Leroy Jenkins and Dave Burrell

Both pianist Dave Burrell and violinist Leroy Jenkins are giants of the free jazz genre. Though the two have known of each other for decades, they will play together live for the first time—save for a short impromptu set at a birthday party a couple months ago—Saturday at the Ethical Society. The beauty of improvisation, according to Burrell, "is to be inspired by what you have done in the last five minutes or last five seconds. That sparks you and you also play off the audience's mood to go off in some direction." At their Saturday gig, each will have 30 minutes of solo performance; the rest of what goes on, however, will be strictly improvisational. Jenkins is a founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Burrell did New York's avant-garde loft scene in the 1960s, where he gigged with guys like Pharoah Sanders and Marion Brown.

Jenkins admits improvised duets are challenging: "If you don't have the arsenal, the musical knowledge, it won't work. All I depend on is the fact that [Burrell's] a good improviser." Burrell, a 1996 Pew Fellow, is honored to share a bill with Jenkins. "It's wonderful to have a musician of Leroy's experience to interact withLeroy's musical personality."

Sat., Sept. 27, Philadelphia Ethical Society, 1906 Rittenhouse Square, 8 p.m. 382-3198 or 735-3456.

—Deni Kasrel