many others didn't know what to do with themselves. Other students left Warner dazzled by the piece. With Bang On A Can toying with the very ideas of how we listen to music, it was hard to know which way to react.

This dilemma lies at the very heart of Bang On A Can's creative philosophy. The ensemble has torn down the traditional lines among rock, pop and classical, but that battle has been fought already. With genre-hopping artists like Beck crossing over to mainstream music, the whole concept of music integrating many disparate styles is almost a clich�. Instead, Bang On A Can has taken the radical step of examining music's function in our lives.