voiceACT, Jim Black

There aren’t many all-female vocal groups in the world of improvised music, even fewer of them are working bands, and there are very few projects that are anything more than that. VoiceACT, conceived by Anna Gadt, is exactly that. VoiceACT is, above all, a platform for artistic exploration, generally without specific stylistic characteristics, but operating according to the sacred principle of free creation, to which each invited artist contributes whatever resonates in their improvisational soul. In its latest concert iteration, VoiceAct—featuring Anna Gadt, Natalia Kordiak, Marta Grzywacz, and Gosia Zagajewska—invited a special guest: the American drummer Jim Black, who lives in Berlin.

Jim Black certainly belongs to the circle of drummers who need no introduction to fans of creative music. His collaborations with Uri Cain, Dave Douglas, Ellery Eskelin, Tim Berne, and Laurie Anderson in the past, and today his trio with Peter Evans and Peter Eldhe, as well as his own co-led bands with Alasnoaxis, and The Shrimps have left an indelible mark on music history. So, four female voices and drums—the most primal forms of human expression, for it is worth remembering that in the beginning was the voice, and in the beginning was the drum.