Weasel Walter Quintet Uptown 12-16-2008

Last night there was another free show at the Uptown in downtown Oakland. This one was put together by Sarah Lockhart. The first set was John Gruntfest's Ritual Resurrection Band, which is led by John on alto and words. It was pretty theatrical, and the line up of 2 drummers, 2 keyboards, and 4 saxophones made for a full sound and opportunities for small group pairings for improvising.

The second set was SL Morse - the duo of Sarah and Aurora Josephson. Now I think that Sarah was reading a composition the whole way through and it seemed that Aurora was free - had some good moments and the simple pairing of voice and percussion worked well.

Weasel put together a quintet with me on alto, Aaron Bennett on tenor, Darren Johnston on trumpet and Damon Smith on bass. He wrote a long-form piece for the group that we played for the first time at 21 Grand about a month ago. That time we didn't have a chance to actually rehearse it before hand, and this time we did - the piece has Weasel and Damon being free for the majority of the piece and alot of written material that is in time for the horns to play together - compositionally the opposite of the SL Morse set. The music is all high energy, with the piece opening up after about 10 minutes into long solo sections for each horn player to work with the rhythm section. Darren's trumpet solo sounded great and despite the mic set up for this purpose, Aaron went without in a real high energy section with Weasel and Damon. I started mine and didn't feel so strong for awhile - I don't know if it's the extra work I've been doing or that it's actually kind of cold around here, but I just didn't feel like my playing was working - maybe a bad reed. These things happen.

Good to work on that music again - I think we'll be recording it soon.

And here is the video!


Weasel Walter Quintet @ The Uptown 12-16-08 from mxxx palmer on Vimeo.

Quartet at Blue Six 12-11-2008

Last night played at Blue Six in the Mission. Small space at 24th street and Treat. Played with Darren Johnston, Lisa Mezzacappa, and Kjell Nordeson. We'd gotten together a few months ago at Lisa's place - the different instincts from the players in this group allows for some interesting playing - also, everyone is willing to really go for it so strong music happens.
We played two sets this night, I brought both alto and bass clarinet, Darren played mainly trumpet and some flugelhorn. Both sets were varied - I think in the first we stayed towards higher energy while in the second we took our time to develop ideas. Playing with a talented trumpeter is always great as a reed player, the combination of the sounds enhanced by the range that Darren plays with - we were trading lines that stretched throughout several octaves while I was on bass clarinet - with him matching the range of that instrument easily. Kjell is such a strong player in terms of instant composition - he builds parts that develop over time - the quartet interacted with smaller motifs that he would introduce throughout both sets, and the overall energy that he brings to the kit acted as a guide for much of the music.
In terms of improvised music, what I really like about this group is that while we all have many skills at our disposal, the result is strong music that is not dominated by special techniques. Instead, those techniques are used as parts to create music that is complex on many levels, while being about both the interaction of the individual players and the music created as a group.
Thanks to Joe for having the show at his place -

Paper Leg at Ivy Room 12-08-2008

Up in Albany at the Ivy Room they've been having shows on Monday nights. Eric Leppo tends bar there on Mondays and keeps this series going - thanks to him!
Played with Trevor Healy for the first time in a bit. I brought my alto and bass clarinet, used Max/MSP for processing, and was able to use his guitar sounds as well. Trevor makes big thick walls of sound with his guitar and electronics noise changing tools (pedals) including of course the electronic system for wind instruments. Our method of playing together has stayed consistent during our hiatus - we tend to take our time getting moving through different spaces in music, which makes a two hour rehearsal move by fast, and a 45 minute set that much faster.
Andrew Conklin's band Quinn played second, a rock band with a good variety of songs - and then Jordan Glenn's & Karl Evangelista's instrumental band Host Family - pretty complex arrangements with multiple meters and pieces finding unexpected ways into others.

