Played a solo set at 21 Grand last Friday night. It's the first time that I've played a solo show out here - and one of the few times in general. Instead of bringing saxophone, clarinet, etc I used my computer to make the music. Similar to what I do when playing with saxophone & computer, but more static and with more attention paid to the different layers of sound coming out of the audio output. For the set I used two long drum samples, one of Johnathan Crawford, one of Steve Hess & samples of my saxophone, clarinet and trumpet, one each. I got to 21 Grand a half hour after the show was supposed to start - I got my times all wrong and had my folks in town so had brought them up to the Armstrong Redwoods and Goat Rock State Beach up in Sonoma County. But set up quick and was ready to play my opening spot within about 5 minutes - that's a nice thing about just bring the saxophone or just the computer - no big setup system, no microphones etc... There were two other sets - one with Matt Davignon and the last with the group Mire that features pedal steel gutiar, drums & laptop. Unfortunately I had to leave in the middle of their set as my folks were getting tired & wanted to get back to the hotel. I made the mistake of leaving my jacket with the car keys basically on the stage, so had to slide my way up there while Mire was playing - sorry 'bout that...
- glad to play the solo set though and looking forward to doing more -
Monday, May 29, 2006
Friday, May 19, 2006
Pink Canoes Luggage Store 5-18-2006
A thursday night in the summer in San Francisco - that was yesterday when the Pink Canoes played at the Luggage Store on Market Street. Across the street was Phil Lesh & Friends doing there thing, so in addition to the regular tenderloin crack headed madness there were gaggles of hippie-kids getting ready for their show. San Francisco street scenes are tough to beat sometimes.... First show in a few weeks for the Canoes - they had actually played a show down in LA on the 5th opening for a Nels Cline group, but I couldn't make that show. It seems everytime I play with the Canoes it's a little different and I bring some different permutation of my set-up. This night I brought my soprano and the computer. I liked using the soprano in the group - the higher range worked well in being able to be heard without having to play overly loud. Using an instrument sans neckstrap also works well when needing to put it down to concentrate on the computer. Afterwards we all went to the Kerry House, a bar in Oakland away from the tourists. We talked about how to get people to come see our music. If anyone has a suggestion, let us know.
Friday, April 28, 2006
Quintet 21 Grand 4-21-2006
Last Friday I played at 21 Grand in a group with weasel walter on drums, liz albee on trumpet, damon smith on bass and aurora josephson on voice. The group was put together by aurora, who went to Mills and still lives in the bay area. We got together about a month ago to play and what happened last Friday was similar to our first meeting. Everyone in the group are good musicians that have just as good ears and our styles mesh well. At no point did I ever feel that the music was boring, or that something else "needed" to be done, but something else was always about to happen and for the most part all the decisions made affected the rest of the music in the way you'd want it to. Weasel was glad to play in a group where he isn't expected to play loud the whole time, Aurora is about the most tasteful vocalist I've heard in a long time and Liz's trumpet playing is right on, there were parts when each of us backed the other up. We played the longest set of the night, there were three bands, it started at 9:00 and was over by 11:15. We played the second set and we set up in the middle of the room, surrounded by the audience but facing in. This allowed for us to be able to hear each other before the natural echo of the space affected our sounds - a good idea when playing in a bouncy space. We'll be recording in early May, my last recording before the summer break at Mills starts.
Monday, April 17, 2006
A Week in April 2006
The spring is coming into it's own out here in the bay area - this last week was a busy one, being involved in three different concerts in different contexts. Early in the week I played on a concert which featured a string quartet. The 2nd year compostion majors got a grant to pay for a string quartet to play their new compsitions. Paul Scriver wrote a piece for the quartet plus flute, piano and bass clarinet. I played bass clarinet and actually had to borrow his horn as mine, though has a nice tone & I like the feel of the instrument, tends to have trouble with intonation (which I think is mainly due to when it was made - back in the 20s I believe). I enjoyed the piece Paul wrote, some moments which dealt strictly with the instruments timbres, others which involved precise timing to achieve the right musical effect. The quartet which was hired was young & friendly, maybe not super-pro yet, but on their way to being solid. I definitely like the fact that there is challenging new music being written and played out here in the bay, except for a few experiences, notably with Guillermo Gregorio, there could have been more of it going on in Chicago.
There was an electronic music concert at Mills; an exchange between several of the music schools in California, CalArts, Stanford, UCSB, UCSD. Steini Gunnarson & I played as Son of Gunnar, Ton of Shel. We had a ten minute allotment of time, but tried to pack lots into it. Alto, Bass Clarinet, Guitar and lots of different processing. I had a bit of a technological failure at the beginning so Steini stalled the proceedings by rambling on about "as we approach the singularity...." always good to have someone be able to stall for you. Lewis Keller form CalArts brought a nice piece which utilized the sounds of two ibooks - he wrote a piece for wurlitzer and accompanied it by the whirring, static tones of the ibooks - I was impressed with the intonation between the two instruments - some complained that he didn't do much with the sounds, but I thought that it was a good piece - he limited what he could do and built a piece around it.
