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