An Enchanted Evening at the Open Lot
If you haven’t checked out the Open Lot, and you have no opposition to art and music that demands that you bend your mind about so that it resembles a spicy pretzel, you should hurry over to the collaborative studio the next chance you get. It’s located in Lafayette Square and specializes in showcasing art, design and music that the organizers view as being underrepresented in the St. Louis art scene.
Most recently, I attended a concert featuring Zimbabwe Nkenya and Jim Baltz – an mbira duo – and the Chicago-based avant folk duo Spires That In The Sunset Rise. Both groups delivered enthralling sets that prompted the audience to beg for “9 more!” songs when Spires announced they were nearing the final song of the night and even inspired an impromptu jam session utilizing whatever instruments the audience could find lying around the studio – and believe me, there were plenty.
Nkenya and Baltz performed mbira duets and solos from the genre Dza Vadzimu, which means “for the spirits.” The mbira is a Zimbabwean instrument consisting of metal keys spanning three octaves and affixed to a hardwood soundboard. The instrument is hand-held and the keys are plucked with the index finger of the right hand and both thumbs. Baltz explained to me that the music they play is typically performed in spiritual circles as a means for a medium to become possessed and communicate with ancestral spirits. While nobody I was with became possessed, per se, on Wednesday night, we could believe that the duo’s fusion of melodies – each player might be playing two melodies which then combine and fluctuate with their partner’s melodies – might inspire possession in folks more inclined to that sort of connection. Nkenya regularly plays in the St. Louis BAG trio and you can find Baltz at various open-mic nights around the city.
Spires That In The Sunset Rise also play music that might be classified as spiritual. The two artists played with a variety of instruments, including spike fiddle, cello, an Indian banjo known as the the bul bul tarang, bells fastened to cowboy boots, and the players’ own deliriously captivating vocals. The magical melding of rhythms, dissonance and melody created an aura, only amplified by the flickering lamplight, that brought to mind fantasies of other-worldly music that might, in fact, necessitate that the listener give away a bit of his or her own soul. Some might call this music inaccessible, or perhaps a bit discomfiting, but if you’re willing to lie back on the shark-shaped pillows that populate the Open Lot’s concert space and let the music hover around you, an average Wednesday night could unexpectedly turn into a numinous experience.
