Avilion Shore at Offbeat Roadhouse
Author: WTJU
Date: 09/20/2024
Time: 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Avilion Shore will pull into Offbeat Roadhouse Friday night, September 20, for a concert which will also be broadcast on WTJU. Transporting listeners to their own personal paradise where your wildest dreams come true, by way of this jazz group’s interpretations of their new and expressive music – perhaps even a little magic…
This is a free event, open to all. You can also listen to Offbeat Roadhouse on the radio (91.1 FM) or on-line, and even video stream it at WTJU’s Facebook page or YouTube channel. But concerts always sound better with you as part of the studio audience. WTJU is located at 2244 Ivy Rd in Charlottesville, right next door to Vivace. There is plenty of parking, both in our lot as well as the Sentara lot next door.
Offbeat Roadhouse is supported locally by Ting – lightning-fast fiber internet for your home and business. Learn more at tinginternet.com/wtju. Use promo code WTJU at checkout for a free month and $100 gift certificate.
All the lessons of jazz with none of the dogma and karma…gorgeous, deep, refreshing, new, familiar, strange…trumpeter Matt Dixon and tenor saxophonist Xochi have created a recording of depth and beauty. I am learning from it even as I listen, alone, or with friends, and am transported. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this music is transformative and that it does transport, it draws you in; one is immersed in its seductive vibe.
Externality of Reality doesn’t follow rules so much as delineate them: the rules according to Matt and Xochi. Sound and spaciousness are prized. And my dear trumpet brother, Matt Dixon, makes the horn speak of his own joy and sorrow. He is a pacifist when it comes to fighting the horn. He lets it be. I salute that! We can’t define art. But we know it when we hear it.
Xochi, in music as in life, is an enigmatic and affable presence. Her playing is reserved and uncompromisingly intentional, full of dignity and strength. The trumpet and tenor often work in thoughtful counterpoint. The writing is revelatory…write what you hear! Write what you feel!
Full disclosure: I have known and loved these cats for years, after meeting them as undergraduates at Virginia Commonwealth University and warming to their cheerful pessimism, their stubborn non-conformity, and their natural sense of irony. Their immersion in contemporary jazz pedagogy seems to have left them relatively unscathed.
The rhythm section, Randall Mailand, piano/synthesizer, Bea Kelly, bass, and Stephan LaRue on drums, compliments and sustains the aura of lyricism and deep emotion that imbues the recording. These musicians are friends who have honed their music, together, as young professionals. Their goals are expressive, emotive, artistic; this recording did not come about through a careful reading of trends and best business practices.
Altogether, Externality of Reality represents an apogee of creative endeavor. Humans are the improvising animal, the musical animal, and this recording, born of close and constant collaboration, is a human document: music that is new and expressive of persistent, creative humanity.
John D’earth
Charlottesville, VA
June, 2023
