The Phonologotron

Active Transform Metrics

2011-12-03T07:49:00.001-08:00

I was, like many of my cohort, profoundly influenced by Trent Reznor's first 5-6 years. Pretty Hate Machine, through to the Downward Spiral I listened to them all alot I mean alot. On tape! I love being able to say that, as if it has cache. Anyway. Trent Reznor influenced my thinking in a lot of ways back at that age. The pity is that I didn't have the sense to try to learn those songs then, when I was young. I think at some point I'm going to learn Piggy as well.

I feel we've managed to flesh this out more and more each time it gets played. Looser and looser but with the primary structural elements on display more or less. I think I need to invest in a wha again to get some of the more electronics going.

Cheers.

Vertical Horizontality

2011-10-07T07:04:00.000-07:00

that is all....

except.. I am speaking to a gaggle of graduate students today regarding improvisation and the way we use it in Black House. El Jefe will be talking as well. We'll tandem their brains. I am going to ask for volunteers and lead a couple Interpreters.   Apparently there are 40 people in this seminar.   It'll be like I was back in school and in wind ensemble again, only I get to help them decide what to do. There are approxiately 7 pages of notes I scrawled out the other night as primers for hopefully good discussions.

Black House this go round will be joined by Peter Lawless on the alto weed whacker. Fair warning Pete, I had a bear of a time sight reading my part on Filibuster last week. I'll get those to you soon. All in all I'd say its time to start practicing some bass clarinet.    Ooooh which reminds me,

Pat brought the Octopad to practice last night and we now have a wonderfully broad fantastic palette to work with.   I need a bass synth pedal for the BC, then the sounds would be wickedly warbly weird and wonderful.

Pat by the way, is the Future of Drumming!!

you should vote for him. thanks

2011-09-24T10:32:00.000-07:00

It seems that I use this thing far too occasionally. So here's an update for the interwebz to munch on. I have been working on 4 separate yet disparately related pieces for the upcoming installment of the Black House Workshops. 3 are rhythmically related and the 4th is a one-off from something I worked up on the piano a couple months ago. I am starting to try and think of things as linked together because often what I will do is take a passage from a previous work and develop it into a free-standing piece. Several of the Dune pieces work that way.

Anyway. When writing music I find myself working for 30-45 minutes, stopping and doing something else, yet while I am doing the other thing my subconscious mind is churning all those parts together and fitting the pieces of the puzzle together in ways that are possible solutions to my self-constructed puzzles. So basically some part of me is always working on music even if I am not sitting at the Finale or have a saxophone or bass clarinet in my hands. And what surprises me is the extent to which I have been able to train myself to allow the subconscious part of my mind to do most of that work. Even if my attention is otherwise engaged, I'm fairly certain there is always some thread of melody or rhythm going on deep under the surface. What's funny is when I become aware of myself singing the phrase at C or repeating the drum accents over and over.

If you dear reader(s) are able I encourage you to come out to the Hominid show this Sunday at the Fishtank gallery. I am a sideman in this band, and love it. I get to be the bass player while Hunter and Jeff shred the ever-loving bejeezus out of Hunter's increasingly well-crafted electro-aucoustic tunes. You should have heard our rehearsal on Thursday. Well, no, actually you should just come to our show. It does cost $10 at the door. But I'm no apologizing, because as someone was saying to me the other night, to succeed you have to be ruthless. I think there's some truth to that. Hominid!!! Fishtank Gallery!!!! (around the corner from YJ's) Sunday Sept 25!!!!!!!!! 8pm!!!!!!!!!!

that is all.

Gnosis

2011-07-25T15:49:00.000-07:00

Black House is going to be presenting it's finest session to date this August. Not only have I been impressed with the quality of the music, but the quality of our players and their commitment to raising the level of musicianship, both in our rehearsal process and, ultimately, the performance.

I have nothing but good things to say about each of the gentlemen participating this time.

Stan makes it all worth it. And his tune is a fun little 2nd line number in 5. Wicked ass and going to be a blast to take a ride on.

Brad consistently impresses with his diligence and "this is going to work better if we do this thing" attitude. His tune is hella fun, and he knows so much valuable information about the actual sonic properties of our instruments and how they all work well together.

Tommy, great player! He's got chops and knows his stuff. Its been fun having him here from Lawrence each sunday. Hunter and I have been talking about how he needs to have a solo in something.

Nick. I doubt anyone can really understand my love of this man. He is young Mark Twain, only he plays the trumpet with such aplomb. His tune is a Hermeto inspired little 6/8 cooker that's gonna... well, cook.

John, good guy, solid trombone presence. Laughter is assured at some point from him during rehearsal. And apparently he knows more about soldering than like 6 or 7 of me put together. Seriously, he should get like an honorary electrical engineering degree for all he does up at the conservatory.