The Pink Canoes played on that concert and also on Saturday night at 21 Grand. Both sets were short - 10 minutes and 20 minutes respectively. Both times we set up in a way that we could all actually hear each other and it helped immensely. The past few shows we had tried to get creative with our set-ups only to realize later that it was close to impossible to hear each other and therefore be able to react and make music together. On these nights there were ebbs and flows, space was given between the five of us and the results were much better than in the past.
There was an electronic music concert at Mills; an exchange between several of the music schools in California, CalArts, Stanford, UCSB, UCSD. Steini Gunnarson & I played as Son of Gunnar, Ton of Shel. We had a ten minute allotment of time, but tried to pack lots into it. Alto, Bass Clarinet, Guitar and lots of different processing. I had a bit of a technological failure at the beginning so Steini stalled the proceedings by rambling on about "as we approach the singularity...." always good to have someone be able to stall for you. Lewis Keller form CalArts brought a nice piece which utilized the sounds of two ibooks - he wrote a piece for wurlitzer and accompanied it by the whirring, static tones of the ibooks - I was impressed with the intonation between the two instruments - some complained that he didn't do much with the sounds, but I thought that it was a good piece - he limited what he could do and built a piece around it.
The Pink Canoes played on that concert and also on Saturday night at 21 Grand. Both sets were short - 10 minutes and 20 minutes respectively. Both times we set up in a way that we could all actually hear each other and it helped immensely. The past few shows we had tried to get creative with our set-ups only to realize later that it was close to impossible to hear each other and therefore be able to react and make music together. On these nights there were ebbs and flows, space was given between the five of us and the results were much better than in the past.
Monday, April 03, 2006
Signal Flow 2006 Mills College
This past weekend there was a four day festival at Mills which is called Signal Flow. I played on one piece each day of the festival and had my piece 'November' performed on Saturday night. November was written for two clarinets, bass clarinet, piano and live sampling & processing via MSP. It was a good concert on Saturday night, most of the other compositions had video along with the audio. Chris Kubick's Crowd Control was a particualr favorite of mine. The piece was based on sound files of clapping , applause and crowd reactions all triggered by Chris clapping into a microphone. Seems pretty simple but turned out to be very well constructed and performed really well in the room. I was happy with how my piece went as well - had a constructive soundcheck earlier in the dayin order to get the levels between the instruments and the computer playback. I set up my patch to be operated by Jacob Danziger, and though I could have designed it to be more automated, I feel that having someone actively controlling the processing and being able to balance the sound from the room made a huge postive impact on the performance.
Signal Flow ended on Sunday with a keg-fueled reception that involved Les Stuck and Fred Frith dancing just as goofy as the rest of us.
Signal Flow ended on Sunday with a keg-fueled reception that involved Les Stuck and Fred Frith dancing just as goofy as the rest of us.
Friday, March 03, 2006
SOG,TOS Luggage Store 3-2-2006
First time bringin a project to play in San Francisco proper. The group Son of Gunnar, Ton of Shel, a duo between myself and Steini Gunnarson, the guitarist from Iceland. We started playing together last fall - we've actually been able to play together quite a bit and record a number of the session - sometimes it's just acoustic saxophone and guitar, but mostly we bring our computers along to play. We played at the Luggage Store Gallery in downtown San Francisco. It's right near (or in) the Tenderloin, on the second floor of a building on Market Street. A nice sized space with high ceilings next door to the delicious taqueria Cancun. The first group to play was a trio of Alexander Kort (electric cello) with Marty Dowers (reeds) and Christopher Fleeger (electronics). It was all improvised, Christopher was processing the two instrumentalists via MSP. We played at nine - the space is a bit boomy but we took advantage of this by letting our sounds bounce off the walls. It was a good first show for us - transferring what we do in a secluded environment to a public one is a little tricky, but you've got to do the public sometimes before you can relaly get your thing going. Matt & Rent, who run the series, were really into it and invited us back. Bob Marsh came out also - he lived in Chicago when I first moved there and moved out here about 5 years ago.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Improv Lotto at Mills 11-28-2005
So i was in the contemporary performance ensemble at Mills this semester - it was split between playing some written music (by Terry Riley) and working on improvising in a variety of groups - alot of the time we'd have nice sessions where there'd be randomly picked groups to improvise with each other - some of the time the improvising was really good, sometimes not so good. for the concert we did the same thing - Fred Frith, who is the guide of the larger group, picked the number of players (from 1 to 4) and then names were drawn out of a physical hat (not a figurative one). I was picked to play with Fred, and we did a little duo with him on guitar & me on bass clarinet. It was a nice little piece, we kind of moved around a bit musically, from out of time to in time & back. Afterwards a group of us headed over to the Alley in Oakland - sang a couple of songs at the piano with ol' Ron Dibble.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Mama Buzz Cafe 11-16-2005
My first time playing in Oakland away from Mills College since moving out here in August. I've been pretty content working on music without playing out in the world, I think it's important to not play shows some times. I got asked to play a duet with Zachary Watkins by Noah Phillips, a guitarist I know from Mills. Noah's doing a bunch of dates with Harris Eisenstadt, who I met before in Chicago when he came to play shows there maybe two winters ago.
