Hope to see you there !
p.s.—my partner Heather Rogers is an award-winning magician and will be featured in our wildly popular suite of accompanied Sufi poetry. To learn more about her, visit her site.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Want to hear an Interview for the "earPlay Jazzquintet" ?
Yes, this Tuesday (11/03/09) night I'll be interviewed by Eddy Pay on KPFA 94.1-FM from 8:15-9:15 pm to give fans and newbies an insight into our music. I've been interviewed dozens of times over the years and they've been hugely supportive of my various bands. The "earPlay Jazzquintet" will be performing this Friday night at the Hillside Club Concert Series at 2286 Cedar St. in Berkeley—they have a long history of presenting very interesting and hard-to-categorize music along with a great grand piano. To hear samples of the ensemble click here.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I enjoyed last night very much. It was good to see you in your natural habitat. :-)
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite moments was a subtle one where Brian was playing the tambourine (amazingly) and Fred snuck in with some bass notes that blended so well at first I didn't realize they were there. Also your virtuosic singing in "Jaco" and Heather's magic (especially the bubbles) for the "Sun In Drag". I love those translations of Hafiz, and the magic captured their playfulness perfectly.
What an amazing ensemble you all make! So many fierce multi-instrumentalists weaving a rich and fascinating tapestry. I was a little distracted by the synthesizer sounds in the mix (both your keyboards and the midi-xylophone), though the music you were making on them was brilliant nonetheless. Still, my preference is the for the shifting textures of all those acoustic instruments. Has anyone created something like clavichord with pickups on each string? That could be cool for music like this, delicate by nature but transformable with electronics...
Hey Anon >
ReplyDeleteThanks for coming out to see us and your generous feedback. I'm glad that our Sufi suite of Hafiz hit the spot for you. I never get tired of doing it. And "Jaco" did feel like I was out there orbiting some other planet...
Even though I do draw from more 'acoustic' crowd, this is the only one of my four groups that uses electronic instruments in conjunction with acoustic. Speaking of Ralph Towner, it was seeing the evolution of his group "Oregon" from a purely acoustic to an 'acoustic with electronic augmentation' format that convinced me that the latter can make arrangements with a smaller group feel more 3-dimensional (though I certainly understand your feeling about wanting just acoustic instruments).
Cheers Michael
Your performance rocked my little toe-socks off, my friend...truly inspiring! What's the story with the marimba lumina? That instrument seemed very cool...
ReplyDelete"Rasa and Her Moods" was incredible!
The timing of the whole evening was simply impecable...you're brilliant, Michael.
Dear Dana ~
ReplyDeleteGlad that your toes were still intact after the concert to get you home that night...
The North Indian fusion tune "Rasa & Her Moods" did feel pretty deep. I think the credit for that mostly belongs to our rhythm section players Brian Rice on tablas & drum set along
with Fred Randolph on thumb-style electric bass.
Ah yes, the Marimba Lumina is a creation of Berkeley's own Donald Buchla. It's remarkable in its ability to function both as a mallet synthesizer and a sampler, so the player can use both realistic sounds along with truly spooky ones. The latter was used in full force that night for the unaccompanied solo from my suite "Germ-line Genetics." Michael Hatfield really went into another universe to musically paint the impact of modern genetic experimentation. My jaw was just on the floor for that !