Flockterkit 9-16-2008

It's been a little while since Flockterkit had a show - since last December when I played the music in Chicago. Last November I recorded the music with the west coast lineup - Andy Strain, Jordan Glenn, Kurt Kotheimer, Caroline Penwarden and Anantha Krishnan. The recording turned out very good - but we hadn't had a chance to play the music out here until now. This was a free show at the Uptown in Oakland, I put together a bill with Painted Cakes (Eli Reitz, Shumit DasGupta and Andrew Kitchen), and Ben Bracken playing solo. It was a good night.
Painted Cakes played first - minimalist rock with long forms and interweaving patterns between the guitar, bass, and drums. Ben Bracken's set was one long piece, using feedback from his acoustic guitar to set up a bed for musical thoughts and sounds.
The Flockterkit set felt great - we took our time with improvising and solos - Jordan on drums and Anantha on tabla make a solid percussion section, and Kurt holds it down in between the two. Caroline used pump organ on the entire set, which is a great sound, long sustain, creaky, with dexterity as well.
The crowd that came was mixed, but mainly listeners - each group had a different sound and style which made for a balanced night of music. The good thing about the setup of the Uptown is that the bar is separate from the music room, so the people that don't want to listen can do their talking somewhere else. If only every place was built that way....

Pink Canoes at Knockout 9-4-2008

Originally uploaded by Travis Johns

Last week the Pink Canoes played at the Knockout in San Francisco. It'd be a couple of months since we played, and this show was put together pretty quickly. Two sets by noise groups made the meat of this dance party / noise night. It was good - we went with all energy in the beginning, Zach doing more processed vocals these days, in the phot he's the blur - Noah and Travis acted in some ways as the rhythmic backbone.

Arrive at the Whig "On Time"

Arrive plays "On Time"
Arrive is Aram Shelton, alto sax; Jason Adasiewicz, vibes; Jason Roebke, bass; Tim Daisy, drums.
Recorded July 26, 2008 in Columbia, SC.

Arrive Tour, Ash pt 2, to NYC. July 28-31, 2008

The second week of our tour was a lot more work than the first. While we were able to spend some quality time in the Carolinas, we had alot of ground to cover on the back half of our trip. From Charlotte we went back to Asheville to play at the Admiral, a new polace run by the same folk that have brought us the Whig in Columbia. They took care of us with great food and we played two sets, possibly our best playing night of the tour. I think a few things contributed to us playing well = one of which was a detour in a river that feeds into Lake Lure about 30 miles east of Asheville. A good time.
After our second stop in Asheville the driving started - we headed up to Richmond, a 6 hour drive, and played a show at the Camel. The band Glows in the Dark played first. The next day we headed to Philly, a 4 1/2 hour jaunt, not so bad, but we left town right after the show to drive into NYC to beat the traffic. Philly was good - got into town with plenty of time to hang out before the show which was downtown at the Gershman Y, a nice building that houses the Jewish Athletic Hall of Fame. Bowerbird put on a nice show for us with Dan Blacksburg's Synthesis Music playing a set. The room was a gallery but with good acoustics. The crowd was small but enthusiastic, and it was a good night.
Driving into NYC at night was a good decision. We got in around 2 AM, and were able to sleep in - though it was a hot one in the city. We spent the day hanging out with Matt Bauder, played basketball in the park where we lost by a pretty big margin to some neighborhood kids, but at least were able to feel good about the fact that they were arguing over some points and with each other form time to time. Pus, Daisy was wearing sandals and Matt's game was off. if we'd brought some water we would've been dangerous & not just dehydrated.
We played at Zebulon that night, lot's of great pictures can be seen here (Look for July 31, 2008 Arrive). The first set was Mary Halvorson, Tatsuya Nakatani, and Reuben Radding - they played a set that got pretty loud, I hadn't seen Tatsuya play loud before, and it sounded great - he was bringing out all his trademark colors and textures, but with an incredible volume.
We played the second set, and there was a good crowd - though there were a fair share of talkers. The night felt like one at the Hungry Brain in Chicago - lots of younger musicians, plenty of people to meet and run into. Bauder's Day in Pictures played last - Tomas Fujiwara on drums, Jason Ajemian on bass, Nate Wooley on trumpet, and Jeremy Wilms on guitar.
We left New York that night after the show - drove a few hours and found a hotel.

