Friday, March 5, 8pm
Didier Petit

Poncho Concert Hall
710 East Roy St (Kerry Hall, Cornish College of the Arts, Capitol Hill)

Tickets available at the door; $5 - $15 sliding scale

The Bourgogne, France Cellist Didier Petit visits Seattle with his considered and deeply moving approach to free improvisation. Active in the French improv scene since the mid-1980s, Didier reveals the cello to be “an extremely complete instrument of many unsuspected facets, he offers unusual music reflecting the world, our world.”

Petit was born into a musical family, beginning formal cello training at age six and attending conservatory until age 15. Hearing Sun Ra and Alan Silva, however, proved to be a revelatory experience, and Petit began to explore the possibilities in jazz improvisation. Petit enrolled in Silva’s IACP school, where he performed, taught, and studied while making critical connections with many of Europe’s finest free improvisers. Petit’s longstanding and fruitful quartet NOHC features bass clarinetist Denis Colin, saxophonist Daunik Lazro, and drummer Michael Nick, and has released a string of successful albums dating back to the early 1990s.

It is as a solo artist, however, that Petit’s contributions to the form might best be appreciated. A master of playing double arco, Petit’s emotional playing is often accompanied by his vocals, at times doubling the cello melody, at others carrying the composition atop the cello’s rhythmic foundation. The jazz influence is clear, indeed his cello can replicate saxophone phrasing in incredible ways. Part of the magic of Petit’s solo performances is the manner in which he travels in several directions at once, his melodies both independent from and interacting with one another. His soundscapes promise to take you on an adventure, but his music remains deeply enjoyable at its core, even accessible in its beauty.