LOVE THEM BACK

Avant-garde auteur keeps the band together

Comments (0) By Stacey Anderson Wednesday, Dec 29 2010

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San Diego, God bless it, couldn’t handle his heat, but New York has gladly claimed him for almost four decades now. Experimental composer/saxophonist Peter Gordon, a UCSD graduate, first earned downtown acclaim with his Love of Life Orchestra (LOLO) in 1977, in which he assembles anywhere from a few to a dozen of avant-garde instrumentalists to hopscotch across acid jazz, world, post-punk, and opera; the ensemble’s (fervently) rotating roster has included Laurie Anderson on electric violin, Rhys Chatham on flute, and the late Arthur Russell on cello. LOLO promises “friends” tonight, which means they’ll surely have enough bodies onstage to start a softball team; a betting man might hope for cameos from David Byrne, a collaborator on 1980’s searing Extended Niceties, or LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and Pat Mahoney, who sampled Gordon’s “Beginning of the Heartbreak” and “Don’t Don’t” on their ubiquitous 2007 dance mix Fabriclive 36. Anticipate anyone, but count on spry, jarring innovation, Gordon’s endlessly renewable resource.
Thu., Jan. 6, 8 p.m., 2011