Detroit December 18, 2007

A short drive from Oberlin. The authorities of the Ohio turnpike were friendly to me. Got up to the Bohemian National House around 6. Was able to have a good set up and talk a bit to Frode Gjerstad, Paal Nilssen-Love and Oyvind Storesund who were a bit past midway on their on tour that had crossed paths in Lexington with the Engines a few days after I did in Columbia. Not much of a turnout this night - it was quite cold outside. After playing my set for a week, I'd become much more comfortable with it and was able to enjoy its' slow-movement quality. Allowing the music to develop, not forcing any changes. Letting things be. The music felt settled, complete. I'm looking forward to working more on this music and creating a full album. For now, the music can be heard from the flash player on my site.

Thanks to Joel at the Bohemian.

On my way back to Chicago I took some photos of this bridge in Ann Arbor:

Oberlin December 17, 2007

A cold pretty uneventful day long drive from Philly to Ohio - I changed my route to avoid the tolls and found myself in some nice out of the way places in central pennsylvania. They got alot of snow the day before which made for a gorgeous drive. Glad I didn't have to drive through the storm. Made it to Oberlin Ohio around 6 - it's not a big enough town to make it onto the map I had with me, so I had to get a little creative to find it after I stopped following the google map I'd printed out. No worries though, just got in a little later. Drove to Jeff Christiani's place which is right next to the Oberlin campus. We went towards Cleveland to get Indian food with a crew of his friends and on our way back we got off track - a long day of being off track. He was interested in learning about Mills and when I found out he was St. Louis I was able to almost shock him with my second hand knowledge of that city that I've learned from Jen.

Didn't end up playing until around 9:30 or so - and I played the only set in a small chapel called Fairchild. A reverberant space - stone walls, wooden pews. I did my best with it and tried to bring the sound to a full loud level. I think I did it for awhile. It was good to play there, a cold cold night in rural Ohio. Jeff showed me around the next day as I didn't have far to go for my next date. Oberlin's an interesting little place - students from the coasts, living away from lots of things, forces them to stay active, get creative. I remember having an Oberlin poster in highschool for some reason - didn't really know what it was, it seemed like it was on a higher level....

Philadelphia 12-16-2007

With the Red Room show being done not so late, I was able to get up early and have a nice full day with my sister and family in Baltimore before heading up the Toll filled 95 to Philadelphia. My original show had been canceled and Audrey Chen (cello, vocals) arranged a date for us to play with Katt Hernandez, a violinist originally from Ann Arbor. It was at Big Jar, a bookstore in Old City. The weather was supposed to be real bad, but was instead only quite cold with strong winds. Audrey was headed to Baltimore from NYC after a string of dates there. We played one set together with Katt and Audrey beginning. Very patient exploration of held tones, slowly shifting with minuscule rapid changes occurring throughout. I joined them best I could. Playing that style of music and making it work is difficult - playing with Audrey and Katt worked well. The second set was a duet between Katt and Erik Ruin, who creates live visuals via paper projections. Erik did quite a bit with paper cutouts and a projector - I imagine getting the same result with a computer would be near impossible.

Baltimore 12-15-2007

An eight plus hour drive from south carolina to maryland - with a stopover to get some fireworks for my nephew. Played at the the Red Room - it was a three set night starting with the trio of Catherine Pancake, Dan Conrad (brother of Tony), and Kate Porter; followed by my set, and a final set where I joined the trio. Catherine played drums, I hadn't seen her play drums before and I really was glad to hear her. Kate played cello, she's a good player with a strong classical background I believe. Dan played what is called a Veena Bambina - an instrument he built himself out of a large PVC tube with a single string on the outside. Alot of variety from a simple instrument.

Despite the cold snap in Baltimore there was a good turnout, and when I played my set I felt that the audience was there to listen and had no preconceptions - which is a great thing. I felt very comfortable with my set and thought it was one of the best performances of the tour. The quartet set was fun - we played two longer improvisations - I used both saxophone and laptop. The only thing I wanted to take back was at the end of each I and Dan were still playing and I prematurely turned off the output sound of the laptop - should of extended the endings....


Thanks to Samuel Burt for the hospitality, and thanks to Devin Hurd for this posting:

http://hurdaudio.blogspot.com/2007/12/shelton-from-storm.html

Columbia December 14, 2007

Stayed an extra day in Asheville to visit some family and went down to Columbia on early friday afternoon. Got into town and went looking for sweaters at thrift stores with Ross - even though it was warm enough there that they were unnecessary. on this day my tour was crossing with the Engines tour - Dave Rempis, TIm Daisy, Jeb Bishop and Nate McBride. We shared a bill at the School of Music at the University of South Caroline in this super nice recital room that featured a gigantic pipe organ. The crowd showed up pretty much on time - and I played first. Tim Simmons brought the PA for me to use and as I got into the louder part of my set - which is a drone based on overblown low-tones - i noticed these kids (actual kids) in the first row covering their ears - sorry bout that one kids. I had some technical issues with this set and realized that I needed to change some things in my patch to make certain things easier to access. I want to get to the point that I can change parameters with no more than three movements on the keyboard - a tough task. The Engines set was very good - they all contribute pieces and all the arrangements combine different sections and feels - a good band for sure.

