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.

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.

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....

24 hour drone 9-3&4-2005

drone d.JPG
Originally uploaded by dragonseventysix.

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....

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.

last week in chicago

empty oak st beach
Originally uploaded by lonesome cowgirl.

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 week in chicago

empty oak st beach
Originally uploaded by lonesome cowgirl.

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.

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 -

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....

grey ghost at heaven 7-2-2005

sittin by the tracks
Originally uploaded by lonesome cowgirl.

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.....

dragons 1976 empty bottle 6-20-2005

dragons 6-20-2005 2
Originally uploaded by dragonseventysix.

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.

dragons 1976 hungry brain 6-12-2005

daisy
Originally uploaded by dragonseventysix.

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....

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.

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.

rolldown empty bottle 5-18-2005

not been playing a ton lately, but have been playing with the good groups - last night played with rolldown - jason adasiewicz's band with me, josh berman, jason roebke & frank rosaly. this is another group which should play more often but doesn't. the personnel is familiar to playing with each other, but this group has all the music written by adasiewicz. we had the full night at the bottle on a wednesday night, i got there just a little early - around 9, we had a practice the day before but i brought in a chart of an old tune played by the shelton dibblee quartet - a group that stopped playing shows back in 2001. so, we ran through that chart real quick while setting up. before we played this fellow struck up conversation with me as he wanted to know when we were going to start - it was already after 10. turns out he's a truck driver that moved to michigan from georgia, likes classic rock & free jazz. who'd of thunk. the musci was good & there was a good turnout for the first set - i guess it started feeling late - maybe we took too long of a break, but the second set while the music was even better, the crowd had dwindled to very few. oh well - the only thing i regret is we didn't record it. all of these shows should be recorded, you never know when some good stuff is going to happen. berman sounded good - his range has improved alot - he was playing some high stuf that seemed pretty natural to come out - and shevitz was of course rockin the vibes, & jumping around a little for certain notes.
chad taylor was in town - even though he had to get a plane at 7:30 am today, he stayed for both sets and to hang afterwards.
the only bad thing was that in between sets someone knocked over the cup of water i had next to my horns and the water soaked my neckstrap - luckily the horns were okay. i always forget to bring my instrument stand - i should stop forgetting.....though then someone could just knock over my horn completely. maybe just put it in a safe place in between sets? what a novel idea.

shelton / boykin / ajemian / reed : hungry brain 5-8-2005

it was a strange weekend with weather fluctuations - in the 40s on saturday, in the 80s on sunday - chicago, you are a manic depressive weatherland. tonight played at the hungry brain with david boykin, jason ajemian & mike reed, we had played together before, and i looked forward to this show. all weekend long there were shows in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the founding of the aacm, reed & boykin played in the concerts, reed played the final concert which happened earlier in the night, so didn't get to the brain until around 11:30, so we didn't start until quite late. this time david brought his tenor & clarinet - i brought my alto. again the improvising felt really good - we really played as a group, not as individuals, & the crowd was really appreciative of the music - it's interesting because david & i definitely have different styles, but they seem to work together well - giving each other room without being worried about stepping on the others' toes if one of us takes the lead...
we didn't finish until around 1:15 i think, pretty late for a sunday, no? it was surprisingly a pretty light night for the brain, as it was so warm outside, but probably an after effect of a weekend of free concerts by the aacm.

relay signals who cares how long you sink empty bottle 5-4-2005

a night of three groups at the empty bottle - all with shared personnel & slightly different aesthetics - it was also a record release for two records put out by lucky kitchen : relay signals & who cares how long you sink . I took part in both projects which were both recorded several years ago (2002 or 3?) - they're finally seeing the light of day, which is good. it was a good night at the bottle, brought my clarinet & computer for the first set which was with tim daisy, jason ajemian, myself & ernst karel - the set was an additive process - tim started out solo, joined by jason, then me, then ernst - we all stayed acoustic, starting sparse & simple, until ernst was in for a bit, then we gradually turned to our electronic sides, moving to a wash with clotted noises coming out of the pa & ajemian's amp, getting quite loud by the end...
ernst & kyle bruckman played an ekg set - great analog electronic sounds, slow moving, though stimulating textures -the electronics are interspersed with a bit of oboe, trumpet & english horn- they are very good at bringing out synthesized sounds that i'm envious of - they work really well together too -
who cares how long you sink played last - the group was comprised of eveyone who had played before plus amy cimini on viola & katherine young on bassoon. it was all acoustic - marimba, bass, viola, bassoon, alto, trumpet, oboe. all the pieces were written by ajemian awhile back when we were living on cortez street - it's similar to matt bauder's weary already of the way music, but a bit more minimal & chamber music like. we played four of the pieces combined into one suite - a good way to end the night.

