Chattanooga Times Free Press - ChattanoogaNow
Shelton, Peterson play jazz at Barking Legs
CoPAC and the Shaking Ray Levi Society are hosting Skeeter Shelton’s Spectrum 2 with Joel Peterson on Wednesday night, Jan. 24, at Barking Legs Theater.
It’s a rare chance to hear Detroit’s Skeeter Shelton, “one of the great unsung saxophonists in free jazz,” according to Shaking Ray Levi Society, play with double bassist Joel Peterson. Even more unusual: It’s free and open to the public as part of Barking Legs Theater’s Jazz in the Lounge weekly series.
Both musicians were mentored by saxophonist Faruq Z. Bey of the group Gri o t Galaxy, although separated by three decades. Besides performing together with Bey and other members of Detroit’s jazz and creative music scene, Shelton and Peterson have two ensembles with pianist Thollem McDonas.
The son of drummer Ajaramu ( formerly Joe Shelton), Shelton grew up around many of his father’s bandmates: Sonny Stitt, Gene Ammons, Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Fred Anderson and Ajaramu’s longtime love interest Amina Claudine Meyers.
As he got older, Shelton studied with jazz’s first serious harpist, Dorothy Ashby, and legendary organist Lyman Woodard. He’s been a member of Hakim Jami’s Street Band, The Vizitors, The Northwoods Improvisers, Kindred / The Faruq Z. Bey Quartet, The U. S. Army Band and Joe Tex’s group. He has recorded with James Blood Ulmer, Hakim Jami and Dushun Mosley.
Peterson is a multi-instrumentalist and composer who works in a wide range of musical fields. In jazz and improvised music, he has performed with Han Bennink, Marshall Allen, Kenneth Green, Salim Washington, Elliott Sharp, Jeff Marx, Steve Cohn, Tatsuya Nakatani and Jack Wright.
His chamber music has been performed by members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Opera Theater and New Music Detroit. Peterson has performed folkloric and international music with Immigrant Suns and the Nigerian Afrobeat group Odu. He’s also a founding member of several groups that blur genre lines: Scavenger Quartet (with Frank Pahl), Xen Harmonic Gamelan, Viands and Chatoyant (with James Baljo of Wolf Eyes, Marko Novachcoff and Matthew Smith).
For more information: www.barkinglegs.org.