Asheville December 12, 2007

drove down from lexington - a five hour trip - got into town in the late afternoon, hard to find a parking spot in asheville these days. went to a coffee shop - izzy's - waited there until meeting up with shane perlowin at the bobo gallery around 6. the show was going to be three sets - one by his trio Mind vs. Target, my solo set and then one with all of us as a quartet playing some of their music, and some of mine. I brought two tunes played by the Ton Trio - the Old Way and Internal Frame. We had a short rehearsal at six to check out the music - well, Shane, Joseph and I did - Michael, the drummer, wasn't able to come - but, later on he filled in perfectly, picking up on the pacing of my two things quickly.The show was good - people starting showing up around 9. I felt good about my set, I allowed things to take their time and develop. The quartet set was good times - Shane, Joseph and Michael are all real good listeners as well as players - we didn't let the improvisations go on for too long, they didn't fall too far away from the feel of the tunes they were a part of. After hanging at the Bobo for a while longer we ended up going to Shane friend's house for the ending of a holiday party - lots of sugary snacks were there along with a member of Negativland who lives in Asheville. a good time - special thanks to Shane and Brad from the Bobo Gallery

Lexington December 11, 2007

Drove down from Chicago to Lexington - six hour drive, the same distance from Oakland to LA. Going through Indianapolis the rain was hardest, but then the temperature rose about 30 degrees, from 35 to 65.....got out of Chicago right before a promised ice storm that I don't think really happened.
So I played down here at the Icehouse, the big space run by Ross Compton. I always like playing in Lexington, people are interested in creative music, the crowds that come are listening crowds, not talkers. There were two other short sets, one guitar player with some electronics - some processing, some playback; and a fellow, Jason _____ who used a canvas as an interface with contact mics to manipulate video and create audio that he then processed further. I played through four speakers, though in mono. I set up the speakers in a half circle stretching out towards the audience in an attempt to fill up the space (a large one with very high ceilings) with sound. I think I got there during one section. I felt like I got off the game plan a little bit this night - a couple things threw me off and my pacing wasn't where it should be. A goal with this music is to let it take it's time and develop, and not rush it through. The show was done early, Ross and I talked for awhile, it was good - sometimes I feel like I get in and out of town without having a chance to talk to him - glad this time was different.

Chicago December 7th and 8th, 2007

It's called a practice gig - usually the first time a band plays the music all together - that's when things get internalized, mistakes are made but then corrected by the players without having to discuss them. That's pretty much what happened on Saturday night at Heaven - I flew into town on Friday and had a rehearsal with Josh Berman, Jason Roebke, Jeff Parker and Frank Rosaly - I had brought the Flockterkit music to have them play. Seeing as Roebke and Rosaly were in the original lineup of Flockterkit it made sense to have them play in the group again. Now that the music is more robust than it was a few years ago, adding Berman and Parker were good choices.
We had a three hour rehearsal on friday, going over the charts and even working on Peltep, with electronics. During the practice the electronics were interacting well with the group, and I was satisfied with having two speakers, though it would be ideal to have four. It seemed like in the space a quad set-up wouldn't necessarily be effective, as the room is wider than it is long - in about a two to one ratio. The night of the show at Heaven, Saturday, we weren't able to sound check, as there was a show going on at Enemy and we were going to use their PA once that ended. That ended up being important.
Jason Roebke and Ayako Kato performed as Art Union Humanscape along with Josh Berman. The group, which focuses on small gestures by the musicians and free flowing movement by Ayako, has been developing their style as a trio - it was very good, they used the dimensions of the space to their advantage, Ayako using the bodies of Jason and Josh in someways like obstacles to move around, her movement was much more active than I had seen before. Compared to times I've seen them in the past there was more music to be heard - a result of the addition of a second musical instrument.
So the Chicago version of Flockterkit played second, and though there were moments, it was definitely a run-through for Sunday night at the Hungry Brain - the one piece I regret that it didn't go better was Peltep - the lack of the sound check really made the electronics a non-entity in the the piece, the interaction wasn't happening as it should. Our set at the Brain went very well. The timing of the music was right on - the playing was great. Having a different set of musicians play the music was a good experience, hearing the different interpretation was valuable.
I played my first solo set of this tour at the Brain as well. Using the pieces I've created as basics of the set, I felt that I was able to flow from section to section and have multiple layers of sound happening at almost all times - even though I had heard the PA was not so good, I was able to get the sounds out of it that I wanted.

Ton Trio at the 1510 Space

A Saturday evening - set up a date at the 1510 performance space on 8th Street in West Oakland, Mikaela and Jeremy are living and running the shows there now - I'm liking playing there recently, it's always comfortable, like a house show, plus there's a good chance of getting a good recording of your music.
The Ton Trio played our first official show in Oakland a month after playing in Santa Cruz. The pieces I've written are based on an idea of relative looseness between the voices, parts can be rearranged individually, small snippets can be focused on. We moved along together the written material in a collective way and our improvisations fed off of this interaction, being at times right together and other times more tangential. I enjoyed it.
I brought along my clarinet for the first time in quite awhile for this kind of music, as I've been playing it regularly in the Mills Contemporary Performance Ensemble for a concert in December of Roscoe Mitchell's Cards and Riley's In C.
I played it this night on Internal Frame and Staring Out Windows - two recent compositions. We were able to do a 4track recording of the set, and it turned out well - I've posted some of the tracks on my website here. thanks to Jen for the photo.

