Last night there was another free show at the Uptown in downtown Oakland. This one was put together by Sarah Lockhart. The first set was John Gruntfest's Ritual Resurrection Band, which is led by John on alto and words. It was pretty theatrical, and the line up of 2 drummers, 2 keyboards, and 4 saxophones made for a full sound and opportunities for small group pairings for improvising.
The second set was SL Morse - the duo of Sarah and Aurora Josephson. Now I think that Sarah was reading a composition the whole way through and it seemed that Aurora was free - had some good moments and the simple pairing of voice and percussion worked well.
Weasel put together a quintet with me on alto, Aaron Bennett on tenor, Darren Johnston on trumpet and Damon Smith on bass. He wrote a long-form piece for the group that we played for the first time at 21 Grand about a month ago. That time we didn't have a chance to actually rehearse it before hand, and this time we did - the piece has Weasel and Damon being free for the majority of the piece and alot of written material that is in time for the horns to play together - compositionally the opposite of the SL Morse set. The music is all high energy, with the piece opening up after about 10 minutes into long solo sections for each horn player to work with the rhythm section. Darren's trumpet solo sounded great and despite the mic set up for this purpose, Aaron went without in a real high energy section with Weasel and Damon. I started mine and didn't feel so strong for awhile - I don't know if it's the extra work I've been doing or that it's actually kind of cold around here, but I just didn't feel like my playing was working - maybe a bad reed. These things happen.
Good to work on that music again - I think we'll be recording it soon.
And here is the video!
Weasel Walter Quintet @ The Uptown 12-16-08 from mxxx palmer on Vimeo.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
Quartet at Blue Six 12-11-2008
Last night played at Blue Six in the Mission. Small space at 24th street and Treat. Played with Darren Johnston, Lisa Mezzacappa, and Kjell Nordeson. We'd gotten together a few months ago at Lisa's place - the different instincts from the players in this group allows for some interesting playing - also, everyone is willing to really go for it so strong music happens.
We played two sets this night, I brought both alto and bass clarinet, Darren played mainly trumpet and some flugelhorn. Both sets were varied - I think in the first we stayed towards higher energy while in the second we took our time to develop ideas. Playing with a talented trumpeter is always great as a reed player, the combination of the sounds enhanced by the range that Darren plays with - we were trading lines that stretched throughout several octaves while I was on bass clarinet - with him matching the range of that instrument easily. Kjell is such a strong player in terms of instant composition - he builds parts that develop over time - the quartet interacted with smaller motifs that he would introduce throughout both sets, and the overall energy that he brings to the kit acted as a guide for much of the music.
In terms of improvised music, what I really like about this group is that while we all have many skills at our disposal, the result is strong music that is not dominated by special techniques. Instead, those techniques are used as parts to create music that is complex on many levels, while being about both the interaction of the individual players and the music created as a group.
Thanks to Joe for having the show at his place -
We played two sets this night, I brought both alto and bass clarinet, Darren played mainly trumpet and some flugelhorn. Both sets were varied - I think in the first we stayed towards higher energy while in the second we took our time to develop ideas. Playing with a talented trumpeter is always great as a reed player, the combination of the sounds enhanced by the range that Darren plays with - we were trading lines that stretched throughout several octaves while I was on bass clarinet - with him matching the range of that instrument easily. Kjell is such a strong player in terms of instant composition - he builds parts that develop over time - the quartet interacted with smaller motifs that he would introduce throughout both sets, and the overall energy that he brings to the kit acted as a guide for much of the music.
In terms of improvised music, what I really like about this group is that while we all have many skills at our disposal, the result is strong music that is not dominated by special techniques. Instead, those techniques are used as parts to create music that is complex on many levels, while being about both the interaction of the individual players and the music created as a group.
Thanks to Joe for having the show at his place -
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Paper Leg at Ivy Room 12-08-2008
Up in Albany at the Ivy Room they've been having shows on Monday nights. Eric Leppo tends bar there on Mondays and keeps this series going - thanks to him!
Played with Trevor Healy for the first time in a bit. I brought my alto and bass clarinet, used Max/MSP for processing, and was able to use his guitar sounds as well. Trevor makes big thick walls of sound with his guitar and electronics noise changing tools (pedals) including of course the electronic system for wind instruments. Our method of playing together has stayed consistent during our hiatus - we tend to take our time getting moving through different spaces in music, which makes a two hour rehearsal move by fast, and a 45 minute set that much faster.
Andrew Conklin's band Quinn played second, a rock band with a good variety of songs - and then Jordan Glenn's & Karl Evangelista's instrumental band Host Family - pretty complex arrangements with multiple meters and pieces finding unexpected ways into others.
Played with Trevor Healy for the first time in a bit. I brought my alto and bass clarinet, used Max/MSP for processing, and was able to use his guitar sounds as well. Trevor makes big thick walls of sound with his guitar and electronics noise changing tools (pedals) including of course the electronic system for wind instruments. Our method of playing together has stayed consistent during our hiatus - we tend to take our time getting moving through different spaces in music, which makes a two hour rehearsal move by fast, and a 45 minute set that much faster.
Andrew Conklin's band Quinn played second, a rock band with a good variety of songs - and then Jordan Glenn's & Karl Evangelista's instrumental band Host Family - pretty complex arrangements with multiple meters and pieces finding unexpected ways into others.
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