There’s a breath, as if in a steam tunnel. Then creaks and taps, like a small motor waking up. A single guitar chord — unmistakably an electric guitar — sounds, before an even larger machine shudders to life, growling, squeaking, and roaring.So begins Sn, a 40-minute collaboration between Carl Testa and Christopher Riggs, in which Riggs played the guitar and Testa ran Riggs’s playing through a series of programmed algorithms on his laptop (and a few other devices) that he could manipulate on the fly. The result is something like a duet between electric guitar and computer, which sounds futuristic. At its most fundamental, however, it’s just two people making music together, a concept as old as music itself.
Testa is celebrating the release of Sn at Firehouse 12 this Saturday, Nov. 7. Riggs, who lives in Chicago, can’t make it. So Testa and his electronics rig will play a show with acclaimed experimental guitarist (and New Haven native) Joe Morris — resulting in a completely different piece. On Sunday, he’ll repeat the process with guitarist Brandon Seabrook at Muchmore’s in Brooklyn, creating a third piece.
This unfolding of seemingly endless possibilities, born from a deliberate process that Testa said was two years in the making, is echoed in Testa’s musical career. It started in high school, in Chicago, when he discovered Mwata Bowden’s Jazz X‑Tet at the University of Chicago and, through that, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Taking classes there led to Testa enrolling at Wesleyan to study and play with Anthony Braxton.
By the time he finished college, he was deep into the experimental music scene. When he graduated, he and Anne Rhodes, fellow musician and wife, had a lot of musical connections in the area and didn’t want to move too far from Middletown. They set their sights on New Haven.
“I saw one concert at Firehouse 12; that was Taylor Ho Bynum’s trio … and then I saw that the New Haven Improvisers Collective was doing a concert with Butch Morris,” Testa said. He also knew of Wadada Leo Smith’s long history of music in the city. “So I said, ‘huh, that’s interesting. Seems like things are happening in New Haven. Why don’t we move to New Haven? … and we haven’t left.”
That was in 2006. In 2007, Testa started the monthly Uncertainty Music Series. It’s still going strong, regularly hosting leading musicians from New Haven and out of town. It garnered a New York Times writeup in 2011 and stands as evidence of New Haven’s deep roots in, and continued embrace of, improvised and experimental music.
So Sn — both the album itself and the shows this weekend to support it — are carrying on the work Testa has set for himself and the legacy of the city he’s made his home. It’s another step in a thoughtful career, while still keeping its ears open to chance.
Listen to the full interview with Carl Testa on WNHH below. The release show for Sn at Firehouse 12 starts at 8:30. Tickets are $15. Click here for more information.
