Singlespeed Music is happy to announce “These Times” by the Aram Shelton Quaret.
The Aram Shelton Quartet features Chicago-based musicians Keefe Jackson, Anton Hatwich and Marc Riordan. Related to the Fast Citizens (Delmark), of which Shelton, Jackson and Hatwich are all members, this quartet displays a musical range on their debut album “These Times” that encompasses free swing, creative improvisation, space & patience, and fiery energy.
In the quartet, Shelton plays equal amounts of alto saxophone & clarinet, approaching each distinctly while displaying both the large and subtle differences of the instruments. Jackson contributes on tenor saxophone with a full sound and unique approach to the utilization of extended techniques. Hatwich’s bass playing grounds the music and drives it in a compelling way, while Riordan’s drums serve as backbone to the rhythmic aspects and a frame to the open sections.
A tour celebrating the release of “These Times” is scheduled from July 23rd to 31st with dates including Chicago, New York, Ann Arbor and Washington DC. The full itnerary is below. The CD will be available at all shows.
July 25 – Kerrytown Concert House – Ann Arbor, MI
July 26 – the THunderbird – Pittsburgh, PA
July 27 – Douglas St. Music Collective – Brooklyn, NY
July 28 – Bossa – Washington, DC
July 29 – 701 CCA – Columbia, SC
July 30 – Static Age Records – Asheville, NC
July 31 - Ya-Yas – Lexington, KY
August 1 – the Hungry Brain – Chicago, IL
Traveled to New York City for a week of shows – the impetus of the trip was Larry Ochs asking Darren Johnston to bring a group to perform at the Stone. Darren asked Cylinder, and the timing worked out for all of us. We’d originally thought of doing a trip similar to the one last September that we took to Chicago, where we played several dates, two as the quartet and two with Chicagoans. Unfortunately the situation in New York is a bit tougher to navigate without some funding, so we were only able to secure two dates: the Stone on Thursday March 18 and at the Douglass Street Music Collective on Friday the 19th. Lisa Mezzacappa also arranged an in-store for us at the Downtown Music Gallery on Sunday the 21st, Kjell couldn’t stay in town for that, so we played trio, which worked out pretty well.
Playing two nights in a row was a good experience for us, though I preferred the date at Douglass Street. My limited experience at the Stone doesn’t have me sold on it – though I appreciate the space as a performing environment and as an anchor for creative music in NYC, it doesn’t seem that musicians come to check each other out (partly because each show at 8 & 10 o’clock is a separate ticketed event), which is important when you’re not a particularly famous musician playing in Manhattan. At Douglass Street we shared the night with Michael Bates’ Outside Sources – and it was good to see some New York musicians that I haven’t before, and felt good to play in front of them and the audience who came. Michael’s group included Greg Tardy on tenor & clarinet, Josh Sinton on bass clarinet, Josh Deutsch on trumpet and Jeff Davis on drums. Nice players & interesting writing. A good turnout, and a fun hang afterwards with the musicians from Outside Sources.
As this was my first trip longer than 3 days in New York in quite awhile, I took the opportunity to arrange other dates and a few sessions. Played with Weasel Walter in two settings, the first night I got to town (wednesday the 17th) we played a trio with Damon Smith (in town for a different Stone show) at a space called Silent Barn out in Bushwick. Live-in show space – similar to spaces in West Oakland. We played a pretty blistering set, and I’m feeling real good about my recently overhauled alto reacting well when I push it. A date we played on Sunday the 20th was with Reuben Radding on bass and Daniel Carter on saxophones & trumpet, with Jen Baker joining us on an improvisation. I’ve been a fan of Daniel’s for quite a while, so it was a pleasure to play with him. A warm man – glad to meet him. That show was at Goodbye Blue Monday in Brooklyn, Lisa Mezzacappa arranged the date and played an improvised quintet with Ava Mendoza, Jason Mears, Darren Johnston & Jen Baker.
