All At Once

CAFFEINE TEST

2008-07-17T16:40:00.000-07:00

This is what two grande coffees and a four-hour drive gets you...

ON THURSDAY, ON SATURDAY

2008-07-16T00:02:00.000-07:00

Excuse the continuing gig spammage... I'm heading up to the Bayarrhea this week for a few things worth noting, first is the debut of my duo with drum master Donald Robinson. We have been talking about putting this together for a while now and I'm psyched it's going to happen. Donald has played with a number of my heroes (among them: the great Raphe Malik), and he is a real sensitive drummer who is capable of just about anything. So there's no telling where this will go...

Thursday we hit at the Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco, and then Saturday afternoon we'll do a live set at KFJC in Los Altos Hills. You can stream it on iTunes radio or here.

Late on Saturday I'm playing with another distinguished colleague, Long Beach composer/guitarist/producer Chris Schlarb's Twilight and Ghost Stories ensemble. The story behind that provocative band name is Schlarb's intensely beautiful (and conceptually brilliant) new album of the same title. He's assembled a completely different group to perform the music at the Mission Creek Music and Arts Festival this weekend:

Expect a thorough analysis (and regular blogging to resume) after I get back...

THE RETRO METRO SETRO

2008-07-13T23:56:00.002-07:00

Converging on Metro Galleries last Friday night for the newest installment of the jazz and improv series I've been curating: Jeff Kaiser (quartertone trumpet/electronics) + Steuart Liebig (contrabass guitar/electronics) and then Kris Tiner (trumpet/flugelhorn) + Jonathan Moritz (tenor/soprano saxophone) + Chris Welcome (guitar) + James Ilgenfritz (contrabass). A beautiful group of people, no doubt. Here's proof:

DAYS BETWEEN

2008-07-08T22:46:00.000-07:00

I just came across this performance of "Days Between", a piece I wrote years ago for a good friend, (now) Boston-based flautist Andrea Lieberherr. The composition is for three alto flutes + solo dancer and this was its second performance, in the Gamelan Room at CalArts in October of 2004. The flautists here are Andrea (center), Reiko Wanabe (right), and Terese Wagner (left). The dancer is Allyson Boell and I believe the choreography is her own.

I didn't attend this performance (or collaborate on it) so it is curious to note the difference between this version and the original, which was choreographed and danced by Miyuki Kobayashi. Allyson emphasizes a very lyrical, dramatic (sometimes almost Javanese?) aspect of the music and the result is quite beautiful to watch. But this is drastically different than the way the piece was initially conceived with Miyuki. I remember that her thing was to really explore the space around and between the musicians as well as the boundaries of the hall (the walls, doors, and the floor), activating the performance space as a musical time-space.

Indeed, when I wrote the piece I was thinking of a connection between time and distance - how in the anticipation of waiting for something to happen, an interval of time can be perceived as a kind of space, an actual lack of proximity or even a distinct separation. There is something of that embedded in the design of the music, which follows a melody line broken up in space between the three flautists - not hocketed per se, but more like a continuous overlapping, anticipating and delaying, all attempting to confuse and blend the performance space with musical time. So the music was composed not so much as a backdrop to the dance as it was intended to exist in a spatial relationship with it. My program notes, which are partially reproduced at the actual YouTube link, go into more detail about this idea.

I don't think this spatial aspect of the music comes across in the video as much as it would have in the actual space. But I don't get so hung up about all that, mostly because I'm fascinated by the way this performance becomes really another thing altogether on the video screen. The camera work has a lot to do with that - it has its own dance going on as it follows Allyson's movements, sometimes zooming in on faces in the audience and out again... and rather than my original idea of writing music to activate a still space, here the musicians become a very still element that anchors a very active space.

