New Music

Hey All - I've just joined forces with my friend Michael Bross. He's put together a record label called Deep Lever. It's a digital only label with international distribution through IODA.

I've completed tracking for my own EP, using an instrument primarily made of lumber, eyelets, and a giant spring. Not sure when it's coming out, but I'm getting into the post-production phase - preparing the mix to send off to mastering.

So, whoever is out there that might happen to read this, I'll probably not be posting every day or every week, but for now this will be the space where I'll be making braindumps.

In the meantime, be sure to check out the upcoming netlabel release on Deep Lever on July 27. It is a free release with a handful of ambient artists, including me.

Check It!

It's been a long time since I wrote, and I feel so guilty! Isn't that the obligatory bloggers preface to a first post in a long time?

Halloween is coming and I've been reading Bram Stoker's Dracula. It's a complete masterpiece. Anything you might know about the story without having read this book is pure fluff. Bela Lugosi is great, a cinematic icon no doubt. But, as a symptom of the times, his Dracula movies were pretty lightweight. I'm telling you, the book is Veddy Sceddy in comparison to those old flicks.

My theme music for reading these books has been the track Dopethrone by Electric Wizard. 20 minutes of grinding terror music is appropriate for the adventures of Seward and Van Helsing and aurally describes the bleak gothic landscape.

In other news, I've been working with Michael Bross to put together his website for the launch of his new album everything is now. I'm quite proud to say that I've been able to work with him off and on for around about 18 years in various capacities. We played in a couple of bands together and he played trumpet and wrote a piece of music for my recitals in school. Helluva guy! Buy his records!!

Cat Power Sobers Up

I really like artists that can dig into themselves and freely divulge what are their deepest hopes, fears, and emotional states, but I'm always alarmed at the circumstances which led them to that point, and often times, what they've done to perpetuate the situation.

Cat Power is one of those people. She had a pretty depressing life growing up and, unfortunately, got addicted to alcohol when she was very young. Several years, a recording contract, and much odd behavious later, she's sobered up. This NY Times article gives you the lowdown. If you act soon, there's a really cool video interview with her there too.

I'm glad to hear she's sobered up. I'm not so sure it's here to stay, but it's a relief to know that she knows she's got a problem.

Jazz Fest 3&4: Reader's Digest

Okay. Even though I had a blast of a time at the Jazz Festival, I realize that my postings about it have become a labor to write, and most likely a task to read, which is just soooo unblog-like.

So, here is the short and suite version.

Saturday

Saturday was another excellent day with some positive messages. We watched Paul Wertico's presentation about drumming where he stressed how important it was to learn and then forget, and he talked about times when he felt like he didn't do a good job. We lingered for the group afterwards which proved to be one of our favorite groups of the festival - the Muntu Dance Theatre. This is where the leader of the group said "Play To Express, Not To Impress." I'm still chanting it....

After this, we moved to Petrillo where Oscar Brown's daughters had a tribute for him. They were fun and quite sassy. The group sounded good.

Next was Bik Bent Braam from Netherlands. They are an avant-garde big band with arrangements that included elements from all of the various textures in jazz. Dixie, funk, swing, and some serious free blowing. The drummer was my favorite person. Despite the storm around him, he was very relaxed. It was incredible seeing the huge crowd of people that left the shell when they started up. I guess dissonance isn't for everybody.

By this time, we started to really feel the time we'd been spending at the shows. The excitement that started on Thursday combined with the need to listen closely was getting a bit exhausting.

Next up at Petrillo was Jason Moran with Special Guest Bunky Green. Excellent show. Nasheet Waits was the drummer and a guitarist that I think played with Cassandra Wilson was there. Bunky Green is an ass-kicking free jazz musician from Chicago. He was quite deft in both in and out playing.

I'd say Joe Lovano was the biggest disappointment to me during the festival. I've heard him in some really nice combinations with Paul Motian, but his playing of "Birth of The Cool" style arrangements and trying to be an "out" player was just not happening. It seemed a bit forced, like he was trying to show that he could do that kind of thing. The band didn't seem to be having much fun either. The sublime Lee Konitz came on stage for a tune, and even he didn't seem excited to be there.

Sunday

Sunday was another great day. We only showed up for the last two groups of the festival and we felt quite refreshed and ready for more loveliness.

Lee Konitz and the New Nonet sounded really good today. We missed a lot of the show because I managed to run into some of the friends I made during my stint in grad school, but were able to listen a little as we talked. Yes, we stood outside of the seating area to talk and we didn't rustle any plastic bags.

The next and last act of the Festival put a mighty cap on the proceedings. Bookending the performance of Joey DeFrancesco and Dr. Lonnie Smith with the Coltrane tribute on Thursday was perfect. Much like playing jazz tunes, you want the beginning and ending to be great in case there is some funny stuff in the middle.

