last Wednesday I played at Bluesix in the Mission with Trevor Healy. We played without our electronics, which is our usual setup as the space is an acoustic only room. It wa a good change of pace for us, I brought along my Eb and Bass clarinets and Trevor brought his guitar, violin and some assorted percussion instruments. We focused on extending our ideas and going at a slow pace. Here's a video:
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
California Tour - Pt 3 - Sacramento
The week continues - on Wednesday the 20th worked during the day and then went up to Sacramento with Paper legs for a house show at the Fun Castle - we left Oakland around 7 and had a much better drive to the capitol than the last time we went - waiting for rush hour to die down is a good thing. We still had a little daylight left when we got into downtown Sactown - it was real nice out, the large trees and clean streets making us feel like we were in an old midwest town with better weather. Paper Legs invited me to play with them on this night, I brought my Bb clarinet and laptop. We were going to share the bill with Zac Nelson's Hexlove, but by the time we finished, he decided to not play - he said we put him in too good of a mood to play the loud rock that late - think we didn't finish until 11:30 - which isn't that late, but on a wednesday in someone's house it feels that much later. We played second and some kids from Davis played the set before, one with a variety of instruments and MSP electronics, one doing movement, one doing spoken word type ramblings.
our set felt good - though I hadn't played with brian yet, I have played with trevor and listening to them the few nights previously in LA and Oakland I knew how I wanted to try to get into the fold with them. I sat crosslegged the whole time and my left leg had fallen asleep by the end of the set.....we stayed there for the night and drank some rum mojitoes before going to sleep. The next morning we woke up early and left town by 7 am - passing by the state capitaol building where arnold schwarzenegger may have been working out - who knows? and Trevor and Brian dropped me off at work around 8:45 in emeryville. Some people do that commute everyday - crazy people.
The next day we did a recording session for them at my practice space. Recorded about 3 hours worth of improvisations and I joined them on a few. A busy full week - never felt stressed about things though - the way it should be.
our set felt good - though I hadn't played with brian yet, I have played with trevor and listening to them the few nights previously in LA and Oakland I knew how I wanted to try to get into the fold with them. I sat crosslegged the whole time and my left leg had fallen asleep by the end of the set.....we stayed there for the night and drank some rum mojitoes before going to sleep. The next morning we woke up early and left town by 7 am - passing by the state capitaol building where arnold schwarzenegger may have been working out - who knows? and Trevor and Brian dropped me off at work around 8:45 in emeryville. Some people do that commute everyday - crazy people.
The next day we did a recording session for them at my practice space. Recorded about 3 hours worth of improvisations and I joined them on a few. A busy full week - never felt stressed about things though - the way it should be.
California Tour - Pt 2 - Oakland & SF
So I got back from LA on a Saturday night, and had a long rehearsal with Tiny Lights on Sunday for our show on tuesday night at the Hotel Utah. But, before that was Monday where I had to work, and then do a two hour practice before a show in Oakland at 21 Grand of three duos - Paper Legs, Sudden Oak from SF, and my new duo with Weasel Walter. I wrote 4 pieces for alto saxophone & drums and bass clarinet and drums and we've had a number of rehearsals for this material which is definitely more complicated than my standard writing. Though harmonically simple - in keeping with the instrumentation - the variations and complications are mainly rhythmic, with changing time signatures and a need for exact counting for the two parts to line up the right way. All of the pieces start and end with written material that is related but non-repeating, and the improvising in most is highly related to what is written. We balanced the set with three improvisations that were succinct but active and varying. We'll definitely be working on this material more in the future. Sudden Oak are based in SF and are a guitar & sax player, both going through delay and overdrive pedals, creating a loud drone of sound that filled up 21 Grand.
The next night Tiny Lights (with Ben Bracken and Jacob Danziger) played at Hotel Utah in San Francisco. Our first show in a while and possibly our last for awhile as Jake will be moving back to Ann Arbor this summer. We were joined by Ben's roommate Max, who, in addition to being able to pitch in on multiple instruments (upright bass, glockenspiel & guitar) is a woodworker, has a good handle on audio recording and is an all around nice fellow. We played six songs all together for a set and shared the bill with Lulacruza and Efft. Hotel Utah is a nice and strange place to play - one of the oldest bars in the city, predating the 1906 earthquake, the sound man is actually pretty talented, but doesn't let it on while you're setting up - not really a talker... Lulacruza's set sounded great - I had to leave before Efft's show - sorry y'all - it looked like they had added a horn section though!
