“Skylighght” w/ Gelsey Bell + Joe White’s “Wagging Craze” // Somerville, MA
Gelsey Bell and Erin Roger’s Skylighght and Joe White’s Wagging Craze
August 30, 2019, 8pm
Arts at the Armory
191 Highland Avenue
Somerville, Massachusetts
The Wagging Craze is a meditation on masculinity, power, and the 1960s, composed and performed by Joseph White. Through musically underscored storytelling, pop songs, and monologue, the work traces the history of a mysterious male bonding ritual called “wagging” through its effect on Midwestern fraternities and the administrations of Presidents Johnson and Nixon. Skylighght is a duet collaboratively composed and performed by vocalist Gelsey Bell and saxophonist Erin Rogers. The two performers move through the space wordlessly directing the sound in pathways that dance around the room. The piece also involves a section called Building Canyons, where Bell sings into the bell of Rogers’ tenor saxophone, exploring its inner chamber and sounding a rainbow of diverse multiphonics.