So it was an early night thing at the Mama Buzz Cafe. I've played with Zach a handful of times while we were working on some music set to a film by Derek Jarman (we were also working with Noah, Ava Mendoza and Travis Johns). He's an interesting fellow, from Seattle, makes music with lots of little devices (circuit bent) and instruments like guitars and keyboards. We did an improvised set - I brought only my computer, no acoustic instruments. Nice thing about that was that I could walk to the Cafe from my place in Lake Merritt. It was a nice 30 minute walk along Grand Ave, and in the nice temperate Oakland climate. We played for about 40 minutes, going here & there, a couple of times some demo songs came crashing out of one of Zach's vaious electronic devices - the second time I sampled some of it with my high quality powerbook microphone and spit it back out his way - we were joined for a bit by Zach's friend Isaac, who is also from Seattle. I don't know if it's a Seattle thing, or because they're good friends (probably the latter) but they both have the same laugh - i can't explain it to you here, but if you ever meet the two of them you'll hear what I mean.
It was good to play - I'd been to Mama Buzz before and was a bit dissappointed, but this time I had some good coffee, and it was dark out, so it felt much more like a little spot than just a storefront on wide telegraph ave. Walked back home along Grand ave, by the park and the lake - a nice stroll.
So it was an early night thing at the Mama Buzz Cafe. I've played with Zach a handful of times while we were working on some music set to a film by Derek Jarman (we were also working with Noah, Ava Mendoza and Travis Johns). He's an interesting fellow, from Seattle, makes music with lots of little devices (circuit bent) and instruments like guitars and keyboards. We did an improvised set - I brought only my computer, no acoustic instruments. Nice thing about that was that I could walk to the Cafe from my place in Lake Merritt. It was a nice 30 minute walk along Grand Ave, and in the nice temperate Oakland climate. We played for about 40 minutes, going here & there, a couple of times some demo songs came crashing out of one of Zach's vaious electronic devices - the second time I sampled some of it with my high quality powerbook microphone and spit it back out his way - we were joined for a bit by Zach's friend Isaac, who is also from Seattle. I don't know if it's a Seattle thing, or because they're good friends (probably the latter) but they both have the same laugh - i can't explain it to you here, but if you ever meet the two of them you'll hear what I mean.
It was good to play - I'd been to Mama Buzz before and was a bit dissappointed, but this time I had some good coffee, and it was dark out, so it felt much more like a little spot than just a storefront on wide telegraph ave. Walked back home along Grand ave, by the park and the lake - a nice stroll.
Monday, October 17, 2005
i really have been playing
hey all, sorry bout the long delay, it's not like i moved out to california and then never played music again. it's not like that - it's just that i'm taking a break from the routine of dragging my gear out to random venues around the town i live in to focus in on some other things. but, i am still playing music. i've been playing with a guitarist from iceland whose name is gundmundur gunnarson but goes by steini. we've been improvising together - some all acoustic, some with our computers as well - we've been recording whenever we play, hopefully we'll get together enough good stuff to put an album together and we can all hear what a florida iceland connection sounds like.
this past weekend i finally me tup with scott rosenberg, he's been living out here for a few years now, lived here in the mid-90s when he went to school at Mills - and after several years of moving around he moved back to the bay. he had called me a few weeks back about hanging out on a recording session on this past saturday night - i was game, so grabbed my clarinet and took the 20 minute walk to downtown oakland. it's a nice walk past lake merritt - the sun was going down - wind was blowing - very fall like. the project that was going on was a series of songs based on steinbeck stories. the first track we played on was set on a party scene, so first we layed down some tracks of scott & i playing clarinet annd sopranino, in a loose fun way. next was some extra percussion and hand claps - we made it sound more like a party - it only took us a little time to fill up the tracks, so we moved on to some other songs which were more dark mood - put in some nice long tones, on another got a bit more loose - scott busted out the contrabass clarinet to get some nice sub tones.
i've been busier at school than i'd at first thought i'd be - but working on good things, going to write some music for violin, clarinet, tabletop guitar and manipulation - when will the first show be in the wild world of oakland or sf? who knows....
