NY: August-November

Manhattan from the Williamsburg Bridge

On July 31st, a warm sunny day in Burlington, I loaded two duffle bags, a suitcase, and a couple instruments into a cab, and left my apartment on Hyde Street behind. It was the first time I'd attempted to move on my own, and overall it went well. Still, it was pretty weird...

I had made arrangements to sublet a room in a New York apartment just three weeks before, and during that time, I managed to sell or give away things I didn't need, and find storage for books, and other stuff I wanted to hang onto. I actually gave away my air conditioner in exchange for storage - a great deal. I left the apartment spotless, and didn't say anything about leaving to my roommate, who was 2 months behind on his rent, and yielding the constant threat of eviction from our landlord, who at least accepted my taking off a month early.

I had a really great time those last few weeks - I was performing all the time up until the day I left, and the weather was awesome. a few friends from Boston even came up and played a couple things. It was a good way to go out, and I knew that I'd achieved my goal of connecting with another place that I love. I've been back there three times for gigs since I moved, and it's been a complete blast.

Anna Pardenik playing piano in New City Gallery on Church Street in Burlington, VT

I spent a week at home in MA, and left for NY on 8/8. Upon my arrival there, I started looking for work, and had a really decent transcription job that got me through the month. The 156th street sublet was not long, but I knew this. In September, I brought my things to another friends place in Brooklyn, and went up to Boston for a few gigs. Although it had been only 3 weeks, I needed to recharge before going on a housing search. When I returned, I got right to it, and moved into an apartment on W.138th Street on september 14th - my 26th Birthday.

W.138th Street in September, near my apartment

Living in NY was great up to that point - always new and interesting, cheaper than people say it is. but definitely not conductive to blogging. Some highlights would have to include going to hear music all around the city (for relatively little money), going to the Whitney Museum every Friday, and meeting a ton of musicians. While I only had a few gigs in the short time I was settling there (two of them in Jersey), I'd managed to find other work, and more copying jobs - two things I was on the lookout for.

In terms of concerts, I was particularly drawn to things at the Manhattan School of Music - I had a few friends there already, and found it easy to meet potential collaborators. When you get out of school, you realize how small that world really is. They also have a very strong Contemporary Music program. I particularly remember going to hear the MSM percussion ensemble play George Antheil's Ballet Mechanique. I could walk there in about 15 minutes from my place. I loved living in Harlem, and though I could be wrong, I'm not sure I'll ever find a deal like that in Manhattan again.

I'm finishing this post a couple of months after starting it, and perhaps the biggest reason for that is that the building I moved into caught fire on November 24th - less than 3 months after I began living there.

The fire was a tremendously surprising event, as the building seemed to be in good shape from my perspective. Perhaps living on the first floor hindered my view of the buildings overall condition, though I'm still not exactly sure.

I rented the room from Juan and Maria Hernandez, a retired couple whose kids had since grown and left the house. They were originally from Cuba and the Dominican Republic, cooked amazing food, and were enthusiastic to host a recent arrival from Vermont who didn't speak their native language. How I came to find these people is really a strange story that I have told a lot recently, and will try and spell out here:

The Whitney Museum in August 2012

Before I left for Labor Day gigs, I noticed a number for "rooms available" on a billboard near my first place on 156th and Broadway. I wrote it down, but I wanted to look at other things first. It seemed a bit odd, so I kept my distance. I found a similar ad on Craigslist, but with a different number, and the name Gabriel.

I waited until the last possible minute to call this number. I wanted to find a place by meeting with my potential roommate first, and handing them a check. When I realized that I wasn't going to have enough money to put down first and last as required, I resorted to calling Gabriel's number. His office was located in a regular 5-story building on E.33rd street. I was buzzed in by a receptionist who told me to go to the 5th floor. On that floor, I found Gabriel's office at the end of the hallway. His name was on the door, in arching decals:

G-A-B-R-I-E-L

It was then that I knew this was special, and I rode the special train to the end of the line.

He explained to me that he was a liaison to the company that dealt directly with the rentals, and that he would send me to them for a small fee. He explained how it worked, and it was definitely within my means. I was very hesitant at first, but also desperate! I gave him the fee, and he sent me to this other office - strangely, the same office for which I saw the billboard near my sublet. I showed them that I had payed the fee, and then waited to speak with them. 

