This past Friday during the Three Lobed Recordings/WXDU day show at Hopscotch Music Festival, something incredible happened. In what surely caused some kind of mystical, cosmological power surge that shook the universe to its hypothetical core, Steve Gunn, Georgia Hubley, Ira Kaplan, James McNew, and William Tyler took to the stage as Little Black Egg Big Band (a name adapted from Georgia’s solo guitar project) to perform a nearly 40-minute improvisational set!
Incorporated into their performance was pre-recorded material from Letha Rodman Melchior, who has worked in the past under her own name, under the alias Tretetam, and in her band Ruby Falls, and who is also married to musician Dan Melchior. She was diagnosed with stage IV melanoma back in 2010 and has been battling the terrible disease ever since. The Hopscotch collaboration came about in a show of support for Melchior, who had hoped to join her friends for the performance but was unfortunately physically unable.
A high-quality recording of the set is being offered for a minimum five dollar donation to Letha Rodman Melchior’s GiveForward page, which goes towards helping her and her husband cover her medical expenses, because the life of a musician/artist is rarely a lucrative one. Head over to NYC Taper for instructions on how to claim the set, but it will only be available until next Tuesday, so get to it! Seriously, what is there to even think about here?!
• Letha Rodman Melchior GiveForward page: https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/qny4/help-letha-rodman-melchior-c…
[Photo: PJ Sykes]
More about: Letha Rodman Melchior, Little Black Egg Big Band, Steve Gunn, William Tyler, Yo La Tengo
