Orpheum Bell & Eastern Blok

Country and eastern and more! Tonight's show features a pair of Midwestern bands that make music rooted in the distant past, yet totally innovative. The Los Angeles Times calls Eastern Blok's music "relentlessly innovative work." Acoustic Guitar raves that Eastern Blok plays with "blazing virtuosity and sheer beauty." Innovation is the musical mantra for the Chicago world fusion jazz ensemble Eastern Blok. This group remains ever ready to outdo itself by pushing the envelope with each subsequent… Show more performance, often through the employment of unconventional rhythmic patterns and offbeat phrasings. Their inventive re-interpretations of old standards and innovative original compositions are a by-product of the artful blending of many diverse styles with jazz including classical, Macedonian, Bulgarian, and Serbian folk, Klezmer, rock, and a smattering of Middle Eastern flavorings. Their music is as distinguished in its complexity as it is technically advanced. Ann Arbor's own Orpheum Bell came together as its members were combing through country and folk rhythms, instrumental waltzes, and Gypsy melodies. The band's quiet sound is focused on vocals, accordion, guitar, and double bass, with additional texture and luster spreading from banjo, trumpet, xylophone, shepherd harp, musical saw, pedal steel, a suitcase pump organ, cittern, dobro, foot percussion, and various ukuleles and mechanical horned violins. Everything is done with care, and this is a band whose handmade album covers are worth the price of concert admission all by themselves. Turning half-forgotten musical styles into something absolutely modern, gripping, and often hypnotic, Orpheum Bell has created something new and different in Michigan music-and American music. The band recently released its third album, "The Old Sisters' Home."

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