We shared the night with a trio made up of Tony Dryer, Jacob Lindsay, and Stefanie Ku. They played quiet improvisations with lots of space and a focus on smaller sounds. Tony's arco bass playing was right on, and Jacob brought his gamut of clarinets, from the Ab to the Bb, Bass to the Contrabass. Very good stuff.

Shelton Healy Duo - Luggage Store

Played last thursday at the Luggage Store, over in San Francisco at 6th and Market with Trevor. It's been a buy few weeks, but we were able to get together a few times before this show - we've been able to develop what we do together a bit, and this show felt good - lots of overdrive and sample rearranging on my side - we set up so that each of us could sample the other, I felt this was a good arrangement, pretty diplomatic - we played a good 45 minute set, with just one break - we were also able to do a 4 channel recording. the sound is getting thicker, with lots of patient energy. One particularly interesting moment came when I pulled out my electronics and Trevor when into a repetitive syncopated, though slowly changing figure with a steady pulse underlying. I then started processing his sound, splintering it in terms of time and spatialization - we went on from there.

This is part of Trevor's arsenal - originally designed for use with the varitone!

Weasel Walter Large Ensemble

It's been almost two weeks since this date. Sorry for the delay - I know people are anxiously waiting for this posting to come out....
So Weasel Walter was egged on by Sara Lockhart at 21 Grand to write a piece - some would call it a commission. He decided to resurrect a project started several years back - a long form work for nine musicians with interchangeable parts allowing every member of the ensemble both an opportunity to act as soloist and conductor. A good idea for the type of ensemble - one where everyone is an improviser and good ones at that, so that their personalities can have a chance to come through.
The difficulty with long works for large ensembles lies in the rehearsal situation. With the amount of time people have and the lack of money in the non-marketable niche of the music-industry we find ourselves in, it's hard for people to devote time to large projects, mainly because getting everyone to have available time at the same time is near-impossible. For this group, getting nine people once together meant having 5 people rehearse once and 5 people rehearse the other time, and one run-through of the piece the night of the concert. This is pretty much the status quo in many such situations and someday things will be better, we can hope.
Not to say that the results of this night were bad - in fact the music turned out quite well, though I'm still firmly convinced that the more you play material, the more there is to be discovered in it and the more the music can really be influenced by the players, as opposed to the players making the more obvious choices of interpretation.

We were able to record the whole concert and listening back to it now, I'm impressed with how the personalities of and the decisions made by the players developed the piece, which featured several sections of soloist playing over backgrounds based on a tone row followed by cadenza, into one that has it's fair share of peaks, valleys and surprises. Sections are developed and segue into each other, the overall feel of the ensemble changes gradually over time and the playing of all is both high quality and personal.

Ton Duo & Trio Oakland to Santa Cruz

My latest working group is Ton Trio with Kurt Kottheimer on bass and Sam Ospovat on drums. I've written some new music for this group with a focus on melodic content which is interchangeable. Some pieces use the material in a more traditional head format while in others the material is explored more by each player, rearranging the parts simultaneously to create new harmonic relationships.
Our first two dates were at the cusp of September and October, 9/30 at 21 Grand in Oakland and October 1 at Cafe Pergolesi in Santa Cruz. The date in Oakland got switched a few times with the result being a Ton Duo show with myself and Sam. I liked playing the music in this context - we were able to explore the parts with alot of freedom rhythmically, as the harmonic thing was obviously less important. The next night in Santa Cruz I drove down with Kurt and we met Sam at Cage Pergolesi. Apparently there's a "heavy-hitter" jazz club down there that was just a half block from Pergolesi - Dave Douglas was playing there the same night. I'm feeling good about this new group although we've not played many dates yet - Sam and Kurt both seem real into playing working on the music.
Here's one of the pieces, entitled "Internal Frame":

I made this music playlist at MyFlashFetish.com.

Flockterkit 9-26-2007

Played on Wednesday night at 21 Grand again - this time with my group Flockterkit. This group, which started in Chicago with Fred Lonberg-holm, Ernst Karel, Jason Roebke and Frank Rosaly / Steve Hess is based on compositions that blend in electronic manipulation of the instruments. The music I wrote last winter for Peltep has some similarities so I put together a group out here to perform all of that music together. Andy Strain (tombone), Steini Gunnarson (guitar), Anantha Krishnan(percussion), Kurt Kottheimer (bass), and Jordan Glenn (drums). Jordan and Steini played this music as well in NYC when we played at the Stone with Matt Bauder.
I was a little concerned about getting the music together in the week plus a couple days I had after getting back from the Citizens tour, so I planned the music to be played without the electronic parts. I think the music works with or without - though when the electronics are in use it adds quite alot. We added some improvisation sections and I think the group played the music really well. Hopefully some recording will happen soon. Matt Ingalls and Corey Fogel played first that night - a very good duo - played well together and took advantage of 21 Grand's acoustics to pull off some very quiet sections that wouldn't work as well in a dry room.

