From Here

Lake Champlain

So, there's a major gap in this blog from my last post, but I'm fixing that now. One thing I can say is that everything is extremely active, and has been since June - almost to the point of craziness. One thing that I can say is that when I was in school, I never once went crazy. It just never happened, and it probably won't. This is a good thing for sure.

Late in May, I was put in touch with Anna Pardenik and Galen Peria, two musicians in Burlington who have given me a decent amount of work up here. Burlington seems much more active in the summer, with all of these festivals happening relatively close together, and I really like working with songwriters. Galen's group started out as a Dr. John tribute, and we've played at least 5 shows in the past month. One was on Church Street during the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival, and another was in this noisy bar in Montpelier. For that show I wasn't on a mic, and found myself blasting away much of the time, often moving about the crowd, or playing to specific people nearby. Very recently, I started thinking about a slight embouchure change, and I think playing like that may have been a factor.

Anna's band is great, too - all of her originals that we're currently recording. She also uses an accordion and a mini upright piano that we were wheeling up and down Church St. to busk with. We always attract a decent crowd, and I usually make enough for groceries.

On June 3rd, a group of musicians billed as Magic City got together to play songs by Sun Ra, and I managed to get involved with that project. We had no rehearsal - just detailed notes on each chart, and some original recordings. All of these groups (and the Balagan) are playing at a 3-day local music festival called the Precipice at the end of this month, and the next Ensemble V performance is on August 7th. Shortly after that, I'll be leaving for New York. I'm just returning from the city, where I found a cheap sublet that'll get me started. My future (but temporary) home is on 156th street and Broadway - not too far from the ACA office, so I'm hoping I can work some hours there before finding a steady position and living situation. We're going to look into grants, and if that happens, we can do some awesome things that we've been talking about for a while (interviews with composers, live internet radio, podcasts etc).



I was not expecting to go to NY this month. Last Wednesday, I played a solo set at the bean (during a slot usually reserved for Ensemble V), and shortly after I got home, I got an email from a Balagan buddy who knew of someone with round-trip bus tickets they weren't going to use. I jumped on this, and the next morning I was on my way down there. I spent a few minutes texting everyone I knew looking for a couch to crash on, and by noon (still 3 hours from landing in midtown) I was all set. Anthony Coleman's residency at The Stone was that week, and I kept thinking "If only there was a reason for me to go sooner than August!" Needless to say, I was pretty happy.

I went to two concerts at The Stone, and on the second night Anthony asked me if I was going to be around the next day. I wasn't planning on it, but Survivor's Breakfast (Anthony's large ensemble from NEC) was performing the next night, and he told me that if I could find a horn that I should play. Within an hour, I found someone willing to lend me a horn. Here's where it gets interesting:

The group on the second night I was there was Anthony's trio with Tanya Kalmanovitch and Ted Reichman. Ted is an accordionist who lived in NY for a number of years, and he put me in touch with a guy named Matt Moran (of the Claudia Quintet and Slavic Soul Party). Matt is a percussionist and Mallet player, but also plays brass. The next morning I woke up, got on a train, and went to Matt's apartment in Brooklyn. It was awfully nice of him to lend me the horn for a day, especially when he doesn't know me. We had talked the night before, when I had to explain that I wasn't expecting to do any playing down here. I met him and got the horn by 9:30am, and was super careful the whole day. It was a cool instrument - a side-bell rotary baritone. The mouthpiece was smaller than what I'm used to, but it made me do some interesting things.

Erhu player on the 1 train. He was really good!

I got off the train in the West Village, because I thought our rehearsal (still a couple hours away) was at the venue, a short walk across town. Well...I was wrong. It turns out that we were rehearsing even later at a studio on 28th street, so I basically spent the whole day exploring, instrument and all. I met up with Mark in Union Square, and we walked the 16 blocks to the studio. It wasn't too hot, and we stopped a few times.

Union Sq. Apartment complex - Uptown from the 27th floor

The rehearsal was funny, and to a certain degree incomplete, but we played really well. There's always an energy that you only get from performing, and it was really there. It was nice to play a great gig with people I knew (and some I didn't) on less than 24 hours notice. These sorts of things that pop up give me even more confidence that this whole thing will work out. The key is remaining active, and being able to take things as they come.

After our set, I took a bus over to Battery Park to give Matt his horn back. I got off the bus too early, but still managed to find the World Financial Center, where there was a screening of a film that featured Serbian Brass Bands. Having given the horn back, I went back to the East Village to have dinner with Survivor's Breakfast and friends, and around 12:30, got on a train back to Washington Heights. Further uptown I had to transfer, and the A doesn't run express after 12, so it was a very long ride. I'll be sure to be cautious of this in the future.

Clare, in an 80th st. Furniture shop 

The next day was when Clare and I figured out what we were going to do about the sublet. We worked out a deal, and it's going to be pretty cool to live together, even if for such a short time. We went downtown after, unsuccessfully trying to go to the Central Park Zoo. We found a great Falafel cart though, so I think it was worth it. I'm definitely doing my research on free museums and galleries before my arrival next month.

She had to work at 4, and I spent the next few hours in Central Park, calling family to let them know what I was doing. I had a short nap under a big tree, and then decided to go to 32nd street to get some cheap pizza. Unknown to me at the time, George Zimmerman had been  acquitted of charges in the Trayvon Martin case, and I saw the forming of a huge rally near Madison Square Garden. I should have known they would end up in Times Square, but I head uptown on foot anyway. I realized they were ending up there early enough to eat and walk back to the park. The sidewalks were pretty clear, but any traffic on 7th ave was completely stuck. I saw the end of the procession being pushed towards Times by a caravan of police vehicles. There were thousands of people, the street was taken over, and the back of the procession wasn't any thinner. I wasn't going to stick around to see what happened, but it was a moving thing to witness. This is an extraordinary time to be living, and I do think that we'll see a great amount of social change in this country very soon. On one level, that's consistent, but on another level there's definitely something else brewing.
 

