fLuXkit Vancouver Album Launch
- Darius Jones
- Harmony Holiday
- Laura Sofía Pérez
To celebrate the release of Darius Jones’s latest album fLuXkit Vancouver (its suite but sacred), Western Front is pleased to present a listening session of the album on vinyl, alongside a conversation with Jones and the poet Harmony Holiday, and a screening of a new film by the interdisciplinary artist Laura Sofía Pérez, which was made in response to the music.
Commissioned by Western Front and developed across residencies in 2019 and 2022, fLuXkit Vancouver (its suite but sacred) is a radiant manifesto of artistic freedom that brings together a composition in four movements written and performed by Jones on alto saxophone, long-time collaborator Gerald Cleaver on drums, and violinists Jesse Zubot and Josh Zubot, cellist Peggy Lee and bassist James Meger, with original artwork by Stan Douglas and liner notes by Holiday. The album is a collaborative release by Northern Spy and We Jazz Records.
Copies of the album will be available for purchase at the event or can be pre-purchased when registering your attendance.
About the Artists
Darius Jones is a saxophonist and composer based in New York. He embraces individuality and innovation in the tradition of African-American music, and has released a string of diverse recordings featuring music and images evocative of Black Futurism. Jones’ music is a confrontation against apathy and ego, hoping to inspire authenticity that compels us to be better humans. In addition to collaborating with Amirtha Kidambi as the duo Angels and Demons, Jones has collaborated with artists including Gerald Cleaver, Oliver Lake, William Parker, Andrew Cyrille, Craig Taborn, Wet Ink Ensemble, Jason Moran, Trevor Dunn, Dave Burrell, Eric Revis, Matthew Shipp, Marshall Allen, Nasheet Waits, Branford Marsalis, Travis Laplante, Fay Victor, Cooper-Moore, Matana Roberts, JD Allen, Matthew Shipp, Nicole Mitchell, Georgia Ann Muldrow, and many more.
Harmony Holiday is a writer, dancer, archivist, filmmaker and the author of 5 collections of poetry including Hollywood Forever and Maafa (2022). She curates a standing archive space for griot poetics and a related performance and events series at Los Angeles’s music and archive venue 2220 Arts. She’s a staff writer for LA Times’ Image and 4Columns. She’s currently working on a collection of essays for Duke University Press, a biography of Abbey Lincoln, and an exhibition on backstage and performance culture for The Kitchen in New York.
Laura Sofía Pérez is an interdisciplinary artist who works in video, film, sound, and installation. Her work draws from feminist and avant-garde cinema, phenomenological philosophy, Caribbean Postcolonial theory, and ancestral knowledge. She often works in collaborative settings of experimentation and improvisation with artists of varying disciplines and backgrounds to voice common perspectives on political, cultural, and social issues.
Accessibility
The Grand Luxe Hall is located on the second floor of Western Front, which is accessed by a flight of 26 stairs. While plans for a full building upgrade to facilitate access for wheelchair and scooter users are still underway, events in the Grand Luxe Hall are made available virtually via high-quality livestream (see link above). Further details about accessibility at Western Front can be found here.
Acknowledgements
Presented in partnership with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation at the University of British Columbia, and with the support of the Government of Canada and SOCAN Foundation. Thanks to Aram Bajakian for initiating the project, and to Coastal Jazz & Blues Society and the Robert D. Bielecki Foundation for additional support.
Western Front is a non-profit artist-run centre in Vancouver.
We acknowledge the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations as traditional owners of the land upon which Western Front stands.