chatterbird Plays Alex Temple’s Tribute to Frank Zappa

The late, great Frank Zappa pretty much hated everything. He hated schools, hippies, love songs, psychedelia, critics, 12-string guitars, The Velvet Underground and even the entire city of Los Angeles. According to composer Alex Temple, who has brilliantly satirized the legendary iconoclast in her recent work for chamber orchestra, Zappa would have hated you too, if he had ever met you. That said, he would have positively adored Temple’s terrific “The Man Who Hated Everything,” which gets a hearing in Nashville courtesy of the alt-classical group chatterbird. Temple’s music is a masterful mix of avant-garde classical music and free improvisational jazz. Imagine modernist experimental composer John Cage dipping his chocolate into cosmic jazz philosopher Sun Ra’s peanut butter, and you get an idea of this entertaining piece. The evening’s program will also include first performances of music by composers Chris Bell, Annalyse Clark, Nick Heilborn and Matthew Shorten as part of a work called “Hit and Pluck,” along with composer Robert Honstein’s tribute to a childhood clapping game. JOHN PITCHER