I was one of the many open-jawed cellphone pic snappers

The next day we went up to the Cloisters, and visited the ACA office. I've always loved it up there, and I'll be happy when I'm living close by. It's definitely the closest thing to the Arboretum that I've found in NYC, and it's remarkably calm! I needed that, as getting to the Megabus depot was a bit of a strain. I walked down to the end of the boarding area, only to discover that the VT bus was up front, and taking off. They managed to radio the driver, and he stopped before leaving the curb. I was really freaked out for a minute that it would keep going, but I was able to get on it! The internet on this bus was kind of shabby, and it took almost 4 hours to get to the first stop in Hartford. I napped a bit though, and getting out at the Davis Center (after over 7 hours on the bus) was a great relief. Now I've got a ton of organizing to do - figuring out what to store, what to sell, and what to take with me when I leave Burlington. I have enjoyed living here, but it's definitely time to get moving.

The George Washington Bridge from the Heights

  

    

playlists and listening

For the last month, it's been the usual back-&-forth between Burlington and Boston, a groove that I've become accustomed to recently, but also one that will change somewhat when my lease here ends on 8/1. Aside from 4 Roma gigs in the last 8 days, nothing too out of the ordinary is happening. As mentioned in previous posts, I've been thinking about going back alot recently - looking at old journals, and generally mulling over what I actually did when I was studying. Living in Burlington has been fantastic for practical and personal reasons. I've been really engaged in the musical activities of this community, and basically learning the ropes of a new place. for a couple years, I kept asking "What could I do in a new place?" and what would I be able to teach myself in that process. Learning to budget is an ever-evolving process, as is learning to cook, network, and a whole bunch of other things.

I've come to the conclusion in the last month or so that my days in Burlington are numbered. I will leave shortly after my lease ends, put the 9 small boxes of stuff I have into storage, and make another move. I'll always come back here, but I know now that I need to be in a much larger place to pursue the living I really want to make, artistically and otherwise.

In looking over the last 8 years or so, one thing I've recently wanted to do was make a (fairly partial) list of the music I listened to during that time. I feel like laying this out will be interesting. There will definitely be omissions, but here's some sort of list:

Pre-College:
Scott Joplin rags
John Cage - Living Room Music
J.S Bach Brandenburg Concerti
Terry Riley - In C
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue, Sketches of Spain
Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um 
Thelonious Monk - Monk's Dream
Mussourgsky/Ravel - Pictures at an Exhibition
Duke Ellington - The Mooche 
Igor Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring

2005-06: 
Paul Hindemith - Piano Sonatas, brass works
Luciano Berio - Sinfonia 
Fredric Rzewski - Les Moutons de Panurge  
Ralph Vaughan Williams - Requiem
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Leonin/Perotin - Magnus Liber 
Samuel Barber - Knoxville: Summer of 1915
Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians 
Bela Bartok - Mikrokosmos 
Edgard Varese - Hyperprism 

2006-07:
Wynton Marsalis - Blood on the Fields
Tom Waits - Big Time 
Philip Glass - Einstein on the Beach 
Tim O'Brien - Songs from the mountain 
Bjork - Debut
Pete Williams - I've Grown So Ugly
Brian Eno - Music for Airports 
Branford Marsalis - Requiem 
Morton Feldman - Cello and Orchestra
Art Ensemble of Chicago - Reese & the Smooth Ones

2007-08:
Ba-Benzale Pygmies
Banda Pygmies
Anton Webern - Concerto op.24 
Fred Frith - Massacre 
John Zorn - Naked City
Sun Ra - Supersonic Jazz
Boban Markovic - Boban i Marko
Ran Blake - Wende 
Gyorgi Ligeti - Viola Sonata
Peter Brotzmann - Be Music, Night

2008-09:
Thai Brass
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Party
Don Cherry - Where Is Brooklyn?
Steve Lacy - The Way
Frank Carlberg - The American Dream
Jonathan Harvey - Flight Elegy
Lake Street Dive
Charles Ives - General William Booth Enters Into Heaven
Anthony Braxton - Quartet (Dortmund) 1976
Anthony Coleman - Pushy Blueness

2009-10:
Cecil Taylor - Unit Structures
Christian Wolff - Burdocks
Cornelius Cardew - The Great Learning
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Stimmung
Olivier Messiaen - Catalogue d'oiseaux 
Balinese Ketjak
The Shaggs - Philosophy of the World
The Fluxus Workbook
The Velvet Underground (Banana Album)

2010-11:
Burr Van Nostrand - Voyage in a White Building I
Julius Eastman - Stay On It 
Meridith Monk - Dolmen Music
Robert Cogan - Fierce Singleness 
Muhal Richard Abrams - Levels and Degrees of Light
Daniel Johnston - Hi How Are You
Roscoe Mitchell - Nonaah
Lee Hyla - Piano Concerto no.2 

2011-12:
Lyle Davidson - Chester
Capsule - L.D.K Lounge Designers Killer
Brian Ferneyhough - Time and Motion Study I
Michael Finnissy - English Country Tunes 
The Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Harry Partch - Barstow  
Joe Morris & Augusti Fernandez - Ambrosia  
Wadada Leo Smith - Golden Quartet

The header of this post has no particular significance, other than that I still think Space Jam is a great movie, and perhaps also that I've been looking at a bunch of old things: CD's I bought when I was a kid, binders of music I wrote when I was 16, journals. etcetera. It is no coincidence that this is happening to me as I've been visiting my family, and have met some of my old friends and teachers. Now, I'm in my hometown of East Bridgewater, while last month I was visiting my grandparents in Middleboro. I spent the entire month of April in Massachusetts, and this time I'll be back to VT after only a few days in Boston.