Just about everyone in this office spoke fluent Spanish, and when I got to the desk I was asked to fill out a short form that also stated the process in detail. They had several notebooks with numbers and addresses. Though I never learned Spanish, I could tell that they were asking if there was a room available. If the person on the other end said yes, they went on: "OK. He's American, mid-20's, doesn't speak Spanish" etc. After about 10 minutes, they gave me two addresses. If either of those worked out, I'd pay the rent directly to the people in the unit, and move in immediately.

The people I spoke with at these addresses had no interest in me, likely because of my non-existent Spanish language skills. I went to the office the next day, and asked for a few more places to look at. This time around they were slower, and perhaps more detailed in their searching. They gave me two places to look at, and 138th street was the first. The building and unit were nicely kept, and Juan and Maria were incredibly warm people. Their English was a bit rough, but their will to communicate with me was strong. We definitely enjoyed each others company, and I was really starting to feel settled before the fire. A few days before it happened, they left for the Dominican Republic, where they were already planning to spend a few months. We'd worked out an arrangement for me to pay rent a relative of theirs who lived across the hall, and would clean for them while they were away.

The night before the fire was the coldest of the season. I went out for my usual walk around 10 or so, and made it down to 125th street before turning back (it was about 23 degrees, and windy). It made me feel exhausted, and I fell asleep quick after getting home. The next morning around 6am I woke to the sounds of firefighters breaking windows above our floor. I was a bit confused at first, and began to hear  shouting, catching a faint whiff of smoke.

My first instinct was to go into the kitchen, where I saw no sign of any fire. My neighbor and I quickly got out of the building. Being in a panic, I hadn't grabbed any belongings. I don't think I'd realized yet that the fire started on the 3rd floor and spread upward. Our unit was affected only by water damage - not the whole unit, but it's bad enough that they have to gut the whole place out and remodel it.

We spent the next four hours or so hearing updates on the fire, and by 10am it was declared extinguished. One of our neighbors (of several buildings over) let us into her apartment, where we made massive amounts of hot chocolate, and brought it to about a dozen people downstairs trying to keep out of the cold. The Red Cross was also present, with two large busses on Broadway, blankets, and food items. I spent a good amount of time in one of the busses chowing down on oreos and talking with some of my neighbors. One guy lived on the 5th floor, and didn't know if he could get back into his unit. Later I saw him on the corner with a few bags - he said he was able to get most of his stuff, but he was headed to live with a friend until he heard anything else. By noon, we were able to get into our unit, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that my room was dry(unlike the living room and the master bedroom, which both had windows near the street).

I grabbed my computers, packed a bag full of clothes, and made sure that anything that could possibly get wet was elevated before I left. When they let us in, they made it clear that our unit would not be habitable for a while. After saying a temporary goodbye to the building, I made my way down the the East Village for a meeting, as if nothing special had happened. I resolved to treat myself that day, ate really good food, and ended up staying with a friend in Brooklyn that night. Oddly enough, I'd scheduled to leave NY for Thanksgiving the day after the fire, so while it was a horrible thing, it couldn't have happened at a much more convenient time.

After Thanksgiving, I went back to 138th Street to clear out my room. It was going to take them at least 4 months to renovate the place, and I'm doubtful that I'll be going back there. However, crazier things have happened. We'll see what happens, always and forever.

I was grateful to have a few friends who could help me move and temporarily store my stuff. I don't have many things - just a few boxes, but enough that a solo move would be impossible. I spent the next few days working out details with some of my clients about how to continue working while away. It didn't seem worth it to search for a new place just then, and as I was technically subletting without a lease, the housing authority probably couldn't do much.

I left Manhattan for Boston on December 3rd, and I'm still traveling back and forth for activities relating to my work. I'm lucky to have great friends here who took me in before I was offered a stellar housing deal (by another great friend)  in Brighton. I currently plan on getting back to New York before July, almost a year after this whole Post-VT adventure started. The things that have happened to me since my unexpected return to Boston have generally been quite wonderful. Another new chapter starts there, and I'll be sure to share more frequently with anyone who is still reading.

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