I’ve technically been back in the states for about half a week now, but I still feel like the dust hasn’t totally settled. We got in Wednesday night, had Thursday off, played Seattle on Friday, and then on Saturday I had a nice mellow duo gig in downtown Portland. So, today, Sunday, has felt like my first real day off. I’ve got Picasa open here and I’m finally ready to make some tea and write this damn tour diary.
Allright. We arrived in Amsterdam on Thursday morning, November fifth. After picking up the rental car we made our way to the hotel, but it was too early to check in. We walked around historic Haarlem in a jetlagged haze. It was gray and drizzly but we had some nice hot frites and walked around looking at old buildings and canals. After getting some rest we headed into Amsterdam for our evening repast, and after seeing a bit more of the town we headed back for an early night, since we had a big day coming up.
Friday morning we got up early and headed to Smoeff. Todd rented a drumset and a guitar amp, so we had to meet Heisse at his storage facility and somehow pack all of the gear and luggage into the station wagon (which was about the size of your average American sedan). Our next stop was Willebringen, the small village where we stayed for the first week. Todd rented a small apartment from a nice married couple. The apartment is adjoined to the house, which was built in 1730! We got settled in to the place by late afternoon on Friday, and had just enough time to get ready and head out to our first gig.
The Sass ‘n’ Jazz is a small club in the heart of the Turkish district of Brussels; the group that played right after us was a traditional Turkish ensemble which featured the Sassi, a guitar-esque Turkish instrument. They sounded great! The club owner, audience, and other musicians were all very kind to us, and actually the rest of the tour continued in a similar tone. Todd sold a fair amount of merchandise, we got Olivier (the Belgian bass player) up to speed, and everybody recognized almost every Serge tune we played. It was a great time, even despite the jetlag.
We had the weekend off, and we took the opportunity to wear ourselves out checking out the old world on foot during the day, so that we could easily sleep at night despite the unfamiliar time zone. All day Saturday we walked around Leuven, a town near our homebase in Willebringen. I guess it was destroyed pretty thoroughly during WWII, but there are still lots of amazing historic buildings to check out, including one really elaborate cathedral (the first of many!). As you walk up to this thing you notice that it is covered in hundreds of very detailed statues.
Sunday was also spent walking around Old World cities in Belgium, Brussels in the morning and Mechelen in the afternoon. Brussels is huge and really thriving, and we were able to check out a few cathedrals, as well as some crazy antiques at a flea market and adjacent shop/museum. Mechelen is quieter, but still extremely historic. We grabbed some lunch and then checked out the cathedral in the central square, it was definitely the tallest and most impressive one we’d seen up till that point. It was a great day of walking around, followed by an excellent evening of drinking wine at our host’s kitchen table. Despite Belgium’s well earned reputation as a beer lover’s utopia, our host Frank turned out to be quite the wine enthusiast, and he was generous enough to drink about five bottles of wine with his wife, Willie, Todd and I – one bottle was twenty seven years old, even older than me! They were amazingly hospitable, and I feel lucky to now have such friendly acquaintances in Belgium.
Having spent the weekend getting acclimated and well rested, we were ready to get down to business and play shows on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night. Monday night we played at a very small club in Ghent called Bar Deco. The owner, Kristoff, is actually a jazz drummer and percussionist (later in the evening Willie and I heard him play some slamming cajon like stuff on a barstool with his bare hands), and he sometimes has jam sessions at his club. He did some good promoting for us, and even hooked us up with a nice dinner. Before the show we rehearsed with Jouni, the bass player who played the three Paris gigs with us – he is a nice guy and a great player. After taking our dinner break we got started, and the place felt really packed, especially since it was such a cozy venue. People really seemed to dig it, and once again, the Gainsbourg material was not lost on the European audience. After the show Kristoff poured Willie and I a slightly overwhelming series of shots, and he was very enthusiastic about us enjoying them. Todd was off the hook because he had to drive. Here is a photo of us with Kristoff, our new friend in Ghent.