My primary reason for visiting EB these last few days was that the EBPS music department held its annual pops concert in the High School, which is scheduled to be demolished this summer (they built a new one just down the hill). Because of this, they invited back alums to play in the concert band. It was conducted by Dan Lasdow, who retired in 2001 after 35 years of directing the program. I was 13 at the time Dan retired, but he gave me my very first music lesson, and also premiered one of my first pieces (a brass quintet I wrote when I was 14) at the South Shore Conservatory. After not seeing him for almost seven years, I ran into him at a concert we were both playing in March, and he told me about the pops concert. I knew I was in as soon as he told me it was happening. I knew quite a few people in the alumni pool, which included a few more of my teachers.

EBHS music alumni band members 5/10/13 

The day after the concert, Jared Burrell (2nd from right) and I got together to listen to music, have dinner, and watch a Werner Herzog movie. He graduated from EBHS four years before me, but we were at NEC together, so we have a pretty strong association that we've maintained over the past few years.

Last month's trip south of Boston was essentially a vacation. I had 4 premieres in Boston the week before, and the Marathon Bombings happened on the 15th (the day before my performance with the NEC Wind Ensemble). I spent almost a week in Middleboro after that. I managed to finish reading Haruki Murakami's 1Q84, and got some much-needed R&R. It partially was a result of being derailed, but on the other hand, it was great - exactly what I needed to regroup my thoughts, and continue on.

Since then, I've decided that in order to fulfill my long-term career goal, I should probably move back to Boston, or go directly to NY after my lease is up in August. My reasoning for this comes from the fact that I've been down here an awful lot, but it's always been for a good reason. More of the people I need are down here, and Burlington has such a strong local-oriented culture that I feel it could take some time to make the right connections, and secure a good arts admin job. That's true anywhere I suppose, but I feel especially isolated in a city of 45,000 people, where less of those opportunities exist. That said, I love everything I've actually been able to do in Burlington, and I wish I could take all my friends there with me. They are great people.

When I got into Boston on April 3rd, one of the first things I did was play in a last-minute show at a gallery called the Hallway in JP. Fausto put it together, and my schedule wasn't so defined when I got in. I ended up playing duo with Ethan T. Parcell, a really interesting Composer/Multi-Instrumentalist I've been crossing paths with now for over a year. It was awesome, and though we didn't record it, we played another duo in the same space right before I left town at the end of the month. The second Hallway show was also Fausto's last before he left for Berlin, so I'm glad I stuck around to hear him.

Ethan Parcell and his drums

On April 10th, Andrew played the double bass piece I wrote for his recital, which you can listen to below. I thought it went really well:

Go Andrew, Go!

The next night, Eliza played the hell out of the percussion solo she asked for. It was in Jordan Hall too! I don't have the recording yet, but it rocked. Below is the score. A one-pager!

Eliza! Where is the recording?!

Another breakthrough that week was the concert I played in at the Church of the Advent on Beacon Hill. A friend of mine named Matt Samolis works for the church, and produces a monthly series there. He asked me to curate a short set for the April concert, and below is what I came up with. The trio was  a pretty ad-hoc assembly (the concert coincided with the plague, rain, and midterms), but Alliison was playing my piece, and I'd worked with Eve Boltax (the violist in the picture below) before, and thought we would play well together. Below is everything we came up with that night. We had a great little audience, and Matt conjured up one of the best post-concert receptions I've yet to experience :)

Melodica Improvisation:

Trio Improvisation:

11_ Summer _23 for solo flute:

Trio improvisation with Allison and Eve

The day before the Wind Ensemble performance was of course Marathon Monday, and nobody was prepared for what would happen. Fortunately, I was at Pavement Coffeehouse (next to NEC) when the bombs were detonated, and nobody I knew running or watching was close to the finish line. Pavement is around the corner from Huntington Ave, so we couldn't hear the explosions. I got a phone call from my father who told me to stay put, and when I found out the full extent of what happened, we had no choice - the T and bus service was temporary shut down. A few hours later, they shut down NEC, and a few of us (Tara, Andrew, Eliza, and myself) ended up going to a local bar. The service that day was pretty bad, but in retrospect, I wish we had tipped them a bit better, and hadn't been so cold on our way out. It can't be easy to work when the city is in a state of emergency.  Three hours and Five pitchers later, we decided we had enough of the news broadcasts and headed back to JP.

The next morning, we had a soundcheck for Donald Miller Piece, after which my nerves were calmed, and I thought we'd do well. The performance was on edge, and I was enthusiastic about the result. It really meant something to do this in the wake of such a terrible thing so close by, and I think it had a positive effect on everyone there.

FULL CIRCLE TIME MACHINE with the NEC Wind Ensemble

That Friday, I caught a commuter train to Middleboro. I remember watching the press conference when the photos were released - I was in the NEC cafeteria, and then got on my train about an hour later. If I had waited a few more hours to leave the city, I may have been caught in the lockdown that ensued when the suspects were found out in Cambridge. I didn't watch any news when I got to my grandparent's house that night, but was glued to the news updates from the minute I woke up on Saturday. As a friend of mine said, this was the "longest episode of COPS ever."

I had already decided to spend some time there, in part because I felt that traveling would be a total mess (I was carrying three black bags). Before I got back to Boston, I found out Fausto was leaving and wanted to do another gallery show. There was also a concert produced by NEC in a church near Copley that I wanted to see. Between those two concerts and a few other folks' graduation recitals, I ended up leaving Boston just in time to send in my rent check for May, and to play a few VT gigs before returning to my home state. I'm not unhappy with this sort of transit. In fact, I rather like it. 