Weasel Walter Dislocation Unit

Last night played alto in a quartet with Weasel Walter on drums and Kristian Aspelin & Rob Pumpelly on guitars. The music we played was "an exploration of forms by Masayuki Takayanagi", the Japanese guitarist. We did three pieces, a "gradual projection" and two "mass projections". The first was played at a moderate volume - and we kept it there for 10 minutes, playing phrases that were unconnected save for the intentional spacing so that the density would not build and regress. There were spots of silence, and though they were fleeting, were not reacted to in the way of urgency. The second we started a bit more intense than originally planned, but we kept it there for another 10 minute segment. The third we went all out - I played with the help of my JBL speaker as amplification so as what I played was clear to hear over the volume of two electric guitars and Weasel. Even with the amplification I pushed for the full 10 minutes. The performance was video taped, I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

Fast Citizens Charlotte 9-9-2007

Another long drive - Philly to Charlotte, NC. When traveling with six folks, even a routine rest stop turns into about twenty minutes and when that happens a few times a day, that turns into a few extra hours of time on the road. We left Philly at 9:30 and got into Charlotte just before 8 PM. woah.
Brent Bagwell set up a date at a spot that's run out of the back of a vintage furniture and clothing store called the Century. A last minute turn of events brought us down to Charlotte and it ended up working out for the better. Got dinner at a slightly strange BBQ place nearby - got a really tasty veggie burger. Brent played an improvised set with a guitarist and a cellist - they concentrated on more textural and sonic elements than I had heard Brent do before and it was quite nice. Our set had a different kind of energy than the previous 5 nights we've played and I think it was due to the room. Most of the spaces we've played in so far have been very live. Big spaces with lots of hard surfaces. This space was the opposite - thick carpet on the floor and a room full of thick padded chairs and couches and hangings on the wall. It was dry - real dry. So, it tended to take some energy out of the sounds of our instruments and a natural reaction to it came out in our playing - things were more subdued and we went into spaces that we normally don't go into. Keefe had a particularly nice solo during Signs: he, Frank, Anton and Fred really brought it down before bring it back up - with nothing being forced.
Afterwards I and Anton stayed over at Brent's new place - he no longer lives outside of town on the 400 acre farm, but they still do have a charming house and now Charlie, his and Amy's son is getting more mobile ad talkative. Good times.

Fast Citizens Maine to Philly

the shortest drive we've had so far was from boston to portland / brunswick. after getting through the maze of boston streets on a tobacco run for the smokers, we headed up to the farthest eastern point of the tour. the portland area is quite nice in the summer - the second time for me being up that way. keefe set up a date in Brunswick - a small town with a organization that brings in a good variety of jazz music. we got in a few hours early and had time to take our time finding something to eat. the concert was at the pleasant street arts center and we played two sets. i was a bit concerned with the crowd that came up - an older demographic, i thought they might bail after the first set - but they really stuck through it - and enjoyed it. we stayed at keefe's old friend john's place who he first met in arkansas at the age of 14. apparently keefe came up to john, a bassist, on the street and asked him if he could play with him. a few years later they both moved to portland, keefe moving back to arkansas before going up to chicago. john lives in a nicely maintained apartment style home with a view of the back bay of portland. too bad we didn't have more time to stay.

the next day was a long drive to philadelphia. in order to avoid traffic we took a route around the whole new york city / i-95 in new jersey corridor. though it took us a good solid 9 hours we weren't stuck in traffic. the date was at a space in south philly on broad street and produced by bowerbird. there were three sets. first set was shot by shot, a local young quartet with tenor and alto, bass and drums. their music was heartfelt and i really liked how they made music together. jack wright played a set with Michael Johnsen from Pittsburgh, who played some analog electronics and free improvised saw. as always, a solid set of extended sonic techniques from Jack. our set moved along quickly - band theme, big news, looking, easy, arbitrary lane change, pax urbanum, and blackout. the space was a nice big gallery space with large windows from which you could see the twin towers of philadelphia. there was a good sized young audience that was a good listening crowd. afterwards we went to jack's place where we were all staying and hung out pretty late with the philly crew. a good time - john and dan made us eggs and potatoes in the morning before we got on the road to charlotte.

Fast Citizens Detroit 9-4-2007

First stop of the tour - the Bohemian National Home in Detroit Michigan. This large building in a typically thinned out neighborhood in Detroit was once the home of a Bohemian Community Center, complete with a ballroom and classrooms, etc. Detroit is one of those places that is probably alot like what most cities in the US were in the 80s - rundown and dirt cheap. Lots of interesting things we found out from Joel Peterson including that due to the economic depression lots of national chains won't set up shop in town which leaves lots of room for small independent places to go unopposed by those chains - so a coffee shop doesn't need to worry about a starbucks setting up across the street. plus, you can find a two bedroom for $300 a month.
So the first date went well - we played two sets for a small audience - we played well. The room was real boomy and loud - Anton's bass was a bit covered due to that. I recorded both sets and will put up some mp3s from the show soon. Spent the night at the Bohemian National as well - the sound of the summer bugs was steady and loud - and relaxing. I set my alarm for 6:30 the next morning and got a few hours of sleep before the big drive to NYC.