[At this point I stopped writing for almost a week - it is now Friday, the day after Jessica and I cooked and ate an immense amount of food in honor of Europeans moving across the ocean and, allegedly, amicably feasting with native peoples; the Claudia Quintet's "Semi Formal" is on the stereo, and at last I am about to finish part one of these notes.]
We didn’t get home till very late Monday night, and Tuesday was a long and very excellent day. We got up on the early side, packed the car, and headed to Germany. Tuesday night was our show in Aachen at “Madame Dumont’s,” a small club which has been there for about fifty years! Our new friend Arman has owned the club for the last fifteen years, and he was the most exceedingly generous host we encountered on our tour. We met him at the club in the early afternoon, dropped off our gear, and figured out the day. He had promoted us very actively, and there was a chance that Todd would do an interview on the local radio station right before the show, but alas, this fell through due to, apparently, the laziness of college students. In any case, Arman’s friends and customers all must believe him when he says that a show will be good, because the smallish club was packed before we started, and Todd’s introduction was received very warmly; we got to hear applause before we’d played a single note! The evening continued very smoothly; the music went extremely well, people enjoyed it, and Arman even actively helped Todd sell CD’s. This show was definitely one of the highlights of the tour.
The following night’s show was nowhere near as satisfying. After drinking till very late at Madame Dumont’s, and then meeting Arman for breakfast and a short walking tour of Aachen (they have an amazing cathedral there), we stopped at our headquarters and proceeded to Antwerp to play at a small club called “Buster’s.” Nothing went terribly wrong at this show, but the reception and vibe did not live up to the previous evening. Nonetheless, even though the night got off to a slow start, by the end of the second set the place was pretty full, and people seemed to dig us. More CD’s and T-shirts were disseminated amongst the Belgian populace. Not a bad show, considering it was Armistice day and people don’t go out too much on that day. In fact, I had a short but interesting conversation with a nice older man in the audience who, because it was Armistice Day, was prone to ruminating about the disturbing nature of many historical events from Europe in the twentieth century. I suppose almost no country is without that side, though. Anyway, the show was a relative success even though it felt like a bit of a letdown when compared with the previous evening’s extremely positive vibe; but by that point I was ready for a little break from drinking too much anyway. After the festivities in Ghent and Aachen, I felt like drinking almost no alcohol at night, to preserve enough energy to take in Europe during the day and still play well at our gigs.
We were happy to have Thursday off; we slept a bit late, and in the afternoon Willie and I walked around rural Willebringen a little bit, and then sat down at the kitchen table and ate cheese, salami, and bread for about two hours. We also had red wine and Belgian chocolate; truly a feast to remember! In the evening, we headed into Brussels to check out Todd’s old college roommate’s band’s CD release show. It was at a really nice theater type venue which we may play on the next tour, and they packed the house. It was a slamming evening of fast paced Euro-Fusion (whatever that means). This day off marked the halfway point of our trip; the following morning we were on our way to Paris!
This week there are exciting shows on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I hope you can make it to some or all of these great shows!
Wednesday, October 18th
Todd Bishop’s Pop Art 4
European Tour Kickoff!
www.popart4.com
www.myspace.com/69anneeerotique
6-8 pm
Mississippi Pizza
Willie Matheis – Saxophones
Dan Duval – Guitar
Joaquin Toler – Bass
Todd Bishop – Drums
Come help us celebrate as we prepare to spend two weeks playing in Belgium and Paris in November! Todd, Willie and I have been working hard on this book of the music of Serge Gainsbourg, and we’re getting ready to play the hell out of this music on our international tour. We’re also grateful to have special guest Joaquin Toler on bass for this show, he sounds amazing as always. Stop by the above websites for more info about Todd’s great band and our upcoming tour.
Thursday, October 29th
Dan Duval Quintet
9-12 pm
The Tugboat
Sliding Scale, $8 Suggested Donation
Lee Elderton – Saxophones
Tom Garcia – Saxophones
Dan Duval – Guitar
Joaquin Toler – Bass
Todd Bishop – Drums
This is the last in a brief series of shows I’ve been doing at the Tugboat every other Thursday in October. This week we’ll be playing two whole sets of my original music, adapted to the quintet format for a night of absolutely unrepeatable music. The band is starting to really cohere, and I think at this pace we’ll be ready to cut a great record within a year or so. There are some recordings of this group at my reverbnation page, a few of them can be downloaded for free! This is a good show to catch because we won’t be playing again until December, so we hope to see you there!
