Atlantic Center for the Arts is a lovely place, way back in the woods but not too far from the beaches (it's in New Smyrna Beach, hard by Daytona Beach but with a much less touristy, hectic flavor -- a lot of the beach places seem to be weekend retreats for Central Floridians and I even knew a few people who would commute to Orlando during the summer). I saw a couple marvelous shows there while I lived in Orlando -- Margaret Leng Tan and Cecil Taylor, although Cecil was in a bit of a mood, he played much longer and more expansively in Orlando the previous night. The public performances can get kind of an odd mix of people, including locals trying desperately to be cultured, and it seemed as though Cecil just didn't think they were feeling him, although his abrupt departure might have been more a matter of treating the provincials to some unexpected drama.... The Relache Ensemble from Philly has done a couple residencies there, I think. Abaton played a tremendous show here in New Orleans at the Contemporary Arts Center the other night. The crowd seemed to be kind of a mix of the usual avant-garde goers, classical music types and teens who'd just seen the trio at NOCCA (the performing arts high school). Everybody was absolutely enthralled -- Mark Feldman seemed quite touched by the extent and intensity of the applause. He and Erik Friedlander were so magnificent together, I dug Abaton even more than Sylvie Courvoiser's other group that played here, Mephista, which I loved. The new double CD release is beautiful, too, but the live experience was especially remarkable -- I don't think I've ever seen three musicians watch each other so closely or listen to each other so intently. Of course, if Feldman and Friedlander didn't watch each other closely in some of the more intricate parts of Courvoisier's compositions, somebody could lose a limb...... It was also fun watching a teenage piano student next to me watch Courvoisier, at first he had this expression like "She's just plunking around inside the piano and playing weird chords," but then his jaw started dropping. Parry