Ryan, the stranger from my past. It turns out he and I knew each other in a previously life further down south from here. His contributions to the whole rehearsal process have been breathtaking, literally "thats f@#$ing genius and why didn't we think of that 6 months ago on that other tune"

Chris. A gas. He's playing bari and having shit tons of fun. He's also a writer for DownBeat who has lots of really great observation about how things work in the world. You should check out the interview Hunter did with him over at the Black House blog. His 3 prelude set is going to be fun to snap out on the people.

Leifer. Oh you loveable curmudgeon. He's become a staple presence in BHIC. Drumming the crap out of all my notes and rests. Be excited about what he's going to do during the Hominid set on the 19th, be very excited.

Gerald. What can I say. He's a first call sort of guy who loves doing this with us. Plus he's taught me alot about how to write better and more clear for the bass.

Jeff Stocks. Seriously sir, you are our secret weapon, with abilities as yet untapped I love this man almost as much as I love Mark Twain, but in a different way, because he knows how to use all them thingamajiggers and get good tones from his strings.

and last but not least, El Jefe

Hunter. thanks for all of this. you had the idea, we hashed it out, you did the legwork. I have seen you become more of an actor as opposed to an observer these last 3 years. together we have learned that actions really do speak louder than words.

Grammy Award winning Songwriters!!!

2011-07-01T14:57:00.000-07:00

Seriously though, what does it mean to win a grammy?

Come out to enjoy us on June 16th at Prospero's Bookstore from 10:30 to 11:30 for your favorites from yesterday played all wrong-like. Keep in mind that we think of ourselves as maybe moderately at least quasi-jazz musicians, so we tend to be more punctual than a rocker or a punker would be. So no lazy meandering in at 1115 or your gonna miss most of a set that may change your life and fundamentally alter the structure of your brain.

This band is our band, this land is your band,
we stand together making melodies, threnodies, and metaphors.

Leopold

2011-05-18T17:04:00.000-07:00

Ridiculously Difficult Terrificness

2011-05-05T09:08:00.000-07:00

love it

2011-05-05T06:58:00.000-07:00

So on another local blog I am wont to make outlandish provocative comments that leave many a reader perplexed as to my motivation. There are a variety of reasons for this. One is that I am simply really a dick, have been secretly a dick my whole life, and love being a dick to complete strangers. Another could be that the subtleties of sarcasm are lost upon the internet, and almost everything I say I say with tongue in cheek. The third is that I could really believe some of the things I say. So for those of you who are interested, read some Hobsbawm and Ranger and you might have a better understanding of how I understand and interpret tradition. Those of you who know me personally know that I actually practice quite a lot, and completely understand the need to constantly push one's self into further and further uncomfortable territories. The Phonologotron is in essence a persona, much like rappers with their outlandish names and "beefs" with one another. It seems so much fun I want to participate too. THe only problem with acting like this is one needs to be able to back up what they say with actions, and sorely, I will probably never be the bright shining star on my horns that I would like to be. Still, it hasn't stop me up to this point. I don't know why I feel compelled to make music, well, actually I do. My whole life, playing the saxophone was the thing I did better than anything else, so (being the fortunate middle class child of the 80s that I am) I figured what the heck, lets make a go at it. Along the way I practiced way too much Creston and Glazunov and Denisov and Muzcinsky and Feld than were good for me. Then I discovered jazz through the back door with folks like Zorn and Vandermark. And with my comments I don't mean to be disrespectful, but cant help it sometimes. At least I'm not being dishonest. So for those of you who are interested, yesterday I practiced the Eb omnibook on bass clarinet. And today I am thinking about transcribing some Kirk Hammet on my alto. Hopefully that answers some of your questions dear readers (like I actually have any)

bjork makes me happy

2011-03-05T17:12:00.000-08:00

Here is another go at it.

From our performance a couple weeks ago.

Enjoy!

the Phonologotronic

2011-02-09T20:55:00.000-08:00

So I have a new small group project going. We have decided that the name Phonologotronic is what it shall be known as. I am pleased as punch to be making this music with these fellas.

The basic idea is that I am tired of ideological conversations about "jazz" or "hiphop" or "bop" or whatever the hell else anyone wishes to call it. The history buffs will tell you that one of the oft used techniques fro creating new structures for melodic improvisation was for those jazz cats to take popular songs and repurpose them as vehicles to improvise on. So I guess that's what we're doing here. We are learning some very choice "standards" as it were.

I will not be able to pay any sort of copyright for the use of these songs so I wont mention titles here but suffice it to say that if you imagine Bjork and Thom Yorke making lovebabies with Johnny Cash and Michael Jackson you are starting to get there. Eventually Joni Mitchell and David Byrne will join the show. And because I am learning it all with my ears I'll own it forever in my head.

By learning all of these songs that I've always said throughout my life "wow, that would be a great song to learn" I hope to fundamentally alter the ways in which I approach phrasing in my melodic playing. You see, I am learning the vocal lines of these beloved songs on my trusty bass clarinet. And thinking about the words as I play them will hopefully make my articulations cleaner and more discernible.

