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Steve Adams and Dan Plonsey
The art of solo improvisation can be the most liberating and the most challenging of tasks for the creative horn blower. When you're all alone on the bandstand, you can be as free as you dare to be. But without support, how does one develop a theme, build momentum, thread together concepts, and sustain ingenuity for the duration of a set? More crucially, how does one investigate new forms (i.e., dive into the unknown) and avoid the appearance of stumbling? These questions and more will likely be broached, and perhaps answered, by wildly inventive saxophonists Steve Adams (of Rova Saxophone Quartet) and Dan Plonsey (of Beanbender's and Manufacturing of Humidifiers infamy) at the debut showcase of the fledgling "Pour House Experimental Jazz Solo Series."

-- Sam Prestianni

Steve Adams and Dan Plonsey appear in tandem on Sunday, Jan. 5, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Pour House Cafe, 1136 Valencia (between 22nd and 23rd streets). Admission is $5; call 641-