Alarm Will Sound, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Steve Reich and Musicians

I just got back from a concert at the *Newly Renovated Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center!* It was super fancy, and rather beautiful. I guess the New York Times has been raving about it, even though nobody had heard the renovated hall before this week... just one of those New York "buzz" things, I suppose. Anyway, it really did sound nice- although the hall has adjustable acoustics, for different types of concerts, and this evening they had the dampening on full blast. It could have used some more reverb, and sounded great- I guess they just figured that the amplified instruments would be easier to handle that way.

So anyway. Alarm Will Sound, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, and Steve Reich and Musicians. Three generations of new music large ensembles in New York City. Pretty great line up. I am a huge Steve Reich fan (as anybody who has heard my band, Einstein's Dreams, might attest), and I've heard a bit from both of the other ensembles. I was definitely looking forward to this concert. They played in order of youngest to oldest, and that is the order in which I will describe them.

Alarm Will Sound is a group of young musicians, many of whom met while studying at the Eastman School of Music, who are dedicated to playing innovative and exciting new music. They have an album of Aphex Twin covers which is pretty excellent- his electronica translates over well into the large chamber ensemble format. They began the concert with a piece called Three Rivers, by Derek Bermel. Sort of a plodding, 60's jazz groove, with not-quite-tonal melodic figures played by the melodic instruments. Trombone, bassoon, bass clarinet and double bass sometimes shared a harmonized, jerky melody; sometimes it was in the violin, flute and alto sax. My concert partner Nate described it as "bad Eric Dolphy," but I wouldn't be so harsh. It did have a certain air of classical musicians trying to reference jazz (and not quite getting it), but I found the melodic figures pretty compelling. And the orchestration was great- harmonizing like that is the sort of thing that makes me want to go back to music school for trombone.

They played another, jerkier, less tonal piece which I didn't spend much brainpower or emotional energy on, so I won't bother describing it. But they ended with a pretty fantastic post-rock piece. Swelling electric guitar and bass, and some fantastic dynamics. What can I say? I'm a sucker for dynamics.

The Bang on a Can All-Stars played next; sort of a New York new music super group? I don't know. I've heard about them for a while, but really only seen a few clips on youtube (even though I went to the Hartt school, where the bassist, Robert Black, teaches). Anyway, they were great, too. More of that rock energy mixed with modern "art music," the whole chamber ensemble vibe. There were two highlights. First, a brand new piece, for Madeline, by Michael Gordon, written for his recently deceased mother. Absolutely gorgeous. Again, we've got the swelling electric guitars and the amazing dynamics of post-rock, but a little less self-conscious than Alarm Will Sound.

The second highlight was a piece by Glenn Kotche, the drummer from Wilco. Man, I love Wilco. They're all such versatile musicians. Glenn's piece began really beautifully, with a very clear, simple, tonal, major key melody played on the vibraphone and bells. The melody was gradually broken up into different instrumentations, as well as stretched and simplified rhythmically (like ya do, when you're into minimalism). Apparently (according to the program notes), the melody was based on a kalimba melody, which was not surprising, considering how it lay on the different instruments. Gradually, we shifted over to the drum set, and by the end it was a full-on rock drum duet (oh, did I mention there were two drummers?). It closed thunderously.

Intermission; then Steve Reich, performing his epic work, Music for 18 Musicians. I gotta say; I've heard them perform it before, and I have a recording, and this was not their tightest performance. It's a very difficult piece, with 8th-note pulses happening for just over an hour. Everyone has to be extremely on-the-ball, rhythmically speaking. Right from the beginning, this was clearly not happening. Again, very difficult to lock up 8th note pulses (or even worse, the alternating on- and off-beat quarter note pulses between two pianos or two marimbas), but it's kind of the key to this piece. You are supposed to be able to get lost in the pulsing rhythm and the glorious textures. Then the harmonic changes can hit you harder, when they happen.