The other thing I am counting on is that by learning songs that people are half familiar with in the first place, we will be able to effectively mess with the audience's perceptions of how these songs work in their memory. Also, I dont want to be an obtuse jaszsz(hole) and play music that asks way to much of the audience.

These songs are popular because they are good? Or are these songs good because they're popular? Either way I dont think it matters much because as this trusty quartet develops a grammar the Phonologotronic is going to amass a repertoire fit to rip it with a rapier's wit. And I will gain ever more insight into the inner working of music and logic and the emotional power of tonal subtlety.

and never forget the definite article

peaberry

2011-02-04T06:49:00.000-08:00

Goodness gracious, I haven't posted anything since November!! Well, lets chalk it up to the weather (horrendous snowstorms here in KC this year) and the fact that I have been busy. That's right folks. Busy.

A new session of Black House is upon us and I have two offerings to this particularly muscular group of men. The first one is going to be nice and easy to put together (or at least as easy as I can make it) and the other is actually titled Ridiculously Difficult Terrificness. And whats in a name but a description of what one should expect to hear.

Also on the plate is a bunch of collaborationing with the 940 dance company. Myself and Mr. Otto will be moving through space as we play and interact with the company in the downtown space. Very cool and hopefully these few months of rehearsals will lead to some good music/movement.

What with Egypt going on right now I sometimes find it hard to realize that those events are real and indelible, not part of some fantasy tv play. Or at least I hope they are real and consensus reality isn't ALL some big hoax. But that is another discussion altogether.

I'll post more after BHIC this sunday to let you know. Oh, also... PLBB has finally started looking at the Hunt for the Giant Squid. Expect that one to kill the charts in KC this year!!!

the importance of editing.

2010-11-12T10:39:00.000-08:00

so in the past few months the majority of my work has been editing older things that i sketched out 6 to 9 months ago. In doing so I have discopvered gems that I somehow lost steam on as the creative glut rushed forth, 12 measures here, 16 there, then abandonment to the whims of another tune that felt better sooner and so encouraged its creator to approach a completion point.

and ive realized that most of the anecdotal evidence. a majority of the hardcore work one does on composition is rewriting and rethinking through. and not being afraid to completely throw something out that you've spent at the past 3 hours working on. listening to things the next morning after a late night session is especially revealing.

that's how you get quality music a majority of the time, by constantly asking, well, is this the best, clearest way i could get the effect i aim for? is that part fun for this person to play?

and it has yielded results. I am about 94% done with a new composition for the PLBB that was started months ago for a different instrumentation. And I have implemented some of the things I learned from writing Subtle Nourishment for them. The new on eby the way is titled. Hunt for the Giant Squid. Probably one of the strongest things i've ever written for large forces.

so here i am plugging away and editing Alia, so that it comes out the best I can give it for the performance on Dec. 10.

tata

The Dune series

2010-10-12T19:24:00.000-07:00

For the newest session of Black House Improviser's Collective I have the treat of learning how to really write for a vocalist. I've never really given much thought to it, but figured that it at the very least is a skill worth having in your arsenal if your are going to call yourself a composer of music. So, immediately when we figured out a soprano would be joining us, the idea of Alia came to mind for me. Those of you that don't know whom I am talking about, I refer to the sister of Paul Muad'Dib, the messianic protagonist of the first 2 and a half books of the Dune sequence by Frank Herbert. If you haven't read, I recommend, especially if you are into the whole epic science fiction that doubles as cultural anthropology and ecological awareness some 15-20 years before the idea caught on in the general public.

Beside this point, I have already written a tune titled Hasimir Fenrig, a minor character from this sequence of books, and Alia sprang to mind fully formed out of my head like Athena coming out of Zeus. I'm pretty sure bounding around inside my head is a Gurney Halleck, and Stilgar the Naib. Piter deVries, if he's lurking around in my head somewhere waiting for the right moment to spring forth, is going to be a bear of a piece to play I am sure. But, back to Alia.

Jeff is going to shred the hell out of the guitar part. The neat thing about BHIC this time is we have 2 drummers! I'm so excited. Matt and Pat are sooooo complimentary in the ways that they play its like sublimating straight from solid to gas yet staying the exact same element, with the correct number of protons and neutrons. And we get to exist in both states at once. :)

Alia takes place in 11. One of the drummers gets to play in little 11, the other in big 11. When we read it on Sunday I got really excited. I wrote the part to be a split/stereo. Eventually I want the two drummers to know both parts and switch on the form changes. Especially as we work out the groove system, and solos. I am certain there are 2 solo opportunities. One at the front-end groove before the form starts, probably using the two chords we encounter at bar 5 and then at bar 44. The other solo section will be in the 7/8. Oh, I didn't tell you about the 7/8 yet?