Arrive Charlotte Century 7-27-2008

An easy drive from Columbia back into NC to go to Charlotte, the queen city. Brent Bagwell set up a date for us at Century, a vintage shop that hosts concerts in it's back room. AS the drive was short we didn't leave Columbia until about 4:30, got into twon around 6 and got some BBQ foods around the corner. The heat really started getting intense this day. Thankfully in the south people recognize this as a fact of life and have the AC to deal with it. (Unlike in NYC where I'm writing these posts from.)
Brent brought his Project Bluebird this night. It's a six piece group made up of 4 musicians from Charlotte and two from Raleigh / Durham over in the eastern part of NC. The full lineup is Ben Kennedy on cello and violin; Carrie Shull on oboe and English horn; Crowmeat Bob Pence on alto and baritone saxophones and bass clarinet; Brent Bagwell on tenor and baritone saxophones and clarinet; Ron Brendle on bass; and newcomer Molly J. Brown on tuba. Nice instrumentation with interesting arrangements and a distinct aura of musicality happening. My favorite group we've played with on the tour yet.
Our set went well - though the room is dry, it's not difficult to play in, and as a listener, everything is clear. Afterwards we hung out at the Snug Harbor and got into a nasty game of cornhole - a good time. Stayed at Brent's new place and was able to hang out a little bit with him & his son Charlie the next day. Thanks Brent!

Arrive Columbia 7-25 & 26 2008

Back on down to the capitol of South Carolina, Columbia. Our man Ross set up two dates for us, the first at the Columbia Museum of Art and the second at the Whig. Both places are on Main Street, separated by a few blocks. The Museum show was first, on Friday night. There was a good amount of press for this show and there was quite a good turnout - a close to full house in the auditorium. We played two sets, the first a bit longer than the second and the audience was quite attentive and appreciative. Someone took a few videos of the concert and have posted them up on youtube - here's one - On Time:
We went back to Ross's for a cookout after the show - Mahi Mahi. (Being at a Museum it was a earlier show than ay of the other ones on the tour and finished by 9pm.) We enjoyed the southern night and I fell asleep watching Sans Soleil by Chris Marker.
The next day was basically a day off as our show at the Whig wasn't to start until after 10pm. We got some great food at the Blue Cactus and wasted time in little 5 points before we went back to Ross's and had a second cookout in as many days, this time with Salmon and Chicken. Delicious. By the time we got to the Whig to load in there was already a good sized crowd and the two sets we played were punctuated by plenty of applause and a fair amount of bizarre comments from random folks. The particularly memorable ones made by a fellow wearing sunglasses and mardi gras beads. A great stay in Columbia, two shows with more than a hundred people seeing the music. Got our tour on the right track.

Arrive Asheville Bobo 7-24-2008

A short 2 hour drive to Asheville from Knoxville in the late afternoon. Shane Perlowin set up a date for us at the Bobo Gallery - a home away form home for many of us from Chicago. Brad, the owner, is a genuine good fellow and is so supportive of what we do. It's a good thing. As we got into town, barricades were being set up all around the downtown district, and keeping us away from the Gallery. After about a half hour of circling, we finally found a place to park about 4 blocks away and had to hike in all the equipment. We set up and took a walk around downtown Asheville, getting some dinner. This was a our first real show of the tour. A good crowd formed by the time we played - Shane opened with a quartet of Joe & Michael of Mind vs. Target plus a bassist Trevor Stoia, an improvised set with a structure. We played all the new material and it's starting to feel really good - Shevitz really came our of the gates - his first solo was super on, just navigating all over the bars with the four-stick mallets - fun to watch and hear. The added energy from the crowd really pushed us on throughout the set. There Was is now working.

Arrive is the quartet of Aram Shelton, Jason Adasiewicz, Jason Roebke, and Tim Daisy. They are on tour from July 21st to August 6th.

Arrive Knoxville Pilot Light 7-23-2008

Had to get up early in Bloomington - on the road at 8:00 in order to get to Morehead State College an hour east of Lexington for a workshop. A few hundred high school students in a summer program. Most of them played music, but not all. The workshop was largely an open rehearsal. We worked on a piece called "There Was" that I first wrote several years ago, but have not yet been able to get the kinks out. This was a good opportunity to work on the piece, I explained as we worked through the different sections, describing the way we were playing cells of different lengths to create overlapping parts. We answered questions and played two more pieces. Lots of the kids were enthusiastic afterwards ad came up to the stage to ask us questions. We had lunch at a taqueria in Morehead and then took a break in a city park for an hour before heading down to Knoxville and the Pilot Light. It was a low turnout there - an inauspicious beginning to the tour to have two slow nights in a row. But, we were able to work on music before the show and once again we stayed with very generous people, this time Van and Margaret Walker, so this night was definitely worthwhile.