Friday, October 30th
Portland Jazz Composer’s Ensemble
Redeemer Lutheran Church
$10
I actually won’t be performing at this show, but I’ve submitted a piece, and it was both exciting and enlightening to hear this great band bring it to life at rehearsal. Here is what Andrew has to say about this group:
“Gus Slayton and I are excited to be presenting the final concert in our second full year of performances of new works by local jazz composers performed by the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble this coming Friday, Oct. 30, at Redeemer Lutheran Church in NE Portland. We’ll be performing new works by Dan Duval, myself, Kyle Williams, JW Davis, and Sam Howard, as well as some of our favorite pieces from our library. We’re very pleased to be able to present these concerts three to four times a year, and we really appreciate your support of our efforts to strengthen the jazz scene in Portland, especially as far as large-group composition is concerned. Redeemer Lutheran is located on the corner of NE 20th and Killingsworth – there’s easy parking and great acoustics. We hope to see you all there! Here are the details:
Friday, October 30, 2009, 8 PM
Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble
Redeemer Lutheran Church
5431 NE 20th Ave. (at Killingsworth)
Portland, OR 97211
$10
Directors: Andrew Oliver and Gus Slayton
Trumpets: Mike Hankins, Tree Palmedo, Brooks Barnett
Trombones: Dave Bryan, Nick Sweet, Douglas Peebles
Saxophones: Lee Elderton, Willie Matheis, Gus Slayton, Mieke Bruggeman
Rhythm Section: Kyle Williams (guitar), Andrew Oliver (piano/keyboard), Bill Athens (bass), Kevin Van Geem (drums)
There’s some new audio up as well as all the info on our site http://www.pjce.org .”
And just one more:
Tuesday, November 3rd
Andrew Oliver Sextet
Ben Darwish’ Notes From the Underground Series
McMenamin’s Mission Theater
Free!
Andrew Oliver – Keys
Mary-Sue Tobin – Saxophones and Clarinet
Willie Matheis – Saxophones
Dan Duval – Guitar
Eric Gruber – Bass
Kevin Van Geem – Drums
Here’s what Ben has to say:
“CHECK IT OUT…
If you haven’t been to my new music series, you owe it to yourself to see what’s been happening at the Mission Theater every first Tuesday. McMenamin’s really out did themselves on this one. I’m able to get some of the most amazing music in Portland and present it to you at the price of FREE. In addition, it’s HAPPY HOUR with $3 BEERS AND WELLS!! The Andrew Oliver Sextet is one of the most creative bands in Portland right now if you didn’t know. It’s not just jazz, it’s good music. Now that’s something everyone can enjoy. Hope to see you there on November 3rd.
- Ben
Info and music at:
http://www.andrewoliver.net/sextet
Movies at the break! Shown between 9:30-10pm:
Horace Silver Quintet + Elvin Jones — Denmark, 1968
Joe Lovano and Steve Kuhn Quartet: Remembering John Coltrane – Salzau, Germany, 2008
Ahmad Jamal Trio — Paris, France, 2005″
Yeah! Exciting stuff. And, of course, the day after that show, we embark on our European Tour! WooHoo! Thanks for supporting local live music, every bit of help counts. I hope you can make it to at least one of these exciting shows.
One week from tomorrow I’ll be on a plane to Amsterdam! Todd Bishop, Willie Matheis and I will be spending a few weeks de- and re-constructing the music of Serge Gainsbourg in small clubs in Belgium, Germany, and France. We’ll be playing seven shows in just under two weeks. I’m happy that we have some days off, since I’ve never been overseas before, and will definitely want to take in as much as I can in between rushing to shows and playing them.