Well 7/8 is where Drummer One plays 2-2-3 with a 16ths subdivision and Drummer
Two gets to interrupt periodically with Alia's dear grandfather, the Baron Harkonnen, beating on her consciousness. The effect was killer when we read through it on Sunday. I have tweaked the bass part the last few days and am thinking when i play a solo it will be on well, yeah, bari. In the 7/8 section.

After the solos I have an outro form and then eventually everyone's heart stops at once. The construction I hope is clever enough to be played well and with good time. And everyone should have a blast listening to this piece of music.

~~Hasimir Fenrig~~
~~Alia~~
Gurney Halleck
Stilgar the Naib
Piter deVries
the Beast Rabban?
Guild Navigator?
Gaius Helen Mohaim?

I mean, it gets pretty deep. I might have like a whole geeky album of Dune inspired music inside of me.

Definitely a good song cycle idea

2010-09-26T12:39:00.000-07:00

1 | Mount Everest | 29035 ft | 
2 | K2 | 28255 ft | 
3 | Kangchenjunga | 28169 ft | 
4 | Kangchenjunga West | 27904 ft | 
5 | Lhotse | 27890 ft |

Totally like a massive mahlerian type battle of symphonic forces.  Lhotse makes me think of a beautfil girl.  Kangchenjunga and its West are the cursed twins who aren't really twins.  K2 is a massive brute of a beastly man and then Everest, constantly comparing himself to Mons Olympus and worried he looks fat, he's a whiny Woody Allen of a Mountain.   Anybody got any good suggestions?

articulation continued

2010-09-23T12:15:00.000-07:00

ok.. so I've been practicing practicing. slur 2 tongue 2, offset tongue-slur, slur 3 tongue the 4th, etc. its funny because I just now finished a session and I was playing what to my ears sounded completely corny and stilted in terms of swing. But the nice thing to realize is this week is paying dividends. I mean.. I am going to need to practice all of this for the next 4 months like a zombie for it to become completely internalized, but I am paying more attention. especially helpful is the metronome. It lets me know if I am rushing, which happens more often than you want it to. Metronomes also help you set what ever sort of metric you need for playing your previously decided upon rhythms.

Also achieved is my nice written out solo to Solar. I am looking forward to seeing what Hunter has cranked out at our next duet session. So moral of the story.. practicing makes you better, finer honed.

articulation

2010-09-15T10:21:00.000-07:00

lately I had an illuminating session of practice with Hunter. He had some very good things to say, which got me thinking alot about articulation. Not to say that I ahven't thought about articulation before but this time I am really going to process the information my senses are giving me.

I realize that as a classically trained saxophone player, my articulation is my weakest concept in terms of overall sound on my horn. And I do all this research about Trane articulations or Cannonball articulations, or ghosting or whatever. And I realize I know what these things are and how to execute them, thats not the hard PART. The hard part is being completely conscious of what I am playing when I play it. Too many of my habits are sloppy. It all stems from one's relationship to rhythm I suppose. Early on when I was in college we played this piece in wind ensemble. Bum's Rush I think, by Donald Grantham, and I was playing tenor. Well, let's just say I exasperated Dr. Missal in private sectional rehearsals over this certain 6 or 8 measures in the piece. And the realization was that I was trying to feel something that I wasn't counting. So I started the long and arduous journey towards automatic counting. First and foremost one must count.

Eventually counting becomes a subconscious process, it just has to be ALWAYS ON. but way deep in your consciousness. The thing I want to become a totally attention payer to is, you guessed it, articulation. And rhythms. especially the placement of beginnings and endings of phrases and licks. A greater awareness of how I am processing rhythm in the moment. Foreknowledge, that has been automated by intentional practice, of the appropriate places to land or start in a jazz context is essential to being culturally accurate. Stylistic accuracy has becoming more important to me as I grow older.

I am slowly beginning to get the whole argument that unless you can play the old way you aint shit. My vocabulary is too modern. Like Ive been reading this book at night recently called Word Origins, all about etymology and the history and relatedness of words and languages to our culture and thought. So I need to internalize that old language, so that my newfangled modern thinking comes out unstilted. I want to walk this magnificent tightrope, but some of those balance exercises are out of balance so to speak.

I think rhythm is perhaps the primary argument in the JNA versus Purist's debate. Orienting oneself to one side or another of the beat allows a perceptual shift in your own sensory processing of the situation while playing music. Big beats, small beats, all the ones in between, and everyone in the ensemble's agreement about what goes where is the key to making music sound "accurate" from a stylistic context.

So the verdict? My current focus is on my tongue, and paying total attention to everything it is doing as my fingers also clamor for space in my awareness. dood'n , cannonball, trane. ghostying, all that shit and more will become my scansion in the near future.

tata

matt otto goodies

2010-08-15T09:05:00.000-07:00

leavings

2010-08-14T13:34:00.000-07:00

going over and over in my head about a double drummer band. Especially if the drummers are radically different in style and approach. fairly certain that I will establish a field/ground approach when constructing rhythmic frames. one becomes the bed upon which the other lays and adorns. with textures provided by Sterling Holman, my own personal guitar-painting guru, and Hunter, the eternal searcher for truth, I lay down both bass-lines and melodies on a variety of winds.

