Rite of Summer (7/8/17)

Pamela Z, vocalist/composer/electronics guru
 
Here’s how this one came about. I went to Governors Island on Independence Day and had a good time. But a lot of the onsite exhibits were not open, so I decided to return on the weekend. It just so happened that the day I was there was also the Rite of Summer concert. To be honest, I had read about this one earlier in the spring and sort of crossed it off my list. But I figured, I’m there, the concert’s there, I’ll take a listen. For the record, Pamela Z uses MAX MSP and Isadora software on a MacBook Pro, along with custom MIDI controllers. If you’re like me, you just heard, “La-la-la-la-la!” in your head.
 
What all this boils down to is that she samples and loops some of her vocal sounds, sometimes with words as well, and then manipulates them with hand-controlled gestures that stretch, adapt, and totally transform them via the electronic equipment onstage with her. The best that can be said is that she definitely has a set of pipes and knows how to use them. As to the rest of the electronic manipulations, they didn’t do it for me. I did enjoy seeing the navel-gazing T-shirt du jour on the guy in front of me—the difference between theory and practice … is greater in practice than in theory.
 
The rest of the day was quite enjoyable, seeing sculptures in one building, photographs in another, and art created by current and former inmates in a third building. Additionally, The New York Audubon Society has a presence on the island this summer. I caught part of a bird-watching walk (by leaving collateral, you can borrow binoculars from the Society). I saw black-backed gulls, herring gulls, laughing gulls, barn swallows, cormorants, and terns. The terns are a specialty on Governors Island, as there have been projects to increase their breeding grounds. On one pier, there are thirty-three pairs nesting, while another pier has sixty nesting pairs. The nesting areas are a joint project between a couple of organizations trying to set up safe areas, specifically that are free of predators. Many of the terns are being banded. I also saw a pair of nesting gulls on a rooftop.
 
Governors Island is a great day trip for New Yorkers or visitors. I highly recommend it. The next and final Rite of Summer concert is the cutting-edge, NYC-based ensemble Contemporaneous, on August 8, with performances at 1:00pm and 3:00pm. I haven’t yet decided whether I’ll attend. I’ll play it by ear. (Ba-dum-bum ching!)

ConcertMeister