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.

Video of Aurora Group

Here's a freaked out video that someone put together of the last time I played with Weasel, Aurora, Liz and Damon. Not good for those who experience discomfort with flashing lights.

Improvising 8th St Performance Space 12-7-2006

One thing I've done alot out here in the bay is play improvised music. And when I say improvised music, I mean it in the "improvised music" way. Free of charts, free of overly defined & sometimes limited concepts, open to possibilities. Out here there are a good number of improvisors with good possibilities for instrumentation. It's a good thing. One "steady" group I'm in is with Damon Smith (bass), Liz Albee(trumpet), Aurora Josephson (voice) and Weasel Walter (drums). This night I played in two quartets: one with Damon, Charity Chan (piano) who moved out here from Montreal, and her friend Scott Thomson (trombone). Scott is visiting form Montreal - is a great trombone player - able to do many things with the instrument, can play quiet... I played alto and it was well paced throughout - from all sonic textures to more lyrical parts. It felt good & went by fast.
I then used both alto & computer in quartet with Noah Phillips (guitar), Cory Wright (baritone & clarinet), Jordan Glenn (drums). Cory moved up from LA recently - a good player on reeds - friends with Noah from there. Our set also went by quickly - I did live sampling of Jordan & myself along with trying out this new system of triggering short samples based on amplitude response - I've developed this as a way to get away from static comupterland - or rather, add to my options. I'm getting interested in just using a large array of sounds, similar in the way that some percussionists just go to work with all their gadgets and bells - one very good one played the same night - Gino Robair. Great sense of timing, and I'm glad he covered the "massage" device he used in the set with a piece of cloth - kept you guessing.
Noah sounded great on guitar - I won't see him for quite awhile as he's going overseas for abit now that he's finished with Mills. We recorded with Charity and Andy Strain (trombone) last weekend (I've been taking advantage of the studio at Mills to fill up my harddrive with some of this improvised music).

Dragons 1976 in Columbia back in 2005

This is a video from back in January of 2005 when we played down in Columbia, S.C.




You could read about it here.

Bill Horvitz Expanded Band 11-17-2006

A busy few weeks here with travelling down to SoCal and back. A few months ago I was asked by Bill Horvitz to play in a large ensemble he was putting together for a few concerts in November - things tend to creep up on you & here we are at the end of November. The group was a twelve piece with Omid Zoufonoun (conductor), Steve Adams (sax/flute), Jon Raskin (sax), Kyle Bruckmann (oboe), Hal Forman (trumpet), Darren Johnston (trumpet), Liam Staskawicz (trombone), Matt Montgomery (violin), Katie Harlow (cello), George Cremaschi (bass), Robin Eschner (piano/vocals), Joseph Sabella (drums), and Bill Horvitz (composer, guitar and vocals). I played clarinet & bass clarinet - since moving out here a good deal of my playing has been on those instruments - even though there's a good deal of clarinetists out here on the scene that are quite good - (Jacob Lindsey, Matt Ingalls for two). Though, I guess folk have an ear towards the orchestration out here & stay away from having too many saxes in a group (a good thing).

This band in a way was a reunion of Harris Eisenstadt Ahimsa Orchestra that played a few date much earlier in the year and the music was much different. The music was written by Bill as a tribute to his younger brother who passed away suddenly about a year ago. He wrote songs that were reminders of what his brother meant to him.
We played twice - once at the Capp St Community Music Center in San Francisco and two nights later in Sebastopol. The Capp St space is becoming a personal favorite, it seems it would be a perfect setting for a festival of improvised music.