My primary vision with this ensemble is to capture the audience on a subliminal rhythmic level that caters to certain preprogrammed aspects of our biological sound processing mechanisms. I could get into deep theories of rhythm and meter, but that is best saved for academics with the proper vocabulary. I mean, I don't want someone to come away with a skewed view of how tactus level pulse and harmonic phrase groupings interact in real-world music. No, what really matters for me is creating a space wherein their is an overwhelming feeling that action needs must take place. On a subconscious level I want to be able to control the level of anxiety my audience perceives as a result of the way the rhythmic and melodic structures we create influences their perceptive mechanisms.

So two drummers, a guitar-painter, a computer-painter/fellow reedist, and myself on baritone, soprano, alto saxophones, and bass clarinet. Pretty sure I'm going to need an investment in some effects processing pedals, especially as I envision a large amount of this music feeling simultaneously static and frantic. Lots of sustains and reverbs and delays. They make the brain trip over itself and question if what it is hearing is authentic or somehow artificially induced.

And interestingly enough, it does matter to me whether the music sounds good or not. I'm not a well lets make a super secret formula that only literati can decipher and when they do they'll heap accolades and praise on me. If said super-secret formula results in shitty sounding music, then I need to come up with a new equation and some different variables.

Also cooking on the burner is a top-secret idea for a magnificent operetta/oratorio that will totally blow your mind. But I dont' want to spill the beans on it quite yet, because the premise is totally plagiarize-able and I want it known that I delivered this meme into the world squirming and covered in pink fluid first!1 So stay tuned listeners, same bat time, same bat channel. What will tomorrow bring?

teh interwebs in domicilio

2010-08-12T18:47:00.000-07:00

the Black House got a nice write-up today courtesy of Joe Klopus of the Kansas City Star. http://www.kansascity.com/2010/08/11/2141890/black-house-collectives-jazz-sessions.html

Very pleased to see Hunter and mines name in print and e-print. This session of BHIC is going well. We have more material than we really know what to do with. And as a first I only brought in my one composition this time. There have been 8 different guys who brought stuff in. Stan, Gerald, Stamos, Brian Lynn, Matt Otto, Derek, Allan Meyers, and Jeff Davis have all contributed. I think we will be playing some head-charts ala Chris Burnett on the performance as well.

I am overall pleased with how Attribution Theory is going to turn out. I have learned much inthe last year or so of hard gore composition without excuses. PRobably the mot valuable lesson is that the people who you write for want to play their parts well, and will, especially if you ask them how to best write for their axe. Like AMy and the marimba, or TJ and the keyboard.

On the horizon I plan on getting someone to read my heavy metal inspired fantasia for standard big band. I want Arthur White to really dig the shit out of it and help me make it come to life.

I also need to hit a rehearsal or two with the PLBB and help rehearse Subtle Nourishment so they cna get real comfortable with it and start to dig in.

Playing wise I am getting plenty of reps in with JEff Davis, an awesome guitar player and composer who recently has relocated to KC. I am playing alto and soprano with his band Sir Threadius Mongus on a few upcoming gigs later this month. I like this band. The name says it all and I fully intend at some point in th near future to sound just like the horns in Mingus' bands. When Otto and I play these charts I want smoke to roll out of our bells its so hot.

Anyway enough rambling for now. I'll tell more later, with substance.

Progress in Work

2010-07-03T11:36:00.000-07:00

I have been remiss with this thing. Fortunately it is because I have been busy at work and at play. Attribution Theory is going to be performed by the most recent installment of the Black House Improviser's Collective in August. I guarantee you it is one of the best things I have ever written.

I deliberately wrote a piece in 4. This is something that doesn't happen too often anymore. The whole jazz nerd debate the rages across teh interwebs got me thinking. Marsalis has a good point, but our rebuttals all contain substantive arguments as well. I feel like I have discovered in writing this piece, that you can make 4 anyway you like it and yes, it may not swing the way The Keepers of the Flame decree, but it has its own inner rhythmic coherence

Attribution Theory is notated in 4, but really is actually full of tons of odd groupings. The original part that I wrote was the marimba part. Oddly enough I was excited because I love marmiba music and wanted to write something that could approach their canon of work. Needless to say, I have never written for marimba before and it showed. Amy was like, "uh.. this is gonna take me like 6 months to work on, and not 2." Anyway, I have changed that and the part is now totally playable and going to kick lots of ass when we perform it.