arrive hungry brain 5-1-2005

after a long lapse, finally had a chance to play with arrive, the quartet which i first wrote music for back in 2001. for some reason, the group has only played a handful of times in the last 4 years. the original lineup is me on alto, jason roebke on bass, jason adasiewicz on vibraphone and tim daisy on drums. there's really no explanation for not playing the music more often, except that we had made a recording back in 2001 that i think went really well, and it is somewhat tough playing the music live, as i've listened to the recording so many times - it's hard for me to not try to emulate the recording while playing live. so, in the past i put lots of time in between dates, in an attempt to keep the music quite fresh when we play. i think it works, though whenever we play i feel that it would be good to do it more.
for this date, tim was actually out of town, so i called up frank rosaly to play the drum parts - it worked out well. one of the things about the music is that the compositions are pretty minimal, but they influence the improvising greatly - it's not a group where the improvising just goes anywhere & doesn't reference what has come before it. we played two sets, the crowd was light and there were a few talkers, but we got them to quiet down one way or another. except for one guy who was making bird noises every now & then. what rock do these people crawl out from underneath? it was good playing though, there were some real moments when we all played together. i've been really liking Roebke's playing lately, he's really got something individual happening. actually had seen him play the night before at Heaven gallery with Brian Labcyz - they worked really well together, Brian did some processing of Jason's sound, but also did computer generated tones - a good balance.
Arrive will have another chance to play in June - looking forward to it.

shelton in new york 4-11-2005

the trip conitinues - grey ghost played at the tonic on sunday the 10th - it was a show with two rock type bands, bear in heaven and other passengers. jon philpot of bear in heaven put the show together - i had met him in chicago at an impetus series concert that dragons 1976 played. he's a super nice fellow - i'm glad he took the time to get this show together. crawford came out with giselle on saturday, we went out to the brooklyn museum to see the new basquiat exhibit, which is nice, though on that day it was a bit too crowded so it was difficult to take your time in looking at the pieces. we were supposed to have sound check around 5:30 and we decided to meet up at tonic around 4:30, johnathan coming from brooklyn, me from the upper east side. unforatunately our sound check was pushed off to about 6:30, so plans for a relaxed dinner before the show were nixed. what can you do. we played fully through the pa, which is unusual for us, but the sound person seemed quite good, so we went for it & i think it was worth while - usally i don't trust sound people to balance the sounds, but it was good - i didn't feel like the sax mic was too hot, though it's strange when you can't hear the house pa - you have no control over what people in the crowd are hearing - but in some ways i guess you never do....
we were quite different than the other bands - all the fellows in bear in heaven are nice ones & they were into our music, bauder had come to the show with jessica pavone, i went and talked to them for awhile during the second set, but got to see bear in heaven, which was quite good.
on monday i played with matt bauder, rueben radding & a cellist named lorien. it was matt's piece we had played in chicago at the impetus series (funny how two things that did impetus series months apart in chicago played two nights in a row here). we played at lorien's loft in bushwick - a really beautiful space with nice windows and a view of the higher buildings in that part of brooklyn. we rehearsed the piece and then played it, recording it to minidisc. it would have been nice to have a performance, but i guess out here there aren't too many series having that kind of new music to be performed. advantage chicago.