Circle 0 from Dorsey Bass' Senior Recital (4/13/2013)

Copley Square, 1Q84

 It is 12:36 AM, and now April 21st. This means that I've been in Massachusetts for 18 days. My plan was to leave shortly after the NEC Wind Ensemble played Donald Miller Piece on the 16th, but when the two bombs went off in Copley Square on Marathon Monday, I felt the urge to suspend any travel plans, and spend more time with my family. I am currently in my hometown, in the house we moved into when I was ten years old. I don't intend to stay here very long before going back to my Nana & Granddad's house, and I can't shake the need to be writing about this stuff right now. Shortly before I left Boston, I went around the perimeter of the barricade surrounding Copley, and it's really strange. I hope the area can return to some sort of normal state soon. I usually spend a decent amount of time there (it's close to NEC, but just far enough away to be away).

Boylston Street at the Barricade on April 17th (photo by Matt Gilbert) 

All of this weeks events (the Marathon bombings, as well as my premiers) coincide with my getting deeper into the pages of Haruki Murakami's 1Q84, and I can't help but note the kind of insight that this book has given me. It's a strange thing, and as I had told my best friend this past week, "Words fail me sometimes, as you know." Since I began reading 1Q84, I have been noting certain passages that stuck out for one reason or another. Like in Donald Miller Piece, it seems like at any given point this month, there have been six or seven things happening simultaniously, and various fragments from Murakami's book have spoke to several of them. That's the best I can do with my words, and below are some of his:

"What did it mean for a person to be free? ...Even if you managed 

to escape one cage, you were just in another, larger one."

"This marks a borderline... From now on, I will no longer be the person I was"

"It's nothing I could talk about to anyone. No, I can't go to a doctor. I have to solve this on my own."

"Do not get abandoned in the Cat Town."

"What happens from here on out is unknown territory for anybody. There's no map. We don't find out what's waiting for us around the next corner until we turn it. I have no idea." 

- Haruki Murakami (1Q84)

I don't know now when I'll be leaving MA, but I do know that I need a few more days to decompress. The bombing aside, this month has retained a fast pace, and I'm glad I have some time to chill out, reading about the Town of Cats.

Ides of March, and on to April

Where did March go (I'm freaking serious...)?...? ???

I really meant to write about a couple things sooner,  one being the two weeks I spent in Boston this past month. I may have said a few things before I went, but the last week has been crazy up here, and at the moment, my mind is racing (possibly, from the two cups of coffee I consumed before playing with the Balagan tonight). In some cases, a racing mind isn't the best thing, but this is a rather pleasant bout of thoughts.

Let's start with the most recent thing. This week, the Balagan decided that we were going to crash an April Fools Art Auction in which an "item" of ours (basically, a surprise Balagan performance/flashmob at the event of your choosing) was being auctioned off to benifit a local arts fund. It was very low key, and everyone showed up right before we started to play - no time for warming up or anything. I think we took some people by surprise, but I'm sure some had caught on to what we were doing. The auction was held at 242 Main Street, a mid-sized  Blackbox type of space. I think there were somewhere between 20-26 people there in all, and it felt really neat to just come on and off. It reminded me a little bit of The Stone in NYC, how compact it was, and the way people were seated. I think Ben Aleshire won our item. I don't know him personally, but I've heard he's a neat Burlington artist/writer, who wrote an equally neat article about the Old North End, where a good number of Burlington's art/music people live.

I slept in this morning until about 11:30, recovering from a barrage of Easter weekend musical activities, which included a Good Friday service, a non-related Samba gig (with some members of the Balagan), and an Easter service. Since I got back (less than 2 weeks ago), I've been able to keep pretty busy with various gigs, rehearsals, shows, and new pieces I've been asked to write, at a rather quick pace. Two of the newbies are getting played in Boston next week, and they've really taken shape up here:

excerpt from _5 Chilcot_ __. for solo bass (4/10 premiere - Andrew Chilcote's recital @ NEC)

Excerpt from  _8b _yde (b) for solo percussionist (4//1 premiere - Eliza Kinney's recital @ NEC)

There are two other new-ish pieces being played on 4/12 and 4/16. The 4/12 performance is at the Advent Library in Downtown Boston. Other than a solo flute piece that I wrote over the summer (from the same series as the two above), I have no idea what I'm going to do. Allison Poh is going to play the hell out of it, though. Come out! 

Excerpt from _11 Summer _23 for solo flute (4/12 premiere - Advent Library in Downtown Boston) 

4/16 is with the NEC Wind Ensemble and FULL CIRCLE TIME MACHINE in Jordan Hall:

The first page of "Donald Miller Piece"

We read the Wind Ensemble piece last year (around this time), and I thought the session came out well enough to ask Charles Peltz (NEC director of Wind Ensemble activities) if we could have a second reading, or perform it. I was only slightly surprised by a quick and enthusiastic response to my proposal. After the reading, I remember Mr. Peltz telling me "I live to make composers happy." I seriously believe this, and I hope to find more conductors out there who think the same way.

Back to Burlington: After getting stuck in Boston due to Icy conditions, I returned on 3/21. Probably the first thing to really happen (ther than alot of serious reading and napping) was that the Balagan played at a memorial service for Brian Perkins' Mother-in-Law. Brian is one of the more proactive organizers in the Balagan, particularly when it comes to keeping rehearsals flowing, and we had a really great quorum of people for that performance. We all drove out to Middlebury, and played outside while people were entering the church, and added a few more tunes indoors before the service began. I can't express how much I love playing at community-oriented things like this. There's a part of it that's indescribable for me, but above all, there's an element of communication between band members and our audience that isn't met in some other settings.  