Fast Citizens Chicago 9-1-2007

Flew into Chicago on an overnight flight from Oakland, got into town at 6 AM - two hours earlier than I thought I would, but not ahead of the actual plane schedule. Took the train in from Midway and walked the few remaining blocks to Keefe Jackson's place in Pilsen. Took a nap for the rest of the morning.
Had a rehearsal that night with the Fast Citizens - Keefe, Josh Berman, Fred Lonberg-holm, Anton Hatwich and Frank Rosaly. Good to see everyone and we got right back in where we left off. So we'll be on the road for the next two weeks and the kick-off was a set at the Jazz Fest on the Jackson St. stage. It was in the middle of the afternoon, about 2 pm, but thankfully not hot outside - actually we were all surprised with how the festival folk weren't rushing people on and off the stage which can happen at other festivals. We played a full set, playing mainly tunes off our Delmark record, and two new ones: a short piece by Anton with a collective improvisation, and a new Jackson head that focuses on a big fanfare titled "Big News". The set started out fast with Signs, I came out a little rough with the first solo, I think I was a little cold, could of took that solo back. The middle of the set was well done and paced for the afternoon, centered on Fred's "Pax Urbanum". The first section is being played a bit more relaxed and open than on the recording, which develops a nice shape to the rest of the piece.
We were done pretty early in the afternoon but were to play later that night at the Hungry Brain. I went over to Anton's place in Bridgeport for the afternoon where e made come good food including a particularly tasty hummus while we listened to records.
At the Brain we played The rest of the songs from the album plus another new one by Keefe called "Easy" which features a line played by Fred that tends to turn the swing feel backwards. We had an open ended time to play and the set felt very good. Afterwards we split up into small groups with some other folk who came by including Jeb Bishop, Tim Daisy, Jaimie Branch, Matt Bauder, Jason Ajemian + the wild card of Harris Eisenstadt and Sara Schoenbeck who were literally stopping in overnight as they drive cross country from LA to their new place in NYC. I played in a quartet with Harris, Jaimie and Anton and then played a rough version of "Hold it High" with Dragons 1976.

Aram Shelton Trevor Healy Rooz 8-27-2007

Played a long open set with the guitarist Trevor Healy last night at Rooz Cafe, a spot on Park blvd in Oakland. I met Trevor a few months back when the Pink Canoes played at the Luggage Store, he'd recently moved out this way from New York. We finally had a chance to get together to play last month at his practice space in San Francisco. I really liked what I heard - experimentation balanced with patience. We played for about an hour at Rooz this night, which is a newer space in Oakland - we took our time building different sections and allowed things to materialize. The acoustics of the room - a very live room - made us hold back a bit, but overall I was real happy with the music. I think Trevor was even able to record it to his minidisc but I haven't been able to hear it yet.

Pink Canoes KFJC 8-18-2007

Went down to Los Altos, Ca on a sunny Saturday afternoon. It's only about an hour's drive from Oakland going over the San Mateo bridge. I rode down with Noah and Travis - Noah had just flown back in from New York the night before. We met Zach at the radio station at Foothill Community College. He showed up in his new ride - a pristine 1981 Benz Sedan that he just picked up. Very nice bio-diesel. It was really a gorgeous afternoon with the golden hills that are bountiful this time of year. So, instead of enjoying that, we went inside of a radio station to play some music.
KFJC is out of range to hear up in Oakland, but from the posters I saw on their walls, I wish it was - lots of interesting music dating back a few decades. Bay area radio has a long way to go - KALX needs to pick it up!
We set up all our equipment in a triangular shaped room surrounded by music and played for about an hour on the radio. They're signal kept going out before and after we played, but for some reason the tower kept the power going for our set.

The music turned out real well - with a good range of activity - drones, noisy, active, energy. Turned out that me and my processing are a little dominant in the recording that went out in the airwaves and there's a crazy polarity issue too. check it out:

I made this Flash Music Player at MyFlashFetish.com.

Shelton Allbee Walter Hemlock 7-6-2007

I've been in and out of town the lat few weekends, it's the summertime wedding time of year I suppose. Weasel got a date for our trio with Liz Allbee a little while back, an opening set for the drummer William Hooker. At the end of May we did a recording session at Mills, and in the time since I've been able to listen to those and modify the compositions, changing the parts and adding others, taking into account the way we improvise together to guide the larger structures. I think this group is taking some shape. Our set at the Hemlock had a good sense of direction, and I feel that we were able to get away from the written parts while using them as real reference points. The first piece began with seven two-note chords played by Liz & I, with Weasel playing open. This leads to Weasel alone, with Liz & I reentering a bit later with all short phrases, limited with the dea of no sustain. Eventually I add electronics ad Liz drops out, so there is a duo between me & Weasel before Liz returns on trumpet for the final chord system. The transitions worked well, and I felt that by allowing the electronics to come in over time they truly worked with the arrangement and added something new halfway through the piece. There were some very good moments including a solo by Liz on trumpet.
William Hooker's Bliss Trio was rounded out by Oluyemi Thomas on soprano saxophone and bass clarinet and Damon Smith on bass. They played very well, I hadn't heard William before and wish I had - his playing was right on, especially a moment late in the set when he layed into it on the snare. Olyuyemi sounded great on both instruments, a passionate player for sure. Damon fit right in and had some moments where his bass cut through in the best way - slicing through the intense wall of noise created by William and Oluyemi. A good night at the Hemlock, they should have more free jazz shows.

the Stone May 29, 2007

It cooled off a few degrees here in New York today, not a bad thing at all. I had gone to the Stone on Sunday night to see some music and it was quite hot inside, though not nearly approaching the old 3030 on a summer's day. When playing with Dragons last night at Union Hall I realized halfway through the set the pleasant air conditioning that was keeping things comfortable. Though, you never can really measure the effect of a hot room on the players and the audience - sometimes it forces the music into a different space entirely. Steini and I got to the Stone at about 5:30 after having a nice Indian food lunch at Milon on 1st Ave. Jordan got there soon after, having flown into LaGuardia and taking a cab to Manhattan. Once Matt walked in from the park he was hanging out in we got around to doing the final rehearsal for the music for the later set of the night. I could tell from the practice that the four of us were a good fit.

