JayVe Montgomery
Close followers of Nashville music know that you can simply show up wherever JayVe Montgomery is playing and find interesting and thoughtful music. Among other things, the multi-instrumentalist, composer and improviser has released albums and performed wind-instrument-centered music as Abstract Black, played with the improv-focused In Place Quartet and appeared on a variety of others’ releases.
Montgomery’s process has often incorporated sounds of the environment around him. Over the past year, he’s worked on an in-depth project called Lake Black Town, exploring what are called “drowned towns.” These sites were created across the Southeast when authorities chose to dam rivers to make lakes in areas where Black people built communities — and economic power — after the Civil War.
Montgomery visited places like Lake Martin (formerly Kowaliga, Ala.), Kentucky Lake (formerly Birmingham, Ky.) and Lake Lanier (formerly Oscarville, Ga.). He used an array of techniques and equipment to capture sound from the air, water and animals at each site — even vibrations from plants that he could turn directly into sound or information he could use to generate sound. Those recordings and other data became the foundation for live improvisations performed at the sites as well as composed pieces. The work uses what is here now to tell us something about what was lost when entire communities were buried under hundreds of feet of water.
The project originated as part of contemporary art music ensemble chatterbird’s composer-in-residence program, and a key source of funding was a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Amid recent federal funding cuts that have affected a slew of arts institutions like Nashville’s OZ Arts, the NEA grant was terminated in early May, forcing a rapid conclusion to the project with a concert on May 28.
In June, Montgomery launched a series of Wednesday night events with Lake Black Town, each featuring an artist talk and a performance, at the relocated Random Sample. As of this writing there are two left, on July 9 and July 16. Both events start at 6 p.m. Admission is free but space is limited, so reserve your spot in advance via the link.