So marimba part comes first and then I extract harmonies, give everyone a bunch of goose eggs voiced out in my really starting to get the hang of it orchestrations. Then I extract melodic fragments and disperse them amongst the various players. Wait, I take that back. After marimba I went straight to making a drum groove for the whole piece to float over. It's notated in 4 but I actually usually use different strategies of primes to create novel groupings and rhythmic accents. It all sort of flows out of my brain at the time of creation, making inner logic as they are coming out.

So after the drum track was down in midi I created the bass line, and I distinctly remember basing the bass rhythm off of groupings I had deliberately seeded into the marimba part. When your note groupings are like 3-5-3-7-9-6-3-4 all notated in running 16th notes, there is lots of room to play. All the while the drums are playing a constant 8th note pulse in 4 and voila!, instant polyrhythmic delight.

After that I added the aformentioned insturmental parts. I printed and we tried to read it 4 months ago. It was deemed too hard for the amount of time and material we had at that point so I shelved it, fully intending to come back. And here we are. Since then I have had to re-orchestrate, add a piano and guitar part, and retool some of the trickier rhythmic dissonances so they are performable. Word to the wise, doubling is your friend. If 2 or more people are responsible for expressing a given rhythmic line, then that line is so much easier to perceive for all parties involved.

I was interested especially in the guitar, because back in college ensembles the guitar players always got to play with tone and what-not, so I deliberately went back and wrote a whole new melodic head that wasn't in the Attribution of 4 months ago. I heard Jeff playing parts of the part I made for him at last rehearsal and I am totally excited about what the entire ensemble will sound like 2 weeks from now, after everyone has been practicing their parts andetc.

All in all I would say this has been one of the most satisfying creative processes I have gone through. The piece is going to hang together nicely and everyone in the audience is going to be stunned into silence when they hear it. Stan is going to play a killer solo, and we are going to work the solo section into a really nice small combo thing. Amy is going to have an awesome recording of her kicking ass all over the marimba, and hopefully I will write another piece that fits my bill of entering the marimba canon

Thansk to the people

2010-05-20T07:41:00.000-07:00

I'd like to take a moment to express my thanks to the people who help my music come to life. Specifically the players in the sessions Black House. Ron Carlson has been such a joy to work with, he comes in with a great attitude every time, is easy t get along with, and is always looking for ways to make hi splaying, and the music better. Every comment he has made is geared towards making my complexity hear-able, and making it easier for us as an ensemble to rock out. I never knew I could write a reggae groove until it just happened to work best that way, and many thanks to Jason Smith for keeping the pocket nice and tight. Patrick, your tune is pretty awesome. Derrick, you will be sorely missed when you leave us for more northern climes in August, and Hunter, without you I'd be a sleazebag trying to answer ads on craigslist. You have helped me become a better player and writer. So here's to the Black House Improviser's Collective. I know nobody reads this shit, but if you do, come out and listen to an all original set of music this friday.

peace

Its been a while

2010-05-14T07:44:00.000-07:00

So I havent touched this thing in a month. Travel, family, and other unavoidable cuircumstances beside, I really need to make more of a habit of doing this. Still need to figure out a lot of these controls though. How do I post video excerpts and whatnot?

Anyway.. been having a heck of a time trying to write new things lately. Block is the typical word for it. But its more like all my energy ahs become devoted to other things for the current moment. Practicing has happened, but writing has not.

The two interpreter gigs were a lot of fun and I look forward to trying some more combinations of musicians out in the future. BHIC has its next performance on Friday the 21st. Come on out, BYOB, and help us enjoy the music. My favorite so far i think i Ketter's tune, Dandiliions. Its a cool little funky groove based thing that he brought in at the last rehearsal.

I am currently trying to come up with ideas for a harp piece, or maybe a piece for two harps. Really harp is one of those so underappreciated instruments that deserves more credit. That shit is hard to play, what with pedals and only ten fingers to divide amongst a gazillion strings. If I could have a person who played harp and kora in a band I would jump at the chance. Case in point, Vespertine by Bjork, I mean.. Zena Parkins is the absolute shit, not to mentino that Bjork is so way ahead of her time.

Haven't heard anything new in a while so I need some comments on what I should try to listen to next. It needs to be completely alien I think , in order for me to want to listen to it. I do way too much thin-slicing when it comes to music, letting my first impression guide me when some songs really would benefit from a complete run through.

On the upside I'vegot a little surprise for when some of myfriend see me inperson next. Cant wait to see the look on their face.

2010-04-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

just a couple old shots froma few months ago. working furiously to invent methods for the Interpreter Sessions. I hope people will find my ideas interesting. ITs all about audience participation. I really look forward to utilizing Billy Smith's talents to help determine the shape of each night's events. Trying to figure out how to incorporate rolling dice and shuffling cards into a logical coherent way for any given group of people ro interact is daunting. But I feel up to the task, especially with the help from all mine compatriots.

Incidentally, I ahve completed two more tunes for the current Black House session. Looking forward to completeing a really wicked sounding reggae themed one tonight or tomorrow. Love you all. all 5 of you who follow me that is.