The first set of the night was Son of Gunnar, Ton of Shel. Though it was our first date in a while, we had been practicing together regularly this past spring, developing our methods so that when we play our sound is there. We played a full hour long set with one break in between. Our second piece was a building piece, I felt really good about that one - it felt quite focused. In general I felt that this set was one of the best we've ever played live.

The second set was the quartet of me, Steini, Matt Bauder and Jordan Glenn. I rearranged the music I had written a few years ago for Flockterkit for this group. It made sense to me in a way as the parts I had written for the cello and bass were many times originally conceived for guitar. I also added a new piece and did some additional processing on the sound of the group for the beginning and ending. We played the set well - I really think that this group will have to play more and definitely record the music. The range of dynamics and energy during the set was one of the strong points, Jordan and Steini both played great, and Matt fit in perfectly. The set was somewhat short, but as I think we knew everyone there, and most stayed from the first set, I don't think anyone was demanding we finish our contractual agreement with an additional 10 minutes of music. Unfortunately we didn't have a way to record the show, or rather I forgot to arrange a way to get it recorded. Too bad.

So, a good night at the Stone. The room felt very comfortable and very right. They've done a good job of treating the room so that it is dry enough while not being dead. The size of the room is intimate and it has a clean look. Definitely a proper venue for the music. Thanks to Fred for booking us!

Dragons 1976 Brooklyn May 28, 2007

In New York for the week here at the end of May. Was invited by Fred Frith to play the Stone on the 29th, so planned a week long visit. Turned out Jason Ajemian had also planned to be out here, so we talked to Tim Daisy and he felt he could come out from Chicago so we could reconvene for a show. Good timing. We played at Union Hall in Brooklyn, a nice sized bar that features indoor bocce ball and a downstairs music room nicely separated from the other ongoings. A solidly nice place all around - the music room reminded me of Cafe du Nord in San Francisco. As we hadn't played together in about four months (back in January when we did a week long southern swing), we met up a few hours before the show to refresh our memories on our music. Things fell back into place perfectly. That's the best thing about playing with good friends - no matter how long it's been since the last time you played, you remember how you play together - just as comfortable as picking up that conversation you left off last time... We played two sets that night - in between which Mary Halvorson and Jessica Pavone played. Their music was great to hear - almost all written out, but with a loose feeling that isn't typical of notated music, except for when the musicians know each other well. Our first set was mostly older tunes from the Winter Break disc (which we are going to print another hundred copies soon) and our second set was mostly songs from the new album which will be released by the Polish label MultiKulti sometime this summer or early fall. Our faithful crowd brought us back to the stage at the end of our second set and after some banter form me we played Heater, off of On Cortez. On our last night Matt Bauder walked up to the stage with his tenor and played a duo with Tim - a good ending to the night. He is an original Dragons after all. A good night to have with Dragons in Brooklyn.

Pink Canoes California April 2007

Over the past few weeks the Pink Canoes have played a string of dates from SF to Davis to LA. Things went well - we played all of the dates with a trio from LA called DSS - Aaron Drake, Phil Stearns and Cassia Streb - no input mixers, radio transmissions, viola. The first night was at G3 on the west side of SF at Geary and 3rd Ave - it's a place that has a weekly noise show on wednesday nights - in a slightly strange club that normally has karaoke. They did have a pretty impressive lighting system - we didn't take advantage of it, but did use a small little enclosure designed for private parties to set up our amps and play like in a music box. Second night was at the Luggage Store in downtown SF and the next we made the hour drive up to Davis to play at Delta of Venus, which had a nice outside seating area for folk. Out two groups were joined by young Solomon on laptop playing his first solo show - it went well. The Canoes all got a little antsy as we notice people trickling out - Friday night in a college town around 10:30 gets people thinking about the closest keg party probably. We played probably are best set I can remember - lots of energy, lots of interaction with each other - and the twenty or so folk that stuck around were into it
We drove back to the Bay that night, watching the Big Lebowski on Noah's video pod. The next night we set up shop at the Revolution Cafe up on 22nd street in the Mission. This place is a popular place - has good Belgian beer and one of the few outdoor patios in SF. We weren't sure how we would fit in the tight performance space but we did and I think the closeness to the crowd was a big benefit - it almost always is. We played that night with Reptet, a jazz group from Seattle who Zack is friends with. Their set began and ended with the horns marching from the street to the stage - good use of the great outdoors....
Last weekend the Canoes drove down to LA as a quartet for the BentFest, a festival going on in NYC and LA this year. The six hour drive down I-5 was actually kind of relaxing - We played at Il Corral on a bill with five groups including DSS, John Richards (UK), Toy Junkies and a duo that blew out the low end of the PA with their Moog ad Doepfer synths - too bad. They did manage to finish out their set pretty well with just the high frequencies.
All in all it was a good time - the music shared qualities every night, I think our interactions with each other improved in each set. We're playing on May 1st as part of a spate of band at a benefit at SF Arts.