shelton in new york 4-9-2005

so i've come out to new york for a trip - ten days total, going to do some playing with folk who live here and with grey ghost. i've had the idea for coming out here to visit for awhile, as i have a very nice aunt & uncle who live on the upper east side who let me stay with them while in town. whenever i stay with them up here it makes me feel in a small way that i am in a salinger book. they live just a few blocks from the met & central park, an express subway line so it's easy to get around the city. i took amtrak in from chicago - it was a 22 hour trip that wasn't so bad - i had a good book to read - fool's progress by edward abbey - and my ipod - if you're in a hurry the train is no way to travel - you have be let your patience take over your whole though process. and never ask what time it is & always expect to get to your destination later than is scheduled. but hey, a $40 ticket for a 1000 mile trip isn't so bad either.
the first couple of days here went by nicely - i got some work done at the public library here - they have a great study room with 40 foot ceilings, long wood tables, comfortable chairs. it kind of feels like you're outside but it is nice & quiet. i worked on some patches in max for the shows i'm doing here - a good way to spend an afternoon in new york, and costs nothing. my first show here was at this space the glass house gallery. i did two short improvised sets with mark denardo - he of the game boy. the way the night worked was that there were 5 different groups & each played two twenty minute sets about an hour apart. a group woul dplay, another would join, then the first would stop playing - it was a nice way to go in between musical styles without needing to have a set break - one group was made up of some free jazzers, another was this mixing board fellow wearing an orange hood that looke like a puppet elephant, the third was a trio of sampler, ketboard and outboard effects, the last was a duet of cello & percussion interjected with vocal samples. lots of creative stuff. the space was a bit off the beaten path in williamsburg, near the river - reminded me of the buddy space in chicago, without the goofy-try a little too hard-hipster scene & with kind of a creative re-use store feel - just tons of stuff allaround creating an installation of randomness. williamsburg is pretty funny - unfortunately it has the post-college party town feel - same as wicker park in chicago - which is good for some things - like if you want to go out to see other young folk, but also makes it seem like a drunken disney world. denardo & i hit a party afterwards - lots of folk, met a nice fellow named daniel who turns out to be another floridian. went home late on the subway - listened to a little dexter before going to sleep -

shelton, boykin, ajemian, reed empty bottle 3-29-2005

tonight was a good one - played a set at the bottle with david boykin on soprano saxophone, jason ajemian on bass and mike reed on drums. i'd never really played with david before, the only time that we did was in a much larger group where there wasn't much interaction between individuals. i really liked how we played together along with jason and mike. there aren't too many saxophone players that i feel good playing with after the fact - it's a very difficult thing to find someone else's style that works with your own, also, a combination that can work off of each other without mimicking while staying away from any kind of "cutting contest". we played a set with two improvisations - one longer, one very short. we had a a good amount of group think and i felt we really made some interesting music. the short improvisation was purely group orientated, with no solos - one of the best improvising i've had with other people in a while.
afterwards the wilhelm breuker kolleltief played - i wasn't so into it. i talked to tony buck for awhile about life in & out of australia - he's a nice fellow & knows how to throw a boomerang.
after the bottle went by sonoteque with mike reed - josh abrams & jeff parker were playing records, but we made it as things had already wound down -

shelton hess convey buck 3-26-2005

a saturday night & played at hotti biscotti, the place run by former nervous center stalwarts richard & ken syska. a few weeks ago i had seen steve hess play with an electric bass player joshua convey and wanted to get in on the action so set up this date for us to play. coinciding with this was a visit by thomas mejer from switzerland, he ended up playing in two groups that night, one with paul giallarenzo & fred lonberg-holm, another with fred, michael zerang and jim baker. i do like playing with steve and joshua - we had gotten together a few nights before to play - we share an aestheic towards the building style improvisations - tony buck is another foreigner visiting town - he's a drummer that is best known for work with the band the necks, though he plays with lots of different folk including the band the ex. he played with joshua & me for a while & it was really good - jsut leapt into it & it was good. by the time we were finished a good crowd had showed up - it was a good time. after the last band had played thomas busted out a bottle of absinthe he had brought over form switzerland. apparently they just made it legal to buy there. strong stuff for sure - tastes like sambuca, but i didn't get any halluciantions, so maybe it wasn't the real thing.

flockterkit renaissance society 3-14-2005

this was the first time in awhile for flockterkit to play a concert & it was in the perfect space. the renaissance society is at the university of chicago; it is a gallery space which focuses on contemporary art, and every now and then has concerts. this one featured flockterkit and a group from new york called the z's; which is a double trio of two drummers, two saxophonists, and two guitarists. for this concert the the flockterkt lineup was slightly changed: ernst karel, fred lonberg-holm, jason robek and myself were joined by steve hess who replaced the very busy frank rosaly, steve fit in nicely, his style of playing fits the aesthetic of the group and his background in more rock type music gives a nice edge to the drum parts. the space is very reverberant, so all of the long tones that we play in flockterkit were able to ring out and the clean tonality of the pieces filled out the room. we also had the pa speakers spread out to opposite ends at the back of the room, behind the audience, to have surround sound.
the z's started loud - and unfortunately for them , the room doesn't really seem to work for the loud - the drums overpowered all the other instruments for the first few pieces - when they brought the total volume down, the music was quite good - a band somewhere between steve reich and prog rock....

