Posts Tagged ‘ivy room’

Frank Gratkowski is visiting the Bay Area for a number of weeks – busy with all kinds of concerts. A few weeks ago we both played in ROVA’s sax cloud at the ODC theater in San Francisco. 16 saxophones in a circle with the audience in the middle (some very nice music). Damon Smith suggested we play together in a quintet with Tim Perkis and Kjell Nordeson, and I was all for it. Damon, Kjell, Tim & I have played as quartet a few times in the past, and the results have always been musically complex, diverse, quickly changing and ultimately rewarding – adding Frank into the mix didn’t derail our past efforts. We played several improvisations, with Frank on bass clarinet and alto saxophone, myself on soprano and alto – the group had a nice and wide orchestration palette with Tim’s electronics, Damon’s non-amplified bass and Kjell’s percussion. Everyone was mindful of the use of space and silence, and there was some good & strong music made.

The first set of the night belonged to Joshua Allen on tenor saxophone, Matt Montgomery on bass, and Spirit on drums. A number of improvisations – Josh has been playing with Spirit for at least 17  years and they play well together. Josh did a particularly nice solo point where he explored overblown harmonics in a methodical yet visceral way. Here’s a shot from their set:

josh allen, matt montgomery and spirit play at the ivy room

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Back at the Ivy Room for the first time this year – I’d taken a little hiatus from the monthly series that I book there due to the holidays. The fourth mondays tend to fall right near thanksgiving and christmas, don’t they?  For this night I asked Damon Smith, Tim Perkis & Kjell Nordeson to do a set of improvising. Damon, Tim and I have played in quartets with a roving fourth member – once with Josh Berman, a time or two with Jordan Glenn – and this time with Kjell.  There’s a lot of activity musically with that quartet. Perkis is so flexible with electronics – his being computer based, a system that he’s developed over time – and of Damon can extract so many sounds from his bass that just having those two in a group creates endless possibilities. Add Kjell to that with his multi-layered rhythms and palette of sounds and it things move fast from point to points.  Not that we didn’t have sections that were patient and textural, where the group’s sound really coalesced.  An inspiring set – would like to play in that grouping again, soon.

The second set of the night was brought in by Jon Raskin, of ROVA. He brought his alto & baritone and was joined by Aurora Josephson, voice; John Shiurba, guitar; and John Hanes, on drums. A nicely varied set, they played several distinct improvisation that he chose either before or after (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) that it was a concerto for each of the instruments. I appreciated his “concerto” where he let the other members play an exposition of sorts before he joined.

A really strong night of music at the Ivy Room, thanks for everyone who came out despite the intermittent downpours, that are so rare in the bay area (and because of that make for the perfect excuse for people to stay at home)…

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Last night I played at the Ivy Room with Marches, it was our first show with the lineup of myself on alto & tenor, Cory Wright on tenor and baritone, Nate Brenner on bass and Jordan Glenn on drums. This was the original lineup I had in mind when getting the gorup together, but I’m glad that the group has a shifting lineup – it makes each show that much different.

This night was part of the Active Music Series, which is new, and is starting with concerts at the Ivy Room and Blue Six in the Mission. Marches was joined by two groups on this night: Telepathy, with Patrick Cress & Aaron Novik; and ACMD, a quartet of Alan Anzalone, Curtis Hollenbeck, Moe Staiano and Damon Smith.

Telepathy’s music is written by both Patrick Cress and Aaron Novik. The instrumentation of alto & baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, upright bass and drums. The pieces have alot of composed parts, with grooves and a strong rock influence. Tim Bulkley has been back in town for a few weeks from New York – and sounded great on drums. My favorite part was late in the set when there was a baritone, bass and drum trio with alot of space and good textures.

ACMD’s set was a stark contrast – fully improvised, it was a really good quartet. Alan Anzalone brought his soprano sax and bass clarinet, Curtis Hollenbeck played trumpets and typewriter, Damon Smith played bass and Moe Staiano had a drumkit with interesting unusual percussion objects and a large but shallow bass drum. Really strong improvising from everyone in the group, Curtis gravitated towards mainly muted trumpet playing, and interspersed typewriter at the right moments. Alan sounded good on both soprano and bc. The dynamic between Damon and Moe was interesting – Damon was really watching Moe at times and waiting for the right moment to interject ideas.

