As part of The Kitchen’s 1980 Contemporary Music Series, the jazz drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson appeared with his newly formed band The Decoding Society as part of a double-bill alongside the experimental composer Scott Johnson. It was the second night of performing new works for electric guitar by Johnson, who had appeared solo the previous night. The Decoding Society’s one-night performance, titled Orchestrated Improvised Electric Music, comprised eight works and included Billy Bang on violin, Vernon Reid and Bern Nix on guitar, Melvin Gibbs on bass, Erasto Vasconcelos on percussion, and Jackson leading the band on drums and flute. Jackson went on to perform alongside a number of these musicians again later in his career, both as part of The Decoding Society and as part of other projects.