MUSIC REVIEW : Festival ’90 : Music at the Fringes Offered in Long Beach

Local improvisers for self-described alternative musical sensibilities celebrated their wares abundantly Saturday in Long Beach. Beginning at noon, 30 low-budget events over nearly 12 hours made up the third annual “Day of Music in Long Beach” sponsored by the California Outside Music Assn.

Taking in the good with the bad, listeners moseyed between five small Long Beach venues, all within walking distance of each other.

At System M, a comfortable cafe/art gallery with a stage situated atop the kitchen, mostly electronic avant-garde groups influenced by jazz or pop played. One of these, an esoteric pop quintet called the Kaoru Mansour Band, created an inventive landscape of vocalizations, rhythms and carefully crafted compositions.

Cathartic chaos from the punk-fusion trio Cruel Frederick and high-energy minimalism and jazz from the seven-member Glue Factory Orchestra provided other moments of sometimes inspired ear-splitting energy.

Around the corner, the Williams Lamb Gallery offered a less frenetic alternative. James Scott Behrends soothed with his impressive meditations on shakuhachi (a Japanese flute) while accordionist Jim Nightingale squeezed out atonal, post-polka meanderings with humor and skill.

Less memorable activity occurred in the Encore Fine Art Gallery, with the exception of the trio SubMedia, which highlighted some dazzling work by computer-percussionist Brad Dutz.