These two B3 masters just cooked cooked cooked. Joey is a total freak with both his feel and his level of chops. Lonnie Smith came onto the stage gently, sat down gently, and gently started to play. That was just to crank up the tension so that he could rip off heads later on! The best part was that the show ran waaayyyyy over, and a lot of it was intentional. Even though they turned on the houselights and were getting the slash-neck signal from the stage manager, they kept going on! Really fun show, and indescribable. Go see them either separately or together if you can.

Whew! An excellent jazz festival. Even the stuff I thought wasn't that hot was good stuff, just not as hot relatively speaking. It was great to see these people I'd only heard on recordings even if I wasn't happy with some of the things they were doing over the weekend.

Until next year.....

Another Year Has Passed

9/11 - Remember when it didn't mean so much? Remember when someone would say, let's call nine-eleven and you'd say, oh you mean nine-one-one? Now, saying 9/11 means something.

I know someone who was in the Pentagon during the attacks. We sat at home waiting for the phone lines to clear up so that we could get some kind of news. We found out that she was okay, but that feeling the entire building shake on impact and trying not to panic and walk out of the building while terrified was hard to describe.

But, what is that feeling of sadness and grief that comes every year ? As far as I know, no one I know was killed, and I don't know anyone who knows anyone who was killed. All I know is that as my train left for town this morning and we passed a fire station close to 9:00 EST with all the vehicles with their lights flashing in honor, I got that feeling in my stomach.

I had the distinct feeling walking downtown today amongst other people in black clothing that we, as a nation, all feel sad for each other. No matter how we all feel about New York, Bin Laden, or any of our conflicts over-seas, we will grieve collectively every year.

Plastic Bags at Symphony Center

I wasn't going to post about this originally, but I keep thinking about how the lovely evening of the opening night of the jazz festival will always be accompanied in my head by a guy sitting directly behing me crinkling a plastic bag and talking to his friend the entire time. This was Symphony Center, mind you. The home of the Chicago Symphony.

I didn't let them ruin it for me. I leaned forward and concentrated really hard for Kurt and Ari's set.

At the intermission, everyone in our section was grumbling about these guys and talking back and forth about whose responsibility it was to say something. But, who wants to say something like "please be quiet" to a couple of guys who are apparently WAYYYY strung out and quite possibly crazy?

The tough part was when Joshua Redman came on and these guys were yelling things up to the stage during the more solemn moments of Africa. Really, fellas, the music speaks all on its own without your hooting. And Brian Blade, if he heard you, would probably be pretty annoyed at someone yelling "Elvin Jones" during his solo. But then again, Brian seems like such a gracious guy that he would probably take it as a comment. Okay - I would be pretty annoyed!

Fortunately, they left after the first tune.

I like the fact that all kinds of people from all walks of life come out to see all forms of music. It is encouraging to think that not everyone believes that Britney and K-Fed are "the bomb." But, please - if you are going to go into a hall where the audience is in rapt attention, don't blow it for everybody by being loud and insensitive.

Jazz Fest 2 - Nneena, Malachi, Charlie

Friday morning, and pretty smoked after the emotional impact of last night's show. We headed downtown on the train for the first whole day. It was a very entertaining ride because one of the two young guys seated on a 4-seat ahead of us sang a pop-song medley for the entire hour. At first it was a little annoying, but after awhile it was funny, especially because of how old some of the tunes were. It wasn't the best singing in the world, but he rapped in between figuring out what he was going to sing next, incorporating people in the train into the rap.

So, the first thing we saw downtown was a group called Organissimo. I read somewhere that they were billed as the next generation of Jimmy Smith offspring. We travelled specifically to go see them in the afternoon, but frankly I was pretty irritated that they turned out to be a smooth jazz group. If you are calling yourself the offspring of Jimmy Smith, you sure as hell gotta bring it on greasy and grimy!

We moved on to a stage that was across the yard to where The Nicole Mitchell Quartet, including a drummer who used to play with Sun Ra, was composing on the spot. I love this kind of thing. They were playing some intense stuff when we walked up to the stage and then tapered down into a very meditative sounding piece with the flutist, Nicole Mitchell, switching to tenor flute and the drummer putting down his sticks for a kalimba. The bassist settled into a nice vamp and they sat for a while on this nice groove, blowing over top of it.

After the group finished playing they had a question and answer session. Some good things were said about how important it is to be true to yourself and play what you think is the right thing to play. They stressed the importance of technical ability, but used the classic Bird quote, "Learn it, then forget it." In other words, don't barf out licks you learned in the practice room onto the stage. It's funny that a lot of this talk came up after the typical layperson's question, "How do you know what to play." Such a difficult question to answer! What do you say, "Draw from the wellspring of your soul?"

Okay, this is getting long.