this past weekend i finally me tup with scott rosenberg, he's been living out here for a few years now, lived here in the mid-90s when he went to school at Mills - and after several years of moving around he moved back to the bay. he had called me a few weeks back about hanging out on a recording session on this past saturday night - i was game, so grabbed my clarinet and took the 20 minute walk to downtown oakland. it's a nice walk past lake merritt - the sun was going down - wind was blowing - very fall like. the project that was going on was a series of songs based on steinbeck stories. the first track we played on was set on a party scene, so first we layed down some tracks of scott & i playing clarinet annd sopranino, in a loose fun way. next was some extra percussion and hand claps - we made it sound more like a party - it only took us a little time to fill up the tracks, so we moved on to some other songs which were more dark mood - put in some nice long tones, on another got a bit more loose - scott busted out the contrabass clarinet to get some nice sub tones.
i've been busier at school than i'd at first thought i'd be - but working on good things, going to write some music for violin, clarinet, tabletop guitar and manipulation - when will the first show be in the wild world of oakland or sf? who knows....
Monday, September 05, 2005
24 hour drone 9-3&4-2005
Second week out here at Mills College & there was a 24 hour drone...didn't know how much I'd be a part of it, but after starting up around 9 on Saturday night, I stayed part of the drone until about 3:30 AM, and then helped Norman, Michael, Steiny, Travis and a few others finish the drone from 5PM to 8PM the next day. It was a good time for a drone, those of us involved would get something droning on our assorted equipment, and then with the aid of feedback or computer noise keep it going while we would take a break outside the room. It was on lthe loud side for most of the time, so a bit trying to stya in the room the whole time. Not a meditative drone, but there were moments....
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
new digs, new sights
i've made it to the west coast....hard to believe i left chicago a week ago yesterday, it seems like i left yesterday, but i guess three days of straight driving and then a two day trip to a city where you've gotta drive all over does that to you. i've moved into the space i'll be calling home for abit - it's a good spot with aview of the hill across the way, nice windows, a cat named junebug, and a rommate who tends to be gone all day...pretty sweet. i've been getting used to oakland via bicycle, the hills are a double edged sword, going up some of the big ones make you curse, but on the way down the quick ride makes up for it. today i rode up to joaquin miller park, going up there was tough, but the view was worth it and coming down fast never felt so good - i've gotta get used to the descents, it makes you think twice when you're zooming down hills on your bike at 30 or so mph.
i have to say i'm pretty happy with my living situation, though jen will not be here for a few months and that makes things a bit lonely. in the neighborhood there's all the things i need, good coffe place (cafe dibartolo), restaurants, movie theater, park, grocery store, bagels, kosher deli, natural foods store, and of course a starbucks and gap....
working on the gery ghost recording, we recorded just days before i left chicago and we got some very good music down. thankfully i've got plenty of time to editing and mix and make it sound good. i'm looking forward to doing it right, getting it out there and making some noise.
i have to say i'm pretty happy with my living situation, though jen will not be here for a few months and that makes things a bit lonely. in the neighborhood there's all the things i need, good coffe place (cafe dibartolo), restaurants, movie theater, park, grocery store, bagels, kosher deli, natural foods store, and of course a starbucks and gap....
working on the gery ghost recording, we recorded just days before i left chicago and we got some very good music down. thankfully i've got plenty of time to editing and mix and make it sound good. i'm looking forward to doing it right, getting it out there and making some noise.
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
last week in chicago
so it is my last week in chicago. my last show was back on the 24th of july, i've been pretty busy with some recording sessions & figuring out how i'm going to move my stuff across the country. it's going well though. yesterday & today jen & I made it out to lake michigan for some swimming. after a brief respite from the heat, it is back & badder than ever. well, maybe not ever. but it is hot enough to make doing things in the apartment out of the question, unless you want to sweat it out. going to the lake was great though. we had woken early to try to take some pictures of the city with morning light, but the sun gets up real early these days - we were out there by 7 and the sun was already pretty high. we cruised a bit before deciding to go the lake in between the oak street and north avenue beaches. this spot is good because you can jump right into nice cold water, it's deep enough that you don't touch the bottom when you make the leap. good times.
last night i invited folk to the charleston for goodbye drinks. it was a good time - people showed up around 9 or 10, most of the folks at the bar were friends, and it was good to see everyone. when i'd played at the brain two weekends ago i felt uncomfortable with it being my "last show" in town. i hope it's not the last show, i feel like coming back to chicago in one way or another is important & it will be done. last night made me feel good about the folks i know here in chicago.. i know i'm welcome back whenever i'd like to come.