(I was just talking to Nate Hubbard about how YouTube is changing the way artists conceive of their audience. Case in point, Nate and I played a gig recently where less than a handful of people were actually present in the hall. Ordinarily this would be very disappointing... but the performance was being filmed and recorded, and during the performance we all knew it was eventually going to end up on the internet. Sure enough, now the excerpts are posted here, here, and here. So far the three clips have 215 views between them - not so good by YouTube standards but for an improvised music show 215 listeners would have been quite the success story. And this "extended audience" will of course get gradually bigger and bigger. So my question is, how does/should/will all of this affect the psychology of a performer, or the actual dynamics of a live performance? With audiences for new music arguably on the decline at the same time that artists are more and more capable of potentially unlimited self-dissemination of video and other electronic media, will live performances become more like recording sessions, where the music doesn't actually become itself, doesn't fulfill it's cultural function until after it is performed?)

A KIND OF BLIND LOVE

2008-06-17T19:51:00.000-07:00

I'm just now getting caught up on 3+ weeks of blog reading, and today I found this great post by Larry at Funky16Corners paying tribute to The Flamingos' "I Only Have Eyes for You", one of the most transcendent performances of a pop song, ever. Like a lot of people I'm sure, this song is deeply rooted in my subconscious, like an early, early memory that I don't have any words or images for. It's just there, along with mom and dad and my first dog and the smell of the big tree I used to climb in our front yard... And more importantly it's a song that stays good; I still go back and listen to it quite often.

Larry makes a few keen observations:

"There’s something special about the spare instrumentation - pretty much just piano, drums and guitar – contrasted with a rich, velvety blanket of human voices, all of it arranged to perfection (whoever came up with the “shoo-bop-sh-bops” ought to be awarded some variety of the Nobel Prize) that simply blows my mind."

Indeed. And it's not only that clever doo-wop hook, Nate Nelson's flawless lead vocal, or even that incessantly repetitive (in a good way!) 12/8 piano figure that keeps coming back again and again... it's that there are so many small things that fall into just the right places: that harmonically ambiguous beginning (with the bizarre placement of those "obsessive, almost dark" first two lines that rival only the opening of "God Only Knows" for most surprising lyrical intro to a love ballad); the eerie chorus effect on the guitar line doubled with the bass; a seamless background vocal arrangement over those harmonic left turns taking us into and out of the bridge; that soaring, wistful falsetto that becomes more and more prominent as we near the end, and don't get me started on the production (notice the subtle panning effect at the very end? rapture!).

Larry again:

"I’d go as far as to say that this is a signal record that verily transcends the construct (constriction) of genre, elevating itself to an entirely different level. It’s almost the musical equivalent of a meditative exercise, where you just close your eyes, allow yourself to be enveloped by the music (which you all probably do every now and then anyway) and just kind of feel it. Whether the Flamingos intended it or not, this record is possessed of a kind of otherworldly magic."

Quite right. And for a song that's been covered by the likes of Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra and many other legends, The Flamingos really did everything right here. My other favorite version has to be Lester Bowie's with Brass Fantasy from 1985 (out of print and hard to find, although it's available digitally on iTunes or here). Ten and a half minutes of lyrical doo wop brass bliss, played as buttery slick as only Lester can, and then midway through he rides a key change as things get slower and looser and slower and looser.

Anyway, here are The Flamingos to play you out... sounding like 1959, looking like 1979!

THE FACE OF CHANGE - VI

2008-06-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

Last one. It was certainly refreshing to see the level of interest in our elections among both the French and the English. Particularly during the week that Obama wrapped up the nomination, the impression I got both from the media coverage and from people I talked to reflected a very genuine enthusiasm about this candidate's capability to be a real transformational leader... so different from the tabloid games being played up by the American media.

At least we're paying more attention to our own elections this time around. But our general ignorance to the world outside our borders is as inexcusable as it is unreciprocated. They seem to care far more about our politics than we care about theirs. How many Americans could even name the President of France? Or the British Prime Minister?

TOURIST POINT OF VIEW

2008-06-11T16:09:00.000-07:00

Now that the music is over and Kim is here the real work begins: cramming as much sightseeing as we possibly can into just five days in Paris and three in (and around) London. We're celebrating five years of being married, after all, so no slacking on this trip.

