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 :)