poodle (FLACCO’S BIZARRE ADVENTURE ALBUM RELEASE) | Keenan Ruffin Graduating Student Recital

Poodles have always occupied a special place in my heart. My favorite dog I’d ever had the privilege of knowing, Duchess was a miniature poodle. She had the cutest underbite juxtaposed against her luscious, soft summer cut. She was a sweetheart, but didn’t suffer fools kindly. Duality is something that I’ve always been preoccupied with in my making, and I feel like Duchess, and poodles at large are an ideal representation of some of my leanings as a maker. They’re highly versatile, sassy, quick-to-learn, at times capricious, and most importantly, hypoallergenic (they don’t shed). All that to say, poodles are about as excellent as dogs get with aesthetic beauty and dearth of talents. It’s also fitting in these pieces I’m exploring the influence of my musical ancestor Duke Ellington, whose work I believe is highly characteristic of these creatures as well. On the surface it can appear schmaltzy, but contained therein is a world of complexity, wit, & ceaselessness.

Keenan “Flacco” Ruffin (he/nigga) is a Boston-based guitarist, improviser, and composer with a penchant for cute, complex, cheeky, and cumbersome musical aesthetics. Blending the entire spectrum of jazz, Western art music, electronic sound design, extended forms, and songwriting, Flacco and his Bizarre Adventure scale an auditory topography unlike any other.