Arrive is the quartet of Aram Shelton, Jason Adasiewicz, Jason Roebke, and Tim Daisy. They are on tour from July 21st to August 6th.

Arrive Bloomington Cinemat 7-22-2008

First night of the tour - a four hour drive from Chicago. This date was set up with pretty short notice as our usual connection in Lexington had to cancel the date due to fire marshal regulations. David Miller, a trumpet player, set up a date for us at a space called Cinemat. My first time in Bloomington. We shared the bill with two other groups - a trio of Dan Wicks, Tony Salas and DeRobertis; David Miller's group DMC Improvisers Trio with Marty Belcher, plus guest Vicky Alexandra. Due to the turnout it was more a night to hear each others music. Each of the opening bands had nice moments and were similar in that there was no drummer in either group. We played a set of 4 newer songs and two older. There are a number of new parts, so this date was definitely a bit on the unrefined side but still felt good. Marty put us up at his place slightly on the outside of town - a beautiful home surrounded by trees with lots of windows and space. Thanks to him & David.

Arrive is the quartet of Aram Shelton, Jason Adasiewicz, Jason Roebke, and Tim Daisy. They are on tour from July 21st to August 6th.

Shelton Berman Nordeson 6-27-2008

Josh Berman came to town last weekend - he was visiting family in California, and so was able to come to the Bay to do some playing. He played in an improvised quartet at 21 Grand on the 26th with Weasel Walter, Damon Smith and Aaron Bennett, and I arranged a trio date at the Meridian gallery in downtown San Francisco on Friday the 27th with the two of us and Kjell Nordeson. I wrote a few pieces for this trio, inspired by a recent trip to southern Utah - a place called Kodachrome Basin. A few "small-scale" pieces that were meant to affect the improvising while allowing for plenty of openness for the players. Josh and I were able to rehearse our parts earlier in the day, and met up with Kjell at Meridian around 6pm. Unfortunately there was an event which we weren't told about that went until 6:30 - this cut into our plans. We talked through the pieces and were able to rehearse certain points while we set up. The concert started early and promptly at 8:30 - there was a good audience and the sound of the space lent itself well to the way the compositions were written and the way we played as a trio. Kjell particularly took advantage of the space with a wide-array of sounds and colors from his kit.
The next day we did a recording session with Weasel - recorded about two hours worth of improvising - a good time. those two used to live together way back in the 90s - they seemed to be glad to be playing together again after so much time.

Shelton Healy Bluesix 5-21-2008

last Wednesday I played at Bluesix in the Mission with Trevor Healy. We played without our electronics, which is our usual setup as the space is an acoustic only room. It wa a good change of pace for us, I brought along my Eb and Bass clarinets and Trevor brought his guitar, violin and some assorted percussion instruments. We focused on extending our ideas and going at a slow pace. Here's a video:

California Tour - Pt 3 - Sacramento

The week continues - on Wednesday the 20th worked during the day and then went up to Sacramento with Paper legs for a house show at the Fun Castle - we left Oakland around 7 and had a much better drive to the capitol than the last time we went - waiting for rush hour to die down is a good thing. We still had a little daylight left when we got into downtown Sactown - it was real nice out, the large trees and clean streets making us feel like we were in an old midwest town with better weather. Paper Legs invited me to play with them on this night, I brought my Bb clarinet and laptop. We were going to share the bill with Zac Nelson's Hexlove, but by the time we finished, he decided to not play - he said we put him in too good of a mood to play the loud rock that late - think we didn't finish until 11:30 - which isn't that late, but on a wednesday in someone's house it feels that much later. We played second and some kids from Davis played the set before, one with a variety of instruments and MSP electronics, one doing movement, one doing spoken word type ramblings.
our set felt good - though I hadn't played with brian yet, I have played with trevor and listening to them the few nights previously in LA and Oakland I knew how I wanted to try to get into the fold with them. I sat crosslegged the whole time and my left leg had fallen asleep by the end of the set.....we stayed there for the night and drank some rum mojitoes before going to sleep. The next morning we woke up early and left town by 7 am - passing by the state capitaol building where arnold schwarzenegger may have been working out - who knows? and Trevor and Brian dropped me off at work around 8:45 in emeryville. Some people do that commute everyday - crazy people.
The next day we did a recording session for them at my practice space. Recorded about 3 hours worth of improvisations and I joined them on a few. A busy full week - never felt stressed about things though - the way it should be.

