grey ghost hungry brain 12-19-2004

when it's this cold, you don't expect anyone to come to see you play, but then people do come, and it is good. it was 5 degrees when i woke up in the morning - it didn't seem that bad when i went outside at first, but it actually was that bad. trust me.
anyhow, grey ghost played for the first time in a wee bit in town. we've been able to get together alot to work on new things, and we're starting to make some headway - i think our goal right now is to have a good chunk of material ready so that when we play, we can be loose with our forms and bring things in when they feel right. i'm still using max/msp mainly for live sampling and manipulation, but am using reason more for synthesized sounds and sequences - the great thing about reason is the fact you can layer the hell out of a piece and remove parts & re-add them as you wish pretty simply. lots of possibilities - the dark side of reason is the ease with which you can make really bad music. ...
i liked how we played - a long set with a few breaks, couldn't tell how well it was received - some folks were talking up front - but most were listening - a good time.

second citizens hideout 12-15-2004

a good time and good night at the hideout. the second citizens returned to the hideout for a wednesday night double bill with michael columbia. there was a good crowd in the abr when we got there, we played a nice long set and the folks listened. playing with this band is fun- we all know the music so well that we can really let our instincts take over. afterwards someone asked me about the more open improvised sections, he said that he didn't really know what our goal was in them. i tried to explain to him that what we are doing by improvising is constantly trying to change the music to make it better. the great thing about improvising is that you can find new ways to play music - though of course some othings turn out better than others. but, if we played the same thing all the time, we'd be a jam band. michael columbia played kind of a short set - it's dave mcdonnell on saxophone, bass and electronics and dylan ryan on drums & electronics. a similar instrumentation to grey ghost, but an entirely different way of making music. i would say they are alot more rocking than grey ghost, with more emphasis on rhythm than looseness. all of us finished the night drinking beers that somehow became free after midnight - not bad...

mcbride / lonberg-holm / rosaly / shelton empty bottle 12-14-2004

it's finally cold here in chicago - who'd of thunk? nate mcbride recently moved into town from boston and he asked me to try to work on a group with him, fred lonberg-holm & frank rosaly. i said yes of course - nate is a great bass player and a top notch fellow, so playing with him is a good time, as well as challenging. the tunes he writes has so much looseness in their form that it truly is a challenge to remember where you are & what can possibly happen next. luckily we had two long rehearsals for this date - though we still were too loose for some of those forms. it was two sets at the empty bottle on a tuesday night - i had my work holiday dinner earlier in the night, but thankfully i didn't eat too much - almost, but not quite - a couple cups of coffee and i was ready to play. the first set we came out with alot of energy, i felt really good playing, it seemed like the first time in awhile that i got to play some music that was really wide open. nate's music tends to have alot of energy in it - which i like, and don't get to do so often.
we took a short break, some guys from the air force band were there - in town for some conference - pretty strange that guys in the air force band are into free jazz... vandermark was there - he's going to back in town for several months now - we talked about graduate schools; i've been thinking of applying to some, but am really torn as to where a program is that would really suit what i want to do. deadlines are fast approaching and i need to make some sort of decision.
the second set was good as well - it was a little hard for me to hear fred at times, but there was alot of good improvising going on - nate and i had a nice bass & clarinet duo; hope fully we'll be able to play some more and record some of the music.

dragons 1976 Impetus 12-5-2004

Dragons 1976 played for the first time since our tour and show at the Phrenology Fest. These fellows Raiichiro Iijima & Brad Loving put on a concert series called Impetus, which matches up good music from different genres onto the same bill. The concert was at 3030, and the other groups were Matt Leer, a singer/guitarist from Texas and Bear in Heaven, a group from NYC. This goes to prove once again that the best wayto have a good show is to have people dedicated to getting the word out and promoting it, while also including good music. The show started around 8:30, and there was a good crowd - Matt Leer started things out, he played solo, making good use of a variety of pedals and looping devices to create a big sound. We played the middle set and I felt really good about it - we had the chance to have a few rehearsals before the date, and it really helps - I also had the chance to make a little adjustment to my horn, so the low notes were coming out much easier. We played four songs, with lots of improvsing throughout to bridge the spaces in between. It felt good and we had a good response from the other musicians and people in the crowd. Bear in Heaven played last - they're normally a six piece band, but only two of their members could make it out to Chicago for the show - they used samples and triggers to flesh out the sound - but even with the stripped down performance, I really liked the music - lots of interesting rhythms, good textures - melodic songs. Not trying to be too much - a good thing.

quartet at charleston 12-3-2004

tonight i played at a bar called the charleston in bucktown with anton hatwich on bass, nori tanaka on drums and matt schneider on guitar - i played alto. we played tunes - mainly by thelonious monk, but some standards and one orenette tune - turnaround, not really my most facvorite ornette tune, mainly because it's basically a blues - not an open tune like most of his. i don't mind playing blues, but i love ornette's music so much, i'd rather just play it open. the monk tunes are great to play - they all have his particular characteristics stamped on them - good feels, & simple melodic statements that leave lots of room for interpretation. we played two sets - playing at the charleston is a good time - it's a small bar, and people are just hanging out, it's friday night, you play in the middle of the room with people only a few feet away - people have their choice of listening intently or not, everybody gives you some money if they want to, you play with no pressure, have a few drinks and spend the night enjoying yourself...

broste quintet 3030 12-2-2004

so it was a thursday night at 3030, and i was to play with nick broste's quintet - unfortunately, only four of us showed up - frank rosaly forgot about the gig, even though he was playing in two groups that were scheduled for the night. it was a quiet night, but relaxing - jim baker, anton hatwich and paul hartsaw did some trio improvisations - baker's work on the arp synthesizer is so right on right now - i really like watching him play that instrument - the interface is great - lots of knobs and controls - signal routing and all of that - here's a picture:



our set went well - nick on trombone, myself on alto and bass clarinet, anton on bass and kevin davis on cello. actually with frank not being there it was nice to be playing with all harmonic instruments - we concentrated on the tones and had a nice feeling throughout. one of these days broste's quintet will have a gig where everything works out -one time nick couldn't show up because he got stranded in another town with a wrong plane flight....