Four nights later, we were playing at the Bean - opening for a really incredible band called the Underscore Orkestra. Most of them are from Portland OR, but the have toured all over, and have a strong network of musicians all over the continent. They just came back from a tour in Australia, and I was more than surprised and delighted to see Enrico Solano (percussion) in their Burlington lineup. We spent a year in the CI program at NEC, and he's now living in NYC. What's great is that he met the band about 8 years ago in Mexico City when they were touring. These are the kind of chance meetings and lasting connections that musicians like us are really searching for.

My last week in Boston was particularly eventful. I played with the Boston College wind ensemble on St. Patrick's day at the Natick High School, in a concert shared by their concert band, and the Metropolitan Wind Symphony. Before the concert, I ran into Dan Lasdow, who was my first music teacher - ever. He retired as the music director of my hometown school system when I was 13, but he's still playing, and sounds as good as ever. It was great to run into him, and I'll be going back to my hometown to play in an alumni band under his direction in May.

Also notable from that same week is the 2 hours of music that Elan Asch and I recorded in NEC's Organ classroom, with another friend of ours, Ian Headley behind microphone placement and mixing. Not all of it is up yet (these are big files), but here's the first one, and a picture. Below the picture is a field recording that Ian made when he was in Venice, and happened upon a fisherman's protest of new regulations. As he pointed out, they share some sonic characteristics.

R 

recording with Elan Asch 

There's one more thing I need to clack about before I tie up this post. My good friend Ben Wu has left Boston for his native Michigan. We did our master's at the same time, and ended up doing alot of playing together. He's currently deciding on where to do his DMA (he has two offers), and I hope we get to play again sometime soon. A day or two before I left, we did some duo playing at the BU CFA, and had dinner at a Korean place in Allston. We also watched a Don Hertzfeld movie, and went exploring in Harvard Square, where we found a new Insomnia Cookies (open til 3AM, and completely new to Boston. Can you imagine who their clientele must be at that hour?!). 

All of this ties into what is Ben's world, and I've been fortunate to have a pretty strong association with him over the last two years in particular. As soon as I get the recording of our last session, I'll be posting it for sure!

NEC Graduation - May 2012

  

Sean McMahon

With Sean McMahon at NEC in 2007

I really haven't taken the time to write about my experiences with particular people before, but (perhaps using Ellington as a model) I think this would be a good place to start.

As far as I can remember, I met Sean in 2006, right around the time I had begun seriously thinking about applying to the C.I program at NEC. He was a transfer too, so he had alot of insights, and like me, he came from a composition program. He's a multi-instrumentalist, and had a classical upbringing.  When I heard him play with Dominique Eade's ensemble, I knew I had to end up there. I still have that recording (from Spring 2007), but I won't post it. When I got to the Conservatory, Sean and I worked together a good amount, and I still like alot of what we did.  The picture above was taken by our friend Amy Mills in JH 342 in the late months of 2007. My first recital at NEC (Winter 2008) featured a trio with Sean & Elden Kelly (another singer-songwriter type who improvised with us). That trio never fully gelled, but it was a lot of fun, and I feel like it definitely needed to happen. 

My creative endeavors with Sean have been largely hit-or-miss, and I feel the need to emphasize this. Though it wasn't always natural, it was completely honest and I learned how to adapt to my musical surroundings really well. Later, we came up with some things that were really good. That sort of adaptation is something I've been dealing with increasingly up here in VT (the who and where), and it is one of the things that reminds me of Sean at this time. He showed me alot of music, including Qawwali (Sufi devotional songs), and a number of other things that changed how I listened to things, and what I listened for.


Qawwali of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Party


Eastern Surf Rock from the 70's

At NEC, we did two performances with 5 or 6 piece groups that involved spoken word. One of them was in Jordan Hall (we used music from Brian Eno, and text from E.B White). This was on an annual concert called CONCERT-X, where students could literally sign up to have a performance in Jordan Hall in october or november each year. It's a shame that they don't do that anymore, but everything changes, and that's the way of the world.   

I think we worked best in trio settings, but I remember playing alot of duo things in the practice room. We almost always played on two pianos, though Sean was most often heard on guitar. I really love Sean's piano playing. 

Two trios I remember very well are those we did with Derek Beckvold (3 performances), and Richard Saunders (2 performances). You can find a couple of them them below. One is from my Senior recital. Sean now lives in Brooklyn, but he was still in Boston at the time. Both of these performances were hastily prepared, but I think that's how we work best. We'd done Hello Old Friend  with Derek once before (the previous semester), and Busway Song was initially a duo from Hankus Netsky's Songwriting workshop. I didn't feel comfortable singing it again, and Sean was catching a cold. We tracked down Richard, and he sang it for this performance (on a Tuesday Night New Music in Brown Hall). 

"Hello Old Friend" (2010) with Derek Beckvold

"Busway Song" (2008) with Richard Saunders

Sean Graduated in 2009 (a year before me), and moved to NY in 2011. I most recently visited him there in September, and we played a couple sets at Goodbye Blue Monday over the summer. He does alot of solo work, plays with a few different bands, and has a duo with his brother Griffin (an organ major at Juilliard). The people here in Burlington operate in a sort of similar way as Sean, and perhaps me writing this post right now (at 2AM with a huge mug of tea) is my way of expressing that I will visit him again soon, or that he should visit us up north.

Sean at Goodbye Blue Monday (Bushwick) in June 2012

  

2/2013 continued

FULL CIRCLE TIME MACHINE  @ Weirdo Records

Last Saturday, I took the bus down to Boston for what turned out to be another slightly extended (but eventful) trip. Unlike the past couple of times I've gone, I took a late morning bus. This got me to town around 3pm. Though I was staying in JP, I went directly to the Conservatory to drop off some of my stuff. I ended up sticking to that area until 7:30 or so. This gave me time to have lunch and do a bit of playing. The week before was a busy one in terms of performances, so the horn stayed in its case for a few days.