last night i invited folk to the charleston for goodbye drinks. it was a good time - people showed up around 9 or 10, most of the folks at the bar were friends, and it was good to see everyone. when i'd played at the brain two weekends ago i felt uncomfortable with it being my "last show" in town. i hope it's not the last show, i feel like coming back to chicago in one way or another is important & it will be done. last night made me feel good about the folks i know here in chicago.. i know i'm welcome back whenever i'd like to come.
last week in chicago
so it is my last week in chicago. my last show was back on the 24th of july, i've been pretty busy with some recording sessions & figuring out how i'm going to move my stuff across the country. it's going well though. yesterday & today jen & I made it out to lake michigan for some swimming. after a brief respite from the heat, it is back & badder than ever. well, maybe not ever. but it is hot enough to make doing things in the apartment out of the question, unless you want to sweat it out. going to the lake was great though. we had woken early to try to take some pictures of the city with morning light, but the sun gets up real early these days - we were out there by 7 and the sun was already pretty high. we cruised a bit before deciding to go the lake in between the oak street and north avenue beaches. this spot is good because you can jump right into nice cold water, it's deep enough that you don't touch the bottom when you make the leap. good times.
last night i invited folk to the charleston for goodbye drinks. it was a good time - people showed up around 9 or 10, most of the folks at the bar were friends, and it was good to see everyone. when i'd played at the brain two weekends ago i felt uncomfortable with it being my "last show" in town. i hope it's not the last show, i feel like coming back to chicago in one way or another is important & it will be done. last night made me feel good about the folks i know here in chicago.. i know i'm welcome back whenever i'd like to come.
last night i invited folk to the charleston for goodbye drinks. it was a good time - people showed up around 9 or 10, most of the folks at the bar were friends, and it was good to see everyone. when i'd played at the brain two weekends ago i felt uncomfortable with it being my "last show" in town. i hope it's not the last show, i feel like coming back to chicago in one way or another is important & it will be done. last night made me feel good about the folks i know here in chicago.. i know i'm welcome back whenever i'd like to come.
Monday, July 25, 2005
grey ghost / fast citizens / hungry brain 7-24-2005
and all good things must come to an end, or at least a stopping point... as i'll be driving cross coutnry to oakland in a little less than two weeks, this date was arranged as my last night to play at the hungry brain, at least for the time being. josh berman & mike reed, who have been booking the series for several years now, really wanted me to have this night. along with jason ajemian and tim daisy I played the first installment of what is known as the transmission series.
so for my last night there I played with two groups: grey ghost and fast citizens. fast citizens is a band that i truly have a good time playing with and i feel has been one of the most communal groups i've been in since living in chicago. keefe jackson writes most of the music in the group, but it seems like everyone really has an equal say it what goes on in the music, and this is a good thing. also, due to it being a sextet, no personality can dominate too much. johnathan crawford and i have been grey ghost for a good 3 or 4 years by this point, and we've been able to grow to be able to play together with alot of intuition and individuality.
yesterday was hottt, about 105 degrees all day, i had spent it with jen going to places that had air conditioning, first the alliance bakery, then to a movie, then up to argyle street for vietnamese food at pho 777 and then finally the hungry brain. people trickle into the brain later & later nowadays, so it's not really the band's fault that we started aroudn 10:30. both sets were good, and we didn't get done until about 1:00 (pretty late for a sunday). it was a good night and i hope to be back in the not too far future -
so for my last night there I played with two groups: grey ghost and fast citizens. fast citizens is a band that i truly have a good time playing with and i feel has been one of the most communal groups i've been in since living in chicago. keefe jackson writes most of the music in the group, but it seems like everyone really has an equal say it what goes on in the music, and this is a good thing. also, due to it being a sextet, no personality can dominate too much. johnathan crawford and i have been grey ghost for a good 3 or 4 years by this point, and we've been able to grow to be able to play together with alot of intuition and individuality.
yesterday was hottt, about 105 degrees all day, i had spent it with jen going to places that had air conditioning, first the alliance bakery, then to a movie, then up to argyle street for vietnamese food at pho 777 and then finally the hungry brain. people trickle into the brain later & later nowadays, so it's not really the band's fault that we started aroudn 10:30. both sets were good, and we didn't get done until about 1:00 (pretty late for a sunday). it was a good night and i hope to be back in the not too far future -
Friday, July 22, 2005
electronicians rodan 7-21-2005
it's been a while since i played, i know it - went on a two week trip out west to do some camping out in the olympic peninsula and to find a new place in oakland. you can check out pictures from that trip here. so, who knows how much i'll be playing out once i'm there in oakland, but i'm sure some things will be going on. i'm finishing up my chicago time with some recording sessions, btu also just a few more live dates. next week i'll be recording with this group that we've called the elctronicians. it's me on saxophone & computer, nori tanaka on drums, jason ajemian on upright bass & pedals; and matt lux on electric bass. we've played at rodan a handful of times int he last month or so, and usually have a good time at it, making lots of noise & getting into some real grooves. it's a comfortable gig - have dinner around 9:30, start playing around 10:30, do two sets, and end near closing time. Rodan doesn't have a listening audience, so if you can block them out you can have a good time. It's not a place to be too introspective, otherwise the crowd noise would drown you out. another thing is that we can get real loud real quick in there, and because we've got three good sized amps within about 8 feet of each other, you can be fooled into thinking you're making a sound that someone else in the group is making. it;s kind of like - am i making that sound? why is it so loud? oh, that's cool, oops, not me, oh, it's me doing the really annoying thing right now, or is it? confusing to be sure.
