Excuse Me, Mr. Satie

Free improvisation is, undoubtedly, one of the most unusual venues for Erik Satie’s music. Although Satie was an innovator and a disruptor in his day, he’s since been enshrined in classical music’s pantheon and his compositions are considered sacred. Taking massive creative liberties with the music on the sheet — or worse, ignoring the will of the composer entirely — is unthinkable to anyone hoping to make a serious claim to understand Satie’s work. Keshavan Maslak (on sax) and Katsuyuki Itakura (on piano) probably don’t care much for the stuffy formalism of classical music, but they seem to understand the appeal of Erik Satie perfectly well. For the most part, they respect the central melodies of the pieces they choose to play with, mutating them into new passages as they circle into new repetitions. Occasionally, the pieces do become unrecognizable, but that’s part of the point; they’re familiarizing the listener with roads well-traveled before going off the beaten path. And after all, Satie loved to play with his performers and make them squirm — it’s only fair to serve a bit of that energy back at him.