EMAS Presents: KC/EMAS Renegade Cobra led by Jeff Harshbarger

Wednesday, November 19, 2025 from 7:30-9 PM; Doors at 7 PM

For the November EMAS Presents: we will be hosting a performance of John Zorn’s Cobra (KC/EMAS Renegade Cobra) led by bandleader Jeff Harshbarger. The performance will consist of two sets—the first set is group improvisations, the second is the KC/EMAS Renegade Cobra.

NO VIDEO RECORDINGS ARE ALLOWED DURING KC RENEGADE COBRA

KC/EMAS Renegade Cobra:

Shante Clair – guitar
Brad Cox – piano
Seth Andrew Davis – guitar
Pete Fucinaro – tenor
Kelly Gant – vocals
Jeff Harshbarger – prompter
Jade Harvey – drums
Ryan Heinlein – trombone
Brooke Knoll – harp
Aaron Osborne – bass
Zak Pischnotte – alto
Brian Steever – drums

About Cobra

From Wikipedia:
Cobra is an unpublished[1] but recorded and frequently performed musical composition by John Zorn that was conceived as a system with very detailed rules but with no pre-conceived sequence of events, or game piece, for a group of musical improvisors and a prompter.[2][3][4] Zorn completed Cobra on October 9, 1984. The composition consists of a set of cues notated on cards, and rules corresponding to the cues that direct the players what to do. The number of players, instrumentation, and length of the piece is indeterminate. Because there is no traditional musical notation and the players improvise, the piece may sound radically different from performance to performance. As was commented upon in some length in a 2004 interview, Zorn has, with his own words, “deliberately chosen not to publish (or even write down) the rules” to his game pieces, being concerned with the importance of personal instruction.[5] Despite this, photocopies circulate among musicians internationally, and there is even a clean printing of all the cue categories in a CD booklet (see recordings).
Cobra was first performed at the original TriBeCa location of Roulette Intermedium in 1984.

EMAS Presents is an experimental and improvised music series curated by Seth Andrew Davis + Evan Verploegh. An extension of the collective Extemporaneous Music & Arts Society, EMAS Presents highlights local, national, and international music practitioners to grow Kansas City’s improvised music community.