alwaysa good time though, especially when getting the johnny red's from the bar....
alwaysa good time though, especially when getting the johnny red's from the bar....
Monday, July 04, 2005
grey ghost at heaven 7-2-2005
the perfect temperature for sitting outside next to train tracks in chicago. it was july 2nd and we had a combination cookout and concert at the heaven gallery in wicker park. we started cooking food around 6pm - brian labycz brought burgers & short ribs, i brought veggie burgers, corn, potato salad & other stuff. it was the good time hanging out on the back roof of heaven & out of the direct sunlight. there was a ping pong table set up on the adjaacent roof - crawford played alot.
the music started at 9 - brian labycz played an electroinc duet with vadim sprikut; fred lonberg holm used his cello as a sounding board for electronic gadgets, and grey ghost played a set which felt very good. we've really gotten to a good spot in being familiar with each other to be able to trust each other in improvising & being able to react to each other in a way that each is independent while maintaining a dialogue.
this weekend was full of things going on - after the show we headed to the beachland for drinks, and after that i went on a late night bikeride to old town and bike - summer bike rides at 4 am are great.....
the music started at 9 - brian labycz played an electroinc duet with vadim sprikut; fred lonberg holm used his cello as a sounding board for electronic gadgets, and grey ghost played a set which felt very good. we've really gotten to a good spot in being familiar with each other to be able to trust each other in improvising & being able to react to each other in a way that each is independent while maintaining a dialogue.
this weekend was full of things going on - after the show we headed to the beachland for drinks, and after that i went on a late night bikeride to old town and bike - summer bike rides at 4 am are great.....
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
dragons 1976 empty bottle 6-20-2005
the last dragons show for a while - we played on monday night at the bottle, it was one of there free shows, meaning that a good amount of people came, because for some reason it's so much more enticing for people to go to a show that's free as opposed to a tuesday night at the bottle when it's $3... anyhow, we split the bill with two groups: an electronic duo Yea Big that played moderately boring beats & excruciating electronic squelches. my stomach was full from a BBQ seitan sandwich from the Handlebar, and I wasn't prepared for the assault that reminded me of someone jabbing a toothpick into my ear. maybe if i was in a different mood....also Kill the vultures, a hiphop group that was aggressive and cocky, telling the crowd to "move the fuck up" and getting all the friends who came to see us out of the bottle & home early. we played right in between these two acts, which was for the best really - it gave time for people to get there, and then they didn't have to sit through too much bad music. we played on the floor, thought he other groups played on the stage, it was nice, as the crowd surrounded us by sitting on the steps in the back & in front of the bar. it was nice & cozy. we played almost all the music that will be on our next studio album, and ended with "the way it is" by request of tim daisy. he's always liked that song alot, and i do too, though sometimes i feel it's a bit too pleasant - but if we play it right, we don't need to worry about it. It was a good show for us - some friends came, Stuart Bogie & Toby Summerfield sat right up front. The crowd was listening, though there were some talkers in the back - it felt more like one of our out of town shows due to the diverse bill.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
dragons 1976 hungry brain 6-12-2005
this night was the dragons second to last show for the foreseeable future. we played at the hungry brain - actually we were the first group to play at the sunday night series at the brain, i guess it was back in 2001 - but back then we weren't known as dragons 1976 yet - we played two sets, though we had a write up in the reader, when i got there it was pretty empty, thankfully by midway through the first set it had fileld up nicely - and the people that came came to listen. all in all a good night, tim enjoyed a nice drink while afterwards & i showed everyone a picture of my recently dislocated toe nail, which i won't subject you all to an image of....
Thursday, June 02, 2005
another busy week - may 2005 ends fast
must...keep...blogging....i'm falling behind here at the beginning of june, the last week of may was the good times - played 7 times in 6 days - and had my share of late nights. it all starts back about a week ago when i played at rodan again with jason ajemian, matt lux and nori tanaka. it would have been your standard rodan night except that some young kids brought their group which was supposedly vaudevillian but instead was just plain bad - they kept using bad songs from late 80s early 90s & playing them poorly. the place was very crowded as they brought out all their friends, which i guess is a good thing, but just seemed annoying. i had some delicious tofu coconut curry while waiting for them to wind things up. Our sets were fun - we started noisy & went from there - got home late - around 3 or so, then had to work in the morning at ol' NMC. The strange thing about this day was I had a lunch gig with Tim Daisy & Jason Roebke at some restaurant in river north, so I left NMC for 2 1/2 hours for lunch, played the gig, and came back to NMC. You would think that a day like that would go by quick, but it didn't. Instead it dragged....
