Posts Tagged ‘marches’

Went up to Sacramento on Memorial Day 2010 to play up at the Luna Cafe as part of the Nebraska Mondays series.  Good friend Brent Bagwell from Charlotte was meeting up there as well with his group the Eastern Seaboard with Seth Nanaa and Jordon Schranz. First Marches show in a bit – my schedule has been quite full – I think the last time we played was all the way back in January when Anton Hatwich was visiting from Chicago and we played at Blue Six. That was a nice show.

Since then I’ve added Doug Stuart to the group on bass – but unfortunately (for Marches), Gene Baker is moving to New York at the end of the week, so this lineup of Marches with his signature sound on the Hohner suitcase organ will be missing for the foreseeable future.  It was an early show at Luna and I thought we played real well – I had a great time playing with this lineup with Doug, Gene, Cory Wright on tenor & baritone and Jordan Glenn on drums.  Everyone put in a lot of good energy. Satisfying.

The Eastern Seaboard played the second set – focused free jazz explosions – I like hearing how Brent approaches the freedom – thoughtful, patient. The room at Luna is a good size for this kind of music.

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Played last night at the Uptown in Oakland. it was a busy night down there because of a Pixies concert happening across the street at the Fox Theatre. Hard to park! Thought I’d get a parking ticket, but was lucky….

Marches and the Oakland Active Orchestra played – Marches was up first, our line-up for the night was the organ version with Gene, Cory and Jordan. Good playing – we’re making some progress – I’m really into the way the organ fits in with the saxophones. We tried a new piece – maybe should’ve rehearsed it a bit more – but it’s been a busy time out here and it’s been tough fitting in enough rehearsals. The plan is to get some solid rehearsing in and then get into the studio so that we can have a release sometime early next year. We played on the floor of the Uptown – which is good for sound quality, but a little tricky for light. Gotta work on that…..

The Oakland Active Orchestra played our second show. This one was very good with new pieces by Cory Wright, Phillip Greenlief and Rob Ewing, plus an arrangement of Echoes of Harlem by Tom Djll. A wide range of music – particularly in Tom’s piece – one section the entire group explores the smallest range of dynamics with a quick transition to a section with two drummers going for it with a strong solo by Ewing. Had a few subs on the night – Erik Jekabsons on trumpet and Sam Ospovat on drums – they both sounded great and fit well aesthetically. Sam and Jordan playing drums together worked well – they had a good sense of playing at the same time without dominating the group.
We ended the night with Rob’s piece, one that is very patient and uses the entire ensemble simply – to create a slowly shifting re-harmonization of a chord -a fitting use of the group.

The full lineup for the group this night was:
Aaron Bennett: alto & tenor saxophones
Phillip Greenlief: clarinet, tenor saxophone
Aram Shelton: clarinet, soprano & alto saxophones
Cory Wright: baritone saxophone, bass clarinet
Tom Djll: trumpet
Erik Jekabson: trumpet
Rob Ewing: trombone
Kristian Aspelin: guitar
Marielle Jakobsons: violin
Lisa Mezzacappa: bass
Damon Smith: bass
Jordan Glenn: drums
Sam Ospovat: drums

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