A handful of shows will be happening this month. One of them is the premiere of my apartment's "house band" Hairy Messiah (a.k.a. Harry Messiah).
August 10, 8:30: Hairy Messiah performs with special guest Dana Jessen (bassoon). Hairy Messiah is Joe Moffett (tpt), Matt Plummer (tbn), Wes Matthews (pn/kbd) and Kevin McFarland (cello). Also performing, Giacomo Merega (e. bass) and Eli Keszler (drums).
Douglass Street Music Collective
295 Douglass St.
Brooklyn, NY
August 12, 7:00: Bird Fly Yellow. Also performing, String 4tet: Nathan Bontranger (cello), James Ilgenfritz (bass), Al Margolis (violin), Ben Shirley (guitar); and Duo: Adam Matlock and Carl Testa - accordion, string bass, electronics.
Uncertainty Music Series
@ Bru Cafe
141 Orange Street
New Haven, CT
August 13, 8:00: Bird Fly Yellow; Genghis Complex.
The Spotty Dog
440 Warren Street
Hudson, NY 12534
August 25, 8:00: Ad Faunum: Joe Moffett (tpt), Noah Kaplan (sax), Giacomo Merega (e. bass), Jason Nazary (dr). Additional performers TBA.
Douglass Street Music Collective
295 Douglass St.
Brooklyn, NY
Monday, August 8, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
June "Calendar"
A quiet month at the moment, but a couple fun performances will be happening nonetheless. First will be my solo trumpet performance at the Douglass Street Music Collective. This is taking place on Wednesday, June 8, at 8:00. Contrary to one of my earlier posts, I will not be performing "Obstructions for Trumpet." Still, some of those ideas have leaked into my current playing and will surface sub- or not-so-subconsciously, I suspect. I am very happy to be joined by Buckminster, who will be performing at 9:00.
Later this month, I will perform at International Waters in Philadelphia with the Johnny DeBlase Quartet. This will be happening on Saturday, June 25.
As usual, keep posted for more details!
Later this month, I will perform at International Waters in Philadelphia with the Johnny DeBlase Quartet. This will be happening on Saturday, June 25.
As usual, keep posted for more details!
Friday, May 6, 2011
Recordings: Past and Future
Here are some updates on my myriad recording sessions. My quintet Ad Faunum, with Noah Kaplan (sax), Jacob William (b), Giacomo Merega (e b), and Luther Gray (dr) will be released later this year on Not Two. More information, such as the album title, release date, etc. will be announced. Stay tuned!
Bird Fly Yellow recently went into the studio to record its full-length debut. We spent a day at Trout Recording and had a very fruitful session. We will be re-entering the studio to mix the session within a month’s time, and we hope to release the album by next Summer, 2012.
Alban Bailly, it turns out, is not only a guitar wizard but a great home-recording engineer as well. He, guitarist Nick Millevoi and I recorded a fully-improvised trio session in Alban's basement in April and are very pleased with the result. We will be mixing this one ourselves, and we’ll see if we can get it released for public consumption in the near future.
This weekend, I will be meeting up with my good friend Jeff Kimmel to do a couple performances and record a duo session as well. Jeff, who recently saw the release of a trio album, tilting, with Jacob Wick and David Moré, is one of the best bass clarinetist-improvisers around, and putting a little something on tape with him will be a great pleasure.
Finally, I'll be recording with the Johnny DeBlase Quartet on June 26, which performed not long ago at the Highwire Gallery in Philadelphia. The recorded material will consist of Johnny's compositions and, of course, lots of improvising.
Bird Fly Yellow recently went into the studio to record its full-length debut. We spent a day at Trout Recording and had a very fruitful session. We will be re-entering the studio to mix the session within a month’s time, and we hope to release the album by next Summer, 2012.
Alban Bailly, it turns out, is not only a guitar wizard but a great home-recording engineer as well. He, guitarist Nick Millevoi and I recorded a fully-improvised trio session in Alban's basement in April and are very pleased with the result. We will be mixing this one ourselves, and we’ll see if we can get it released for public consumption in the near future.
This weekend, I will be meeting up with my good friend Jeff Kimmel to do a couple performances and record a duo session as well. Jeff, who recently saw the release of a trio album, tilting, with Jacob Wick and David Moré, is one of the best bass clarinetist-improvisers around, and putting a little something on tape with him will be a great pleasure.
Finally, I'll be recording with the Johnny DeBlase Quartet on June 26, which performed not long ago at the Highwire Gallery in Philadelphia. The recorded material will consist of Johnny's compositions and, of course, lots of improvising.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
May Calendar: Super Message Body
This is how May is shaping up so far: Well.
May 7, 10:00: w/ Jeff Kimmel (bass clar), Marc Riordan (dr), and Brian Labycz (synth) at Heaven Gallery in Chicago. Also performing: Wingbridge.
May 8: Duo recording w/ Jeff!
May 9, 7:30: Duo performance w/ Jeff at Myopic Books, Chicago.
May 28, 8:00: Performance of a piece by Brad Henkel, "Shopping List for the World Ends" for 4 trumpets, 2 guitars, and narrator. Also featuring performances by Mariel Berger's quartet and Dan Peck (tuba). Show takes place at Jonathan Wood Vincent's UWS apt.: 201 W. 86th Street Apt. 806 (The Belnord), New York, NY
Follow them links!!!