Allbee/Shelton/Walter 21 Grand

Last night played at 21 Grand with Liz Allbee and Weasel Walter - I've been meaning to play in a trio with these two since we've played in quintet version before + Damon Smith and Aurora Josephson. I also asked Liz to bring her electronics and Weasel to bring another instrument - he brought a bass clarinet. I brought my electronics along too - more options. I wrote three pieces for us to play through - lots of improvising within, but some chords to be played together to set up tonalities - little melodic phrases to act as points where we could meet up again. Weasel sounded good on bass clarinet - he studied it for a few years back in the early nineties. That's the blessing of woodwinds - maintaining the ol' embouchure isn't as important as on brasses. It was a good group to play with - looking forward to doing it again - the possibilities with all the sounds we can bring are pretty open.... Ben Bracken played with Jackie from JapJap - a piece with contact mics on cymbals, some feedback through contact mics, some amplification and processing though electronics.
If Volition Then played first - Jason Hoopes, Amanda Schoofs, Michael Dale, Andy Strain and Jordan Glenn. They've been improvising alot together and definitely have a concept bringing their music together. Sounded good.

Trio with Weasel Walter & David Slusser

Played last night with Weasel Walter and David Slusser at Scott Looney's 8th St Performance Space. Haven't played with David before - he's a saxophonist and electronicist - I liked how he played both - he brought his soprano and some analog gear, I brought bass clarinet and computer - Weasel brought drums and electric guitar. We started and I noticed that I didn't have really any sound coming from the speakers - looked at Scott, he thought I blew the speakers - a shock to me - I've never come close to doing such a thing - didn't know how brutal I've become Weasel said. Was able to play some electronics through a small amp, but after a bit we ditched the other stuff and just played acoustic. It was a good time - Weasel played in the second set too with Scott, Damon Smith and Kristian Appelin - all free, real active. Scott did some nice sample based electronics - has good control of them using an Alesis device, then played piano - which he plays really well - interesting player with notes and inside the piano. It was a good night - hung out, drank wine, ate BBQ potato chips afterwards - Jen was glad she skipped the John Wiese show for it.

Peltep mp3

I've posted the live recording of Peltep here . We'll be doing a more thorough recording in the next few weeks. .....

If the link doesn't work, you can find it at www.aramshelton.com/audio/Peltep.mp3

Peltep Mills College 2-24-2007

I've been working on new music lately - full band with electronics - the first piece of which is done and titled Peltep. It's for alto, trombone, piano, guitar, drums & percussion. Joining me on the piece were Steini Gunnarson, Kiyomitsu Odai, Andy Strain, Jordan Glenn and Anantha Krishnan. All of the fellows are here at Mills now, and it's a good thing. We played as part of Signal Flow, which is the spring festival for works by the graduate students here. I started working on the piece when I got back to California after my winter travelling - the goal was to write music that used the sound of the group to boost itself - live sampling of every instrument controlled through amplitude responsive devices in MSP. I feel like the finished piece is the best blending I've done yet of the two sides of music that I play - that which is rooted in creative jazz and the electroacoustic composition. The set up included all the instruments being mic'd and sent to my interface, then processed and sent out via quadraphonic sound into the concert hall. Lots of panning motion, dependent on the part of the piece in terms of velocity. I set up the electronics so as to have as little control once we got going - and I think it worked well - set the volume and certain thresholds for the amplitude triggering during the sound check. Definitely happy with how we played it. It was recorded so as soon as I get that I'll post it to my site.

Son of Gunnar, Ton of Shel Chicago January 2007

I was in Chicago for a little more than a week after the Dragons tour ended. My friend Toby Sumerfield asked me to stay in town to play in his large group Never Enough Hope. I took the opportunity to have Steini Gunnarson stop in town on his way back to Californa and Mills from his winter vacation in Iceland so that Son of Gunnar, Ton of Shel could play a few dates. Steini and I have been playing together pretty much since I moved out west. Especially during our first year here we would get together to play. It was a good fit from the beginning. We each played our instruments and did electronics - discussion was limited as we seem to have agreeing ideas of how to improvise music. We've recorded a number of times and are now starting to play more publicly with a record on the way from Edgetone.
We played two shows and were invited by Michael Corsa to play on WNUR. The first show was on thursday night at Enemy, the space ran by Jason Soliday above Heaven gallery. Brian Labycz set up the show for us - he played in duo with Vadim Sprikut, the night rounded out by Architeuthis Walks on Land, a duo of Amy Cimini and Katie Young. Brian and Vadim sounded great - they both play electronics of the laptop kind - they've been playing live dates for awhile now and you can tell it with the fluidity they've got with their computers. Son of Gunnar, Ton of Shel played as a trio with Johnathan Crawford on drums. We got together earlier in the day to play - it was great - played very freely, everything went together. I was happy with the show too, but the private time was something else. Johnathan sounded great - maybe we should make an album called Son of Ghost....
The next night we played at the Empty Bottle, just the two of us. It was great to play the Bottle, Shelly took care of us from the board. Playing through a large, loud PA lets you realize just how much low-frequency you can get out of a computer. We played a patient set - I was happy with it. The thing I like most of our duo is the patience we give to each other. I'm not sure if we've been able to achieve the same level of patience in public as in private, but it's getting there.

Dragons 1976 Carolinas 2007

I'm now back in Chicago after a week long jaunt through Kentucky, Tennessee and the Carolinas with Dragons 1976.

We stopped in Knoxville the day after our Lexington show to play at the Pilot Light. It worked out kind of the way the first time we played there did - the crowd didn't show up until late, were pretty into it and cleared out once we were done. We stayed with Tim's friend Van and Margaret, who are long time friends of Ken Vandermark's. They took care of us with late night enchilada's and morning waffles.

