The Un-Chamber Music of Real Vocal String Quartet

March 13, 5:59 PM
LA Performing Arts Examiner
Melissa Berry

From Sahara Trance Bluegrass to Re-Imagined Brazilian Choros: The Un-Chamber Music of Real Vocal String Quartet

Sunday, March 14th - 7:30 PM at Bootleg!
What do you get when you cross a couple of violins, with a viola, with a cello and voices. Yes, you string quartet but not just any string quartet a string quartet with unbelievable accompanying vocals.  The classically-trained players of the Real Vocal String Quartet have it all as can be witnessed on their debut eponymous recording (February 9, 2010 , independent release) which I recently listened to in musical stupification. I’m looking forward to being equally stupefied in person this coming Sunday, March 14th at Bootleg, 2220 Beverly Blvd.at 7:30 where they'll be performing.  I know it won’t just be the traditional string quartet presenting the traditional string quartet music. These women intimately bang on their violins, stomp their feet, and allow African trance music to influence their take on old timey standards. It's not their sanity that's missing; what RVSQ has lost is the ability to abide the constraints of either the old school classical world, where musicians must frequently forsake their creativity for the overall sound of the orchestra, or the often unapproachable reaches of the contemporary classical world. Their simultaneous singing and stringing-a barrier buster in itself-may just be the perfect combination for straddling these musical worlds.

Inside that space the all-female Quartet embraces the influences of four radically diverse musicians, who've cut their teeth individually on every kind of string playing from Balkan and circus-klezmer to West African and bluegrass.  The Quartet is rounded out by Alisa Rose, violinist and fiddler extraordinaire, from 49 Special and Picasso Quartet, and cellist Jessica Ivry who has been heard on a hip-hop retelling of Dante's Inferno and playing with jazz vocalist Nneena Freelon among other things. Sounds and songs inspire the Quartet from every which way. All four players add their mad improvisation skills and vocals to the mix. 

Though they are not hesitant to draw on their technical skill of transcription and arrangement, Real Vocal String Quartet is not locked into their conservatory-trained method. At every performance, including their studio recording for the album, they dive into the unpredictable when they play "Now," a group improvisation that changes every time. No one, not even the person who initiates the piece knows what she is going to play, but that all changes once they get going

Wherever they began individually, together, the players in Real Vocal String Quartet have gone somewhere entirely new. Their chemistry as a musical group has become a catalyst for a creative explosion. They've taken their classical and jazz training, and combined it with their talent and other forays for their debut album. African, Brazilian, Balkan, Bluegrass: they've stretched beyond the conceived limits of string music. It may seem like they've absolutely lost it, but it doesn't take an expert to see that they've known where it was the entire time.