Other sad events and circumstances: the violin player knocked her mic with her bow at least 3 times; the violin player had some serious intonation issues for about a minute (I think she was playing double stops [two strings at once], and the top string had slipped out of tune? not sure?); the vibraphonist was kind of shaky with his attacks (which, again, is very important- the vibraphone cues the rest of the ensemble into the next section, supposedly quite dramatically); the violinist just was not holding the time together. Did I mention the violinist could have been better?

Ah, well. That's ok. It was a sloppy performance of an amazing piece, but it wasn't a train wreck, and it was in a great hall, with the great composer himself playing it. So all in all, I enjoyed myself.

Bonus Steve Reich Video Section!
Music for 18 Musicians:


8 Lines:


Nagoya Marimbas:

Finally! Got a music player!

Check this shizzz out, yo:

Loukoum- Tire Iron by eheveronsmith

More Loukoum!

Oh hey, also, Loukoum were back in the studio on Saturday. We have a pretty solid number of songs tracked now, with just the accordion, violin and guitar, and they've even started to add in some other fun instruments and textures, like wurlitzer, upright bass, drums and clapping. We're going to book another day or half-day or something, to get all of that stuff mixed nicely. I keep trying to convince them to do a full-length album, and really do up the production- Tom Waits and Tin Hat Trio sounds, stuff like that.

Chris Conley and the Bromantics

So I'm in the studio today for the second day of tracking on Chris Conley's new record with the Bromantics. The way I have been describing them is blues music with some latin influences, as played by wild jazz musicians. Chris is a guitarist who is coming solidly out of the electric blues sound and tradition. But it's Brooklyn, so this shit is just crazy. Maria Eisen on tenor and bari sax (she plays with Dub Is A Weapon, and a bunch of other jam, afrobeat, and latin bands), David Andrew Moore on drums (cat swings his ass off, when he's not playing "out" or "free," and sometimes even when he is). Adam Minkhoff lays down the solid bass grooves.

Anyway, this is a ridiculously fun session, and we are tracking everything to analog tape, which just sounds fantastic. I can't wait to get this mixed- I know Chris is pretty eager to release it, some time in October hopefully, so it'll hopefully be quick. I'll put it up on my website when it is ready!

crazy.

Skazka, Loukoum (and other strange words?)

I'm in the studio right now (yes, right now) with Loukoum, the trio of accordion, violin and guitar led by Kate Dunphy that I recorded a short EP of back in the winter. They're doing a few more songs (with their new guitarist), and then they'll be back in September for another day-long session.

It's really pretty cool stuff; sort of a blend of all the different types of "world music" that include accordion or violin. French, Eastern European, Argentine Tango, but blended up by American music school cats (I don't mean that in a bad way, for all you conservatory haters out there).

Anyway, I'll probably post some stuff up on my site when they've gotten it mastered.

Oh, so the other thing! It's less than a week til we head down to the New Jersey shore to record the soundtrack for Skazka! Frank Wartinger and I have been working hard to get it all organized, get all the players and instruments and mics together- we've still got some work. But it's going to be a really fun weekend, just hanging out and making music to a film.

By the way, this will be our first project officially under the umbrella of our new production company, The Cosmonaut Union. (that would be Frank, myself, and Greg Kamprath).

Couchgarden

Couchgarden! New Trailer!

For those of y'all who don't know, Couchgarden is a movie currently being worked on by Studio Rêver. Frank Wartinger and I (and probably others) will be working on the music.

In related news, we will also be recording some music in mid-August for another Rêver picture, called Skazka Skazka. My brother Brian, and his girlfriend Rebecca (both badass marimbists- they actually met at a marimba camp. soooo nerdy.) will be playing marimbas on it. I'll be playing bass. We're going to a big old house on the New Jersey shore and setting up camp for the weekend with two rented/borrowed marimbas and all the recording gear and other needed instruments we can scrounge together.

I probably haven't mentioned this before, but our method of recording this soundtrack is going to be really pretty damn cool. We've got a basically final cut of the picture, and we will be tracking live to it! Kind of like live music for silent films- pretty cool, eh?