Tiny Lights California November 2006

the Tiny Lights are myself, Ben Bracken and Jacob Danziger. Ben & Jacob hail from Ann Arbor and I met them over the years through Matt Bauder. Once out here on the west coast we three started making music together as we all found ourselves at the Mills College. Last spring we started making some music together and this fall we got the opportunity to play four shows with Anathallo, a band from Ann Arbor. ben's brother Dan plays with Anathallo and was the connection for getting this project form the recording land to the live performance world, which is a good thing.
This last weekend we played shows in San Francisco, Anaheim, Los Angeles and Long Beach and it was a good time. When wer recorded our first few songs we used lots of overdubs to record piano, guitar, violin, clarinets, melodica, glockenspiel, bass clarinet, trumpets etc... for these show we had to pare it down to be played by the three of us with one guest each night for a guitar part and some clapping - this was a tough task, but definitley a good exercise in orchestration. I brought my clrainet, bass clarinet and computer, ben brought guitar and computer, jacob brought violin, glockenspiel andboomerang pedal. In each venue we caught the soundmen off guard - they're just not used to be asked for multiple line inputs and they get spooked when a condenser mic is to be used on stage. For us, a condenser is necessary - bass clarinet and acoustic guitar jsut give too quiet a signal for dynamic mics in a live setting. But, each night as we got more used to our setup the sound improved - I felt that I didn't have any feedback issues with my condenser - the only time anything crazy happened with them was in LA when a bad cable was used - apparantly Monster Cables don't work so hot with phantom power.
Anyway, enough about the tech requirements - our shows were fun and though we were playing to crowds that are more used to straight up rock we had some real positive comments from unexpected people. Check out undressmerobot.com for a possible upcoming interview that happened after we played in Anaheim in front of 100 or so underagers.
Spaceland in LA was the best show for sure - great sound, real friendly folk - the electric piano sounded real only there. Watch out for vegetarian tacos in Long Beach - make sure they realize youre asking for "whole" beans, not "cold" beans.............
Hanging in Los Angeles was a good time - we stayed with Justin Shay in Angelinos Heights each night - had good food at the Brite Spot & Home - Jen came down for the weekend also and we got to hike around Griffith Park and have delicious pie at the House of Pies. LA knows how to cook.
As for Tiny Lights, we'll be recording a 5 song EP in the near future and more shows will come.

Quartet Mama Buzz 10-20-2006

It was a friday evening and I played a few sets in a quartet with Ben Bracken, Jacob Lindsey and Ava Mendoza. Two electric guitars and two winds. Ben played tabletop prepared guitar with a large array of devices to get lots of sounds. Ava played in a more melodic style, branching into the sound world at times. Jacob brought his Bb, Ab, Bass and Contrabass clarinets - lots of range and he really knows how to play each. I brought my alto, Eb clarinet and Bass clarinet - so we had many options in terms of sound and range. I'm getting pretty used to playing at Mama Buzz - though it's a pretty modest place to play at, usually there are enough listeners that you can concentrate on playing the music and know that the audience will be attentive and appreciative.

Here's two pictures by Jen Dunn:

Weasel Walter Quartet 10/7/2006

A sunny day in California. A perfect day to drive to a field somewhere near Davis (about an hour away from Oakland) to play a short set of fast & loud at a day long festival. I've been getting to know Weasel Walter better since moving out here last year. He asked me to play in his quartet with Damon Smith and Randy Hunt a little ways back. We've played together before in some other groups, but today was the loud & fast day - after making the drive with Jen & Maria, we found ourselves at a Roadhouse near Davis, in a field with the Numbers playing a set on a small stage. We played on the smaller stage - well on the grass. But that was kind of good cause everyone there circled up around us & it felt more up close & personal. I think our set was about a half hour - and we recorded it. Kind of a strange place to have a little day long fest, but worth the trip.

solo set Mama Buzz 9-15-2006

got back to the bay area more than a month ago, and i've been doing some playing with some different groups, a Moe Staiano date and a few dates with Damon Smith and others. haven't written about them though, have i? Nope. Sorry. But, this last week I played my first solo instrument show....ever? I think so. It took me to enter my 30s (on the 14th) before I would play a show alone with just a wind instrument (well, 2 in this case) since I was an undergraduate at UF playing a solo recital. Why? Well, I usually don't think much of solo sets - music is good with multiple people involved, so why screw it up? Well, (I'm saying well alot) I tried to make this a duo set, but all the folk I asked to play (scott rosenberg, liz albee, though of some others) were all unavailable for this date. So, I decided that solo was the way to go.
I played alto saxophone & bass clarinet - my favorites. It's taken me awhile to start to feel like I'm actually able to play some shit on bass clarinet, but over the few years I've been working on it, things are starting to feel better. I played a set of about 40 minutes, all improvised, with some guiding thoughts, nothing very specific, but a desire to play different pieces, each focused & without playing everything in each piece - it was a good experience for sure. I do remember that after my first bass clarinet piece I had worked up a pretty good sweat. One funny thing was that as I was starting my second piece, on alto, I heard from outside the windows two guys talking about different saxophone players they'd seen play around town - i'm an eavesdropper for sure....

also - i've got a website now!

audio clips!

(not yet, but soon)

guess what it's called?

