On March 6, the galleries of Jim Hodges: Give More Than You Take will be filled with the sounds of renowned local drummer/composer/“restless creator” Dave King.
A Twin Cities native, King is perhaps best known for his work with jazz groups Happy Apple (with Michael Lewis and Erik Fratzke) and The Bad Plus (with Ethan Iverson and Reid Anderson). But King’s musical scope is broad and his playing versatile; he has performed and recorded with so many bands that the Belles of Skin City wrote a song called “Hey, Dave King, Leave Some for the Rest of Us.” His ubiquity provides seemingly endless fodder for the local music scene, so much so that it prompted this City Pages headline last year: “Happy Apple’s Dave King: I’m not in 99 bands.”
King is no stranger to the Walker. He and fellow members of yet another one of his bands, Golden Valley is Now, were regular attendees at the Walker’s rock and jazz shows in the 1980s. “We were these die-hard kids in the front row,” King said. “That place played a huge role in how I chose what I wanted to do.”
Over the past 15 years or so, King himself has been a source of inspiration for the next wave of Walker audiences. He has played numerous Walker events dating back to the late 1990s (for one of Happy Apple’s earliest gigs) to numerous Music and Movies appearances (in bands like Blood Magnet, Iffy, and Halloween, Alaska) to the Rock the Garden stage in 2003 (when The Bad Plus opened for Wilco). And in 2010, the McGuire Theater was home to King for Two Days, a weekend-long celebration of his work. The mini-festival featured bands Buffalo Collision, The Bad Plus, and Happy Apple, and marked the debut of Golden Valley Is Now and Dave King Trucking Company.
As part of the 2014 Sound Horizon series, King returns this Thursday evening to perform three short sets, each in a different location within the galleries of Give More Than You Take. King says his 30-minute performances will contain “many varying themes and set-ups all inspired by the breadth of Jim’s show.”
Hodges himself curated this year’s Sound Horizon series, which also includes sets by Shelley Hirsch (April 10) and Kevin Beasley (May 8). King has long been a fan of Hodges’ work, but this inspiration became personal when the two met last year after King played in a show with Craig Taborn here at the Walker. The two artists connected immediately, or “had an instantly easy vibe as personalities” (King’s words). Since their introduction, Hodges has attended King’s shows in New York, and King in turn has visited the artist’s studio. This increased familiarity with Hodges’ work has had a real impact on King:
Jim’s imagination, openness, earnestness and keen mind are all things that inspire me. I feel challenged by his ability to do heavy things with the lightest touch. This idea of the multiple possibilities of things is something my work tends to attempt to explore. Also the idea of many varieties of touch and discipline appeals to me greatly and Jim is a great master at this.
Hodges explained that he is equally as inspired by King’s music and process, calling him a “sculptor of sound.” Hodges also cited “an affinity to his energetic broad spectrum and sensitivity” as further reasons why he invited King to take part in Sound Horizon. Sensitivity is a quality these artists share, both creating a subtle balance between hard and soft. This Thursday we’ll get to see just how King’s musical sculptures compare to Hodges’ physical ones around him.
Dave King will perform in the Walker galleries on Thursday, March 6 at 6, 7, and 8 pm. Admission is free.