Later, I met up with Mark and our friend Daniel Pencer - a great reed player who I'm writing a tenor saxophone piece for. We drove out to Union Square in Somerville to hear this concert on the open sound series.  We were all feeling pretty hungry, so we skipped out on the last set, but what we heard, I really liked. The first 3 sets were: Orlando Cela playing contemporary flute solos (one of which was Cassandra's Dream Song by Brian Ferneyhough), a pianist (name forgotten) who played a movement from a Michael Finnissy piece, and a Banjo Duo from the Berkshires playing a medley of very well-disguised and deconstructed pop hits! The Finnissy that was played is represented in the video below, with the score:

I lived about 7 minutes from Union Square in September, but I didn't really explore it that much. After the concert, Mark took us to this really great Indian restaurant next door. It was a bit pricy, but totally worth it. If I move back to Boston, Somerville would be a great place to live. It's fairly removed from the rest of the metro area, and it's price is comparable to VT as well.

The next morning, I woke up having some epileptic issues, and ended up catching a few extra hours of sleep. I took it real easy that entire day, but I felt great on the day of the show at Weirdo. Andrew (who played on the 1/9/13 trio in VT) opened with two new songs, then played duo with Andy Allen. I'd been thinking about doing a melodica solo, so I worked up Nonaah by Roscoe Mitchell, and FCTM closed. Tara and I really seem to thrive after long breaks, but I do hope we can play more often. Our next scheduled performance is with the NEC Wind Ensemble on 4/16 (tax day!). Angela (the owner of Weirdo) took video of everyone's set, which you can see below. There were a good number of people there, including a few that nobody knew. I love playing for new folks, and I thought the whole thing was great:



The next day, all the offices at NEC had opened and I got the parts for the 4/16 performance to the ensemble library. I had originally planned to get out of Boston on Wednesday, but changed my ticket to Thursday so I could see a few more people, and relax a bit. I had lunch with Joe Morris, and the Contemporary Improvisation department had a retrospective concert Tuesday night. Alot of my friends were involved in this, and I'm really glad I didn't have to get up so early the next morning. Before the concert, they had a panel with Ran Blake, Tanya Kalmanovich, Allan Chase, Hankus Netsky, and Gunther Schuller, during which I was sucked into doing a quick copy job (one of the big band people lost their saxophone part). I got paid, but it would have been nice to just sit and listen. They had some pretty interesting stories!



My last full day in town began at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum with Clare. When I worked there for the Earle Brown Symposium last month, they gave me a couple of free passes. I'd been there a couple of times before for concerts, but never really for more than an hour. When you walk through it, there only a few maps and little blurbs. For the most part, everything is unlabeled. This makes it feel more like the house it was, I'm sure. I love that place, and I definitely want to go back again soon.

      The rest of the day involved going up to Weirdo again to retrieve a sweater I left there, and getting some new music. I ended up with No Doughnut in Hand, an album of vocal improvisations by Phil Minton. I listened to it on the bus home yesterday, and am still speechless. What a strange, awesome musician he is.

I met up with a few people when I got back to the NEC area, including Allison Poh, a flutist who's digging into a piece of mine. We met for about an hour, and whenever she plays it for an audience, it's going to be really sweet.

I'm going back in less than two weeks for a performance of another piece in the same series. My friend Matt Ebisuzaki asked me to write it for his recital on March 9th. It's the only piece in the series that's not a solo (there's going to be a cellist), and it utilizes a transparent sheet of blank staff paper. I'm looking forward to hearing the result.

  

The Month of February

It's been one hell of a week here in Burlington, and this shows no sign of letting up soon (I'm headed to Boston on Saturday to play at Weirdo Records again!)

On Monday, I played my first show with the Brass Balagan. This has to be the most fun I've had playing music in a long time. We were playing in a fundraiser for the Spielpalast Cabaret at Muddy Waters (a cabin-like coffee shop on Main Street), and there had to have been at least 70 people there - probably more. They were all dancing, and the band was fairly mobile as well. When I started playing with the Balagan, I recognized some of their tunes from an ensemble I took at NEC. That ensemble was directed by Dave Harris, who told us "It's much better to play for 100 people dancing." I fully understand now that he was right.

Yesterday, I slept in, and finished a whole bunch of copywork. I wanted to practice for my solo set at the Radiobean, but decided that it would be better to practice mentally rather than go in with set ideas. I think I made the right choice. I'm still feeling pretty lucid from the two sets I played (one solo, and the other with Arthur Brooks and Anthony Santor), and I'm glad I went in there without any physical preparation for my solo set. I definitely did alot of pre-planning, and listening, but my goal for the next solo set I do is to play with absolutely no pre-conception. I recently have found that the things I didn't plan in a solo performance are always the things that sound and feel the best. I'd like to try this with that fact being a goal.

Also, my theory of repetition is proving to be a winner. I always find that the cycles I get into (within an improvised performance) are really interesting, but they never go on long enough. This is something that has improved in the last couple of months, but still needs work. The next time I plan a 30-minute solo set, it will have 2 or 3 ideas that I'll really stick to - you can hold me to that! For now, here's what we did tonight. I'm really liking it, and as always, I'm looking forward to doing more:

Tomorrow, Balagan is playing for a march protesting violence against women. For this occasion, the point person asked me to do an arrangement of the pop hit You Don't Own Me by Lesley Gore. The band is playing it really well, and I'm looking forward to doing it in a performance situation. The Brass Balagan is definitely a physical band, I love the energy that goes into their performances.