Rolldown July 2006

I've been busy here in Chicago for the past week plus. One group in particular that I've played with is the Jason Adasiewicz led Rolldown with Josh Berman, Jason Roebke & Frank Rosaly. last summer we recorded as a group at Electrical Studios, since then I think they've played a few dates, but it was good to be able to play together this week. The first date was at Elastic on thursday the 13th. The second was at the Hungry Brain three nights later. We only had a chance for one rehearsal and Jason brought some new tunes that were tricky & good. The music takes advantage of the instruments - with complicated parts in the vibes, harmonizations in the horns, and counterlines in the bass & drums. Jason's composition style is definitely in the jazz tradition, and he's open to free sections right alongside chord changes and everything in between. His pieces strongly influence the improvising sections. Both times we played the band felt very fluid playing together - the best thing about having the experience of playing with people for a couple of years is that you don't need a lot of rehearsal to get things together. At sunday at the Brain, the crowd was really a good size and were listening - we played a full hour set, but it didn't feel long at all. After us, a quartet of jamie branch, jason stein, jeb bishop and anton hatwich played - they're called block & tackle. Pieces by Branch, a trumpeter - repetitive lines, one piece in particular had some really subtle phasing going on which sounded real good. A good night in all at the Brain - I stayed late with Jason as the crowd trickled out slowly - we hung out with Dan and and Jeb Bishop right there at the end.

Back in Chicago, July 2006

Back in Chicago after a long hiatus, got into town on Friday the 7th to play with Dragons at Heaven over in Wicker Park. I had taken the bus down to St Louis to visit Jen & her folks, coming back the bus was a bit late - I got in town at about 10:15, but the show was supposed to start at 10. We were to play two sets, so Jason & Tim played as a duo for the first one. I got in just as they were finishing their last improvisation, after a short break we played our set to some of the Chicago people - as we played more folks showed up - it was a pretty good turnout. It is a different feeling, not living in Chicago and playing here - in a good way.
The next night I played at the Charleston with Josh Berman, Nate McBride and Frank Rosaly. Used to always have a good time when I would play tunes there, so wanted to do it again. A plus is that the Charleston is now a smoke-free bar, so you don't get bombarded by the typical Chicago smoke clouds. We played alot of tunes by Monk, some which I'd never played before. McBride is really on top of those charts, he's good friends with a certain someone who made a lot of transcriptions of Monk's music. That music is tough to pull off - we definitely had a good time playing, but it also re-enforced my respect for the music.
Next up was getting together with the 774th Street Quartet - myself on alto, Guillermo Gregorio on alto & clarinet, Keefe Jackson on tenor and bass clarinet, and Thomas Mejer from Switzerland on contrabass saxophone. Interesting how things work out - we got together as a quartet when Thomas was in town back in 2003 I think, part of the Lucerne / Chicago sister city exchange (which is mainly kept going by Lucerne's government). Last spring we recorded the music we brought to the group (each of us two pieces) as George Hansen resurrected his label Bloody Murder and wanted to put out a recording by us. Now a year later the CD is finished so on this occasion that I'm in town Thomas came from Lucerne and we played at Deadwax records up on Lincoln Ave on Sunday afternoon, Live on Air at WNUR in Evanston and on Tuesday night at Elastic. It was fun to play that music again - each of us our very different in our approach to writing music and improvising, and balancing the different personalities is good times.
The show at Elastic went well, a good turnout including some people that I knew that didn't normally come when I would play concerts back when I lived here. Again, a good thing about visiting. In some ways, it's difficult visiting here because there are so many friends and people I'd like to talk to and catch up with - I'd also like to see other people play, but I'll be pretty busy while I'm here - I'm hoping to catch up with everyone in good time. Good thing I'm not here for just a weekend.
The other thing that I did here in my first 5 days back was play at Myopic with Steve Hess and Toby Summerfield - they on drums & guitar respectively, me with saxophone & computer. It was good to play - I haven't done live electronics in more than a month now - I felt kind of rusty. Got it get it together for a couple of Grey Ghost shows this week and a solo set the next weekend. Playing with Steve & Toby was a good match though - they share a good sense of pace & timing.

A blur of a finish for the Dragons tour

Sorry, the last week or so of the Dragons tour went by quickly, quickly. After playing in Charlotte we played Greenville, Columbia, Nashville and Lexington before heading back up to Chicago. After the Carolina dates, our final three days had a good amount of driving added up which made us a little claustrophobic, but nothing too terrible. A blow-out in Kentucky on the way to a clinic at Morehead State put us about an hour behind schedule, but all was forgiven and we made it to everywhere we needed to make it to.
Playing in Columbia was a good time - two shows in two nights, one at the Whig and another at the Hunter-Gatherer.
Folks liked us enough to come to both shows, Ross Taylor took care of us in his special way, getting us food at the most opportune time and finding a hat for me after my hair started really fro-ing up in the humid southern regions...not that I have anything against a fro, I just don't know if it fits me that well...The Whig is an underground bar across from the State Capitol of South Carolina (and of course the Confederate flag which was recently re-moved from the Capitol dome, but is still prominently displayed on the Capitol grounds). The hunter-gatherer is on the other side of the Capitol, maybe two blocks away, we saw fireworks outside of the floor to ceiling windows at the front of the bar before we started playing.
A seven hour drive the next day got us to Deanna Varagona's place in Nashville, she took us by a cookout before the show which was at a gallery called the Ruby Green. She played the first set solo, with accompaniment by pre-recorded tapes. A large fan kept us cool that night while we were playing (relatively) but was no match for the Big Ass Fan at the new Mecca Dance space in Lexington where we played the next night. Wish I could give a link to the Big Ass Fan company, the thing was gi-normous, though still the heat of Kentucky in July took over....
We played two sets in Lexington to an appreciative crowd thanks to Ross Compton.
Finally got a relief from the heat on the way back to Chicago after a few rainstorms on the 4th of July. The tour ended up well and we're looking forward to the next one.