A gig!!

2010-04-07T17:21:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of Billy Smith at the Czar Bar, the Phonologotron will be hosting a weekly matinee improv gig at aforementioned place of business starting in May! Imagine a place where Shakespeare nerds and bboy dancers can interact with musicians and dictate the form of the improvisation!! Its like painting with Bob Ross, he gives you the numbers and you do the paint-by. So I need card games that are relatively rare to turn into musical games. any takerS?

it spills out like mana

2010-04-01T11:20:00.000-07:00

wrote the new thing that Black House will attempt to play next session. Hunter said some sort of offhand comment about electric Masada and this is what came out of mine brain. For now it is titled "Come With Me If You Want To Live" can anyone guess where that came from? The piece is based entirely onthe fact that we have a jeyboard player and not a bass player this time. so Brad in his bass clarinet infinitude gets to wail on the low end in a brash pairing with Hunter. For purely selfish reasons I get to enjoy myself with a soprano solo and as usual the trumpet parts are probably ridiculous. Sorry D.

on other fronts

the Game Pieces tonight should be awesome. Rehearsal last night was good and we had a lot of fun. I a planning on relay being a good sport for this, so anyone in attendance will walk away with good memories.

the weekend that kills

2010-03-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

so I was volunteered to help run sound at my lady's Battle of The Band fundraiser for the YVCKC. Informative, educational. not as stressful as imagined, and generally fun it was. Learned that I know more about running and rigging a wound system than I thought and that there are suprisingly creative and original teenage musicians out there in kansas city. Granted, none of them play jazz, but for teenage pop-rock there were several who really impressed. Makes me want to be in a glam rock band, complete with costumes and pageantry.

I getting closer and closer to having Subtle Nourishment finished. This one is the bata one for the PLBB. looking forward to getting it off the ground. On the home front, Black House has finalized its instrumentation for the 4th session. So now I need to get to work on deciding what to write and getting it done within two weeks.

look for me on thursday playing game pieces with Jeff Harshbarger (Kansas City's most amazing bass player)

The craft of the work

2010-03-26T11:34:00.000-07:00

been working on a large scale piece recently intended for the People's Liberation Big Band of Kansas City. Its all based on Bata rhythms that I unashamedly have stolen from an educational presentation I encountered some time back. Bata is so cool. This piece is going to be hard, but if they can pull it off everyone in the audience will have no choice but to shake their bottom. Its that cool, with interlocking rhythms and hopefully some wicked guitar work.

Also have been revisiting several ealier sketched looking for more source material for new tunes. I just had an epiphany.. I'v egot lots of tunes, they're just handwritten and need to be fleshed out further on mine boxofelectron. yes.. it makes perfect sense.

Also recently I have begun developing a set of rules for a cardgame that dictates how a group of players interact and improvise. Should be interesting, yes.. I know it smacks of Zorn, but sometimes having arbitrary rules you must follow is good for taking the burden of all those decisions off the improvising musician. That way you can focus on playing a solo that means something.. or really locking in a groove, or having that conversation with your fellow players while you both solo.

ive just been warned that I only have 15 minnutes left and that I shoul dsave my work.

new song

2010-03-23T13:41:00.000-07:00

tenatively titled "northern frontier"... I asked Stefanie what sort of song to write this morning and she replied with "a sexy one" I am not sure if this qualifies as sexy but it was what I was able to come up with in less than 90 minutes. Moderately difficult, upbeat, Bb minor. Fits my requirements of less than 6 parts, written for 4 horns and a rhythm section. I also went back and listened to my other two newest creations to make certain I haven;'t been copying myself and no.. i have not. Been sticking to minor keys lately, but every now and then major pokes its head out in the middle of a tune so not so bad. What should I write a song about next?

the book

2010-03-16T13:46:00.000-07:00

so after several discussions with mine compatriot, Mr Black House himself, I have decided to write a book of extended compositions for quartet/sextet settings. The idea is to have over three hours worth of originals for when it is time to start playing in the small group setting again. I have completed most of two songs already, with inspiration taken from my recent foray into Italian renaissance history. You can probably expect I will name at least 3-4 more tunes with names taken from that time period. To date I have Cesare Borgia and Guidobaldo- Duke of Urbino almost complete. In the future you can expect Giovanni d'Medici and Pope Alexander VI to make an appearance as well.

The main idea is that when we go back to small group playing (which is the place to work on our soloing skills) we dont want the formula to be, head-Hunter plays a solo-Russell plays a solo-headout every single time. SO my challenge is to sustain a theme/harmonic progression/intervalic or rhythmic idea over the course of a fully written out composition that takes as much advantage of our strengths as I can.

I will eventually post practice scores for your perusal as I can. Hopefully I will gain more followers who can give me useful suggestions and/or critiques.