grey ghost ice factory 3-3-2005

this show for grey ghost went pretty well - the ice factory is a space in which people live & have shows - it's really close to where i live, walkin gdistance for sure, and i was glad to play there. we played the first set of three - it felt much better than our last show, johnathan really got into it - i got into it. when we play well together i really feel it's exactly what i want to be doing. when we don't play so well i worry. what else to say about the night - steve hess's group was good - a low key affair with guitar, bass & brushed drums - long form, slowly moving cinematic pieces. the last group i didn't stay for the whole thing, but they were good - an eclectic rock band with a young violinist who really seemed to know what he was doing - i'll put in the names of the other bands as soon as i find them out -
d76

saxophone / computer / electronics / drums myopic 2-28-2005

played with robb drinkwater and mike reed this night at the myopic bookstore. it was a good time - i brought my saxophone and computer along to do some processing; robb brought his homemade electronics and reed his drums. robb's electronics are good - with them he seems to be pretty flexible as an improvisor, much more so than someone using a computer. we played with mike reed in the center, and with our electronic sounds coming from opposite sides of the room - robb's amp was next to me, mine next to him. i think this worked well & i'll do it again. with this set up, it's easier to hear your electronic sound in relationship to the rest of the group - when you have the amp right next to you, it can be hard to gauge your volume relative to the other musicians. we played really free, had moments of pretty intense loudness, and nice mellow quiet. i really liked how mike interacted with what i was doing on the computer. i'd like to do it again - jsut have to find the place to do it.

grey ghost 3030 impetus 2-20-2005

first time in awhile for grey ghost to play. tonight was a double bill with daniel givens at the 3030 space in logan square. i like the series that rai ichimiro is putting together, the impetus series, he is making good choices in terms of pairings - having diverse bills, and he works hard to make the concert worthwhile, he gets people out and puts together a cd-r of unreleased music by the folks playing as a gift to folk that come out. johnathan was out of town with head of femur for the week and half before, they were opening up with wilco down south - big shows, warm weather, what could be wrong? but, that meant we didn't have time to get together beforehand, so this show was a to be a loose one. i felt like the first half of the set was pretty good - as we let the improvising be the most important part. it seemed once we got into some of the material we have, we tightened up, and there were some tenative moments. the end especially didn't turn out the way it should. it's a tricky group balancing different worlds of sounds and concepts of free improvisation and structured computer parts. we'll play again on march 4th, i'm thinking it will be a good show.

daniel givens played with josh abrams and nicole mitchell - his music is based on precomposed electronic beat driven music, josh & nikki improvised along for the set; they were also playing accopmanied by a paul robeson movie: the emperorer jones i think it was. kind of a dark mood made by the black & white feel and the music - it was a good performance.

dragons 1976 virginia 2-10 through 12 2005

we finished our tour by going to virginia - two towns, richmond & charlottesville. i'd never been to richmond before, only passed it on i-95 before and never really thought it would be a nice place to hang out in, but i was wrong - it's a nice looking town with lots of old architecture, harking back to colonial days and all of that. we played at a place called emilio's, which serves tapas and has music several nights a week. we shared the night with an improvising quartet led by Marty McCavitt on the laptop. they were pretty good - reminded me of supersilent. a good chunk of the crowd were relatives of jason's - so they were all rambunctious in their support of our playing. the ajemian's tried to keep us out late - they succeeded with jason, but tim & i headed back earlier to charels ajemian's place. the next day we got to cruise around richmond a bit, seeing the avenue of monuments. the road that has all the big statues of the civil war southern generals and other important people. it's kind of strange when you think of it - having monuments to a country that broke away from united states.
we stayed in town for dinner before taking the hour drive to charlottesville where we stayed the night. a nice day in charlottesville with clear skies and good coffee. we played at the tea house again, where we played just last october. afterwards stopped in at a dance party - met some locals; my friend drew thiemann came down from DC. actually the most memorable thing of the evening was this crazy guy in some sort of flowery robe at the tea house. when Drew got there, he had put his things on a bar stool. this crazy guy comes by and tosses all of Drew's things on the floor. a few minutes later he butts into our conversation which was about chicago. patrick (friend we stayed with) & i both ask him why he threw the things on the floor - he gets real upset, bends a fork in his hand threateningly and asks if we want to talk about it outside. freak.
we had the long drive back to chicago the next day - 13 hours, home at 1 am.