Playing with Tiny Lights is always nice - if only we could manage to play together more than once every 4 months or so it'd be that much better...
The next night Tiny Lights (with Ben Bracken and Jacob Danziger) played at Hotel Utah in San Francisco. Our first show in a while and possibly our last for awhile as Jake will be moving back to Ann Arbor this summer. We were joined by Ben's roommate Max, who, in addition to being able to pitch in on multiple instruments (upright bass, glockenspiel & guitar) is a woodworker, has a good handle on audio recording and is an all around nice fellow. We played six songs all together for a set and shared the bill with Lulacruza and Efft. Hotel Utah is a nice and strange place to play - one of the oldest bars in the city, predating the 1906 earthquake, the sound man is actually pretty talented, but doesn't let it on while you're setting up - not really a talker... Lulacruza's set sounded great - I had to leave before Efft's show - sorry y'all - it looked like they had added a horn section though!
Playing with Tiny Lights is always nice - if only we could manage to play together more than once every 4 months or so it'd be that much better...
Monday, May 05, 2008
California Tour - End of April 2008 Part 1 - LA
The last week and half has been a busy one - four shows with that many groups in that many cities bookended by recording sessions. It all started last thursday night with a set-up session for Ton Trio - we went into the studio to record seven pieces. We've been playing the music for a bit now so it was time to get it down properly. A recording should be available sometime this summer.
Drove down to LA on Friday the 25th with Trevor Healy. He set up some show down there for his duo Paper Legs and included Settled on the bill at the Echo Curio, a storefront space in Echo Park. It was an afternoon show on a Saturday, and a hot one at that. LA can get hot - I think it was in the low 90s, and the summer isn't quite here. The Echo Curio stayed pretty reasonable though - Settled played first out of three bands. The crowd that came sat on the concrete floors and let me take my time with my set - though I hadn't done a performance of that music since December, I felt comfortable with my set up and made music unhurried. Gang Wizard played the second set, five folks playing drone-based noise music. They chose to play in a small room in the back of the Echo Curio, which was a bit cooler temperature wise due to its location without windows and being lower a foot or so. A good setting for the wizards - almost a cave. Paper Legs played third - Trevor on acoustic guitar and effects is joined by Brian Osborne, who lives in Brooklyn and plays small percussion through effects for this group. Their music is slow changing, with deliberate choices made to keep the music moving forward. An almost sleepy ending to the afternoon show, the sunlight always threatening to take over, but not quite doing so. Afterwards we had a great meal of South Indian food and Trevor and Brian gave me a ride to the Burbank airport where I flew back to Oakland that same night.
Drove down to LA on Friday the 25th with Trevor Healy. He set up some show down there for his duo Paper Legs and included Settled on the bill at the Echo Curio, a storefront space in Echo Park. It was an afternoon show on a Saturday, and a hot one at that. LA can get hot - I think it was in the low 90s, and the summer isn't quite here. The Echo Curio stayed pretty reasonable though - Settled played first out of three bands. The crowd that came sat on the concrete floors and let me take my time with my set - though I hadn't done a performance of that music since December, I felt comfortable with my set up and made music unhurried. Gang Wizard played the second set, five folks playing drone-based noise music. They chose to play in a small room in the back of the Echo Curio, which was a bit cooler temperature wise due to its location without windows and being lower a foot or so. A good setting for the wizards - almost a cave. Paper Legs played third - Trevor on acoustic guitar and effects is joined by Brian Osborne, who lives in Brooklyn and plays small percussion through effects for this group. Their music is slow changing, with deliberate choices made to keep the music moving forward. An almost sleepy ending to the afternoon show, the sunlight always threatening to take over, but not quite doing so. Afterwards we had a great meal of South Indian food and Trevor and Brian gave me a ride to the Burbank airport where I flew back to Oakland that same night.
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