Music Box announces ‘Super Secret’ concert to accompany New Orleans Jazz Fest

The makers of the Music Box Roving Village, that enchanting assembly of musical architecture in City Park, are planning a “Super Secret” April 24 concert to accompany the first day of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival 2015, which takes place just a few block away

New Orleans stars Quintron, Luke Winslow-King, Rob Cambre and Dustin Louque will perform using the eccentric instruments of the Music Box, joined by Jazz Fest performers whose names will only be announced on the day of the concert. Hence the secrecy.

Whatever guest performers appear at the 8:30 p.m. April 24 concert, the outdoor, largely improvised show will be unlike any other music experience in town.

The Music Box Roving Village: City Park

*What: Music performed in whimsical array of small sculptural dwellings that second as one-of-a-kind musical instruments.

*Where: In City Park near the intersection of Harrison Avenue and Wisner Boulevard.

*When: April 24 at 8:30 p.m., doors open at 7 p.m.
*Tickets are $20 and are available online.
*More information: Visit the Music Box website.
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/roving-village-orchestra-special-after-jazz-fest-performance-april-24th-tickets-16026948033

Music Box Roving Village in City Park

The musical shantytown
The Music Box Roving Village: City Park will host concerts with the houses serving as the orchestra. Its performances are 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.

The bright, intricate nests made by bowerbirds inspired Ross Harmon and Frank Pahl’s shack, surrounded with heavy chimes tuned to different scales. The inside is completely covered in mosaic mirrors.

Callie Curry (aka Swoon) collaborated with New Orleans blacksmith Darryl Reeves on a gazebo-like structure, detailed with lattice-like brass cuttings and Reeves’ brass instruments twisted into the house’s frame. A pneumatic switchboard in the center controls the horns

A tall windmill-inspired silo topped with tubes and metal shaped into musical ceiling fans. Slowly pull a rope from the ornate pulley system inside the house and you’ll hear the tubes catch air as they turn into resonating chambers bellowing slightly dissonant tones.

“We’ll probably have only heard our instruments playing together for the first time the day before, “It’ll be sunset when people first arrive. We want them to feel like they’ve entered an enchanted world. They’ll come in, find these musical houses, find their seats – they’ll be all over the place – and we’ll have a concert that we have no idea what it will sound like.”

The Music Box – December 10, 2011 from New Orleans Airlift on Vimeo