Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

Ibarra brings the Kulintang

You can tell a lot about a person just by lookin’ at ’em. You, for instance. You’ve been jonesin’ for some live Filipino trip-hop all week. You just didn’t know where to find it.

Consider it found. Tonight at 8 p.m., avant-garde percussionist and composer Susie Ibarra will hit Bezanson Recital Hall’s cozy stage with her “Electric Kulintang” project, and you’ll be sorry if you miss it.

Plus, you’ll have to apologize to Ibarra’s sparring partner in the Kulintang, percussionist Roberto Rodriguez. And you don’t want to have to say you’re sorry to a cat who’s played with rock legends like Paul Simon and Joe Jackson, and Downtown figures like Marc Ribot and John Zorn (and Miami Sound Machine… go figure).

Oh yeah, and he plays with Ibarra, no small credential in itself. Modern Drummer magazine called her “absolutely explosive behind the drumset,” and Downbeat magazine called her “one of the best and brightest young drummers to come out of New York (or anywhere) in the last few years.”

Lots of other people call her, too. Infamous jazzers like Dave Douglas and William Parker, Derek Baily and the aforementioned Zorn. She’s even toured with indie-rockers Yo La Tengo.

She’s appeared on over sixty recordings since 1994, both as a leader and as a sidewoman.

So what can’t she do? Well, she can’t stay in one place very long. If she’s not gettin’ it on with her Kulintang duo, she might be performing with the Susie Ibarra Trio (featuring violinist Jennifer Choi and pianist Craig Taborn), Mephista (her band with pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and laptop-ist Ikue Mori), rockin’ out with bassist Mark Dresser or gigging solo. She might even be teaching at esteemed places like Mills College, Bard College and the Walker Art Center.

Or, she might be playing the Kulintang (and it’s time you folks at home knew what that was!). Hailing from the Philippines, the Kulintang is a percussion instrument characterized by seven or eight gongs which is an essential part of Filipino culture.

It should also be an essential part of tonight’s performance, the final installment in this season’s Magic Triangle Jazz Series, the spring counterpart to the fall’s “Solos and Duos Series”). So come check out Susie Ibarra’s Electric Kulintang (featuring Roberto Rodriguez) tonight at 8 p.m., at the Fine Art Center’s Bezanson Recital Hall. There’s no reason not to: tickets are only $7 for students ($12 for the public) plus, you need some Filipino trip-hop in your life. You really do.

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