Simple Measures takes the power of their chamber music straight to the people

Friday evening. 7:30. Coffee house by the side of the road. Crowd of 40 or so takes seats on metal folding chairs. Some guys and this woman walk in and get up on the stage. They are two violins, a viola, guitar and cello. It's come as you are. Us and them. Jeans, comfortable sweaters and lived-in T-shirts all around.

They play. Just like that. No big deal.

The music is beautiful, wonderful. After, the cellist looks up and says, "Does anybody know when that piece was written? Let's vote." We raise our hands for 1872, 1921 or 1950. The 1950s win.

"Sometimes you can't tell, can you?" he asks us. "Heather, tell them about that piece, won't you?" he asks the viola player, Heather Bentley.

And so begins another evening with Simple Measures, the chamber-music ensemble where everybody gets into the act.

Got a question? Ask! Something on your mind? Speak up! And the audience does. A lot. "Anything else?" ensemble founder Rajan Krishnaswami asks before moving on.

Nope, we're good.

And then it's "Fandango" from "Guitar Quintet in D Major" by Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805). Krishnaswami plops down at the end of our row to watch from here.

We will hear "Little Wing" by Jimi Hendrix after intermission, when the classical guitarist will switch to electric.

The fall concert series? They talked politics; hardly polite conversation.

You just never know.

And this is exactly what cello player Krishnaswami had in mind four years ago when he felt compelled to take world-class chamber music out of the symphony hall and deliver it hot and fresh to the people, wherever we may be.

Tonight's players include two Fulbright fellows, two Seattle Symphony members, the principal viola for Northwest Sinfonietta and Michael Nicolella, a guitar player hailed as the next Andres Segovia. The spring series features one of the world's foremost harpists. (Hope she's not planning to wear that fancy gown she's got on in her promo picture. Gonna be way overdressed.)

High quality. Not high falutin'.

No stuffed shirts allowed.

www.simplemeasures.org