Over the last year this has become one of my favorite groups to play with. Todd hired me to do some overdubs on the album during summer of 2008, and since then I’ve played most of the Seattle and Portland shows, including the elaborate CD release show at Holocene last winter. Willie and I have played together for years in the Andrew Oliver Sextet and many other groups. For the tour we’ll be joined by a couple of different European bass players. It will be great to meet those guys and get a glimpse into the European music scene as they’ve experienced it. Even if all of the venues are tiny and sparsely populated, I know I’ll be satisfied with the experience of playing our music in the Old World for a few weeks. Todd’s two websites have lots of details about the band and the tour, and my two websites have some good recordings of gigs I’ve played with the group.
We’ve been rehearsing feverishly and the music is really shaping up nicely – Todd will be recording most of the shows, so there will be some new audio available online upon our return. There are a slew of events coming up this week (see next post), and I’m feeling luck to have so much satisfying stuff to do here before heading off on an extremely promising musical adventure. Be sure not to miss our Tour Kickoff show at Mississippi Pizza this Wednesday (6-8pm), the music is starting to take some serious shape!
I’m sitting extremely contentedly in my new office. Keith Jarret’s “Belonging” is on the stereo, and I’m reminded of a younger version of myself who complained about Jan Garbarek’s playing being “too smooth.” Man, I was such an asshole!
Before last weekend, my office was in the basement. Our basement is quite unfinished. The rafters and piping are covered with old sheets. The floor is cold, hard cement with an exposed drain in the corner, which did actually back up once when filled with rogue waters from our washing machine. Also, the air down there is very moist. I didn’t regularly spend time at my desk, because I was kind of afraid my lungs would fill with mold. I also was keeping lots of books and LP’s down there, and I became increasingly possessed by the disturbing thought that they would be irreparably damaged by their damp environment.
Last weekend, I finally had some free time, so I scratched the itch and began moving things upstairs.
My new office is in the attic. The attic is finished quite nicely. The floor is carpeted, the walls are made of sheet rock or some similar material, and all of my clean clothes are kept up here. My desk is facing the only air conditioner in the house, which is located right next to the baseboard heater, so I know I’ll be comfortable working here in any season. In addition to all of the music literature that’s been moved up from the basement, the room is equipped with lots of Greek plays, contemporary novels, philosophy text books, and other literary odds and ends. There is a nice comfy chair that used to be the wedge in a sectional couch; it was donated by a friend a few months ago, and is a great place to read or watch TV. The room already feels lived in, and I foresee many hours of heightened productivity occurring here, in unprecedented comfort.
Among the things that made the move up from my basement are my CDs and stereo. They too are getting more attention thanks to their more habitable environment. I have already spent a little time going through my many CD’s, purchased, donated, and burned. There are piles of cases which contain the music that their labels promise; there are piles of empty cases associated with misplaced or permanently lost discs; there is a large pile of CD’s of my many varied colleagues’ work; and there are huge piles of burned CD’s that arrived here through a multitude of channels. The burned CD’s probably really started pouring in right when I started college. That was the time that the blank medium became extremely affordable, and that no one would think of paying $18 for something a friend would give them for free. I think it was also the time the record industry started to tank.
It is fascinating to sit and go through these discs, and not only because of the associations they have for me. It’s been a nice reminder that visual material accompanying a recording can be extremely valuable. A lot of times I feel lost when listening to mp3s I’ve downloaded that have no accompanying artwork. It is painful to sit in front of the computer when using iTunes, and not only because of its inferior file management skills: staring at its interface makes me constantly want to surf and change the track! But when I put on Bill Frissel with Dave Holland and Elvin Jones and look at the wonderful cartoons on the cover, I feel content. And when I select a jazz record and then read the personnel and look at their photos, I am at ease. Even though I’ve only begun the relatively enormous task of going through all this shit and organizing it, I feel totally satisfied with the idea of spending lots of time in this comfortable environment and going through the music that I love.
