Toledo? Toledo!

If it haven't said it before, one of the rewards of getting older is seeing the world improve. It is cliche for older folk to opine about the sad state of the modern world and point back to some Ozzie and Harriet time when everything was as sweet as orange sherbert and 7-Up. But so much seems so much better to me than when I was a kid.

One of my greatest joys is to see the notion of two or three dominant music centers surrounded by an ocean of mediocrity slowly disappear. You can no longer say that the only good music comes from New York, or Berlin, or London, or Osaka.

Living in a medium-sized city myself (16th largest in the US!), this issue is near and dear to my heart. When I moved to Ohio from the east coast in 1990, I got a lot of attitude from some of my east coast friends and family about moving to the heartland. Some of them still don't understand it and assume that I must live in the middle of a corn field (which wouldn't be such a bad thing, now that I reflect upon it). Since I came here, I have always been impressed by the amount of talented people, and we have an excellent new music scene.

There are certain benefits to doing new music in a city like Columbus. First of all, there is not a tremendous amount of competition for a limited audience. Usually there is just one key show going on at one time. Another thing, it is a lot easier to set up gigs because there is no cut-throat comepetition for a limited number of gigs. And there aren't a few experimental superstars who rule our scene that everyone else has to suck up to. There are not arch hipsters too whom everyone looks for guidance. Our free music scene is actually pretty free.

So in one week, you can see analog noise at Skylab, fringe rock at Cafe Bourbon Street, punk at the Legion of Doom, free improv at the OSU Urban Arts Space, and -- the latest member of our community -- the New Music Collective at Ohio State who very ably presented works by Stockhausen, Feldman, Reich, and others at a concert last weekend.

So now Toledo has been getting to the act. Our colleague Gabe from the KBD group has been presenting house concerts with great success. At this stage in my career, house concerts are probably my favorite performance venue. The acoustics are good and you feel really connected with the audience. It suits quiet free improv really well.

So this Friday, Gabe has...

Jack Wright (sax) and Bob Marsh (violin) duo

Ryan Jewell (drums), Larry Marotta (guitar), Ben Bennett (drums) trio

fluxmonkey (electronics) and J. Guy Laughlin (drums) duo

Music starts at 9.

The Robinwood Concert House is at 2564 Robinwood Ave., Toledo

There is more information about the concert at http://toledobellows.wordpress.com.