Three “Singularity” Improv nights will be held later in the season.

“Singularity”

PURE IMPROVISATION — NO CHARTS, NO SONGS, NO EXPECTATIONS.

Musical improvisation is at the core of many musical traditions, from popular (rap battles) to folk (African griot songs), to even classical forms of music (Hinduthani raag, Turkish taksim). Improvisation isn’t random. On the contrary — musical improvisation requires a deep practice of being “in the moment” with music, with an instrument, with one’s voice, with a group or community. Many forms of musical improvisational practice are accompanied by some pedagogy, and although that may sound like a contradiction from the outset, great art flourishes within limitations and pedagogy around improvisation brings what could be a random act into an artistic and profoundly moving practice.

Possum Hall Music and Fugitive Productions are hosting a three-(or more)-part Tuesday night series at Sanctuary, each quite unique. For our first outing, we present . . . Club d’Elf.

TONIGHT: CLUB D’ELF

Club d’Elf has been helping audiences lose track of time beginning with the band’s first show 24 years ago at Boston’s Lizard Lounge, and ever since has taken it’s bold synthesis of Moroccan traditional music and electronic, dubbed-out funk to audiences as far away as Japan and South America. Circling about bassist/composer Mike Rivard and drummer Dean Johnston, each Club d’Elf performance features a different line-up, drawn from a constellation of some of the most creative improvisers from the jazz, DJ, rock, and world music scenes of Boston and NYC. The band’s music has been called “the music of dreams” by the Boston Globe, and draws from a startlingly wide spectrum of styles, including jazz, Moroccan Gnawa, hip hop, psychedelia, electronica, avant-garde, and dub.

Club d’Elf has been featured on PRI’s “The World,” Voice of America, and “Afropop Worldwide,” with Time Out New York describing the music as “the roaring avant-funk of electric-era Miles (and) the legato drift of the Grateful Dead . . . heady music that doesn’t neglect the tail.” The Boston Herald proclaimed: “Crushed between the borders of Morocco, jam band land, and the kingdom of avant-garde jazz lies Club d’Elf . . . James Brown-meets-Sun-Ra.”

Derived from ancient sources, trance forms the central core of the Club d’Elf aesthetic, unifying the various genres the band has absorbed. Guitars, turntables, Fender Rhodes, laptops, horns, tablas and all manner of exotic instruments flow in and out of the mix, along with Rivard’s commanding playing of the Moroccan sintir, a camel-skin-covered bass lute. A mind-boggling array of special guests have been featured with D’Elf, including John Medeski, Mark Sandman (Morphine), Hassan Hakmoun, Marc Ribot, Reeves Gabrels (Bowie/The Cure), Adam Deitch, DJ Logic, Ryan Montbleau, Marco Benevento and Skerik.

Club d’Elf: Mike Rivard (bass, sintir), Tom Hall (tenor sax), Paul Schultheis (keyboards), Mister Rourke (turntables), Dean Johnston (drums), special guest David Fiuczynski (fretted and fretless guitars)

• Doors open at 7pm • Performance starts at 7:30pm
• Full bar • Table service
• Order dinner in one of Maynard’s many fine restaurants and bring it with you
• Tickets $12/advance, $15/door
• Proof of vaccination or negative test required. Please read Sanctuary’s full Covid Policy before attending an event https://sanctuarymaynard.com/CovidPolicy