Clogs: they're big, they're heavy, and they're wood

What do you get when you take a bassoonist, a guitarist, a percussionist, and a fiddler—and turn them loose to improvise music of their own?

Well, you get Clogs.

COURTESY CLOGS No Strings Attached, circa 1973

Clogs, an ecletic chamber ensemble, features the improv of graduate students Rachael Elliott, MUS '00, Padma Newsome, MUS '99, Bryce Dessner, MUS '99, and Tom Kozumplik, MUS '99, who bring new music of their own composition to the group. The ensemble then plays, sings, and experiments with the new works, always improvising. The quirky name is a shortened version of their original name, "Loose-Fitting Clogs"—an emblem of their style. The Clogs members bring anything from shards of musical ideas to completely new compositions to play, and the way the musicians react to one another is the key to the exhilarating process.

"I love collaboration," Newsome said. "Clogs is a collaborative venture. In the end, the piece lives and dies according to the ways we respond to one another." Newsome, who plays violin and viola for the group as well as composing, is a teaching fellow this year. His avid interest in musical technology has led Clogs to branch into "electro-acoustic" sound, and one of Monday's pieces will feature him "playing" the computer.

The Clogs members' influences are eclectic, to say the least. "Our work is written in a classical vein—I'm a classically trained composer—but there's not much we play that you'd hear and say, `that's classical music,'" Newsome said. Percussionist Kozumplik has played with rock bands throughout his life, as well as big band and jazz combos. Clogs is considerably influenced by jazz, and some training in Indian modal music has affected the way they improvise. All of these influences, the Clogs members said, creep into their music.

Kozumplik, who is also the manager of the Yale Symphony Orchestra, said the unique sound of the unlikely combination appeals to both the familiar and the unconventional. "We have a great range—a lot of our music is very accessible, but then there are parts that go out further and challenge the audience," Kozumplik said. "There's something traditional and familiar about the sound of winds, strings, and percussion, but there are also aspects that will seem strange and fresh. We try never to play what you'd expect." The bassoon, for example, often takes the spotlight as Elliott plays in the high registers.

The opportunities for a group like Clogs to perform have varied as widely as their influences. The ensemble has played gigs in several of New York City's trendiest spots—The Knitting Factory and Galapagos, for example. They've also played at New Haven's International Festival of Arts and Ideas, and last summer they performed a "sit-down-and-clap" concert at a music festival in Vermont. "It's not quite sit-down-and-clap music," Newsome said, "but it can be." Kozumplik said that the Festival of Arts and Ideas, which took place on the New Haven Green, wasn't exactly an ideal setting for the more intimate framework of chamber music. Since the bassoon, violin/viola, and guitar are plugged in, though, their range can accommodate many environments.

The new music scene in New Haven is not great, Newsome said. "It's a small audience, even for important concerts...but it's an appreciative crowd, and it could certainly be expanded. After all, new music is a performing culture."

Concert

Scotland Zeif Mon., Dec. 4 at 7:30 p.m. Little Theater, 1 Lincoln St.

Kozumplik said that many budding musicians don't appreciate the possibilities that new musical form opens up. "A lot of musicians don't realize that this is an option—that you can make your own music and play it," Kozumplik said. "There are a lot of people out there who really welcome the new kinds of sound."

"I strongly believe that traditional music can't truly exist without contemporary music," Newsome said. "It opens it up and allows it to breathe. Similarly, if you closed off new music to traditional music, it would suffer greatly."

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