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Music Timeline (2008)
I had so many different projects on-going and intersecting this year I thought it might be fun to work up a little timeline. I ended up purchasing a beautiful piece of software by BeeDocs earlier this year called Timeline 3D and it imported all of my events from iCal. Then I started taking stuff out and simplifying. The resulting year is represented in the static timeline above and the 3D video timeline (with commentary) below.
Two Twilights
Photo by Nariposa
In two weeks time I have travelled over 3,500 miles to perform Twilight & Ghost Stories. The first performance, on July 19th, at San Francisco’s Hemlock Tavern was a cramped, frenzied, artistic success that included a wonderful ensemble of musicians including an interesting substitution: cellist Alex Cort and his wife gave birth to a boy early in the morning of the 20th and, quite understandably, he was unable to perform. In Alex’s place, percussionist and composer Andrew Pompey took on the Deagan #330 marimba that he and I purchased only hours before the concert. Arranged by Ellul‘s Joel St. Julien, the performance was part of the Mission Creek Music and Arts Festival and included a stellar ensemble of musicians all of whom deserve many thanks for what could be considered a thankless endeavor.
Joel Brown-Tarman and bandmate St. Julien were pitch perfect contributing monome cut ups, vocals and guitar textures while Vijay Anderson propelled and shifted time whenever he was called upon, once matching up in a spirited duet with good friend, trumpeter Kris Tiner. Matt Davignon seemed to get inside the spirit of the piece and provided elements that musicians with bigger egos could not themselves create and Andrew inaugurated the marimba by adding skillful, sensitive accompaniment.
Only a few days later I flew from Long Beach to Austin, Texas for a performance that I will not soon forget. Living in Southern California it can be easy for me to forget the hospitality shown to strangers in other parts of the country. The city of Austin left me stunned.
The performance was organized by Aaron Mace who runs the progressive music co-op called The Church of the Friendly Ghost, on July 29th we would conduct a free open rehearsal and on July 30th we would perform the piece in full.
Along with drummer and provocateur Chris Cogburn, Aaron applied and was approved for a grant from the MetLife Meet The Composers Fund that was able to pay for my travel and some promotional expenses. The performance took place at the wonderfully intimate Salvage Vanguard Theater which felt very similar to the lovely Electric Lodge here in Venice, CA. where we premiered 40 BANDS/80 MINUTES!
From Nick Hennies and his wife Meghan who housed me and took me to Barton Springs to Alex Keller lugging all of his recording equipment around just in case we might need it to Chris Cogburn keeping me company the last few days in town, I could not have been better taken care of.
And the musicians. What an incredibly wonderful group of people. Diane Cluck and Ken(‘s Last Ever Radio Extravaganza) rode 41 hours into town by bus and provided a certain grace so important that the performance surely would not have been the same without them. It’s not just the tone of Jon Doyle‘s clarinet that strikes you, there is a genuine good-naturedness to his personality that defies trouble. At a certain moment Nick Hennies haunting vibraphone interlocked with Doyle’s woodwind and the cello of Steve Bernal for a brief trio of master musicians. Singer/songwriter/philosopher Bill Baird (aka {{{Sunset}}}) earnestly put himself into the piece and, occasionally threw caution to the wind, once meeting with the voice of Diane Cluck and strumming a ghostly chord that the two of them rested on. Instantly recognizable, Aaron Russell‘s electric guitar shimmered and sang with all the character that one would expect and engineer and sound designer Alex Keller focused unwaveringly on an ancient reverb coil that he exposed to all manner of feathers, paint brushes and screwdrivers.