California Tour - Pt 2 - Oakland & SF

So I got back from LA on a Saturday night, and had a long rehearsal with Tiny Lights on Sunday for our show on tuesday night at the Hotel Utah. But, before that was Monday where I had to work, and then do a two hour practice before a show in Oakland at 21 Grand of three duos - Paper Legs, Sudden Oak from SF, and my new duo with Weasel Walter. I wrote 4 pieces for alto saxophone & drums and bass clarinet and drums and we've had a number of rehearsals for this material which is definitely more complicated than my standard writing. Though harmonically simple - in keeping with the instrumentation - the variations and complications are mainly rhythmic, with changing time signatures and a need for exact counting for the two parts to line up the right way. All of the pieces start and end with written material that is related but non-repeating, and the improvising in most is highly related to what is written. We balanced the set with three improvisations that were succinct but active and varying. We'll definitely be working on this material more in the future. Sudden Oak are based in SF and are a guitar & sax player, both going through delay and overdrive pedals, creating a loud drone of sound that filled up 21 Grand.

The next night Tiny Lights (with Ben Bracken and Jacob Danziger) played at Hotel Utah in San Francisco. Our first show in a while and possibly our last for awhile as Jake will be moving back to Ann Arbor this summer. We were joined by Ben's roommate Max, who, in addition to being able to pitch in on multiple instruments (upright bass, glockenspiel & guitar) is a woodworker, has a good handle on audio recording and is an all around nice fellow. We played six songs all together for a set and shared the bill with Lulacruza and Efft. Hotel Utah is a nice and strange place to play - one of the oldest bars in the city, predating the 1906 earthquake, the sound man is actually pretty talented, but doesn't let it on while you're setting up - not really a talker... Lulacruza's set sounded great - I had to leave before Efft's show - sorry y'all - it looked like they had added a horn section though!
Playing with Tiny Lights is always nice - if only we could manage to play together more than once every 4 months or so it'd be that much better...

California Tour - End of April 2008 Part 1 - LA

The last week and half has been a busy one - four shows with that many groups in that many cities bookended by recording sessions. It all started last thursday night with a set-up session for Ton Trio - we went into the studio to record seven pieces. We've been playing the music for a bit now so it was time to get it down properly. A recording should be available sometime this summer.
Drove down to LA on Friday the 25th with Trevor Healy. He set up some show down there for his duo Paper Legs and included Settled on the bill at the Echo Curio, a storefront space in Echo Park. It was an afternoon show on a Saturday, and a hot one at that. LA can get hot - I think it was in the low 90s, and the summer isn't quite here. The Echo Curio stayed pretty reasonable though - Settled played first out of three bands. The crowd that came sat on the concrete floors and let me take my time with my set - though I hadn't done a performance of that music since December, I felt comfortable with my set up and made music unhurried. Gang Wizard played the second set, five folks playing drone-based noise music. They chose to play in a small room in the back of the Echo Curio, which was a bit cooler temperature wise due to its location without windows and being lower a foot or so. A good setting for the wizards - almost a cave. Paper Legs played third - Trevor on acoustic guitar and effects is joined by Brian Osborne, who lives in Brooklyn and plays small percussion through effects for this group. Their music is slow changing, with deliberate choices made to keep the music moving forward. An almost sleepy ending to the afternoon show, the sunlight always threatening to take over, but not quite doing so. Afterwards we had a great meal of South Indian food and Trevor and Brian gave me a ride to the Burbank airport where I flew back to Oakland that same night.

