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First Session for the Black House Improvisors' Collective

Session rehearsal for the Black House Improvisors' Collective.
photo: Laura Spencer/KCUR
Session rehearsal for the Black House Improvisors' Collective.

Each week, for the last five Sundays, ten musicians have gathered for an afternoon rehearsal session on a vacant floor of a downtown office building. It's a new year-long initiative sponsored by the Charlotte Street Foundation called the Black House Improvisors' Collective.

By Laura Spencer

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/national/local-national-866080.mp3

Kansas City, MO – And every few months, there will be a changing roster of musicians. Hunter Long views it as a laboratory for new and experimental work. Long got his degree a few years ago in jazz performance from the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance - and says it's his goal for the Collective to build and strengthen relationships between musicians.

The first Black House Improvisors' Collective performance takes place Friday, October 16, 2009 at 8pm - 9pm in City Center Square, at 1100 Main, Kansas City, Missouri, as part of the Charlotte Street Foundation's Urban Culture Project's Third Friday art downtown.

The first session includes:
Stan Kessler-trumpet
Derek Worthington-trumpet
Peter Lawless-alto sax
Russell Thorpe-alto sax, soprano sax, bass
clarinet, Bb clarinet
Hunter Long-tenor sax, laptop
Patrick Ketter-oboe, english horn, tenor sax
Brad Baumgardner-bass clarinet
Blake Rayfield-Horn in F
Alex King-Bass
Sam Wisman-drums

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Laura Spencer is staff writer/editor at the Kansas City Public Library and a former arts reporter at KCUR.
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