dragons 1976 charlotte, nc 2-9-2005

throw a stone
Originally uploaded by dragonseventysix.

out of georgia, back to the carolina's. i was excited about this date - this fellow brent bagwell set things up and he seemed to be really excited about it - got a 12 piece band together to play free jazz and got some press. we rolled into town in the evening (pretty routine by this point) and met up with him and others for a bite. not that we were hungry as we had the big meal only a few hours before in atlanta. the place we played at was kind of a dive, and i was a bit worried, what with a unc vs duke game going on and being shown on about 20 tvs but the night turned out to be a real good time. the first group was a duo that used plenty of different electronic sounds, and which i thought was quite good. another thing - it struck me while listening to them, that it must be really tough to play out there music in places like charlotte. but people get alot of satisfaction out of it - why else would they be doing it? after they were done, the game also ended, so thankfully all the tvs in the music room were turned off. dragons played acoustically, as always (the other bands were amplified) and i think it really changed the tone of the evening from "hey, these people play weird music" to " wow, these people are serious about it and are making some music in a way i haven't heard before". we played our set with a good amount of changes in the way we normally play the tunes. these last few shows are time to get ready for recording, which we're going to be able to do as soon as we get back to chicago.
the 12 piece band sounded good - i really enjoyed them because it seemed like everyone playing was really getting in to it - they were playing straight up free jazz - 4 saxes, trumpet, two basses, two drummers, two guitarists, and a keyboard player. there were a couple of spots in the improvising that were great - this alto & tenor player that were really going off - screaming into their horns to get the feelings out. brent also did a great job with the arrangements, using the whole group together, while having nice spacing between solos & duos.
we went out to his place afterwards - it was almost an hour drive out of charlotte outside of the small town of oakbar, nc. he lives in a house that is on a piece of land of about 300 acres. he and his wife moved down from nyc about 2 years ago = trying to find a place completely different from their last experience - they've found it. i finally got to sleep outside for a night - i've been wanting to the whole trip, but it hadn't really been warm enough until that night. it's strange sleeping outside when you almost never do it - little sounds can get you excited - and in the morning when the sun rises it's great, but you have no idea what time it is, for some reason i let it get me anxious. also in the morning it got real windy and i had to move inside. brent is a real good guy - really glad to have met him. we also got to take a nice walk to the river near his place - we skipped stones for awhile and got spooked by some cows that were pretty interestedin what we were up to...

dragons 1976 atlanta, ga 2-8-2005

we keep finding ways to make our short drives into longer ones. we took a route into atlanta which hit no interstates during rush hour. so it took us between two & three hours to get to atlanta from athens..... we stopped in at my old friend gregg's place - he's staying with his sister for a bit - it's nice to finally meet his sister who has lived the past 6 years abroad, first in toronto, then in moscow. we went on over to the eyedrum gallery around 8 or 9 - i didn't really know what to expect in the show - we played there a year ago and it was allright - this time it seemed like setting it up wasn't as solid. maybe my fault. two bands played before us - it was actually the first night we've played with other groups on this trip - unfortunately the bands seemed to be playing their first shows, or close to it. the first band was dominated by the lead singer/ keyboard player who was all about letting everyone know that he could sing and play piano. they played a very long set - probably an hour and a half. pretty tiring. rule #1 - if there isn't a huge crowd and you're the first band, it's probably a good idea to not try to convince folk you're the reason to be there by playing everything you know. i guess the good part of the first band playing for so long was that gregg & i got to hang out for awhile - there was a cool show at the space with all of these structures made with homeless folk in mind - we found a tent-type space that had a desk and writing paper, also a space heater - really a perfect place to be away from things. the second group was interesting, but the performance didn't really keep you interested. they made music on computers, alot of the sounds coming from phone tones - a good idea - they probably would have been better off playing at a dance party of some kind. by the time we played alot of the folk that had come had already given up, we played maybe 45 minutes and were done sometime after 1 o'clock. a low key evening - went back to gregg's and hit the beds.
the next day we went to this fish restaurant called six feet under because ross taylor's brother lee had dropped off $40 worth of gift certificates at the eyedrum. the place was good - and actually lee showed up there and we got to hang out with him, a good guy - into real estate - the food was great - i had blackened catfish and key lime pie -

