Saturday-Pythias Braswell

Jazz Duo with Esmé Schwall on cello Pythias Braswell is the musical offering of Michael C. Hays, a poet and composer whose songs are direct, impassioned, austere, haunting, and hopeful. They combine the trance-induced, improvised, vocal expansions often found in devotional hymns of the world, with the structure and lyrical clarity of a Jazz Age ballad. His guitar work draws equally from folk traditions and the avant-garde. Hays will be joined by cellist Esmé Schwall, a Eugene native, who helped found Tucson band Seashell Radio. Schwall also played traditional music in Madagascar, and records and performs with many Portland-based bands.