The Marches set was third, and like I said before, the first show with this lineup. We played some material that wasn’t on the last show with Gene. Nate is a strong bassist, and having him and Jordan play together is a great foundation for playing. Most of the material we have right now is in time, with plenty of room for blowing by the horns. We started with the Walk, which is a ballad we play without improvising. It’s based on a melody the sound of tenor, baritone, bass and drums created a fullness that was a good start to the set. We played the set with a controlled energy, saving the most freedom for Turning, a piece that is in a very loose three with a strong debt to Ayler in both melody and style. Right now my favorite songs in Marches all use tenor and bari! Such a full sound – I’m very into it. Here’s a track:

A good night at the Ivy Room – thanks to ken for hosting! The next show on September 28th will feature Cory Wright’s Group and Cylinder.

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Played at the Ivy Room this past Monday with Aaron Bennett’s Gogo Fightmaster. Aaron’s a great tenor player and the first time I saw this group a few years ago I really liked what I heard. Aaron and I have done some playing together mainly with Weasel Walter, and our playing styles, though different go well together – lots of energy. Fighmaster has John Finkbeiner on guitar, Lisa Mezzacappa on bass and Vijay Anderson on drums. The music has lots of sixteenth notes and extreme registers. It was a good set.

We’ll be playing a saxophone duo set this Friday at the Flux Theater in Oakland.

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Quite a bite has been going on the last month or so and I just haven’t been writing about it. It’s spring in California, and though I’m sure to those of you in other parts of the country that can be a struggle, out here it’s generally good. For me it’s been good as I’ve been looking for “work”, and have had extra time for practicing, writing music, and concerning myself with an upcoming trip to Europe.
March went by pretty well, had a trip down to Los Angeles with the Pink Canoes where we played a good show at the Pharoah’s Den down in Riverside (and now I know why Orange County is considered a totally different thing than LA) and a fun if ill-attended show at the Echo Curio in Echo Park. Stayed in Bel Air – went to the Getty Museum, nice trip. We finished that trip in Santa Cruz, a long day of driving up from LA, to the show, then back to the Bay that night. All in all I think Pink Canoes played 5 shows in March, had a good one at the Hemlock where Gerrit Wittmer played a set, and then another one at Travis’ house the Golden Trapperkeeper Lodge where it was Earth Hour, so we played a rare acoustic set.
Jordan Glenn’s trip Weiner Kids played a couple of shows too – at the Hemlock and then one up at the Ivy Room in Albany. That music is getting more and more fun to play – two saxes and drums – Cory Wright playing baritone in the group, me on alto. We’re getting to know the music better and having more fun with it. Going to record next week.
Weasel’s Quintet has played a few shows too – last night we played over at Kimo’s in SF – a good, short set, plenty of energy, but afterward Darren got the terrible news that his house had been set on fire by the crackhead who lives downstairs from him! I drove him to his place in the Castro, I couldn’t see the building, but on the way he talked to his girlfriend and it seemed like the important things (people, cats) were okay. Here’s hoping the rest is salvageable…..
Ton Trio played at the Ivy Room last month too. I asked Jordan Glenn to fill in for Sam Ospovat and he did a great job. It was good to play that music again, and now I’m writing more trio music to have when I head over with Kurt to Europe in a few weeks to meet up with Sam and play in Paris and Poland.
And finally, last weekend I took a trip over to New York with Jen. We found cheap flights a while back and decided to head over there. I put together a group with Matt Bauder, Jason Ajemian, and Harris Eisenstadt. I’ve been wanting a group with Matt for a while, and I think that this may be the start of that. Probably go back sometime in the fall to work more on it, but this was a good start. Played at a space in Long Island City called the Chocolate Factory. We only had one rehearsal and the set was on the short side, but the chemistry is good. We will see.

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Up in Albany at the Ivy Room they’ve been having shows on Monday nights. Eric Leppo tends bar there on Mondays and keeps this series going – thanks to him!
Played with Trevor Healy for the first time in a bit. I brought my alto and bass clarinet, used Max/MSP for processing, and was able to use his guitar sounds as well. Trevor makes big thick walls of sound with his guitar and electronics noise changing tools (pedals) including of course the electronic system for wind instruments. Our method of playing together has stayed consistent during our hiatus – we tend to take our time getting moving through different spaces in music, which makes a two hour rehearsal move by fast, and a 45 minute set that much faster.
Andrew Conklin’s band Quinn played second, a rock band with a good variety of songs – and then Jordan Glenn’s & Karl Evangelista’s instrumental band Host Family – pretty complex arrangements with multiple meters and pieces finding unexpected ways into others.

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