They discovered an impossible-to-confine musician whose work spanned jazz, scorching rock-like bands, all-improvisation collectives, large-ensemble pieces, a long-running duo with guitarist Charlie Hunter, and more. Previte even played on one — So member’s favorite Tom Waits record, “Rain Dogs.’’
“And I remember thinking, is it possible this is all the same guy?’’ says So’s Eric Beach, sitting with Previte recently at a cafe terrace on the Upper West Side. “If he can have all of these different musical personalities inside him, this is going to be something totally awesome.’’
That something is “Terminals,’’ a suite of five pieces that Previte wrote for So, each one featuring a soloist: John Medeski on keys, DJ Olive on turntables, Jen Shyu on voice, Previte himself on additional drums, and Zeena Parkins on electric harp. (Yes, electric harp.)
The program, which Previte likens to a set of concertos where the percussion ensemble plays the role of the orchestra, had its premiere at Merkin Hall here earlier this year, and now comes to Boston, tonight at the Institute of Contemporary Art.
In 30-plus years as a composer, Previte says, he had never written for a percussion ensemble before this project.
“I just heard it all of a sudden,’’ Previte says. “Why do you wake up and say, I want to write a guitar quartet, or have a band with two trumpets? It just answers a question you’re having. I suppose I was asking myself questions that could only be answered by percussion music.’’
But the immediate impetus for “Terminals’’ did not come from some complex musicological quest. Its source was more oblique: the back pages of in-flight magazines specifically, the maps they provide of airport terminals. Where the maps showed configurations of walkways, amenities and gates, Previte saw different ways of setting up a bunch of percussion instruments on a stage.