The other two dates with Matt Bauder – one was on Monday the 21st at Zebulon, the next tomorrow night at Issue Project Room as part of the Porter Records showcase event. At Zebulon we performed my suite “Kodachrome Music” for two horns & percussion with Harris Eisenstadt. Their aesthetics work perfectly with that suite, which was inspired by a trip to Southern Utah a few years ago. The small crowd at Zebulon that “braved” the rainy night reacted well and really listened. I’m looking forward to the concert tomorrow night, we’ll be playing Bauder’s “Paper Gardens” with Jason Mears and Reuben Radding.
Definitely a good trip – got to see more parts of Brooklyn than I had in the past, and saw interesting exhibits at the Whitney and P.S.1. Great to meet and play with more musicians in New York. Still not a place I want to move to. If I ever did, it’d have to be because of a particularly good opportunity……
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
The second Fast Citizens album, Two Cities, has been released by Delmark. The Fast Citizens are the Chicago based sextet of Aram Shelton, Keefe Jackson, Josh Berman, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Anton Hatwich and Frank Rosaly. Formed in 2002 by Jackson, the Fast Citizens have decided upon a rotating leader chair and for their sophomore release Shelton has taken the reins as main composer. The title Two Cities reflects the geographic locale of Shelton, (currently based in Oakland, California), and his continued relationship with the active music scene in Chicago. Focusing on orchestration and structural variety, the Fast Citizens present a stylistically diverse album that includes hard swing, lush ballads, high-energy free improvisation, modern composition and Sun-Ra inspired grooves.
Played with Trevor Healy at Tom Duff’s house in Berkeley – a nice spot for playing. It was two duos that night, the first being Jacob Zimmerman, an alto player at Mills right now and Mike Carreira, a drummer. Their set was first, Mike played a very stripped down set of small bass drum, snare and small cymbal. Spare sounds – worked well with the composed music that I think was written by Jacob. The music focused on distinct aspects of playing by Jacob – trills, high tones, etc. Mike has definitely explored the smaller sounds of drums -he used tiny scrapes and movements to good effect. A short break and Trevor and I played – the last time was back in early August (on another duo bill with James Fei and Kyle Bruckman) and we fell back into our style – which has developed over time to be a process of building up thick affected drone sounds with interspersed field recordings and ghostly melodies. Meditative. This was a good set and Tom recorded it with a nice pair of overheads. Hopefully that will be unearthed before too long….
There’s a monthly series happening at the Makeout Room in SF – first mondays of the month – the bay area is all about mondays – or so it seems sometimes….
So, Marches played our 3rd show – so far Cory, Jordan and I have been at all three – our bass / organ position has been moving around a bit, thankfully there’s good players out here that fit well into the music we’re playing. This night we had Eric Perney join us on bass, and he did a great job of interpreting the music. He’s a strong player, particularly when playing arco. We played a five song set, starting with the through composed ballad “the Walk”. On “Turning”, a kind of slow moving power waltz that disintegrates in an Aylerian way, my mouth completely dried out. It’s very hard to blow alot of air through a horn when you’ve got no more moisture…..Cory played some great tenor & baritone solos. Jordan took a drum solo that really changed the mood of the set ….KFJC came and documented the night with video and audio.
The first set was played by Nathan Clevengers sextet. In it I played tenor, alto and clarinet; Kasey Knudsen played alto & tenor; Sylvan Carton baritone & tenor; Sam Bevan bass; Eric Garland, drums; and Clevenger on the guitar. Nice tunes – interesting writing with independent parts for the different voices. We didn’t have a rehearsal – so I was pretty green on some of the arrangements… I also played mostly free solos, as specified by Nathan’s arrangements – these were good sections, Garland said it was the most interactive he’s felt while playing free. But, I did ask Nathan for some solos on changes the next time around.
Lords of the Outland played the middle set – alot of energy by that quartet of Rent Romus, CJ “Reaven” Borosque, Ray Scheaffer & Philip Everett. The crowd at Makeout was pretty talkative. The effect of having shows in bars that have happy hour until 10. Though, when you’re playing you don’t notice it quite as much as when you’re trying to listen.
