Little updates

I've been spending a lot of time working on music for the string quartet album I'm planning. The line up is probably going to be two cellos, guitar and violin. I may replace one cello with either trombone or another violin. I think I'm going to title it Alone Is The New Together. Seems appropriate, not only because of the way the music is coming about, but also due to the "new" phenomenon of blogging, IM, etc. It'll be fun. And definitely interesting.

I've been listening to a lot of Tom Waits work lately. (Speaking of which, I should update the "Listening to..." section here) Marc Ribot's contributions to his work will probably stand out in my mind as some of the most inventive in popular music. There's an interview with him at the All About Jazz website where he gives a little insight to his compositional process. It was a very interesting read for me.

Other than this, I'm going to be working on some string arrangements for some other people. Hopefully I'll be able to post them here or at my site when they're done. I'll also be doing some duo work with Josh Harty in the near future. I've also been working through some transcriptions of Django Reinhardt solos and some Mingus tunes (especially, Weird Nightmare). I think it might be fun to do a gypsy jazz type band with more of the punk rock aesthetic. The Mingus charts are incredibly inspiring. You can see Ellington all over his work. Beautiful stuff.

And the winner is...

So my group The Dorothy Heralds were up for a number of Madison Area Music Awards last night. We were nominated in seven categories: Best Electronic Song for 'Beautiful', Best Unique Song for 'Now', Best Classical Song for 'Inverno Rosa', Best Overall Artist, Best Electronic Artist, Best Unique Artist, and Best Classical Artist. Whew, that's a lot of bests.

We were fortunate enough to win for Best Electronic Song and Best Classical Song. It was a complete surprise as the artists in each category are some of the best that Madison has to offer. I feel a little awkward writing about this as we thanked most everyone last night. But I'd still like to mention Robert Schoville, who performed the batucada section of 'Beautiful', Dave Adler, who arranged and produced the strings on 'Inverno Rosa', Biff Blumfumgange, who performed all of the violin parts, and Russ Pollard, who performed the cello parts. It was a real surprise and honor to win last night. Maybe I'll have more to say later...

Electric Masada

So I was lucky enough to have been able to attend Electric Masada's performance at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis on February 17th. I have to say that it was one of the most exciting and rewarding musical experiences of my life. Not only was this the first time I was able to see Zorn live, but Marc Ribot, Joey Baron, Cyro Baptista, Ikuo Mori, Trevor Dunn, Kenny Wolleson and Jamie Saft are all part of the group. With the exception of Jamie Saft who I was unfamiliar with at the time, each of these musicians have had an impact on my life and music, either as a member of a different group or individually. Ribot being the most obvious as his solo albums and collaborations with artists such as Tom Waites and Elvis Costello see constant play on my iPod. In fact I'm still working on transcriptions of his solos on the Rain Dogs album.

The night commenced with a talk/QA session with Zorn. I have to admit that I would have driven the four hours just for this. Zorn spoke at length about the importance of community in his work. He also discussed the process he uses for his soundtrack work, which was enlightening. He also spoke of the importance of art in our current situation and how artists actually suffer when commercial concerns enter into the picture. It was also humorous to hear his disdain for the "jazz" label.

After the talk we commenced to the theater for Electric Masada's performance. The band started late due to flight delays, etc. To my surprise the theater was set up amphitheater style and we were in the fourth row! This afforded us a great view of the band. In fact Michelle was delighted to be sitting directly in front of Cyro Baptista. Zorn kicked off the first tune and I was immediately enthralled. Then as he started to direct the improvisation I was struck with utter amazement. I was finally witnessing exactly what I'd contemplated and theorized for years. "How does he do this?" was the question on my lips every time I listened to Naked City or Cobra or any number of his improvising groups. The rest of the show kept me in this state of awe as the band proved itself to be inventive and consistently musical (this is something many small improvising groups can't always maintain, much less eight piece groups!). Absolutely incredible.