Out of Nowhere

Vocal supergroup MOSS makes a rare appearance.

by Shaun Brady

jazz

NIGHT MOVES: Bleckmann's recent CDs include At Night and Las Vegas Rhapsody, a fantasia of show tunes orchestrated by Fumio Yasuda. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Theo Bleckmann's voice navigates the world of music like the Cheshire Cat did Wonderland. It's impossibly difficult to predict the context in which it will appear, just that it will emerge, beautiful if often incongruous, then seemingly do impossible things before making its tantalizing disappearance.

Bleckmann's recent releases include the gorgeously dark At Night with his frequent collaborator, guitarist Ben Monder, and Las Vegas Rhapsody, a fantasia of show tunes orchestrated by Fumio Yasuda. In his last few visits to Philly, he's performed works by composer/guitarist Phil Kline while wandering through the eccentric Ryerss Museum in 2006 as part of Peregrine Arts' "Locus Solus." And just two weeks ago he scared off Kimmel subscribers by reciting Kline's settings of Rumsfeld prose and Nam G.I. poetry.

Now he's returning with the vocal supergroup MOSS, an ethereal, modernist take on what had previously been the province of retro-swingers like the Manhattan Transfer. MOSS teams Bleckmann with Peter Eldridge, Lauren Kinhan, Kate McGarry and Luciana Souza, who won't make the Philly gig, temporarily reducing the group to a quartet, on a set of originals and covers by the unlikely likes of Neil Young, Tom Waits, and Joni Mitchell.

While each of the members have non-traditional approaches to jazz vocals, they're extremely different from one another — hardly fitting for a fivesome meant to blend harmoniously. "I think everybody in this group is very open to other styles and other ways of doing things in music," Bleckmann says, "and that was sort of the exciting thing. Rather than having a close harmony group or a doo-wop group where every sound is very similar to one another, we wanted to see what happens if we have different voices trying to blend. We're trying to challenge each other enough that it's fresh for us."

Bleckmann says the group was "the brainchild of Luciana Souza, who had this idea that she wanted to put together a group of like-minded colleagues, sort of an all-star group of people that respect and love each other, to exchange ideas and music." A chance meeting with Eldridge on a train led to the plan being put into action. They played their first gig in 2004, but thanks to everyone's busy schedules have performed only once a year since. While their recently released self-titled CD has escalated that schedule, Friday's Art Museum show will still only be MOSS' eighth performance.

Though he's forever finding new contexts in which to weave his pliant, clarion vocals, the German-born, New York-based vocalist cringes at the thought of his projects being called "explorations", insisting that, "Exploring always sounds to me like an experiment that didn't quite make it. I just try to look for honesty. There's no difference to me between Las Vegas Rhapsody and a free improvisation. I'm not putting on a different hat or a mask, I'm not changing my persona to sing anything. The honesty and the love that I bring to the material is just as deep."

(s_brady@citypaper.net)

MOSS plays Fri., April 18, 5:45 and 7:15 p.m., free with museum admission of $14, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 26th Street and Ben Franklin Parkway, 215-763-8100, philamuseum.org.