Double Bill : Clockwork Mercury & Basil Valentine

Clockwork Mercury

With Catherine Sikora (saxophone), Eric Mingus (vocals, poetry, double bass)

Clockwork Mercury is the duo project of American Eric Mingus and Corkwoman Catherine Sikora who is currently in residence at the CCI.

Their project takes its name from a poem by Bernard O'Donoghue (“Silverfish”, from the collection Here Nor There) and the duo performs a mix of song, free improvisation and spoken word; their influences are as diverse as beat poetry, punk, the blues, traditional Irish tunes, not to mention the multi-faceted world of jazz.

Renowned as a blues and rock singer with punk sensibilities, Eric grew up in the centre of the jazz world as the son of legendary double bassist Charlie Mingus. The great power and freedom of Eric’s own bass playing combined with Catherine’s melodic sensitivity as a saxophonist have seen them perform throughout the US and all across Europe, sharing stages with musicians Tracy Bonham, the Chrome Cranks and David Amram to name but a few.
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Basil Valentine

With Lynn Cassiers (voice), Nick Roth (saxophones), Nathalie Forget (ondes Martenot), Alex Roth (guitar), Simon Roth (percussions)

Basil Valentine was a famous 15th-century alchemist whose most vital contribution to science and the arts was "The Twelve Keys". This arcane work contains twelve short chapters, or "keys", each of which is an allegorical description of one step in the process by which the philosopher's stone may be created. This concert Prima Clavis presents these processes through contemporary music - five vignettes, with a transmutation devised by each musician in the ensemble

This evening is organised in conjunction with the 12th edition of Jazzycolors, the foreign cultural institutes in Paris’ annual festival of jazz. The CCI will also welcome the Serbs of Fish in oil on 3 November and the Greek Martha Mavroidi Trio on 30 November (7p.m). For full details of the festival: www.jazzycolors.net