Seated to my immediate left, Chris Cogburn manipulated, resonated and coaxed sounds otherwise unheard from his drums. A well known improviser and curator of Austin’s No Idea Fest, Chris and I met in Llano, Texas in the spring of 2007. Before parting company we had already begun talking about working together and when the opportunity to perform Twilight & Ghost Stories eventually arose Chris championed the idea and worked with The Church of the Friendly Ghost to make it happen. Nick Hennies took all of the ideas I had in mind and on record and immediately helped put together the crack ensemble. William Meadows and James Laurance worked their magic on the live and audio recordings and the talented Leah Ross filmed the entire piece in HD without a crew, just her camera and the music.
The performance of Twilight & Ghost Stories requires that each musician in the ensemble is assigned a light. When the light is on the musician can play music, when the light is off they must remain quiet. Prior to the first performance of Twilight at the Next To Last Fest in Athens, Georgia I asked the festival founder Will Donaldson to help me put a light box together that would allow me to do such a thing. The light box itself has a total of five switches, however, there are eight plugs for lights- some switches control two plugs and some control one.
Aside from playing acoustic guitar, I was able to put my trusty light box to the test and although things were under control in San Francisco (seven total musicians) I was faced with some very interesting challenges in Austin (ten total musicians). The challenge, as I learned during rehearsal, is that it can be difficult to create certain combinations when required to turn on two musicians at the same time: what if you only want one? A trip to Home Depot and a few extra lights helped solve half of the problem, however I ended up simply unplugging certain lights to ensure that the correct lights were turned on in combination with one another.
I doubt that I will ever forget the generosity of time and spirit shown to me over the last few weeks. The hugs and handshakes from each musician I have been able to perform with has been an experience quite unlike any other. I am already looking forward to the memories of Twilight in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
FUTHER READING
Interview and Austin Review at Tiny Mix Tapes
Photographs from Austin Performance at Flickr
Feature on NPR Station 90.5 Program Texas Music Matters
Show preview at Austinist
Recommendation at Austin Chronicle
Recommendation at Austin-American Statesman
Feature at Austin Sound
The Rain Came
Photo by frinkianz
A few weeks back I was asked a question: would I like to go to Athens, Georgia in December and play some music. Typically, I responded with two questions of my own. One about transportation and one about a performance guarantee. Both of those questions were quickly answered in the affirmative and arrangements were made for me to perform at Next To Last Fest.
After confirming I then wrestled with the idea of what to perform. The festival organizer, Will Donaldson, was a fan of Twilight & Ghost Stories and I assumed that I would be performing that composition in some fashion. But how? I thought about incorporating large sections of the album recordings interspersed with live playing but this was ultimately a hedge against the possibility of putting a mediocre group together. Eventually a sense of abandon took over and in the last few days prior to the festival I shored up an ensemble:
Daedelus- monome, electronics
Lars Gotrich- acoustic guitar, voice
Liz Janes- voice, ukelele
Aaron Jollay- trombone
Chris Schlarb- acoustic guitar, electronics
Drew Smith- drums and percussion
From the beginning I intended on using the original recording of rain and street sounds as the background for the live performance, just like the album. A funny thing happened on the way to Georgia though. I forgot it.
I spent Friday afternoon down by the bank of the Oconee River recording sounds to use as a replacement. Unfortunately Athens is in the midst of a well publicized drought and the water ran quiet and still. The most exciting event of my riverside visit was the impressive bellyflop performed by a rotund beaver. It sounded like a bowling ball dropped from an airplane.
Again I resolved to use the original sounds and thought intently about how to accomplish this when it dawned on me: The Twilight Variations. I downloaded the zip file with the original four minute excerpt and via looping and crossfading I stretched it out to the thirty minute performance time.
The sounds outside a wet Long Beach apartment playing in the background, I conducted the Athenian sextet with a custom made light box that allowed me to create combinations of musicians on the fly much like the assembly of the album. I met with everyone collectively an hour prior to performance and, with no rehearsal, we took the stage.
Somehow it all sounded just as I thought it would: silence, texture, tension, melody and stillness commingling. Moments converged and dissipated naturally, one idea manually transitioning into another. The light box worked great and I got some solid ideas for future performances. Both the musicians and the audience seemed happy and shared the feeling that it was over too soon. Just the way I like it.