dragons 1976 athens, ga 2-7-2005

so, a day off and then a nice drive to athens, georgia, a place i've not been to before but have heard much about. we got in right at sundown, we had a show set up for us at the 40 watt club, it was just to be us playing 2 sets, a monday night, my expectations weren't so high. after getting some good coffee and taking a walk i got the feeling that athens is really a music town - it seems people take it pretty seriously there - i just got a sense about it. we went and got some dinner at the restaurant next door to the 40 watt, had plenty of time to relax and warm up. i was really surprised with the turnout & the reception - about 70 people came and stayed for both sets - athens has a strange law that keeps a smoking ban until 11:00 pm, i could really tell the difference during our second set. i got to talk to a good amount of people afterwards, including bari, the owner of the club. she's very nice- we talked politics - athens & atlanta are the only liberal spots in georgia, and they're far outnumbered by the conservatives -basically it seemed like all the people that worked at the club were really into what we were doing, which gives me a good feeling for coming down again - we got out of the place around 1and went back to friend john's place. slept in late in the morning, then went for breakfast at the grit - apparently a famous vegetarian joint - i had some really good gumbo with dumplings....

dragons 1976 columbia 2-5-2005

down in the south and feeling good about it. we had a nice short drive from greenville to columbia - the capitol of SC, the place where they have a statue of the late Senator Strom Thurmond, that beacon of american hope and equailty. our friend Ross Taylor always helps us out when we're down here - we were headed to his place just on the edge of Cayce, driving by some folk walking on the side of the road and to our surprise it is our friend Anthony Mathile - he who has been working as video documentarian for the lieks fo the rolling stones and david bowie for the past 3+ years. wild coincidence, no? he was in town from Berlin for just a few days visiting his grandma - so we invited him & his girlfriend jessie to the show.
as we rolled up into Ross's place he was working on some knife throwing - we tried a shake at it with different degrees of success - he made us a a great dinner that featured dichon radishes, tofu and hot stuff - Ross likes it hot for sure. we had a nice relaxing afternoon & evening, went over to the hunter gatherer around 8 or 9 to get going. it was a real good crowd, the standout was this guy jerry who introduced himself to us - a southerner of the tyed dyed harley davidson style. the most memorable part of the night for him was loooking at jason's sketch book, declaring - y'all need some flames on that shit" and proceeding to put flames on it. a gem.
the bar closed up at midnight on saturday due to some crazy south carolina licensing fee paid for bars that choose to be open on sundays. so, we played two focused sets that got folk excited and left them satisfied.afterwards we went back to Ross's place with a few folk including anthony & jessie - we all hung upside down in the stretcher Ross has before going to bed around 3.

dragons 1976 greenville 2-4-2005

to greenville
Originally uploaded by dragonseventysix.

the drive to greenville from knoxville (picture is on the drive) was only to be 3 hours, but we found a way to make it 5. we had an idea of taking that raod that goes through the middle of the smoky mountains - unfortunately it was friday afternoon and it seemed alot of people were headed that way to go to dollywood and the skiing areas (though i'm not sure if skiing is happening down here right now - there's no snow on the ground). so that took a bit, then we stopped in asheville, which is right on the way, to pick up jason's friend keith, who lives in a beautiful old house. got into greenville around 7, and got to the place to play which is the bohemian cafe, an upscale place that shares a building with horizon records, which our man gene berger owns and operates. we went out for some food with gene and back to the cafe, which was packed, to start playing close to ten. apparantly greenville has been waiting for some music like this to come to town. the crowd was mixed, but mainly younger folk - 20's & 30's - we played our music and the people loved it - such a great response for a town that has never really had music like this performed live in it before. as i kep[t talking to more people after the show, including trip, the owner of the cafe, it dawned on me that these people are open to different kinds of music, but they're just never given the opportunity to see it. it's a great thing to be able to come to a place and do something new for them.
there were some talkers, but the majority of place was attentive and into it - it took us a long time to get out of the place and up to gene's house were we relaxed in front of the fire and had some delicious carrot cake made by barb, gene's wife. it's really something coming into different people's lives and getting a glimpse of how they live. gene has run a record store for 30 years, has a nice home in a nice neighborhood with trees all around - a listening room to listen to his passion - classical music - they have a son who is a bass player who is in school in new york ..in the morning we woke up slow and they made us breakfast of eggs, grits, potatos and fresh baked bread. good times.

