“Five years! Wow. I can’t believe it,” says Ross Hammond, local guitar player and primary organizer of In the Flow Festival, which celebrates its fifth birthday from May 9—14, 2012 at various venues around town. “It’s really a good feeling that we’ve managed to get this far,” he said of the improvisational music and art festival that features everything from jazz to rock, poetry and spoken word to electronic music and blues. For Hammond and the others involved, In the Flow is a very personal thing. “We’ve lost some great friends along the way, namely Byron Blackburn and Tommy VanWormer, both of whom helped plan the festival in the early years. So it really is a good feeling because it’s a nice way to keep paying tribute to friends.” Hammond admits that back in 2008, the festival’s formative year, they had no clue what they were doing. They had no permits, no real contracts with talent and a lack of publicity. “But it turned out great,” Hammond remembers. The second year saw them trying to “involve the community more” to really up the ante. They also started incorporating poetry and art. “Every year we’ve grown and it seems like we’ve found a groove,” he said. “Five years feels like we’re legit now.” To view In the Flow Festival’s entire schedule, visit http://intheflowsacramento.com.
WEB EXCLUSIVE!!! EXTENSION OF OUR Q&A WITH ROSS HAMMOND!!!
Submerge is sponsoring an In the Flow Festival show on Friday, May 11 at Phono Select that will feature Afternoon Teacup Collection, Jaroba and Keith Cary as well as Kevin Corcoran. What can you tell our readers about those performers?
Ross Hammond: Kevin is intense. He’s intense and super focused on the sounds he wants to make. There is really no jive with him. He has a great musical intuition and a unique voice on percussion. I really enjoy listening to him (and playing with him too). Afternoon Teacup Collection is our foray into including more classical-based music this year. They are a very cool group of extremely talented musicians playing new classical music. I first saw them at Bows and Arrows last fall and was blown away by them. They did an adaptation of a Terry Riley piece that was completely surreal to see live (in a cafe, nonetheless). Jaroba and Keith Cary are going to be playing a collection of homemade instruments and musical inventions. The first time I saw them Keith was playing a stationary bicycle, which he was using to generate electricity, and using it as an pitch bending oscillator/noisemaker. He ran that signal through one of his amps. While he was doing that, Jaroba was playing a mountain of tubing going into an air horn. Yeah, that’s what they do. They’re pretty badass.
What is In the Flow Festival really all about, anyways? What would you like people to know about it?
RH: In general, In the Flow is about showcasing Sacramento’s creative music, art and poetry (oftentimes marrying all of those together). The programming this year has something that nearly everyone will get into. There is straight-ahead jazz, soul, electronic music, free jazz, noise, rock, hip hop, urban poetry, spoken word, acoustic music and more. I’ve always wanted to collaborate with as many musicians as I can, and this festival has a similar vision. If it’s good, it’s good. That’s pretty much it. That being said, also go see Nagual!
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