JayVe Montgomery
Multi-instrumentalist, composer and improviser JayVe Montgomery makes interesting and thoughtful music wherever he goes. Lake Black Town took him to “drowned towns,” sites created across the Southeast when authorities dammed rivers in areas where Black people built communities and economic power after the Civil War. The work uses what is here now to tell us about what was lost when entire communities were literally buried under water. He visited places like Lake Lanier (formerly Oscarville, Ga.), capturing sound (or data he could use to generate sound) from the air, water, animals and even plants, which he used in live recordings and composed pieces. The project originated as part of chatterbird’s composer-in-residence program, and a key source of funding was a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Amid federal funding cuts, the grant was terminated, forcing a rapid conclusion to the project with a concert in May, which Mongtomery followed up with a performance series in June and July.
