The Duval Times

Don’t Blink

danduval — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 05:18:07 +0000

The Harmonium recordings need only minimal post production work before they see the light of day!

Change of Season

danduval — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 06:25:54 +0000

Although for me the extremes may be less wild than they are for others, I do swing like a pendulum between manic and depressive states. I just realized that in my musical life, composition suits my depressive side, and performance suits my manic side. It seems obvious when I hear myself say it, but it’s a satisfying conclusion nonetheless.

Since the threat of spring is lurking in this last bout of fierce precipitation, I feel constantly eager for the manic sunlight. This is the hardest time of year for me, but I am weathering the storm the same way I did in the first part of the winter: by playing more video games and thinking more like a composer. And even though those circumstances have not yet been cut short by the abundance of sunlight that will snap me out of these groundhog induced doldroms, I can still feel guitarist blood pumping heavily in my veins. I have been practicing my instrument more regularly than I have for a long time, and as a composer I feel momentarily satisfied and self confident. Although the dream of buying an upright through Schulte will live on, for the moment I am very satisfied with my humble jazz/other guitar / composition existence.

Good Food

danduval — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 04:47:01 +0000

I am getting back in touch with my love of athletic jazz fusion guitar solos. If you listen to the first track or two of the Brian Blade Fellowship bootleg there, you’ll see what I mean. Nice work, Mr. Rosenwinkle! I also enjoyed the stuff with Larry Koonse (he’s on the John Patitucci bootleg a little further down on the same page).

I recently saw two great movies. “The Orphanage” and “Wall E” (sorry, I know IMDB kind of sucks). It had been a little while since I’d indulged my love of film, and it felt great to see a few fantastically well made, intelligent pieces of work, one so scary and heartbreaking, the other so funny and heartwarming. I love Netflix; I hope someday I can find the time to watch even half of the great movies I’ve got in my cue.

State of My Union

danduval — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:29:09 +0000

So far this has been an exciting year. As predicted, the heavier workload has worn me down a bit, but there is plenty to show for it. While the cafe job slogs on in its grey blur, visceral life swarms around it in droves. All of my students are having fun and learning a lot, both at the community center and at my home studio; I am looking forward to expanding my teaching practice over the course of this year.

Much of last fall’s composing was aimed at February’s Jazz Festival, and that was certainly an exciting time. The Sextet played one of my new compositions at the cave, and the PJCE played something that I wrote specifically for them. Last year, I wrote piles of music; it is exciting to see these charts get up and walk around. Some of them are even beginning to take steps towards primitive speech. I will try and take care of them as they age.

Because I am prone to bouts of self pity that are related to my composer’s temperament (harumph), it makes me feel really great to get called as a sideman. This year, on Valentine’s day, right in the middle of the festival, I got to play in Robert’s band, which was rounded out by Glenn Moore and Jonas Oglesby. Robert can sound really great when he is doing what he is most comfortable with, and the rhythm section sounded fantastic. Words can’t express how lucky I feel to have occasional opportunities to play with Glenn. Even though our paths have crossed only rarely, he has made a strong impression on me, and has raised the bar for all improvising musicians. Plus, he’s got an amazing presence – I could watch him play the bass all day long. That night, Robert was calling some of his more soulful material – Otis-esque stuff. I had a ball.

Yet another project is coming to fruition. In 2008, I wrote a healthy batch of material for my new chamber ensemble. If you haven’t heard me rant about this yet, the lineup is:

Dan Duval – Guitar
Skip VonKuske – Cello
Andrew Oliver – Harmonium, Flugelhorn
Bill Athens – Bass

In March, we are finally going into the recording studio! Randy Rollofson will be engineering the excursion; I can’t wait to get this stuff documented and start playing gigs. In fact, with a few more rehearsals and an additional recording session, we may wind up with an entire album on our hands!

Festival Time!

danduval — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 05:06:24 +0000

I love the Portland Jazz Festival, because it usually provides a few exciting playing opportunities with great musicians and appreciative crowds. It is the only time of year that jazz gets lots of ecstatic press, and people really get into it. Actually, this year one of the highlights of the festival for me will solely involve my compositional skills: I spent a big chunk of December and January working on a chart for the Portland Jazz Composer’s Ensemble, and last Monday I finally got to hear them read it down. Most composers these days know what a relief it is to hear your music played by real live human beings after listening to it on the computer hundreds of times – I suspect this is true even for those who own fancy, expensive sequencers. I was fascinated by the process of rehearsing such a large group (even though they’re smaller than most big bands), and the other composers’ pieces sounded great.

I am also still playing with the fantastic Andrew Oliver Sextet – we have been writing new music at least as fast as we can learn it, and our festival gig will feature the debut of new tunes by myself, Andrew, and Kevin – as well as the continued examination of the ever-brimming archives, which, in 2008, expanded to included compositions by four of the six members of the group. We will be playing at The Cave on Friday, February 13th. Wear something lucky.