The Balagan - pre 2013

That ought to be a great time. In other news I went to a flea market with a fellow Balaganer named Bob Belcher (no relation) and found a perk coffee maker for $2. In addition to braking my "no coffee in VT" rule, this brought back serious memories of camping trips, and life in general back in the day, helping remind me that I'm New England as all hell!

Here's to more adventure :)

The Bailey-Howe Library, the Internet, and Simple(r) Living

The entrance to UVM's Library, behind the Royall Tyler Theatre

I've realized in the last several weeks that one of my patterns is to spend time on the UVM campus to get work done, particularly in their main library. on an average of three or four days a week, you'll find me there.

This is outside of practicing for performances and (now bi-monthly) church jobs. Had I not passed through the entire UVM campus to get to my workplace, I don't think I'd spend as much time there now. It's become a second home, in a way. This is in no small part due to the expanse and open nature of both the library, and the entire campus. And, despite this openness, being in the library and looking out the window is reminiscent of being surrounded by a huge skyline. This is still something I often think about and miss. Indeed, there is a UVM skyline from this view. Doing my work in the Bailey-Howe library is great. There's a built-in cafe where I can access the web with an ethernet cable, and eat when I need to. I usually bring a sandwich, trail mix, and tea. Even when the cafe is closed, people can go behind the counter and fill containers with hot water. I've yet to pull an all-nighter, but that area is open 24/7.

The UVM skyline

More recently, I've been taking advantage of their book collection. I can't check books out, but I can read whatever I want when I'm there. This being a university, what I'm about to say might sound silly, but a great epiphany of mine was to look around and realize, "Wow. I could read about almost anything from the books they have here."

Another realization I had, though quite a long time ago, is that I don't have alot of stuff. Aside from the two plastic drawers I own and two small-ish tubs of clothing, I'm looking around my room, and can count 4 small to mid-sized moving boxes. Most of them haven't been unpacked, and they contain only books, CD's, and sheet music. I now own only two brass instruments, and a small chord organ. The organ lives in a suitcase, which also contains most of my handwritten scores. From 2011 until recently, most of my music was handwritten. I put some things into finale during that time, but only when I found it difficult to read when handwritten (vocal music mostly), or if it was for a large group of people (the one wind ensemble piece I've written in recent history).

I work as a music copyist and arranger, and in January I bought a second laptop to better facilitate this work. The laptop was owned by a friend, and had all of the software I needed to do my work. With that  computer came a whole lot of extra GB's of storage. Because of that storage, I'm currently transferring my CD collection to this laptop and backing it up. When this process is complete, I'll be able to let most of my CD's go. There are a few that I want to hang on to, but most of them will go. That's one less box I'll have to deal with.

I'll hang onto a lot of my books, and of course any personal letters that I've received, but I'm sure I can find a way to get rid of some of that mass, or at least fit them into a more efficient box. The content of the plastic drawers is mostly paper. Some of this paper is important, but I imagine I can thin out a good bit. This gets easier every year, and now that I'm not in school, I'm not constantly bringing home tests, packets, or other things that get stored away like this...

The two tubs of clothing have come in handy, but I imagine that they will be replaced rather than expanded over time. The lack of wooden chests is something that continues to make my life easier. The only reason I had to rent a U-Haul trailer to get up here was the size of my mattress, and I'll add that I'm thinking of downsizing to a twin bed (when it's time to leave this town).

My main source for reading has become the library. Anything else, I can dig out of my two boxes of books, or find on the internet. I've still been watching TED talks like a crazy person, and the one below is a good example of something I'm maybe trying to get at (though I know getting rid of what little I have won't solve all of my money issues).

While I'm not trying to be an evangelist for simplification, I'm definitely finding the idea of it beneficial to my state of mind, physical health, and day-to-day dealings. I also think that this will translate to my future. A few years ago I told a roommate that If I had to move tomorrow and start life in a new place, I could. This still rings true, perhaps now with greater volume than ever.

Hello 2013

Well, we're 13 365ths into 2013, and I'm back to VT from Massachusetts. I returned on Tuesday. I didn't mean to take such a long break from being here, but I'm glad I did. It rained yesterday, and it's been hovering around 40 degrees ever since - getting to see a whole bunch of snow without the sidewalks flooding was good while it lasted.

I played my last church gig before 2013 on Christmas Sunday, and left VT later that night. Megabus thankfully ran on schedule, but their weekend busses leave at 11am, and 8pm. So, I got into Boston a little before midnight, and headed over to Somerville. I was staying with my friend Casey Kent, who I lived with for 3 years before I moved to VT. We go way back to middle school, though we weren't uber close until we both ended up at schools in Boston. The only thing that was a bit off about going to visit Casey in Somerville is that Pumpkin (Casey's cat) doesn't seem to remember me that well, but you can only ask a cat to remember so much I guess...

"Pumpkin"

I wanted to eat something when I got in, but even Davis Square was out by the time I got there. Casey and her boyfriend Ryan live on a street right off Broadway on Winter Hill. I took a cab there because I didn't feel like waiting for the last bus. When I got to Casey's, I was quickly handed a bottle of cold beer. "Have this one," said Casey. "When you visit, We'll give you all the beers we don't like." Apparently, there's a huge liquor outlet near Lechmere station with heavily discounted bottles. They try new ones all the time, and don't like some of them, but I'm not going to argue with any offer of free beer (I have another story about that later).