Dragons 1976 Charlotte 6-28-2006

Down to the south during June, not the hottest of months but the possibility is there for some true heat. Driving in the Benz with no AC....we had driven through rain for about 4 days and it finally stopped, so we were able to dry out the car that had built up some moisture. Got into Charlotte NC on wednesday the 28th - our friend Brent Bagwell set up a show at the Evening Muse, a nice venue in an up&coming neighborhood in Charlotte. Brent's a good guy - saxophonist playing tenor & baritone, we've done shows with him before down here and we played a bill together up in Chicago once - Dragons & his group Eastern Seaboard. For this night there were three groups - his Project Bluebird, a project witha bassist and a doubler on cello & violin. All improvised in a loose melodic style with each of the three building from what they heard each other do previously. We played the middle set & the crowd that came were good listeners, though the energy level wasn't really that high - maybe we could've done more...maybe not. Afterwards we hit a diner in Charlotte for late night snacks before heading out to Brent's place, which he's actually moving from in just a week. He's been living about 45 minutes outside of Charlotte on alarge piece of land with a turkey farm on it, a river nearby, lots of woods and fields with cows being the primaray population. We finished the night off with a glass of scotch and got a goo dnight sleep in the quiet north carlolina countryside.

Dragons 1976 Baltimore 6-24-2006

Drove down through the rain from New York to get to Baltimore & Normals Books, home of the Red Room. Audrey Chen helped set up the night which had two groups playing, us and a quartet of Chen, John Berndt, Charles Cohen & Paul Niedhardt. Because of the rain both groups had a little it of noise to contend with, namely a leaky roof, and it really did affect the performance, but in a good way. The crowd that came were listeners, so in the quiet spaces during the quartet's set drips of rain worked itself into the music, which tended to be sparse between the group swells. Their quartet had alot of sounds to work with - Charles plays the Buchal along with assorted other electronics and has a real control of it, Audrey uses Cello and voice, and has lots of option swith each, Paul tends to use the drums & percussion as noise generators more than as a kit, and John played alto and soprano saxophone - lots of extended technique to get out a lot of sounds.
Our set was affected by some food poisoning that Tim & I got the last night we were in New York - pizza....but we made it through playing Drifting, Passage & Sock It. Kind of a shorter set in terms of songs, but longer in terms of improvisation. The Red Room records all their shows and have a duplicate ready to give to the musicians afterwards, which is a really good thing to do. Being able to hear back what you played the day before is a good thing to have access to. After packing up we got some food at a Korean/Japanese restaurant that's open until three AM. Finished my night with Sushi and Miso Soup.

Dragons 1976 New York Two Shows June 2006

New York City, not a place I've had much luck in playing shows at in the past. The scene there of course is overinundated with musicians trying hard to get gigs, plus there just don't seem to be very many places committed to presenting creative music, especially if your not already famous or playing with someone famous. We played two spots, the Tank in TriBeCa and a record store called Marquise Dance Hall in Williamsburg.
The show at the Tank was set up by our friend Jon Philpot of Bear in Heaven, we met him a few years back when we played a show together at the old 3030 space in Chicago at a show that Brad Loving set up. The first set was none other than Brad under the monkier Lobisomem with Jason Ajemian playing bass with him on laptop. Dragons played second and Bear in Heaven third. Unfortunately the show was a two hour affair for three groups. I guess regularly the Tank tends to have only two bands. So, the sets were short, but a nice amount of folk showed up and Taya and the others at the Tank were real friendly, and gave us some extra time.
The next night at the record store turned out pretty good too. I went down to Williamsburg from where I was staying with my aunt & uncle on the upper east side. When I got there Jason was playing with Brad again as Lobisomem and there were some people listening inside and Tim was talknig to Matt Bauder outside. It was good to see Matt, I don't know the last time I saw him. Even though it was real hot inside the record store, we played a good set and a nice amount of people showed up including Jon Philpot and Matana Roberts. We finished our night by going across the street to Clem's, where Joe from bear in Heaven tends bar.