Ton Trio Bluesix 4-12-2008

Bluesix is a performance space in the Mission - it's a storefront space with wood floors and windows in the front - a good place for music. Ton Trio has been playing - we actually played a week and a half ago at the 1510 space. We've been working on music getting ready to record in a few weeks. It was an unusually warm night in San Francisco following a hot day - might've been in the 80's during the day, and one of those rare nights in the bay area when you don't need any kind of jacket at night.
Damon Smith and Kristian Aspelin played a duo set first - they played well together, playing active improvised music, with a wide array of sounds and motives, while allowing distinct moments to happen. When listening to good improvised music like that, you wonder why you need to write anything down.

By the time Ton Trio played our set some people had showed up and the room was comfortably filled. I felt good about our set, we're getting more comfortable with each others playing, so are able to push things a little farther along in terms of making connections between the improvised and written material. I played alto saxophone and bass clarinet. just got some work done on the BC which makes a huge difference with that old horn. Warm enough in the room to make it feel like summer - unusual in these parts........

Shelton Healy Nelson 3-6-2008

Played at 1510 8th Street in West Oakland this night, with Trevor Healy and Zac Nelson, a drummer from Sacramento who we met just a few months ago - Trevor & I went up there, met him and his friend Carson McWhirter at a studio up there across from a Safeway with a silver horse statue and recorded improvisations for 3 hours. Good stuff came of it. Zac's drumming style is aggresive, rhythmically solid and different from other drummers I play with - good times. Tonight as a trio we played three different roles, Trevor creating complex layers, Zac being the rhythmic base and me playing fast and loud on top - it felt good - I had gotten into a frustrated mood before leaving my place - a result of being cooped up at the job during the week after a nice few weeks without doing the 9-5 - but playing always helps. We had Jeremy of Sophisticuffs join us on our third improvisation - he played baritone saxophone and it was a welcome addition.

George Chen and Steve Santa Maria (Chen Santa Maria) played the 2nd set - drum machines, George on guitar through a few effects - sounded good in the space - thanks to them for playing!

Dragons 1976 Krakow 2-25-2008

Our last date of the tour was at Alchemia in Krakow. We left Wroclaw pretty early and drove south in Poland towards the foot hill country. On the way to Krakow we stopped in a small town that had a historical park - a 17th century polish farming village was preserved there. We met Marek there, the man who books the jazz at Alchemia and other places in Krakow. We had a great lunch ther e- I had zupa di pomodora and trout with almonds. Trout two times in a week - I'm hooked. We walked around the village and enjoyed the weather - it may have been in the high 50s and it was very sunny and the afternoon sunlight made everything that much better. We drove the last 20 kilometers to Krakow, I fell asleep just as we entered the city and then Ajemian woke me up to point out some of the very old buildings that line the river. Alchemia is a great cafe on the ground floor with the venue down in the basement - it seats alot of people and is definitely designed for listening - the building is very old and its reputed that the owners bought it for $100 when the neighborhood (the old jewish quarter) was not the place to be.
I took a walk around the area and returned around 6 o'clock to do a rehearsal - the two trios combined that night on two songs, India, and my song Atlantic. I wrote a complimentary bassline and created a harmony for the melody and we learned the form. This was the rare night where we didn't have dinner before the gig. One of the best things about the Polish crowd is that they show up when the concert is listed to start - well the only place where it didn't happen was in Warsaw. The concert started at 8:30 i think, Dragons played first - a god set, alot of energy for the crowd which was our largest of the tour. The light also played a set full of energy, and when I joined them on stage for Straight Up and Down it felt very good. We saved the double trio for the third set - the two songs probably ended up being about a half hour long total. This concert was recorded too - it'll probably be the best playing documented. We stayed at Alchemia the rest of the night and stayed at an apartment close by. I talked to the fellows of the Light about the possibility of doing more playing together in the future - maybe this fall.. I've got to work on my Polish!
I woke up pretty early the next morning to give my self some time to walk around this old city. My flight left at 14:00 and after a transfer in Munich we followed the sun all the way back to the west coast. It was cool to see the sun almost set while we were very far north and then rerise as we started heading south. A great trip - hopefully we'll be back soon.