Coming back to Paris tonight we both agreed that this city is certainly more our style. Funny we should both feel that way, that the country where we don't speak the language should seem more like home. And after staying over two weeks in France I felt this very strongly when we left, even began to really miss it in a homesick kind of way.

It may have had to do with the somewhat rushed nature of our time in London, squeezing in a day trip to the countryside, but we did cover a fair amount of the city and the impression was very much that of a place in flux, confused even, perpetually under construction with an incredibly jumbled sense of architecture that awkwardly juxtaposes classical opulence with stark urban modernity. Paris seems far more stable, centered, focused. The bustling, big city attitude is certainly there but underneath that surface is a pronounced sense of calm, as if however active things get, they all will inevitably and continually return to stillness.

My camera battery died in London so I didn't take many photos other than these few from our trip to Stonehenge and Bath:

Both were highlights for me. In London we also visited the impressive new Tate Modern where I finally got to spend some time with Rothko's Seagram Murals. Amazing. Talk about a continual return to stillness. I'll shoot back with more on that later.

MANDALA PHOTOS

2008-06-11T15:37:00.000-07:00

Toulouse photographer Pierre Ricci has posted a really nice set of photographs from last week's show at Le Mandala. Here they are.

Thanks, Pierre!

Also: Troy Collins recently reviewed Stratostrophic at All About Jazz.

Thanks, Troy!

CASTILLO/CORRALES

2008-06-07T10:22:00.000-07:00

Friday's gig, our last of the tour, was at Castillo/Corrales in the Belleville neighborhood in Paris. The space functions as an art gallery and indie bookshop that is run collectively by several artists (one of whom is a friend of our drummer, Paul). It doesn't ordinarily open up as a performance venue so this show was kind of a trial run for them, but it turned out to be a nice evening.

Paris saxophonist Pierre-Antoine Badaroux (check him out on MySpace) opened with a phenomenal solo alto improvisation, and then we alternated with him for two short sets apiece.

After exhausting several leads we couldn't find a drum set for Paul to use on this gig. But creative mofo that he is, he crafted a table-top setup out of several cymbals, buckets, and some metal scraps that he swiped from a construction site near the Louvre earlier in the day. The sound was amazing... it certainly put us in a different space than we're used to, but given the intimacy of the room and the relaxed vibe of the evening it actually made for some very dynamic music. Big props to PK both for organizing this show and for inventing a musical instrument to play on it...

PARIS

2008-06-07T10:07:00.001-07:00

Some scenes here from our trolling around Paris the last couple of days: on the train, dinner time, outside Notre Dame, inside Notre Dame, Jason (the birthday boy) outside the Louvre, group shot outside the Louvre, the Lapin Agile (Picasso and Modigliani's hang) in Montmartre, Sacre Coeur Basilica, view of Paris from Sacre Coeur, backside of Gare du Nord, somebody's clean (!) laundry, and one of those quality Paris eateries...

THE FACE OF CHANGE - V

2008-06-07T09:47:00.000-07:00

THE FACE OF CHANGE - IV

2008-06-06T09:46:00.000-07:00

LE MANDALA

2008-06-06T09:34:00.000-07:00

The folks at Mandala really treated us right on Wednesday night. And what a great space - it's a very hip old jazz club that has been around upwards of 20 years, staffed by musicians and artists who support the place as a collective effort. They have two main rooms, a bar, a kitchen and a beautiful patio where we were treated to a delicious dinner (bacon-wrapped chicken pesto!) with the owner and the staff. We had a very good crowd for the show too, considering this was our first time in Toulouse and they don't often host American bands at this venue. It was sort of a jolt initially to play as a quartet again after working with Patrice and Aurelien for the past week, but we found some nice spaces and people seemed to genuinely enjoy the music. Everyone stayed through two sets anyway, past midnight for a mid-week show... we rarely get that kind of support in the U.S.!

The light was low so these pictures aren't the best, but there was a local news photographer there who should be sending me some better shots shortly...