This project also makes me feel more motivated than ever before to release albums of my own, and figure our how to get them attractively packaged. The music part is not as hard because, although it has its difficulties, they are familiar to me; but the EP I recorded last February is still languishing on the shelf because I am so inexperienced with the production end of things! Keep watching; “Harmoniopolis” could become tangibly available at any time (you can already here it at www.danduval.com or www.reverbnation.com/danduval – however, the David Bowie cover is only on the first of the two websites). I just have to talk to a few more people and allocate a little money to produce the final, packaged product, and then … well, five bucks for five songs, delivered in a lovingly decorated and informative sleeve, is not a bad deal at all. And, after I get that together, all I have to do is make the next album …
[I've decided to transcribe some choice passages and share them with you, dear reader. I will keep my editorializing to the bare minimum. Also, it's spoiler free.]
“Why, thou monkey,” said a harpooneer to one of these lads, “we’ve been cruising now hard upon three years, and thou hast not raised a whale yet. Whales are scarce as hen’s teeth whenever thou art up here.” Perhaps they were; or perhaps there might have been shoals of them in the far horizon; but lulled into such an opium like listlessness of vacant, unconscious reverie is this absent minded youth by the blending cadence of waves with thoughts, that at last he loses his identity; takes the mystic ocean at his feet for the visible image of that deep, blue, bottomless soul, pervading mankind and nature; and every strange, half-seen, gliding, beautiful thing that eludes him; every dimly-discovered, uprising fin of some undiscernable form, seems to him the embodiment of those elusive thoughts that only people the soul by continually flitting through it. In this enchanted mood, thy spirit ebbs away to whence it came; becomes diffused through time and space; like Cranmer’s sprinkle Pantheistic ashes, forming at last a part of every shore the round globe over. (152)
[The following two passages offer glimpses into the fascinating portrait of the three "cannibal" harpooneers; very subtly drawn stuff.]
“I was a good Christian; born and bred in the bosom of the infallible Presbyterian Church. How then could I unite with this wild idolator in worshipping his piece of wood? But what is worship? thought I. Do you suppose now, Ishmael, that the magnanimous God of heaven and earth – pagans and all included – can possibly be jealous of an insignificant piece of black wood? Impossible! But what is worship? – to do the will of God – that is worship. And what is the will of God? – to do to my fellow man what I would have my fellow man do to me – that is the will of God. Now, Queequeg is my fellow man. And what do I wish that this Queequeg would do to me? Why, unite with me in my particular Presbyterian form of worship. Consequently, I must then unite with him in his; ergo, I must turn idolator. So I kindled the shavings; helped prop up the innocent little idol; offered him burnt biscuit with Queequeg; salaamed before him twice or thrice; kissed his nose; and that done, we undressed and went to bed, at peace with our own consciences and all the world.” (51)
[Then, later, out at sea ...]
In strange contrast to the hardly tolerable constraint and nameless invisible domineerings of the captain’s table, was the entire care-free license and ease, the almost frantic democracy of those inferior fellows the harpooneers. While their masters, the mates, seemed afraid of the sound of the hinges of their own jaws, the harpooneers chewed their food with such a relish that there was a report to it. They dined like lords; they filled their bellies like Indian ships all day loading with spices. Such portentous appetites had Queequeg and Tashtego, that to fill out the vacancies made by the previous repast, often the pale Dough-Boy was fain to bring on a great baron of salt-junk, seemingly quarried out of the solid ox. And if he were not lively about it, if he did not go with a nimble hop-skip-and-jump, then Tashtego had an ungentlemanly way of accelerating him by darting a fork at his back, harpoonwise. And once Daggoo, seized with a sudden humor, assisted Dough-Boy’s memory by snatching him up bodily, and thrusting his head into a great empty wooden trencher, while Tashtego, knife in hand, began laying about the circle preliminary to scalping him. He was naturally a very nervous, shuddering sort of little fellow, this bread-faced steward; the progeny of a bankrupt baker and a hospital nurse. And what with the standing spectacle of the black terrific Ahab, and the periodical tumultuous visitations of these three savages, Dough-Boy’s whole life was one continual lip-quiver. Commonly, after seeing the harpooneers furnished with all things they demanded, he would escape from their clutches into his little pantry adjoining, and feafully peep out at them through the blinds of its door, till all was over. (145)
[And I'll leave with some words from the captain himself ... I especially enjoy the "metaphysical" worldview described so poetically in the opening.]