So, some of our friends from Denver were in town and we were lucky to spend the weekend with them. After a little visiting, we parted for supper. I got a pulled-pork sandwich from the Robinson's stand. Dee-licious!

After supper, it was time for the evening shows at Petrillo. The first group was a trad style group playing dixieland. Very good stuff, and very well done. I've only heard that music played live in Denmark, so it was pretty refreshing to hear the large ensemble of Dr. Michael White's Original Liberty Jazz Band play.

Next up was the Tribute to Malachi Thompson featuring Africa Brass. Since I wasn't completely familiar with this group, I didn't have any expectations when they took the stage. They are a local group, but were all wearing brightly colored African clothing, beautiful Kinte cloths! I thought it was strange that it was tribute to Malachi Thompson, a member of the AACM. Did he die? I had heard some of his recent recordings and was surprised to hear that he just died in July. A relatively young guy too. As the proceedings unfolded, the concert took on a kind of somber, eerie mood. I know I've been using tonnes of superlatives, but this band was fantastic an just blew the roof off Petrillo. I guess the easiest way to describe them is a very modern form of big band music. Not necessarily "out" but very creatively arranged.

Okay, next was Nneena Freelon. Her show was excellent, and she sounded great, but it was a strange programming decision to stick her where they did. She is a very flashy performer, and her music almost borders on pop, or closer to smooth jazz or easy listening. To put her in between sonic explorers from the AACM and NY Downtown scene seemed a little unfair. Despite this, it was fun to hang out during the sunset and take in her mellow tones.

Whew, still hanging in there?

Charlie always has a different setup when he goes on tour. This lineup was a trio with a drummer, who I didn't know, and a keyboardist named Eric Deutsch who I saw open up for Ron Miles at a show in Boulder.

This was a blistering set. If you don't know about Charlie, he plays an eight string guitar. 3 bass strings and 5 guitar. So, he plays bass and guitar at the same time. It sounds like a novelty, but this guy is the real deal. I have no idea how he is able to play all this stuff. I think he has two brains, because he sounds like two people. The drummer was really funky, a good player, and Eric played Rhodes and some kind of Moog-y sounding synth. Their special guest was Ray Anderson, an inventive trombonist who can play straight solos, as well as a dizzying array of different sounds that aren't supposed to be produceable on a trombone. If you get a chance to see this group, go do it. You'll have so much fun you'll think there is something wrong with you!!

Jazz Fest 1 - Kurt, Ari, Joshua

For the inaugural night of the Chicago Jazz Festival, something very special was put together. The event was billed as Coltrane's 80th birthday celebration with Joshua Redman, Kurt Elling, and special guests. Perhaps I read the blurb incorrectly, but I was very pleasantly surprised to find that there would be two different sets.

The first set was Kurt Elling and Ari Brown playing ballads that Coltrane had recorded either with his group on the Ballads album, or with Johnny Hartman. I thought this would be fun, but it was beyond fun! It was just downright beautiful. Ari Brown is known as an avant-garde player which made me think he would be doing some honking and squealing ( which I LOVE! ) in tribute to 'Trane, but he played some gorgeous, lush stuff over a nice rhythm section of local players with a string quartet on the side. Kurt Elling sounded really great. He wasn't doing any of his kind of hit or miss explorations, but was singing the tunes quite beautifully, still making them sound like Kurt along the way with some interesting phrasing, alteration of lyrics, and some cool mic tricks.

The second set was simply phenomenal. Joshua Redman and his quartet played with the backing of a group of brass players and an additional bassist to play the music of 'Trane's "Africa Brass" album. The first tune, "Africa," was especially impassioned and inspired. Not to say the program ran down hill from there, but this tune was especially dark and poignant. I'd never heard Redman really play in this kind of style before, so it was quite refreshing to hear him play in and outside of the changes with great flexibility. Of course, I was especially happy to see that Brian Blade was playing with him. Maybe it's because I'm a drummer, but I couldn't keep from watching Brian, even when he was just playing time. He's just a wonderful player and played a ferocious solo on this tune.

In retrospect, I'm thinking that Joshua was playing for his dad. I'm assuming he was very ill as he died a couple of days later.

The rest of the set was really well done and concluded with an encore of "Alabama." I first heard this tune 18 years ago in the hobbled together AV lab in my music school. It was a video of 'Trane and the group playing on TV. This tune is one of the many reasons I'm a fan of 'Trane in the first place, and I don't like hearing the tune covered by other people. The context that it was originally written in and the spirit that it was played in just can't be duplicated. I'll say, though, that Redman and company played it very well. I was really surprised at how closely they captured the feeling of the tune without sounding like a cover band or sounding sentimental. Joshua's intro giving the story behind the tune was very nicely done too.

So, that was our first night of the festival. We went home very happy and with lots to talk about!