Started Sunday with the first bowl of oatmeal Ive had in about 2 decades, very tasty and I felt healthy for about 25 minutes after eating it. Nate Wooley put me up for the night and the afternoon of the 10th and morning of the 11th gave me a chance to listen to some of his extraordinary record collection (Boulez electro-acoustic music, for example). One of the most inspiring things about working with great musicians, other than directly playing with them, is the range of unique information they have about all kinds of subjects, and Nate is exceptional in this regard: deeply informed about cultural philosophy, all kinds of fiction, film, and contemporary composed music. The list of creative materials I must investigate keeps getting longer- I NEED MORE TIME. The next stop on our tour brought us to Philadelphia to play on a remarkable double with the ICP Orchestra; a bit intimidating to open for them, to say the least. We played a somewhat punk rock version of our book of compositions, starting with John Carters, And She Speaks, and then digging into an abbreviated list of our original pieces. We were supposed to play a short set of 30 minutes and Im hoping I didnt over-compress my playing to get to as many musical variants as possible in the shorter amount of time, in the process relegating the lower dynamic and spacial aspects of the duos music to the back seat of intention. At the time the music felt more cohesive and fluid than the concert in New York the night before. Playing before ICP put us in front of an audience of at least 250 people, one of the largest audiences that Nate and I have played for as a duo. Part of the pleasure of being on the bill with ICP was that it gave Nate and I an opportunity to catch up with a bunch of friends who play in the band, tremendous musicians and individuals. The band was in great form, performing compositions by Misha Mengelberg, Herbie Nichols, Thelonious Monk, and members of the band; Uri Caine did an extraordinary job as a guest pianist (he had also played with the group a couple nights earlier in New York), and the completely improvised ad hoc groupings made up from the ensemble that were scattered throughout the ICP set were highlights of their performance. The coda to their set was a psalm that Han Bennink hummed for Misha Mengelberg, a truly rare and beautiful moment. At the end of the evening, when everyone was packing up their instruments to go to the bar to celebrate and have a drink together, Han complemented me on the duo set with Nate, saying that he really enjoyed the music and the work we had put into realizing it. Thats a minute that will stick with me for a lifetime. https://youtube/watch?v=SH5-V7eEY_I
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 00:46:59 +0000
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