Hark ye yet again,–the little lower layer. All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event – in the living act, the undoubted deed – there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there’s naught beyond. But ’tis enough. He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him. Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I’d strike the sun if it insulted me. For could the sun do that, then could I do the other; since there is ever a sort of fair play herein, jealousy presiding over all creations. But not my master, man, is even that fair play. (157)
Today I received “Pikmin 2″ in the mail, and, after taking care of some practical matters and eating dinner, I got real comfortable in my living room and dove into the sequel to what has become my favorite GameCube game. Thanks to the frenzy of satisfying musical activity that’s just begun to subside, I felt like every second of gameplay was totally justified.
I’m not one to downplay the importance of proper reflection, and lately there’s been a lot to reflect on. The first outing with the Dan Duval Sextet was exciting and fun, and a little exhausting, but it also raised lots of questions and made me aware of several things that I need to work on. I’d like to point out a few of the more open ended issues, in the hopes that some conversations (here, FB, wherever) might spring up and shed light on these areas.
While I love to play the guitar, I’m more proud of my compositions than I am of my performances. I was very satisfied with the players in my group and the way they executed my material, but, since we only rehearsed once, a few of the trickier spots came off imperfectly. Some misplaced horn backgrounds actually created a reharmonization that I have come to find interesting. But the question that this experience raised for me is, do you try and correct your musicians on stage, or address it later? My current view is that you’re better off letting it slide, in the name of keeping a great vibe at the gig, and then fix it at rehearsal. On a sort of related note, if you count off a tune and then realize that you hate the tempo you’re playing, do you stop and restart, or just stretch towards the desired tempo until you’re there? In both of these situations I suppose the better course of action is highly related to the sort of situation you’re in. In general, I’m feeling like even though these are issues that require my attention, things did not get so out of hand as to ruin the music.
On the whole, I’m very happy with the group. I’m going to cull a demo from the recording, and pretty soon you’ll be able to listen to it online. I was almost surprised at how stimulating the quartet set was, even when juxtaposed with the more composed set of the sextet configuration. I truly feel that while each of the three horn players (see previous post) have a highly distinctive voice, the ensemble sound really coheres. Joaquin brought a lot of energy, as well as his excellent classically-trained intonation, and Todd was, as always, extremely colorful and innovative. I don’t know quite how I fell in with such a bunch, but man, am I happy to be hanging with these players. Oh, I almost forgot – the bartender, Linsel, writes an excellent music blog, and said some very kind things about the group. You can read the entry here. It’s a lot of fun to play in a bar when someone as down to earth as Linsel is working. A unique opportunity.
Allright – I must revise my previous statement. I have been waffling about the number of horn players in my new group. Well, the final tally is in. I am proud to announce the debut of the Dan Duval Sextet!
Lee Elderton – Soprano, Alto, Clarinet, Online Commentary
Mary-Sue Tobin – Alto, Section Disciplinarian
Tom Garcia – Tenor, Bari, Physical Comedy
Dan Duval – Guitar, contributor to new school of “Minimalist Jazz”
Joaquin Toler – Bass, Assorted Viking Activity
Todd Bishop – Timekeeping, Broad-Stroke Painting, Drums
I’m getting very excited about playing at the Tugboat this Thursday. We’ll be splitting the bill with the Dan Duval Quartet. That is to say, I can’t turn all of these tunes into sextet arrangements in time for Monday night’s rehearsal, so, after the first set, Tom and Mary-Sue get to go to the bar and relax – you should buy them both a drink, they are great players and nice people! Also, our friend and colleague Andrew Oliver will be recording the night’s performance, so, if you’re interested in hearing your hooting and catcalls on our demo, this is a good show to attend.
So, I’ll be spending the remainder of the weekend with my hammer and chisel, cranking out these new arrangements. Over half of Thursday night’s music will be brand new, having only recently emerged from my book of summer sketches. By the way, thank you, Todd, for that very productive duo session during which some of those sketches acquired many of their important flavors. This is going to be a really great band.
