This story was originally published by ArtsATL.
In a warehouse performance space on Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard in southwest Atlanta, a dozen or so musicians are seated in a circle, performing for an audience of some 50 people. Their instruments include a saxophone, two trumpets, a trombone, bassoon, flute, bass guitar, mandolin, violin, tablas, a drum kit and assorted percussion gadgetry. The ensemble conductor, Grady Cousins, a longtime Atlanta performance artist across multiple genres, is in the middle of the circle.
Alternately sitting, standing, contorting and gesturing with his hands, Cousins directs the ensemble — first, in an abbreviated version of the sharply percussive Ramayana Monkey Chant and then in support of a lovely vocal section with lyrics having to do with being “on that road.” His highly trained, dulcet-toned voice and expressive body language urge the ensemble along an entirely improvised, mesmerizing, anthemic trajectory.
Forty-five or so minutes into the performance, as the music ascends to a wailing crescendo, Cousins brings everything to an abrupt halt, leaving the musicians and audience no choice but to stop and listen. Minutes tick by. Outside of the room, a bus accelerates away from a traffic light; an EMS siren wails; indistinct voices speak. Inside, the air thrums with electrical current; the steel window frames crack with the wind. The extended stillness and random noise morph into a deeply introspective, nearly spiritual experience.
Credit: Photo courtesy of Monday Night Creative Music Series
Credit: Photo courtesy of Monday Night Creative Music Series
Eventually, a few folks, overcome by self-consciousness and pent-up energy, can no longer contain themselves. Smiles appear, followed by giggles, which turn into full-blown ecstatic laughter. Then everyone in the room leaps to their feet, applauding and shaking their heads in euphoric harmony.
Thus concludes another installment of the Monday Night Creative Music Series at Eyedrum Art & Music Gallery.
The series was founded in fall 2025 by a group of Atlanta-based musicians — Katherine Young, Alexandria Smith, Ipek Eginli, Will Hamilton, Kebbi Williams and Jeff Albert — who also performed at the series’ inaugural concert.
The following Monday featured solo improvisations by New York-based drummer-guitarist Kevin Murray and Chicago-based guitarist-saxophonist Will Greene, plus a trio consisting of multi-instrumentalist Majid Araim, vocalist Monique Osorio and guitarist Alex Cohen — all from Atlanta. Rounding out the first month of Monday night shows was a solo performance by former Atlanta saxophonist-composer Jeff Crompton.
The Monday Night Creative Music Series defines itself as an open and welcoming space for Atlanta’s creative musicians and curious audiences. Its programming supports the city’s diverse musical communities focused on improvised, experimental, avant-garde jazz, contemporary classical, electronic and other nonmainstream musical practices. With the first anniversary approaching in September, bassoonist Katie Young says the series was a project whose time had come.
“There just seemed to be a lot of us who agreed that it was time for a weekly series that would facilitate setting up concerts for musicians coming through town from out of town,” Young said. “For me personally, I was excited about this because I feel like I was constantly missing shows. It’s hard to sometimes find out about what’s happening. Instagram is a horrible way to learn about events. If there is a show every Monday — and maybe you can’t come every week — but you just know it’s going to be awesome.”
Atlanta has long been a nurturing ground for edgy, experimental, DIY music-makers — from the underground laboratory era of the 1980s and ’90s up to the current moment, when progressive education programs at Georgia State, Georgia Tech, Clark Atlanta and Emory universities are churning out talented young musicians, composers and technologists, particularly in the realms of jazz, contemporary classical and multimedia studies. While Atlanta offers a number of opportunities to test out and refine ideas in front of a modest but loyal group of patrons at select venues, the Monday Night Creative Music Series occupies a special niche in the firmament.
“I feel like there was a little thing in the zeitgeist,” Albert, a trombonist, said. “We had all been involved in regular, ongoing series at points in time in various places … and … there just wasn’t a thing like that in Atlanta. There were similar things, but the consistency of something every week is both good for musical development and social development. We all have friends in other places that travel, and it’s nice to say, well, look, if you can be here on a Monday, we can give you a gig and get to hear you play and share your music with our friends and colleagues and folks in Atlanta.”
So far, the Monday night series has presented more than 60 concerts featuring adventurous music from all over the planet. Performers such as Lina Andonovska, a North Macedonian flutist who mostly trained in Australia and is currently working on her Ph.D. at Emory; Kerem Ergener, a Turkish-born electronic music composer and multimedia artist who spent four years as a lecturer-in-residence at the King Mongkut Institute of Technology in Bangkok; and Tatsuya Nakatani, originally from Osaka, Japan, now residing in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, who specializes in solo improvisational percussion and leads the Gong Orchestra, which allows nonmusicians from his community to play large bowed gongs in an ensemble setting.
Credit: Photo by Reinout Vogt
Credit: Photo by Reinout Vogt
“So the things that we feature are ultra creative, on the far end of the spectrum of creativity and experiments … that push limits. And to have a consistent place where that happens is just so gold,” said Monday Night Creative Music Series founding member Williams. A Grammy-winning saxophonist, composer, improviser, community organizer and leader of the Wolf Pack jazz ensemble, Williams has been a force on the Atlanta music scene for a couple of decades.
“Having a place to come and knowing that somebody’s going to be there pushing limits is just so valuable and educational, even for the most professional of musicians because you’re not in everybody’s mind — and the far reaches of somebody’s mind is probably not like yours,” Williams said.
Credit: Photo courtesy of Chamber Cartel
Credit: Photo courtesy of Chamber Cartel
So far, the response has been overwhelmingly positive, somewhat to the surprise of its progenitors.
“What I thought was going to take six to eight months to build up, we were at that level of people embracing it in a month or two,” Young said. “The friendly experiencers of Atlanta do it very quickly … and the beautiful thing is we have a lot of regulars who aren’t musicians. Often in these scenes around creative and experimental music, we’re playing for our own people, the people who make the music. But we have many regulars who are just people who like interesting music and come hang out.”
MUSIC PREVIEW
Monday Night Creative Music Series at Eyedrum
8 p.m. Aug. 3: Paul Stevens (solo percussion and electronics), plus a set of music curated by Priscilla Smith. Aug. 10: Emily Koh and Chris Jeffer with special guests. Aug. 17: Zach Cooper plus Michael Libramento. Also performing: Katie Young, Alexandria Smith, Stuart Gerber, Emily Koh and Adam Mirza. Aug. 24: Anthony Cammarota (guitar and electronics) and Marquinn Mason (saxophone and electronics). Aug. 31: Chamber Cartel. Suggested donation: $20 (pay-what-you-can policy applies). Eyedrum, 515 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd. SW, Atlanta. eyedrum.org.
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An Atlanta native, Doug DeLoach has been covering music, performing and static arts in his hometown and beyond for five decades. DeLoach is a regular contributor to Songlines, a world music magazine based in London, and his ruminations on arts and culture have appeared in publications such as Creative Loafing, Georgia Music, ArtsGeorgia, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, High Performance and Art Papers.
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
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