Sold Date: October 28, 2022
Start Date: May 28, 2019
Final Price: $29.95 (USD)
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What might happen if Virginia Woolf hosted a dinner party that was attended by Gertrude Stein, Thelonious Monk, Bobby Fischer, Salvador Dali, Billie Holiday,  Michael Jackson, and other famous eccentrics? Spoken word and experimental jazz are combined to tell the unique tale of the evening's events unfolding in chaotic and catastrophic fashion. This limited release, hand-numbered LP features a gatefold cover complete with artwork representing each of the dinner guests and an essay by The Believer magazine editor-at-large, Andrew Leland. The LP itself contains at least one interesting sonic surprise as well!
The story of this project's origins: In June 2007, Chris Janzen handed Jesse Nathan a CD with a series of wordless musical compositions. Janzen had put the pieces together while completing a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting at the University of South Dakota.  

Nathan, in turn, wrote a series of poems – lyrics growing out of and responding to the sounds Janzen had created – that narrate the story of a fantastical dinner party hosted by Virginia Woolf and populated by famous (and some not so famous) dead eccentrics.  

The poemsongs were first performed at Bethel College in Kansas in late 2008, and a chapbook (published by Milk Machine) appeared then that included roughly half the poems.  

In spring 2009, the full suite of poems and songs was published in a second chapbook that included collages Janzen had made – one “portrait” of each guest at the party. This book was released at an actual dinner party at Electric Works gallery in San Francisco, which was catered by Christine Manoux and held within an installation by Ian Huebert. “Dinner” was subsequently performed elsewhere in San Francisco and also in Berkeley, Fresno, and Reedley, California.  

This record is the sonic apex of this constantly evolving collaboration: Here is the fully developed studio recording of most of the poemsongs that comprise “Dinner,” plus a newly composed piece relating the sudden appearance at the party of Gertrude Stein. It was released in June 2011, coinciding with a series of performances at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco.

The vinyl was pressed in an edition of 300. Each copy is hand-numbered.

Jesse Nathan – words, mouth, typewriter, clarinet, kitchen percussion
Chris Janzen – music composition, guitar, bass, charango, keyboards, electronics, percussion, voice
Curtis Buettner – tenor and soprano saxophones
Brad Kalebjian - drums
Track List / Guest List: Small Journey (Virginia Woolf) - 3:54 Solution (Thelonious Monk) - 2:35 Soldosido (Francois Sudre) - 4:33 Stop Groove (Paul Erdos) - 2:25 Confusion then Madness (Ray Johnson) - 4:21 Hart Lives Underwater (Hart Crane) - 2:13 Desert Cycle (Salvador Dali) - 3:23 The Difference is Spreading (Gertrude Stein) - 2:16 Somewhat Ethereal Panic (Jaco Pastorius) - 4:07 Soundtrack to a Moment of Indecision (Billie Holiday) - 4:00 Somber Conversation with Conclusion (Delia Bacon) - 3:01 Footnotework (Vaslav Nijinsky) - 0:23 Famine, then Victory, Followed by Dismay (John Symmes)/Method and Means for Creating Anti-Gravity Illusion (Michael Jackson) - 5:23