The next day we headed east. This is the fourth time we've done a tour that had a heavy dose of rotation in the Carolina's, thanks to some really good contacts we've made down there in the past few years. This time we entered the states from the west end and hit Greenville after a gorgeous drive through the smokey mountains. Our friend Gene Berger, owner of Horizon Records keeps the flame going down there, next door to his record store is the Cafe Bohemian which is run by a real jovial man named Tripp. This is our third time down there and are always welcomed warmly - this time was no different. Unfortunately it seemed that the crowd 4 days after New Years on a thursday wasn't ready to get back outside it's own doorstep, so we didn't have too much of a crowd. No matter, we played what we play and the few people there appreciated it greatly.

That night we drove to Columbia to spend the night at our man Ross Taylor's ranch. He welcomed us as we got in around 1 am and showed us a rocket pack a friend had just given him - found on some property that his friend and just bought. The next day we hung out in Columbia, getting lunch at the Piggly Wiggly and checking out a state swamp preserve that was used as a place to get mud to make buildings back in the 30s.

We drove down to Charleston in the evening to play at Redux Art Center . Our first trip to Charleston we found out that there a big straight ahead jazz scene there due to alot of tourism in the city. We had a good crowd that night - Redux had a us play two sets for two covers and people came to both. You could definitely feel a shift in the age group in the crowd which was pretty refreshing. It's a good way to do things - starting playing all the time at 10:30 or later is sometimes a drag. No reason not to have show starting at 8 for the people who'll make it. Philip White joined us on the bill - he's out at Mills now, I helped him out last semester as the SuperCollider TA - well, helped him out as much as I could. We played a piece out there here developed which worked with bringing out the harmonics of a bass clarinet with bandpass filters. He made a piece here with just feedback from two microphones, using the filters as a way to bring out different tones. I joined him in the second show on alto - despite having a pretty serious runny nose problem. During the later Dragons set, which I felt was the best one the tour, there was a tremendous rainstorm - tropical style. The sound of the rain mixed in pretty great, especially during some of Tim's drum solos and during Ajemian's phaser-dominated bass solo.

We headed back to Columbia the next evening to play at the Hunter-Gatherer. Ross made us a great dinner of Kim Chi chowder and Mahi-Mahi cooked on a hibachi. The crowd at Hunter-gatherer was a bit loud but uber-appreciative. we had a good time playing and weren't rushed out as quickly as normal for a saturday night in South Carolina (can't sell liquor on Sundays, usually clear people out at midnight).

Our last stop down south was in Asheville. We headed up there early as I wanted to make a visit to my dad and family that I haven't seen in a bit now. We played at the Bobo Gallery, and though they were late to show up, a good sized crowd did make it out - the owner Brad was really into the music and wanted us back soon. It was pretty great to have my dad and uncle in the audience. I haven't seen them in a long time - so them being able to see what I do is pretty important.

We drove out of Asheville that night and stayed with one of Tim's friends way out in the mountains. His friend Steve Alfred recently moved down there from Chicago to start a goat cheese farm. A little random, but interesting. I took the opportunity to sleep out in this big old barn they had there - plenty of straw to use as bedding. Nice and dark. We did the long drive back to Chicago on monday the 8th. It was a good tour - saw old friends & made new ones. The music was consistently satisfying - the new music we have which should be released by 482 Music in the coming months really helped out our sets - the music is definitely getting more energy each time we play together. It was telling when we were in Columbia and we got a request for one of our songs from the crowd - people are into it.

Dragons 1976 Chicago & Lexington

Happy New Year to all!

It's the beginning of 2007 and Dragons 1976 are on the road for a short week-long tour. I flew to Chicago from Florida where I was visiting my family and got together with Tim & Jason for our first date since last summer when we were on the road for three weeks. Our first date was at the Heaven Gallery on Milwaukee Ave. Jason has been maintaining his Protest series there for a while now. Back in the old day Heaven was more known for the dance parties, it's matured since then and playing there is a good time - a nice sounding front room, good location for people to get to, and Dave Dobie, who I met in my first days in Chicago, is always friendly. We asked the GK Duo to play the first set - that's Mattthew Golombisky and Quin Kirchner, two fellows who came to Chicago after I moved out west I think. A good duo - bass, drums and pedal electronics.
We played a set of mainly our new music - all recorded last July after the tour - this tour we really get to learn that material. I was happy with the turnout - Josh Abrams and Dave Rempis swung by after playing a benefit at Subterranean. Haven't seen Josh in a long time.
So, New Years Eve came and went - on the 2nd we got into the Daisy family bikeshop van and headed down to Lexington where our good man Ross had a show set up for us at the Icehouse. We first went by Gumbo Ya-Yas for a good bite to eat - Ross always provides. We played two sets at the Icehouse, started pretty soon after 8 as a good crowd turned out and were done with our second set before 10:30. We played all the new music along with older tunes. Walter Tunis, a writer in Lexington really enjoyed the new material - he's been giving us nods in the press there for a few years now. Really a nice situation to go to. The Icehouse lived up to it's name temperature wise - the downside of having a huge performance space is the heating bills - Brian had a turbo-jet style heater going for a bit, but I remember looking over at Tim at one point in the second set and seeing his breath in the cool air.