That night the Fred Lonberg-holm's Lightbox played at the University of Chicago. The group was clarinets & bass clarinets (Shelton, Stein & Vandermark), basson (Young), flute (Seagh), viola (Cimini), cornet (Berman), drums (Rosaly), guitars (Abe Gibson & Matt Schneider), and dry ice (Colligan). It was pretty good, but I had some personal problems with my clarinet. I had gotten new reeds & unfortunately they were too soft. I coudn't really play the things I wanted to & when it got loud I had real troubles - I couldn't push the sounds at all. Lesson learned?
The next day Johnathan Crawford and I took the 3 1/2 hour drive to Iowa City to play as Grey Ghost for the first time in quite a while. We played at some small place called Uptown Bill's - it was kind of strange - an antiques store in some ways, a place to get a small cup of coffee & ice cream, and a music room in the back. Our audience was small, Jonathan's brother David was in town & he recorded us on a minidisc - and lucky too - we played really well, all improvised. Sometimes when we play together it feel's like a perfect mix of acoustic free-ness & electronic free-ness. But with any improvising group i'm in, the next performance could be flat. That's the thing about music and especially music that relies heavily on improvising - not every time is it special, but when it is....
We got back into town just a few hours before I played at the Hungry Brain with an improvising group of me, Berman, Ajemian, Tim Daisy & Jason Ajemian. We played the first set of the night, and the crowd was full due in part to the Memorial Day Weekend and people not having to work the next day. Either due to their interest, or their lack of being intoxicated too much by the time we played, the crowd was pretty respectful for our set, but when the out-of-towners Eastern Seaboard took the stage, the crowd couldn’t contain themselves any longer. Oh well. Brent Bagwell leads the Seaboard, he helped Dragons out on our last tour in Charlotte, NC. I likded them - they played a muscular set without overblowing our freaking out, something you don't see too often. Usually if free jazz folk are playing loud they just go to the freakout - maybe i'm guilty of it too -
The next day was monday & i played at myopic with Ernst Karel. He's going to be gone from Chicago in just a few weeks here - going to Berlin & then ending up back in Boston after a year. We played & recorded it, but i thought i coud have played better - my ideas weren't flowing so well. Luckily we'll be able to record Flockterkit next week. Something documented at last.
That night the Fred Lonberg-holm's Lightbox played at the University of Chicago. The group was clarinets & bass clarinets (Shelton, Stein & Vandermark), basson (Young), flute (Seagh), viola (Cimini), cornet (Berman), drums (Rosaly), guitars (Abe Gibson & Matt Schneider), and dry ice (Colligan). It was pretty good, but I had some personal problems with my clarinet. I had gotten new reeds & unfortunately they were too soft. I coudn't really play the things I wanted to & when it got loud I had real troubles - I couldn't push the sounds at all. Lesson learned?
The next day Johnathan Crawford and I took the 3 1/2 hour drive to Iowa City to play as Grey Ghost for the first time in quite a while. We played at some small place called Uptown Bill's - it was kind of strange - an antiques store in some ways, a place to get a small cup of coffee & ice cream, and a music room in the back. Our audience was small, Jonathan's brother David was in town & he recorded us on a minidisc - and lucky too - we played really well, all improvised. Sometimes when we play together it feel's like a perfect mix of acoustic free-ness & electronic free-ness. But with any improvising group i'm in, the next performance could be flat. That's the thing about music and especially music that relies heavily on improvising - not every time is it special, but when it is....