Played duets on Thursday night at Blue Six in the mission with Kjell Nordeson. Part of the Active Music Series, it’ll be a monthly concert where I’ll be bringing a project and inviting another group to share the bill. This night Darren Johnston brought a new quartet called Farallon where he’s joined by Sheldon Brown on alto, Noah Phillips on guitar and Jordan Glenn on drums.
Kjell and I played the first set, all improvised – we played four pieces, the first two were more rooted in tempo based forms with Kjell creating multi-layered rhythms with lots of variations and colors of sounds stemming from his kit that includes many “little instruments” in addition to the standard elements. Really fun to play with him, I like his feel when playing time – driving & intense, with a solid pulse supporting all the variations.We played four pieces – the first two were pretty high energy tempo driven affairs, lots of forward momentum and repetition. I started on tenor and switched to alto halfway through the second. The third piece dealt with more quiet tones and silence at first. Kjell then created a pulsing theme utilizing some complex sounds which developed into an ostinato in a kind of 12/8 feel with cross rhythms on top. I was able to float on top of this with melodic material. A very patient feel to the piece. We were able to record it with 4 tracks, here’s the second track, where I play first tenor and then alto:
Farallon played the second set. It was quite good, some originals by both Darren and Sheldon and one Herbie Nichols tune which was quite an interesting interpretation largely due to the instrumentation and the playing style of Noah Phillips. Instead of comping in a jazz way, Noah’s concept has a strong rock influence, and he would create backings which reflected this, while maintaining the chordal aspects of the written music. It was a real juxtaposition which I thought worked well. The music written by Darren and Sheldon was strong and you could tell how much those two had played together in the past. Darren’s been sounding extra good these days – a benefit of playing alot of shows all over the place (I think he was in Chicago, Toronto and New York in the past month.)
Last night played with Weasel Walter’s Quintet – first show in a few months – me, Aaron Bennett, Darren Johnston, Damon Smith and Weasel. It was good. We didn’t have a rehearsal, we played the first piece Weasel had brought to the group, “On the Verge of Destruction”, so we all knew how to approach it. I think because of no rehearsing, the looseness that we played with actually helped the music. Darren, Aaron and I are all good readers, so the notated music was there, and the improvising was really interesting and varied. Probably because we hadn’t played in awhile: those situations always tend to freshen the ideas. I think structurally there was a good amount of variation too.
The first set was with Josh Allen, Mike Guarino and Tim Orr. Two drummers, one saxophonist. Alot of energy. I hadn’t seen Tim play before – used alot of extra percussion, cymbals and such, with his kit. Sounded good.
The last set was a trio made up of Derek Moneypeny and two fellows from Sacramento, Chad Stockdale and Kevin Corcoran. Drums, guitar and electric saxophone. More energy music! Loud – loving my westone earplugs these days………
The third concert of Cylinder’s Chicagoland run was at Heaven Gallery in Wicker Park. We had Jeb Bishop, Dave Rempis, Anton Hatwich and Frank Rosaly join us in this endeavor, we had a quick and focused rehearsal the day before that went well. All four us brought pieces, I wrote a new one that began with a bass melody with stacked chords by the horns, which led to a bass duet. Then some in time playing – had Rempis on baritone take a solo with Kjell and Lisa, I took the second one on alto with Anton and Frank. Up next was an expanded personnel version of Kjell’s untitled piece – a light structure with few instructions, but effective. A lot of energy. Darren brought a piece called the Paper Garden, he asked Josh to join us as well, so it was up to nine players. Lisa brought a modified arrangement of her piece the Deep Disciplines – inspired by deep divers, they can go down to 100 meters below the surface. All in all it was a fun set. I felt that getting all of those musicians together was very worthwhile. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to do it again sometime.
Paul Giallorenzo and Hans-Peter Pfammatter played the first set of the night. A piano duo. Paul played the upright piano, Hans-Peter played the baby grand. Both used preparations. Very good pacing. Lots of interesting sounds. Paul also added some synthesizer towards the end of the set. If not for the loudness of the Milwaukee Avenue Saturday Night drunkenness alot of the sounds could have been heard better.
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.
Singlespeed Music is happy to announce “These Times” by the Aram Shelton Quaret.