never enough hope 1-30-2005

second show in two nights for the super group. this one went better though we were crammed in tight on the stage and front floor of the hungry brain. but it really shows that with a big group like that, in order to hear everyone, it's easier to not be in a big reverberrant space (reverberrant?). there was a very good turn out at the brain too: the first set was three smaller groups of improvising, there was an aggressive one with colin & dan letting the baritones out f the gate; a very nice melodic improvisation with bogie, amy cimini, dina maccabee & brian dibblee; and then the vibraphone duo of adasiewicz and tacket (not tucket or target) brown. good times. the long piece went well, and the audience really loved it - the way it's supposed to be....

never enough hope; open end 1-29-2005

toby summerfield wrote a piece for 16 of his friends - and gave it the name never enough hope. he's really put some serious effort into this project and i think it is good because of it. the piece is a long form, with several sections of a slow-build nature. most of it is in time with dense rhtymic parts fleshed out by drums & bass, 2 guitars and 4 vibraphones. add saxophone and string quartets and you'v egot yourself a large group. toby set up the show at the open end, which was a good thing as we could comfortably fit in there all together - also, just the atmosphere at open end, with a skyline view and super high ceilings give shows an aspect you can't get at other places. so, who was in the band? these folk:

Saxophones: Dan Bennett, Stuart Bogie, Colin Stetson, Aram Shelton
Vibes: Jason Adasiewicz, Dan Sylvester, Tim Daisy, TIm Brown
Strings: Amy Cimini, Kevin Davis, Brian Dibblee, Dina Maccabee
Rhythm: Frank Rosaly, Nathaniel Braddock, Joshua Tillinghast, Jason Ajemian

we had one day for a full rehearsal, which was kind of slow moving, as there are lots of things to have to practice with a group of that size: the instrument groups & the entire band need to be together - hearing where your part fits in can be tough. it was a good time - about a third of the group came in from out of town - from the east and west coast -

the show went off well - dragons 1976 played an opening set - a warm up for a tour we're starting on wednesday. while we were playing i was working with the room - you can play very softly and still fill the place up because there's so much natural reverb. and it seems unless the music is going through a PA, it won't wash out.
when never enough hope played, it felt good - in the rehearsal we kind of just jumped into the sections, but for the performance, toby let the piece take it's time building and receding, bringing in people for solos and sectional hits - keeping the piece changing by allowing different voices to come through. i think the piece worked well - we'll find out for sure with the recording....

improvising myopic & empty bottle 1-10-2005

played at the myopic bookstore with guillermo gregorio, josh abrams, jason roebke and jason adasiewicz. it was a nice ensemble with myself on Eb and bass clarinet, guillermo on Bb; josh & jason on bass; shevitz on vibes. we played for awhile, all improvised - guillermo is just the nicest guy you can think of, i always would like to play with him more, but time goes by quickly, and all of a sudden it's been three months since you saw each other. this is how time goes by in chicago. i've recently been playing the little Eb clarinet again, i forgot how much i enjoy playing it - it definitely has a high range, but i can get some flute like sounds out of it and the actual tone is very pleasant..or so i think. after we finished playing i had to head over to the empty bottle to play in fred lonberg-holm's lightbox orchestra...
it was a free night at the empty bottle, and the way it goes is that on a tuesday, very few people will come when the cover is $3, but if it's free the place is completely filled. people really get scared by cover charges. i get scared by them too. also, i'll buy a $3.50 beer and tip a dollar, and think it's allright, but when i see that half gallon of orange juice at the supermarket for $3, i think, that's a little pricey.....go figure.
anyhow. the night was for a terry plumbing cd-r release - terry plumb(m?)ing is a prose / poetry/ music zine put out by our frineds eric graf, mike merck, rotten milk and others - it's a nice diy thing. rotten milk played a noice set with this other guy going by the handle bubblegum shitface - almost electro there mr milk - watch out. next up was the girl trio sofserve, they tried the moves and whatnot, but they need to work on it more to make it convincing....the lightbox orchestra headlined - a big group, we spread out on the stage and the floor, i used my clarinets again, tv pow was all there, zerang, karel, payne, corbett, kapsalis, vida, sullender, morrow, pomerleau, and a fellow named matt who played a little synth next to me. it was good playing in front of a big crowd, and though you could hear the huge amoutns of talkers in the back, they were kind of quiet, and not disturbing the music what with the bulk of bodies quieting the din. it was a good set, if a bit short - walked home over the melting ice with jen, a walk that seems long if you think about it, but isn't so long when you're walking it....

jazz charleston 1-7-2005

i know it's been a bit since i wrote - the holidays and all of that - went down to florida for a week, but there was almost no sunshine, but it was warm - got to walk around outside with no shoes on. but i came back to chicago right before new years, and since then have been very busy with music : playing & recording. last friday i played at the charleston with jason ajemian on bass and frank rosaly on drums. we played monk tunes and standards - i like playing that music, it's a good time & challenging at the same time. we had some folk sit in with us - nick broste played some trombone solos, tim daisy and hatwich subbed out the rhythm section for a few tunes, and this fellow bob came up and played piano. he sounded good, it was one of those situations that i've been on the other side of - new guy in town, want to play with people, but are worried that you'll get vibed by the other people playing. that's one of the main drags about playing standard jazz - the mentality that some people get - they feel that they are so good that if someone shares the stage with them and aren't at that level, or share their ideas of how the music should go, they're not a good musician. i think that it is fine to dis-like the way someone plays, actually i think it's vital to be able to decide when you do or don't like someone's playing. it's not necessarily a personal thing, which is what people usually take it as. what i don't like is when someone doesn't like how you play, and then gives you attitude about it. this has happened to me before at sessions in the past. anyhow - bob sounded good, but he didn't give us his number or anything, so how can we call him now?
the rest of the night was good - shevitz poured the drinks, ajemian did some donuts in the snow that fell on the city a few nights before.