We got back into town just a few hours before I played at the Hungry Brain with an improvising group of me, Berman, Ajemian, Tim Daisy & Jason Ajemian. We played the first set of the night, and the crowd was full due in part to the Memorial Day Weekend and people not having to work the next day. Either due to their interest, or their lack of being intoxicated too much by the time we played, the crowd was pretty respectful for our set, but when the out-of-towners Eastern Seaboard took the stage, the crowd couldn’t contain themselves any longer. Oh well. Brent Bagwell leads the Seaboard, he helped Dragons out on our last tour in Charlotte, NC. I likded them - they played a muscular set without overblowing our freaking out, something you don't see too often. Usually if free jazz folk are playing loud they just go to the freakout - maybe i'm guilty of it too -
The next day was monday & i played at myopic with Ernst Karel. He's going to be gone from Chicago in just a few weeks here - going to Berlin & then ending up back in Boston after a year. We played & recorded it, but i thought i coud have played better - my ideas weren't flowing so well. Luckily we'll be able to record Flockterkit next week. Something documented at last.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
busy week in mid-may
things are being nice & busy here in may - and the weather is warming too - not, warm enough to be completely comfortable in t-shirt & shorts, but that is on the way, maybe.....regardless, it's been busy here in chicago for me, so busy that i'm not getting the time to do this writing, not to mention i've been working on the computer more than typical also as i got some new gear, which once going, is going to make the computer so much easier to work with, i hope. on thursday the 19th I played at Rodan with Ajemian, Nori Tanka & Matt Lux. This was a good, I had dropped by the week before to see Jason & Nori play, mentioned to them we should play a few times together before I get out of town, and here we were, playing. Rodan wasn't as loud as it normally is, thankfully, though still loud enough to make you know you can do what you like without worrying about if everything is golden. we played two sets late into the night, going between the loose to the solid beat driven sound that only an acoustic & electric bass can conjure.
on saturday night i played at the charleston with can-ky-ree; i had been there the night before to see matt schneider, jeb bishop, anton hatwich and tim daisy play some tunes - they had sounded good & it was a good night at the bar with shevitz pouring the drinks & me, brian dibblee, kevin davis, & benjamin balcom drinking them & finding anagrams of our names....playing with can-ky-ree was a good time. i'd had some time to practice with a recording of our last show so i felt much more confident with the music - learning the spaces that i can fill in & gettting a better playing style to go with the music. we played two sets to a room that alternated between being loud enough to make it hard for us to hear & applauding us strongly. we can blame both on the fact that people like to drink alchohol.
sunday was possibly the first truly beautiful day of 2005 here in chicago - it was sunny and in the mid 70's - perfect weather to spend time leisurely outside, riding bikes, eating food, having beers, and whatnot. i went to vadim sprikut's place in the evening around 7 to see kevin davis & woody sullender play - it was really great, they played in vadim's living room - the windows were open so you could hear the sounds from the street, some musical magic happened when a push-cart ice cream vendor walked by, his bells creating a nice balance to the banjo & cello sounds. kevin played some really great stuff & was laying into his cello for awhile, sawing the shit out of it. i'm glad i saw them play - todd carter next played in the basement, a sound piece that was very quiet & well-paced....
last night (wednesday the 25th) i played again with can-ky-ree. it was a good show at the hideout with a fine turnout - i really like playing a the hideout, it's too bad that they can't find it economically feasible to have the jazz music. the audience was attentive which made me feel a bit more exposed on the clarinet. i also hadn't any time early this week to run through the material. i wasn't hearing things as well as i had on saturday, it seemed like every next note i was sure to play wrong - and i had only dry reeds..... but, i worked through it and there were some fine moments. i really do enjoy playing with that group. the songs that tom musick writes are easy to listen to but have just enough complexity to keep your mind moving.
on saturday night i played at the charleston with can-ky-ree; i had been there the night before to see matt schneider, jeb bishop, anton hatwich and tim daisy play some tunes - they had sounded good & it was a good night at the bar with shevitz pouring the drinks & me, brian dibblee, kevin davis, & benjamin balcom drinking them & finding anagrams of our names....playing with can-ky-ree was a good time. i'd had some time to practice with a recording of our last show so i felt much more confident with the music - learning the spaces that i can fill in & gettting a better playing style to go with the music. we played two sets to a room that alternated between being loud enough to make it hard for us to hear & applauding us strongly. we can blame both on the fact that people like to drink alchohol.
sunday was possibly the first truly beautiful day of 2005 here in chicago - it was sunny and in the mid 70's - perfect weather to spend time leisurely outside, riding bikes, eating food, having beers, and whatnot. i went to vadim sprikut's place in the evening around 7 to see kevin davis & woody sullender play - it was really great, they played in vadim's living room - the windows were open so you could hear the sounds from the street, some musical magic happened when a push-cart ice cream vendor walked by, his bells creating a nice balance to the banjo & cello sounds. kevin played some really great stuff & was laying into his cello for awhile, sawing the shit out of it. i'm glad i saw them play - todd carter next played in the basement, a sound piece that was very quiet & well-paced....
last night (wednesday the 25th) i played again with can-ky-ree. it was a good show at the hideout with a fine turnout - i really like playing a the hideout, it's too bad that they can't find it economically feasible to have the jazz music. the audience was attentive which made me feel a bit more exposed on the clarinet. i also hadn't any time early this week to run through the material. i wasn't hearing things as well as i had on saturday, it seemed like every next note i was sure to play wrong - and i had only dry reeds..... but, i worked through it and there were some fine moments. i really do enjoy playing with that group. the songs that tom musick writes are easy to listen to but have just enough complexity to keep your mind moving.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