I am in the midst of my mid-to-late summer teaching lull, and frankly, I couldn’t be happier to have the extra free time to work tirelessly on a multitude of projects. There are two at the top of the stack right now: this weekend, we’ll be recording the second Andrew Oliver Sextet record, and then, at the end of the month, I’ve got the second ever Dan Duval Quartet show – and we’ll be a quintet! The first show was a blast, and I’m sure the second will be even more exciting. The book is more than half comprised of brand new material, much of which will surely be whittled down into a more polished form as we continue to rehearse, gig, and … maybe add another horn at some point?!?
So, the upcoming DDQ show is at the Tugboat on Thursday, August 27th, and the personnel includes Mary Sue Tobin, Lee Elderton, Joaquin Toler, Todd Bishop, and myself. We’ll be recording the show and hopefully getting a slamming demo out of the night. This is a great opportunity to see us at an early stage, when the band is just stretching out and feeling that brand-new-group rush of energy. I can’t wait to see what we do next, and I’m amazed that such badasses have volunteered to help me with this project.
But things don’t end there. I am cooking up not one, but TWO, yes, two compositions for the next PJCE concert. I have become more and more excited about writing for this group in recent days, and after hearing their most recent show at the Old Church, I had a surge of energy which yielded some promising new frameworks. I have been listening to lots of Terry Riley lately, and one of the new pieces reflects that. The other one will be an audio postcard from the very bottom of the ocean.
In other news, I’ve just added a “calendar” page to this blog. I plan to add an “audio” page soon, and also figure out how to best manage images in WordPress. I am still a total noob with this software, but I’m getting more and more convinced that it’s the way to go, and so I’ve finally completely ditched the calendars at MySpace and ReverbNation. ReverbNation is in many ways useful, but they pull some pretty aggressive moves that creep me out a bit. I guess they’ve got a bottom line like everyone else. Anyway, I’m excited about this site’s growth, and have been enjoying my sort of first ever forays into the blogosphere. My sidebar will soon be rich in links to favorite blogs, ridiculously great music, etc.
So, this will be a nice, intensive six weeks of musical activity, and I’m really hoping that after that, when Fall sets in, I’ll be ratcheting up the amount of teaching I’m doing. I’m excited about the experiences I’ve had teaching this year, and some of my students have made some extremely encouraging progress. One of them is about to move into the next method book! I’m starting to look forward to organizing the teaching materials I have now, buying more materials (method books, yes, but also, tons of different kinds of paper, in quantity!), and continuing to learn how to better transform our young people into the musicians (or non-musicians, as the case may be) that will suit them and the world best. But before that part of this year starts … there is much important work to do!
On a Sunday night near the end of June, David Valdez called me needing a last minute sub. I showed up at his house to find five kids who’d just graduated from high school reading some badass sextet charts, most of them Dan Gaynor transcriptions of Lawrence Williams tunes (these charts weren’t easy, trying to keep up with the reading made me sweat). David also had two important handouts which I kept, one listed pairs of (musical) opposites, the other listed methods of thematic development. He spoke about the information on these sheets, and honestly, just that talk in and of itself was extremely valuable. He also had us start to try and apply this stuff in our solos, and I really appreciated him not being excessively positive – he told everybody what they needed to do to improve their musical storytelling, myself included. And everything he said was true. It was truly a productive class for me, as a student of music, but also as a student-teacher – I would like to be more like David as an educator. His students are really motivated, and he keeps them supplied with lots of stimulating materials. They’re all on good terms with their teacher, but they still always respect the fact that David has the upper hand. I’m sure a big part of the reason that he commands so much respect is that he’s such an accomplished player, but there’s a lot more to it than that.
I have begun the task of editing my book of original tunes. While I freely admit that my oevre is not very huge, I have a fair amount of work to do because many of the charts are so very unorganized. My main goal is to produce a volume of easy-to-read charts that can be easily adapted to various instrumentations. Some will be traditional lead sheets, and some will be short scores with only two or three systems. All will totally rock when my friends and I breathe life into them. I am excited about gathering all of this material, augmenting it with a few new tunes I’ve got bubbling, and starting to book some gigs around town that I can staff with various combinations of local badasses.