Sometimes you have to sacrifice

2010-03-10T13:29:00.000-08:00

Upon further discussion with Amy, the world's most tolerant marimbist, we have decided to wait on Attribution Theory for the upcoming performance. She is not a fan of cutting and watering things down just to fit something on a gig, so we are going to take our time and really knock the socks off people when the time comes to really perform it. this also gives me a chance to think about making more movements and actually turning this into a full-blown concerto for marimba. So I now needn't worry about editing for ease of playability, because she has agreed to learn the whole she-bang, just with 2 extra months of practice as opposed to trying to squeeze 60 measures plus of running 16th notes that jump all over the place and sometimes don't lay well for four mallets. But by gum, we'll get it learned and it will melt your face off when you hear it live.

the horror of editing parts

2010-03-02T12:03:00.000-08:00

ladies and gentlemen, please make sure you create all your save folders before you plan to do a bunch of mass saves. it makes life so much easier if you know your destination files before you are hip deep in the process. Also, retitle each time you save something that might need a go-back. This makes tracking your progress much much easier.

havent been listening to much lately, so i need some suggestions. also.. everyone else's tunes sounded much better at BHIC this sunday. I promise more to come this week.

wednesdays

2010-02-24T08:29:00.000-08:00

so i am not sure about this whole changing the key for Attribution theory. I mean... everyone loves B right? but I look at what Ive done and we're not really in B, we're sort of going back and frother between B and E and sometimes A. I know all those sharps or flats ae unwelcome, and B definitelty sounds a lot brighter than Bb so we'll have to see. I need to get the revised marimba part out to see if the marimbist can play it.

its a lot of fun having to take all of these different things into consideration when writing for such a unique ensemble. clarinet, bass clarinet, eng hrn/oboe, sop, alto, ten, and bari saxes, hrn in F, euph, the trumptes and a rhythm section. i find my music being not quite chamber music and not quite jazz but trying to be both. I think i need to go back and revisit Alegria to hear what Wayne was doing.

I think I am consciously trying to avoid traditional big band structures. But at the same time, those have evolved because those voicings are the ones that sound the best. Like for Fenrig, I realized I cant have the Eng hrn above the clarinet.. it sounds off.. so i switched them and thnigs are gonna be just peachy.

So what type of piece should I try to write next? Who knows.. i find right my music is concerned with rhythmic placement, and for some reason the way I have been writing recently has turned all my begninnings into pick-ups in the wrong place. HAving to recast and entire piece that was essentially finished into the proper rhythmic arrangement is gonna be fun. That is the piece I will write for Peoples Liberation Big Band. so i hope you guys are ready to count in 11.

Because everyone needs some good primes.

and its tuesday

2010-02-23T10:58:00.000-08:00

okay.. so we had the first big rehearsal with the BHIC and I got a nice preview of how hard the music that I write is. Its not like I am trying to write things that in practicality are impossible to put together in two months, its just that my parts come out that way. As for now though, I have almost finished mine edits on Hasimir Fenrig, and am trying to work out the new key situation on my marimba concertino type thing, Attribution Theory. I promise you'll hear them at some point. Suffice it to say these two are probably the best compositions yet, which means i need to write some better ones for a couple months from now. Leopold's Shuffle is a definite candidate for the future, wonky 5 grooves are fun, especially when they are wonky funk grooves in 5. for now.. listen to some Nik Baertsch, and you'll hear an influence I am trying to figure out how to work with in my music for hte future. insanely deep shit, and talk about the stamina required to perform stuff like that.

2010-02-15T12:40:00.001-08:00

at work kind of and wondering when i will be telephoned regarding my new glasses. for those of you who dont know i have the most irregular astygmatism my optometrist has ever seen. go figure, i can see and read better without glasses. anyway.. i didnt get anything accomplished musically this weekend, as it was reserved for making my lady feel special. luvs her. and you too.. those of you non-existent followers of mine.

prost!

number 2

2010-02-13T07:45:00.000-08:00

I wrote about 5 minutes of delicious last night. Dont know when it will be played.. but definitely for public consumption. I figure session 4 of Black House will be good for it. I already have too much music to be performed. So what really needs to happen is I dfind some competitions to enter things into and I win some prize money. But i need good recordings of the pieces so I guess BHIC it is!! Hopefully this will start to attract people.. as soon as i can figure out how to post mine midi and stuff.

So this is what a blog does...

2010-02-12T14:19:00.000-08:00

My inaguaral post. What to write? Well.. lets see. This blog is created as a way for me to post midi renderings of the fabulously complex compositions that seem to be the only thing i am capable of writing. Seriously folks, writing a piece of music that is interesting to listen AND play that consists only of quarternotes and half notes is ridiculously hard. I will be updating this as often as possible but for now I have to get working at work. So I leave you with a piece that I think will work if we can play it. And thats always the trick, getting humans to reproduce what a computer and its internal clock have no problem realizing.