May 7, 10:00: w/ Jeff Kimmel (bass clar), Marc Riordan (dr), and Brian Labycz (synth) at Heaven Gallery in Chicago. Also performing: Wingbridge.
May 8: Duo recording w/ Jeff!
May 9, 7:30: Duo performance w/ Jeff at Myopic Books, Chicago.
May 28, 8:00: Performance of a piece by Brad Henkel, "Shopping List for the World Ends" for 4 trumpets, 2 guitars, and narrator. Also featuring performances by Mariel Berger's quartet and Dan Peck (tuba). Show takes place at Jonathan Wood Vincent's UWS apt.: 201 W. 86th Street Apt. 806 (The Belnord), New York, NY
Follow them links!!!
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Rant in All Clefs
Since free improvisation is not, de facto, avant garde anymore, we shouldn't assume that what we're making is somehow innovative or new. Currently, this mode of performing is problematic because it can act as a haven for perfectly talented and learned people to make music that lacks the furor and prescience of truly avant-garde music, while there still being the assumption that it is somehow "different" from other kinds of music. And by furor or prescience, I'm not referring necessarily to volume, density, or speed. What I mean is a personal or personal-political furor (because the personal is political and the act of collective improvising has political implications), or the prescience of a music that leads one (performer and audience member alike) to think in a more sensitive or simply different manner. So let's do it. Let's go somewhere truly exciting and take an audience with us.
Part of the issue is the inherent revolutionary attitude that is presumed by free improvisation. It is, for example, a valid question to ask whether this kind of music must actually do something new, every time. Can't we simply be good at it? But when I ask this I come to the conclusion that for it to be good it must at least be vigorous, which, in a way, aligns it with other forms of music (isn't all truly "good" music simply a perfect expression in its time, extending beyond its temporal locus?).
There is a much larger discussion to be had outside of this post. But I should take this moment to point out that there are people who specialize in free improv that do not rest on its history in order to prove its relevance. Let's be sure to follow their lead, in the spirit of what these performers do.
Part of the issue is the inherent revolutionary attitude that is presumed by free improvisation. It is, for example, a valid question to ask whether this kind of music must actually do something new, every time. Can't we simply be good at it? But when I ask this I come to the conclusion that for it to be good it must at least be vigorous, which, in a way, aligns it with other forms of music (isn't all truly "good" music simply a perfect expression in its time, extending beyond its temporal locus?).
There is a much larger discussion to be had outside of this post. But I should take this moment to point out that there are people who specialize in free improv that do not rest on its history in order to prove its relevance. Let's be sure to follow their lead, in the spirit of what these performers do.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
April Happenings
I am excited. Not just because I'm excitable, but mostly because there are happenings that merit... excitement. Bird Fly Yellow will be performing twice this coming weekend, and will also be recording at the end of the month. And April 15 will see the return of Gleason's Twins, my duo with vocalist Kristin Slipp.
Big thanks to Matt Plummer, Bonnie Lander, Owen Stewart-Robertson, Brad Henkel, and Derek Beckvold for all their work in putting these events together. (If I missed anyone, please accost me, preferably on the street.)
April 9, 8:00: Sunshine Soldier / Pink Brown / Masri, Cohen Duo / Bird Fly Yellow
International Waters
532 S. 48th St.
Philadelphia, PA
April 10, 8:30: Bird Fly Yellow / OS-R, Niggenkemper, Gray / Sunshine Soldier
Douglass Street Music Collective
295 Douglass St.
Brooklyn, NY
April 15, 8:30: [Music + Words]: Gleason's Twins / Ben Syversen Trio / Box Lunch
Douglass St. Music Collective
295 Douglass St.
Brooklyn, NY
April 30: Bird Fly Yellow recording at Trout Studio in Brooklyn.
Big thanks to Matt Plummer, Bonnie Lander, Owen Stewart-Robertson, Brad Henkel, and Derek Beckvold for all their work in putting these events together. (If I missed anyone, please accost me, preferably on the street.)
April 9, 8:00: Sunshine Soldier / Pink Brown / Masri, Cohen Duo / Bird Fly Yellow
International Waters
532 S. 48th St.
Philadelphia, PA
April 10, 8:30: Bird Fly Yellow / OS-R, Niggenkemper, Gray / Sunshine Soldier
Douglass Street Music Collective
295 Douglass St.
Brooklyn, NY
April 15, 8:30: [Music + Words]: Gleason's Twins / Ben Syversen Trio / Box Lunch
Douglass St. Music Collective
295 Douglass St.
Brooklyn, NY
April 30: Bird Fly Yellow recording at Trout Studio in Brooklyn.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Klangfarbenmelodelicious
I remember Joe Morris talking to me about a “pivot” where a given moment in an improvisation is like a triangulation that references points immediately before and after in time, or above, below, left, or right, etc. in space. Listening back to some recordings from my last year in school, it seems that it was definitely having an effect on me – I’m trying to recapture this idea in my current playing, as I sometimes find it’s lacking (did I forget?). The idea, if memory serves, is one way of dealing with “line,” where the line continues (as it does naturally because it exists in time), but I as the improviser do not coddle (or swaddle) it. If the line of music is a child, you have to let it go out and play. The line of course is not only mine but mine in relation to others’ – a klangfarbenmelodie of fragmented swing, blips, ringing tones, etc.
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