Dragons 1976 Wroclaw 2-24-2008

We lobbied for some extra sleeping time so left Poznan a little later than expected, probably close to noon. We got in to Wroclaw without very much daylight left, we dropped off our instruments at Firlej, the club we were playing that night and then went to the Old town square of Wroclaw. It was similar to the square in Poznan, but the scale was larger - the building a little taller, the church more massive. I learned alter that night that Wroclaw was in Germany before and during WWII and most of it's buildings were not destroyed during the war. Especially one very large synagogue that we would see later in the night. We ate dinner at a nice restaurant that was modeled on the food and culture of Lwow, a city now in the Ukraine, but at one point in Poland, the borders being changed after wars obviously displacing people families and cities. Not something we think about much in the states. Firlej is a solid venue - a good size room with a large stage, though shorter ceilings. Our set started out a bit rough and it took us a good few songs before I felt comfortable with our playing. We recorded this concert as well - looking forward to hearing these recordings. I played two songs with the Light trio this night - In addition to playing Straight Up and Down we played India by John Coltrane. Every night we played with the Light we could hear them adding more energy to their playing - I would like to think that we influenced them in some ways. Once we were done we went to a bar that looked very old, and had a very catacomb like basement. By the time we made it back to the bed & breakfast we stayed at the caretaker had fallen asleep - we rang the bell many times but nothing. Ajemian had left the door to a balcony connected to his room open and we managed to push him up high enough to climb onto the second floor landing - the next morning the woman thanked us for not calling her boss! We didn't have that number to cal, so big thanks to squirrel.....

Dragons 1976 Poznan 2-23-2008

From Torun to Poznan, another short trip on two lane roads with lots of passing on the sides...got into Poznan early in the afternoon, had plenty of time to check into our rooms and walk around the old town square which was only a block away from the rooms. A beautiful day, it was probably fifty degrees - sunshine, a light breeze. We played that night at Estrada, a very nice jazz club in the format of a black box theatre. This night we also recorded the concert - they have a good assortment of microphones there and the acoustics of the space are on the dry side, good for live recording. We played the first set and played well - Ajemian played a particularly long solo in which he really got into a bass rubbing thing. But, during his solo the photographers phone rang - why is it always during the most quiet moments?

Audrey Chen was in town the same day as us and she played a concert not a block away at a cafe / club called Dragon. Small world. We tried to go after our set, but were not allowed in by the doorman, though she had told him to let us in during the set. Not sure where the miscommunication was, but it was there. After the concerts we all went to Lawrence's place where he had prepared for us a very delicious dinner featuring baked trout. We stayed there late into the night drinking big Heinekens and listening to his music collection.

Dragons 1976 Torun 2-22-08

The drive from Warsaw was about 3 or 4 hours. A two lane road most of the way, the style in Poland is to do a lot of passing of other cars - slower ones tend to even hug the shoulder to make it easier for others - especially drivers that still drive the older eastern european stock cars that are very small. When we arrived in Torun, we immediately went to the hotel and had some time to relax. A few hours later we went to where we played in the Old City - very old - and surrounded by the old castle walls as well. It was all very clean and by asking some people I learned that Torun is a university town - the source for its scrubbed appearance. The venue for the night was called - - and was originally served as a home to the duke form that area. A beautiful building - with nice high ceilings and ornate wall paper and chandeliers. ONe pretty amazing painting of a fellow killing a multi-headed creature with heads of snakes and body of a dog - I believe it was cerberus. The special part was the position in which he was holding one head and preparing to cut it off....the room we played in was a nice size, the height of the ceiling and amount of wood on the walls created a long echo, but one with a pleasing effect, as opposed to the sound made in concrete rooms. I think we played our best concert of the tour this night, in terms of music. The sound of the space allowed us to take our time with the music - I played a bit more sparsely to give more room to the echo, and Ajemian had a great shotgun solo - shotgun for the sound he was making by striking his strings and it bouncing off the walls. We played first, a long set with encore. the Light Trio played second, and I sat in with them for one song - Straight Up and Down, by Dolphy. While waiting to return to the stage after my set I laid down on the floor in a large room that acted as our green room - the sound of the building so good that I could clearly hear every note they played.

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.