Well, I am overwhelmed by all my music news. The past month has been great for music. First, I started off with Nancy King in town (the post before this one).
Friday May 6, Jacob and I were doing our Restless Spirit Music Series at the 5C Cafe with special guest Mat Maneri (The Magician). That was an incredible night of music. We did some free improvisations, a Canadian folk tune and some jazz standards. It was a real blast getting to perform with Mat again. I will have a download of the folk tune soon (if the sound of the recording is ok).
On Friday, May 13th, 4inObjects performed at the Jacob Sacks’ New Music Series at the Friends Seminary. Jacob wrote four new compositions and transcribed a great Neil Young tune, “Don’t Let It Bring You Down”. I also composed a new tune for the band that we performed that night. Jacob’s tunes were really hard, especially when you’re sightreading them on the gig. They were really great and I’ll be practising them for the next year! The Neil Young tune was so much fun to perform (yeah Canadians!)
Monday, May 16th, the Sacks/Weiss Trio performed at Detour and all the tunes were written by Dan Weiss or Jacob Sacks. That was a fun night of music. Besides for hearing those boys play in 4inObjects, it was a real treat to hear them play their other compositions. This is the only group where I can hear compositions by Dan. Dan writes music with beautiful harmonies and difficult rhythms.
On Wednesday, May 18th, it was Chris’ (my main man) birthday and I was also doing a show with Rob Garcia’s Sangha at the 55 Bar. It was great to see all those guys in the band. They are good folk and they make me laugh a lot and they are talented musicians to boot!
After the gig, Chris, Raahool (one of Chris’ best friends) and I went to this wonderful oyster bar called “Pearl” in the village. Raahool and I had the steamed lobster (to die for) and Chris had the lobster roll (too yummy). I had one of Raahool’s raw oysters (very erotic), Chris and I shared the clam chowder and ceasar salad. For dessert we all shared a buterscotch parfait (I nearly died when I took the first bite, it was so good) and a chocolate fudge sundae. All in all, the food was fantastic and we all left full and blissfully happy.
This past Tuesday (May 24), Chris, Jacob and I went to Nublu to see our friend Thomas Morgan play with saxophonist, Bill McHenry. It was a really good show. It was trio (RJ Miller on drums) and the tunes were a mixture of standards, originals and other modern day musician compositions. Thomas sounded beautiful. It was so nice to hear him play with no chordal instrument. He is so creative and he has a beautiful sound. Bill performed an original composition that just knocked me out. I was so impressed with it that I just had to tell him as soon as he finished the tune.
After the gig, Jacob, Chris and I went back to the house and I made some Korean duk gook and a piece of Chris’ left over birthday cake which Jacob had baked for him. It was a good evening.
And finally, last night (Wednesday, May 25), I went to my friend, Eivind Opsvik’s CD release party at the 55 Bar. Jacob was playing and my friend, Tony Malaby was performing plus Craig Taborn and Kenny Wollesson. It was a night of fantastic music. That band has really grown into something so special. Those guys are really gifted musicians and Eivind is one of my favourite fellow colleague composers. Craig played this Farfiz(?) organ which was soooo cool! They mostly performed tunes from the latest release and they also played two of my favourite pieces from the previous CD, “Redford” and “Punchball”.
After the gig we hung out till everyone left the bar and we finally said good night. It was a late night for me (3:00am) and I’m feeling the effects of no sleep. So I say good night to you all. This month has been a great time for music and June is going to be happenning too.
I hope you all keep dropping by to find out.