dragons 1976 knoxville 2-3-2005

p light
Originally uploaded by dragonseventysix.

we headed out of lexington towards knoxville, tennessee - not a long drive, and an easy one on the highway, but it was pretty foggy, so there wasn't much to see. we pulled into the old city part of knoxville around 6 or so, and had some time to kill, so checked out a coffee shop, then talked to kevin davis on the phone, who was in town from chicago visiting his folks. he recommended a pizza place, we tired unsuccessfully to find the place, then headed back to the old city and went to a different pizza place that was pretty good. we went to the pilot light and regina was there, we spent a good hour or so just practicing and relaxing a bit. the pilot light reminded me of a small empty bottle - dark walls, no windows, a good place for late night creativity. i was a bit skeptical at first, but we did get a good crowd in there, they were really listening and into the music. i think it was in the second set - someone kept making exclamation's like "play that bass" "play that saxophone" "play those drums", then, in a few minutes a fellow comes up to the stage and puts three bouquets of long stem flowers at our feet and then walks off. turns out it was this fellow leslie that sells the flowers at clubs, but he was so into the music that he gave us the flowers....we had a multitude of choices of places to stay for the night - we split up a bit - jason and i stayed at regina's place - a nice house with some cats and a dog named fahey. people down in the south really like pets - it's cool because they have the space for them to roam around a bit. in the morning we woke to warmth - well, warmth for chicagoans, it was probably in the 50's but with the light streaming in on a clear day we could comfortably sit outside. we made some tacos with eggs, spinach, mushrooms, potato hash, and guacamole.

dragons 1976 lexington 2-2-2005

mecca a
Originally uploaded by dragonseventysix.

our 2nd annual winter tour has begun. a year ago we went on a week and a half tour into parts of the southeast and after having a good time playing, and escaping the cold of chicago for a bit, we decided that it was something we should try to do again. lexington is one of the first places we always think of playing in because of one man - ross compton. he's so into creative music & has a core group of people around him that have gotten this thing going in lexington that is good. i think the first show they had down there was the brotzmann tentet. imagine that - the brotzmann tentet playing a free show in a college town in the south, and hundreds of people coming out to check it out & it being successfull. everytime i come down to lexington it is a good show and i want to come back. saying all of that, our show was good - we played at the mecca dance studio, a place owned by theresa_____. we made the drive down from chicago in 6 hours under gray skies & through some snow - lexington's weather can feel like chicago's, but will rebound real quickly to the feel of the south. the place was full and we played two sets to a listening audience that showed their appreciation between and after our sets. we played very well in the room that had nice natural reverb tempered by the amount of people in the space. it was a great way to start the tour.
we woke on thursday in lexington, picked up our equipment at mecca and grabbed a bite to eat at ross's place gumbo ya-ya's - a poster on the wall announcing the sun ra arkestra playing that weekend in lexington. ross is busy, getting the sun ra arkestra down for a mardi gras parade.....

never enough hope 1-30-2005

second show in two nights for the super group. this one went better though we were crammed in tight on the stage and front floor of the hungry brain. but it really shows that with a big group like that, in order to hear everyone, it's easier to not be in a big reverberrant space (reverberrant?). there was a very good turn out at the brain too: the first set was three smaller groups of improvising, there was an aggressive one with colin & dan letting the baritones out f the gate; a very nice melodic improvisation with bogie, amy cimini, dina maccabee & brian dibblee; and then the vibraphone duo of adasiewicz and tacket (not tucket or target) brown. good times. the long piece went well, and the audience really loved it - the way it's supposed to be....

never enough hope; open end 1-29-2005

toby summerfield wrote a piece for 16 of his friends - and gave it the name never enough hope. he's really put some serious effort into this project and i think it is good because of it. the piece is a long form, with several sections of a slow-build nature. most of it is in time with dense rhtymic parts fleshed out by drums & bass, 2 guitars and 4 vibraphones. add saxophone and string quartets and you'v egot yourself a large group. toby set up the show at the open end, which was a good thing as we could comfortably fit in there all together - also, just the atmosphere at open end, with a skyline view and super high ceilings give shows an aspect you can't get at other places. so, who was in the band? these folk:

Saxophones: Dan Bennett, Stuart Bogie, Colin Stetson, Aram Shelton
Vibes: Jason Adasiewicz, Dan Sylvester, Tim Daisy, TIm Brown
Strings: Amy Cimini, Kevin Davis, Brian Dibblee, Dina Maccabee
Rhythm: Frank Rosaly, Nathaniel Braddock, Joshua Tillinghast, Jason Ajemian

we had one day for a full rehearsal, which was kind of slow moving, as there are lots of things to have to practice with a group of that size: the instrument groups & the entire band need to be together - hearing where your part fits in can be tough. it was a good time - about a third of the group came in from out of town - from the east and west coast -

the show went off well - dragons 1976 played an opening set - a warm up for a tour we're starting on wednesday. while we were playing i was working with the room - you can play very softly and still fill the place up because there's so much natural reverb. and it seems unless the music is going through a PA, it won't wash out.
when never enough hope played, it felt good - in the rehearsal we kind of just jumped into the sections, but for the performance, toby let the piece take it's time building and receding, bringing in people for solos and sectional hits - keeping the piece changing by allowing different voices to come through. i think the piece worked well - we'll find out for sure with the recording....

improvising myopic & empty bottle 1-10-2005

played at the myopic bookstore with guillermo gregorio, josh abrams, jason roebke and jason adasiewicz. it was a nice ensemble with myself on Eb and bass clarinet, guillermo on Bb; josh & jason on bass; shevitz on vibes. we played for awhile, all improvised - guillermo is just the nicest guy you can think of, i always would like to play with him more, but time goes by quickly, and all of a sudden it's been three months since you saw each other. this is how time goes by in chicago. i've recently been playing the little Eb clarinet again, i forgot how much i enjoy playing it - it definitely has a high range, but i can get some flute like sounds out of it and the actual tone is very pleasant..or so i think. after we finished playing i had to head over to the empty bottle to play in fred lonberg-holm's lightbox orchestra...
it was a free night at the empty bottle, and the way it goes is that on a tuesday, very few people will come when the cover is $3, but if it's free the place is completely filled. people really get scared by cover charges. i get scared by them too. also, i'll buy a $3.50 beer and tip a dollar, and think it's allright, but when i see that half gallon of orange juice at the supermarket for $3, i think, that's a little pricey.....go figure.
anyhow. the night was for a terry plumbing cd-r release - terry plumb(m?)ing is a prose / poetry/ music zine put out by our frineds eric graf, mike merck, rotten milk and others - it's a nice diy thing. rotten milk played a noice set with this other guy going by the handle bubblegum shitface - almost electro there mr milk - watch out. next up was the girl trio sofserve, they tried the moves and whatnot, but they need to work on it more to make it convincing....the lightbox orchestra headlined - a big group, we spread out on the stage and the floor, i used my clarinets again, tv pow was all there, zerang, karel, payne, corbett, kapsalis, vida, sullender, morrow, pomerleau, and a fellow named matt who played a little synth next to me. it was good playing in front of a big crowd, and though you could hear the huge amoutns of talkers in the back, they were kind of quiet, and not disturbing the music what with the bulk of bodies quieting the din. it was a good set, if a bit short - walked home over the melting ice with jen, a walk that seems long if you think about it, but isn't so long when you're walking it....

jazz charleston 1-7-2005

i know it's been a bit since i wrote - the holidays and all of that - went down to florida for a week, but there was almost no sunshine, but it was warm - got to walk around outside with no shoes on. but i came back to chicago right before new years, and since then have been very busy with music : playing & recording. last friday i played at the charleston with jason ajemian on bass and frank rosaly on drums. we played monk tunes and standards - i like playing that music, it's a good time & challenging at the same time. we had some folk sit in with us - nick broste played some trombone solos, tim daisy and hatwich subbed out the rhythm section for a few tunes, and this fellow bob came up and played piano. he sounded good, it was one of those situations that i've been on the other side of - new guy in town, want to play with people, but are worried that you'll get vibed by the other people playing. that's one of the main drags about playing standard jazz - the mentality that some people get - they feel that they are so good that if someone shares the stage with them and aren't at that level, or share their ideas of how the music should go, they're not a good musician. i think that it is fine to dis-like the way someone plays, actually i think it's vital to be able to decide when you do or don't like someone's playing. it's not necessarily a personal thing, which is what people usually take it as. what i don't like is when someone doesn't like how you play, and then gives you attitude about it. this has happened to me before at sessions in the past. anyhow - bob sounded good, but he didn't give us his number or anything, so how can we call him now?
the rest of the night was good - shevitz poured the drinks, ajemian did some donuts in the snow that fell on the city a few nights before.