Soon Daedelus performed and, monome in hand, slew the crowd. His facility on the young instrument was inspiring as was his ability to inventively juxtapose melody, context and rhythm. Finally, in an enthusiastic act of quid pro quo, I accompanied Liz Janes on three songs that we have been working on over the past six months. Frozen fingers aside, I think it all went really well.
On Sunday Adam (Doseone), Jeff (Jel) and I watched former Dirty Projectors guitarist Spencer Kingman perform with nothing but a bright red Tokai electric. His guitar and vocal music is delicate, considered and beautifully written. Goosebumps and head shaking ensued.
Later the tables were turned as Spencer and I gleefully listened to Themselves vamp on George Washington‘s teeth and generally rip during their set. Later on the ride back to our lodging I had the pleasure of playing Spencer his first taste of Steely Dan. I choose the Odyssey inspired track “Home At Last.” He loved it.
Meanwhile in Long Beach, my wife Adriana (along with sister Pita and friend Sancha) plied her culinary genius for benefit of all who attended the quadraphonic listening event at {open}. Many thanks to Shea Gauer (the store’s co-owner) who enthusiastically sponsored this event. Not only is {open} a great book store but it also happens to be the best place in Los Angeles to listen to music. During the listening event, my wife told me later, a fresh rain came down quietly outside.
Chris Schlarb- Twilight Athens [mp3]
Recorded in Athens, Georgia
December 8th, 2007 // 192kps
UPDATE: Lars Gotrich has posted On Performing Twilight & Ghost Stories on his blog National Public Viking. Poseidon’s Wake indeed!
Anthony Shadduck Quartet @ Finger Prints (03.19.07)
In the last ten years I’ve either played at or attended thousands of shows. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy about a performance in which I didn’t actually perform. In that same decade I’ve been shopping at Fingerprints in Long Beach: I bought my first Squarepusher and Steve Reich records there and with the Anthony Shadduck Quartet show last night, I set up their first free jazz in-store.
The free performance brought out almost 70 people and they were witness to some vintage explorations. Old friends Nels Cline and Lynn Johnston were in fine form and the rhythm section of Bert Karl and the aforementioned Anthony Shadduck kept the churn.
The quartet was in consistent peril and the tension was palpable. I was smiling and on the balls of my feet for the entire fifty-minute, three movement improvisation. From clicking be-bop shuffle to stately melodic overtures to upright bass/electric guitar triplet pantomimes, Messrs. Shadduck and Co. rarely rested. The audience, no doubt there to see first hand the mythic fingers of Nels Cline, were witness to that rarest of assemblies: one soaked in honesty. Although the stray cliché slipped into the proceedings the bulk of the performance was a white-knuckle affair.
Lynn Johnston, performing on alto, bass and standard clarinet, bellowed, swooped and curled his notes around the strings of Shadduck‘s bass. Cline wrung metallic swirls of sound out of his guitar. He alternated between clusters of notes and thin ribbons of sound looped, reversed and de-tuned. Drummer Karl conjured hi-hat ticks and tom-taps with an economy of movement. He played at times against and along the current of the evening, occasionally providing a flurry of rhythm followed by spare bass drum kicks. The ensemble’s organizing namesake, Anthony Shadduck however, rose to occasion and pulled together all disparate elements creating a conversation that no doubt would be better understood upon repeated listens. His bass lines crackled and crept: from breakneck to Brokeback.
After two extended improvisations Bert Karl tore sharply into a drum solo. Cline, Shadduck and Johnston quickly followed suit and were in and out with vague unison lines rescued from the dust by muscle memory. Restless, the group exchanged ideas and quickly organized itself. Cline scraped. Shadduck stabbed. As the mangled end came near a collective exhale and applause refused to let night fall into silence.
Originally published in L.A. Record