The next morning, we got up and went to this diner in Ball Square, about 20 minutes walking from where they live. It was a nice place (Somerville is loaded with good places to eat), and relatively cheap. Later, we drove down to East Bridgewater (our hometown) and parted ways. My father and stepmother have had a Christmas eve dinner party for the last few years, and it's always a good time to catch people who you won't see on Christmas day. I had a really great Christmas. When I gave people in my family their gifts, I unloaded most of what I came with. I was given much-needed winter clothing, and some giftcards. I spent the next few days there in East Bridgewater basically catching my breath. Though I managed to get out of the house every day, I really realized how active I have been up here. It's a good thing, but I was glad to have a rest. It was great to spend some time with my folks, and visit another new pub. It seems like every time I go back there, there's a new pub...

Around new years, I went up to Boston to see some friends, and do all of the fun things that don't happen up here, like riding the green line, visiting Russian grocery stores, walking across the Charles River, and going to hear music at Weirdo Records. I think I may have found my new favorite view of Boston, from the BU Bridge:

(I didn't take this, but it's a pretty accurate representation of what I saw then)

After Mark Johnson's set at Weirdo, I went to a new year's eve party hosted by my friend Brett Walfish, who lives in a large building on Huntington Avenue. I was staying with my friends Mark and Clare in JP, and though Mark was out of town for NYE, Clare (like Brett, a violist) was there, along with Ben Wu. Ben and Clare have become two of my closest friends, and we've done two shows as a trio. our Weirdo set, along with out set at YES OUI SI (coincidentally the last show they had before shutting down) were definitely highlights of my year.

Clare and I spent the next two days wandering around Boston, drinking lots of Starbucks (due to giftcards), and cooking. We also watched probably over 3 hours worth of TED talks on Youtube. If you haven't skimmed these, I highly recommend them. There's alot of interesting stuff on there, and I keep going back - watching, and re-watching.

Before coming back up north, I made another trip to see my family. This time to Middleboro, where my Nana and Granddad live. My uncle Dan and his wife Azusa were visiting from Austin. They just moved there from L.A, and they come out here pretty infrequently. It's always fun to see them when they come in. My cousin Miona is 2 1/2 now, and ever more friendly.

Dan and Miona

When I passed through Boston again, NEC had reopened, and I visited Jordan Hall to practice organ one day. I discovered upon arrival to the room with the working organ that it was missing its pedalboard. This made for a very interesting practice session. I found a couple of bass notes, that I could gently hold down with my toes (while the pedals were missing, the little metal stubs that further trigger production of sound were functional). Clare was also practicing in Jordan at the time, and after we were both finished, we met up to play a little. As a viola/piano duo, we work pretty well coming up with short little pieces. I'm hoping we can record sometime soon. It's sort of cartoonish, how short and varied our little pieces are. the tracks could be titled Classical, Pointillistic, Minimalism etc - somewhat in jest, but it also is how we come up with a unified scheme for these little things.

Last Tuesday, I returned to Burlington to play a show at the ArtRiot Space with a bunch of different folks. Cowboy Band, Cult & Leper, and Friendship Ceremonies (Andy Allen) are all folks that I went to school with who were on tour.  ArtRiot is new gallery that's part of a converted industrial complex about 6 blocks south of Downtown Burlington. It's on Pine street, which is quite separated from the more residential part of the South End. Musicians in particular really like this, because it means that they can be as loud or quiet as they need to be, without any kind of potential for interference. 

This was a great homecoming for me, and it was awesome to see everyone up here. I played a trio set with Andrew Clinkman (of Cowboy Band), and Sam Lisabeth (of Cult & Leper). I recorded it, and here's what I thought came out the best:

Everyone's set was great, and we had a pretty big audience, which grew and peaked around the time that Cowboy Band played. Cowboy Band puts a great big noisy spin on old country songs, and I thought it was terrific. I sort of regret not getting a copy of their CD (they have only one track on their soundcloud), but I'll get on that someday. One tune in particular stood out to me, their rendition of "Hallelujah, I'm a bum," heard below as sung by the great Harry Mclintock:

The next night, I went to the Radiobean to catch Arthur Brooks' Ensemble Five, and they asked me to play with them. The bassist (Anthony Santor) is a friend of Andy Allen's, and he recognized me from the show the night before. I had a blast playing with them, and I was particularly struck by the cellist (a guy named Nelson Caldwell), who I'd never heard of. I knew about Arthur and Anthony, but I think not knowing Nelson made his playing have a great impact. They play at the Radiobean every month, and I think they'd be interested in doing more if we can create the opportunity for it. Since Anthony was at the show the night before, he was telling Arthur and Nelson about the space, and they seemed very interested. I'm looking forward to playing with them again.

After our set, we met a guy named David, who told us that after missing the last bus to Winooski (the next town over), he decided to come have a drink. He said he liked what we did, and before the set he asked us if we were a blues band. "No," Arthur replied. "We are a sound band." Nelson and I stuck around for a bit to catch the Irish Sessions band, and we ended up sitting with David, who insisted on buying us a round. I was sort of confounded, but as I've said before I think people in Burlington are just friendly. After Nelson left, David kept buying beers, and I left when the fiddlers stopped (around 12am). I don't normally find myself in situations where I get drunk with complete strangers while listening to live Irish music, but I didn't see any harm in it. David told me all sorts of stories, from his days in Brooklyn, to attending Quaker services, and I think we ended up with 4 or 5 more rounds before I called it a night. I thanked David for his generosity, and headed out quickly (the Bostonian in me comes out a bit in situations like this, where I don't really know someone). I'm not sure if we'll ever see David again, but this being a city of only 42,000 people, we could.  It's been pretty quiet since then, but I'm going to rehearse with The Brass Balagan tomorrow afternoon. I met one of their trumpet players the night of the ArtRiot show, and contacted them the other day. 

It's been a really great week here in VT, and I think it's times like this that give us strength to keep working. This Wednesday, I'm headed to Boston for the Earle Brown Symposium and a few other things, and as always, I look forward to returning.