Dragons 1976 Warsaw 2-21-08

Last year, the third Dragons 1976 album was put out by a label in Poland, MultiKulti, it took a little while, but they asked us to come to Poland to play, and this week was the trip. Our first stop was Warsaw, the capitol of Poland and an iconic remainder of communisms influence in architecture. We got in on the 20th and had a day to reset our internal clocks - worked out for me, but I think Ajemian had a harder time.
Our first show was at Klub Aurora, a spot that is kind of a complex of clubs - though in a good way, not a bad one. We toured with a trio from Poland made up of Waclaw Zimpel, Wojtek Traczyk and Robert Rasz - Bass clarinet, bass and drums. Younger fellows than us, Multikulti released their first album this month. The concert started around 8:30, the crowd a bit light as the trio began their set. By the end of the set more folks had shown up, and we were able to hear the music - I was glad to hear their aesthetic was honest and in some ways similar to Dragons - strong melodic and harmonic aspects grounded the improvisations.
We played second - and this was our first time playing together in awhile - we did a long set - about an hour and fifteen - it felt good, the crowd was a listening one, we played an encore. A good start to the tour. After the show we stayed at Aurora and there was a dance party - a mix of the last 50 years of american music, but when the polish pop came on the crowd got real into it.

Son of Gunnar Ton of Shel 1/15/2008

last weekend I went to Big Sur with jen - January is the best time to go I think - the crowds are gone - the campsites are fresh - the waves are big - the trails empty. a good time. got back into oakland and got a reminder message from my friend sarah palmer that we were sharing a bill on tuesday night at El Rio in SF. A bar I hadn't been to ever and was down with it - in the California tradition they've got a shuffleboard table and a great big outside area that's used more on saturday afternoons.

Son of Gunnar, Ton of Shel hadn't played since November, and Steini just got back into town the day before from a trip to New York, so the timing was right. We played a set in between Jenn Harper's band (with Jordan Glenn, Andy Strain and a violinist whose name I missed), and Efft - Sarah, Noah Phillips, Alee Karim and....Jordan Glenn (those good drummers end up playing in alot of bands). So, we hadn't played together in awhile, but as always the way Steini and I play together usually works well - I go high, he goes low, I create a bed of sound, he assembles a full texture to go with. I felt a little exceptionally aggressive on this night, mainly to let things happen with thinking too much - it felt good. I used Alee's bass amp for the electronics, and I was able to get some low feedback to work for us, not against. I brought my trumpet along, as I've been getting back into practicing it - the way that trumpet sounds when processed is so tempting. I need to work on it more.

Detroit December 18, 2007

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

Thanks to Joel at the Bohemian.

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

Oberlin December 17, 2007

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

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

Philadelphia 12-16-2007

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

Baltimore 12-15-2007

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

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


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

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

Columbia December 14, 2007

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

Asheville December 12, 2007

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

Lexington December 11, 2007

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

Chicago December 7th and 8th, 2007

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

Ton Trio at the 1510 Space

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

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

Shelton Healy Duo - Luggage Store

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

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

Weasel Walter Large Ensemble

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

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

Ton Duo & Trio Oakland to Santa Cruz

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

I made this music playlist at MyFlashFetish.com.

Flockterkit 9-26-2007

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

Weasel Walter Dislocation Unit

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

Fast Citizens Charlotte 9-9-2007

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

Fast Citizens Maine to Philly

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

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

Fast Citizens Detroit 9-4-2007

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

Fast Citizens Chicago 9-1-2007

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