THE FACE OF CHANGE - III

2008-06-06T09:33:00.000-07:00

MORE FROM TOULOUSE

2008-06-06T09:31:00.000-07:00

The view from our hotel, a morning stroll (with French fries... in France!), some Empty Cage publicity, inside the Notre Dame cathedral, and a big catch.

TOULOUSE ARRIVAL

2008-06-04T19:10:00.000-07:00

TRAIN TO TOULOUSE

2008-06-04T18:57:00.000-07:00

CHECKMATE!

2008-06-04T18:52:00.000-07:00

Take that, Kikuchi... (I'm the red pieces, and the thimble):

NEW FRIENDS

2008-06-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

Clarinetist Aurelien Besnard (above left) was absolutely amazing while we were in Montpellier last week, hosting us on behalf of his Rude Awakening record label, hooking us up with some of the very best food and hospitality in Montpellier, translating for our poor French every place we went, and taking care of a lot of the promotion and the general business aspects of this project. Plus he's an extremely creative improviser on Bb clarinet, bass clarinet and contrabass clarinet...

Patrice Soletti (on the right in the pic above) is a wonderful guitarist who can bring anything from bebop to avant-noise to the table. He has a great ear and was able to situate himself immediately in our rhythm section despite the fact that he speaks very limited English and most of our conversation with him had to be translated through Aurelien. Turns out he's a good cook too - we got to enjoy Patrice's cooking to celebrate the end of our three days at Studio Lakanal and it was some of the best food we had in Montpellier - home cooked lamb stew with couscous (and quinoa for me):

I've mentioned Sam Harfouche already - he's the filmmaker who is documenting our project for a DVD release on Rude Awakening:

Sam is a super, super nice guy, and also a musician who does very interesting work on found percussion and electronics. You can hear some of his music here and check some of his films at Aurelien's video page.

THE FACE OF CHANGE - II

2008-06-04T08:26:00.000-07:00

LES REPAS SANS BLÉ

2008-06-03T08:55:00.000-07:00

One of the real spoils of being here in the south of France is all the great food. We have been lucky enough to make connections with the chefs at two very good restaurants who are more than happy to accommodate for my gluten-free diet. I thought I would really be missing out on the baguettes, croissants and pastries but the food here is so natural and unprocessed that it's relatively easy to avoid anything with wheat flour or wheat starch, thus making Kris a very happy man.

(Ironically - for me at least - the French word for bread is "pain" - which helps me avoid going into places that are gonna make me sick)

Mostly the cooking is very simple, with lots of vegetables and simple sauces, and often curious combinations of sweet and spice. Above is a typical lunch buffet at l'Oignon Givré. We've eaten lunch there most every day and the chef has been making these incredible soups for me to substitute for the quiche that the other guys get - carrot soup, onion soup, potato soup, even strawberry soup for dessert one day which was amazing - blended strawberries with mint leaves!

Tops by far are the meals we had at Baloard before our concerts. On Wednesday night we started with egg bread and eggplant soup, followed by one of the best steaks I have ever had:

On Friday night I had a salmon-zucchini cake with white rice and blended carrots (a meal my daughter would surely appreciate):

One more culinary highlight - from dinner Thursday night at an outdoor pan-ethnic café. I had white fish (poisson baïa) with coriander and coconut:

This is the place - nice, eh?

THE FACE OF CHANGE

2008-06-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

GROUP SHOT WITH UMBRELLA

2008-06-02T11:50:00.000-07:00

GROUP SHOT

2008-06-02T11:45:00.000-07:00

STUDIO LAKANAL: DAY THREE

2008-06-02T11:10:00.000-07:00

8pm here and the end is in sight. Today turned out to be another long one, beginning at 11am with some fairly intensive listening to yesterday's takes and making decisions as to what we'd attack today. It was pretty obvious that we needed to go back and re-track two of the tunes - the first we got in one take and the second we got in about seven. Sheesh. Good news is we're done, with a few hours to spare for some simple edits and a quick pre-mix.