Lou Harrison tribute is a congenial, overstuffed shambles
The list of qualities that go into making Lou Harrison’s music so amiably inviting is almost as extensive and varied as the catalog itself. There’s his insistence on the primacy of melody, for instance, along with the rhythmic vitality that underlies those melodies, his dappled instrumental palette, and the combination of spirited freedom and fierce discipline.
Many of those — though not all — were in evidence on Wednesday, Jan. 24, when a passel of Bay Area new-music luminaries led by pianist Sarah Cahill gathered at the Strand Theatre in San Francisco for a slightly belated centennial tribute to Harrison.