The 5th Annual New Languages festival continues with a full slate of performances on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday that bring together many of the city's most creative young jazz musicians. I caught the second half of the festival's opening night last Thursday, which featured an atmospheric—but somewhat staid—performance from guitarist Ty Cumbie's quartet House of Mirrors and a characteristically volcanic eruption from Darcy James Argue's 18-piece "steampunk" big band Secret Society.
This week brings nine more performance (three each night). I'm most excited about the Friday sets, when we'll hear Taylor Ho Bynum's 10-piece avant-Latin outfit Positive Catastrophe (10pm) and the debut of Tim Berne's Los Totopos (11:30pm). I'm not very familiar with Berne's work, but musicians with whom I've spoken recently revere him as one of the master's of the scene, a musician's musician influential in the small group innovations of Steve Lehman and Rudresh Mahanthappa. And hey, who doesn't want to hear a band named after a savory Oaxacan tortilla chip?
