Last January, a nondescript room on a floor above the Contemporary Museum in the Mount Vernon district suddenly got real "descript" as a new organization gave Baltimore's cultural life an unexpected shot in the arm, a shot with a welcome sting. It came in a musical form, with the performance of works by such provocative composers as Frederic Rzewski and Louis Andriessen, not to mention Vinko Globokar, represented by a piece that called for a young man to pound his fists on his bare chest and head while emitting all manner of guttural noises (you had to be there).
Welcome to Mobtown Modern.
"I looked at the music scene and the composers I wasn't seeing on programs, all the music not being performed that should be heard here," says saxophonist Brian Sacawa. He decided to do something about that, with the help of composer Erik Spangler.
Sacawa and Spangler were already performing together as a duo called the Hybrid Groove Project. Spangler is especially known for incorporating turntables into his music, a la hip-hop DJs.
The two men began their musical collaboration in 2004, when Sacawa, working on his doctorate at the University of Michigan, sought out composers to write pieces for him to play as part of a dissertation. A friend suggested Spangler, who had just received a doctorate in composition from Harvard University.
By that point, Spangler was already far from being an academic composer. "I didn't learn about turntables from any teachers at Harvard," he says. "A friend introduced me to underground hip-hop DJs. I started getting interested in sampling and re-mixing material. Part of my mission is having the turntable recognized as an instrument."
Spangler responded to Sacawa's request with the work pastlife laptops and attic instruments for alto sax, turntables and electronics. "For a nerdy saxophonist at a university, that was really neat," Sacawa says. "It is, hands down, my favorite of anything written for me."
The sax player, an upstate New York native and former Peabody Conservatory student, decided to settle in Baltimore in 2006. "I love everything about this city," he says. Sacawa, who got married last year, is a member of the U.S. Army Field Band (several of his colleagues in the band participate in Mobtown Modern concerts).
