Joyce Kwon Quintet
Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley
February 20, 2008 at Noon

Joyce Kwon, voice
Nick Broten, tenor sax & flute
Kirk Danielson, piano
Gary Johnson, bass
Benny Amon, drums



Program Notes on Alta Noite/ Turn Out the Stars (Arnaldo Antunes/ Bill Evans)
People strive for various things that they think will make them happy but don’t really- so they’re in a perpetual state of deep night (alta noite) with no signs of light coming into their darkness. It’s because they aim for temporal things that might give little bursts of light here & there, but don’t last. I don’t want those kinds of stars, worldly accomplishments without having assurance of a constant light. That’s why I sing “Turn out the stars. Let eternal darkness hide me if I can’t have you beside me.” I want to seek the source of all light and I won’t settle for other sparkly things that distract me in life. But this is easier said than done. There’s a struggle to come out of this arid, hollow space of the deepest night and to not let dinky stars get in the way of seeing the sun- and that’s what the collective improvisation section (see audio clip below) is representing. We’re stuck in an empty deep night and looking for a way out, wanting for the darkness to fade away. Just think- what good are those stars without the one thing that really matters to you?