playing

I have just played a wonderful set of music with the Spoilers of Utopia Brass Band. The group has been put together by John Bell to play the music of jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler and some other brass band gems. I love this music. I hardly played a beat, as such, all night. I was able to range freely through the sound world of the drum kit in support of the music.

It was an excellently timed gig in relation to some persistent thought grooves I been jamming around - what is the relationship between music (or any discipline) and play? 

I keep coming back to this possible answer - master some simple fundamentals to get started, master them so you can forget them. The more "second nature" the techniques become, the more freely you can play. Up-skill as you go to make the game more sophisticated but never lose sight of playing. 

My not quite 2 year old daughter already knows how to play... it seems the essential ingredients of real play, when you are actually, really, forgetting yourself in the fun of a game, have to do with strong contrasts:

Now you see me, now you don't! 

Keep the ball and run with it or pass it to someone else. 

I have to get to there and you have to try and stop me.

It strikes me that in music we are presented with a series of contrasts that comprise the material of play, and the contrasts can be two extremes of a continuum - quiet to loud (silence/sound), slow to fast (tempo/frequency), sparse to dense (rhythm/harmony), low to high (pitch), rough to smooth (texture), relaxing to agitating (intentionality). 

The implications are profound. There are life affirming skills and attitudes to be gleaned from this process, the process being acquiring/exploring techniques and subsuming them in the service of play.

I am a master of shoe lace tying.

Human beings are sophisticated and confused creatures.

Here in New Zealand, the confused part comes to the fore in our attitudes towards the so called 'creative arts'. Take facility in music for example. It's commonly understood that participation in music requires something mysterious called 'natural talent' and unless one has this 'gift' then well, its just not worth the trouble. But the acquisition of this facility, to play music, is misunderstood.

My belief is that we are inherently sophisticated enough to be exceptional musicians, all of us.

Acquiring the skills to operate an instrument is not too dissimilar to learning how to tie ones shoe laces - an exceptionally sophisticated act if one stops to think about it... I, like you dear reader, am a master of shoe lace tying. I have done it every day, numerous times, since I was a young child. I come from a family of master shoe lace tiers. Both my parents, my grandparents... this tradition goes back many generations in my family, and I witnessed the act many times every day. It is such a common and ordinary thing that it seems a bit ridiculous to apply words like talent and genius to the act of tying shoe laces. With master musicians I bet it's quite a similar picture. And I would suggest that it is society, not the musician, who feels the need to use these labels.

My bone of contention is that our use of the words 'mastery' and 'genius' are too selective, and that the range of activities we are willing to call 'creative' are too narrow. We are all 'masters' of the things we take for granted because of our inherent brilliance (through repetition) in their execution - writing txt messages, driving forklifts, reading braille, tying shoe laces, preparing food... its a long list.

Of course, making music is NOT as common place as say making a good cup of coffee, and so it seems a special thing, but that is more a reflection of an impoverished culture than our innate ability to do this or that.. Of course there are individuals that will outshine others in every field, but why should that mean that others can no longer participate? I meet too many people who would love to be involved in making music and feel they can't because of some perceived lack, and this is a state of confusion i lament greatly.

Rhythm School

Had a great session this morning at Rhythm School. Three students came at three different levels.. Young Bella, all of 10 years old and her first lesson. Stephen Thomas the boy wonder, studying under Ron Samson at AK Uni, and Rich Pharoah, working man and keen drummer, purveyor of solid beats and seeker for more proficiency... We played some rhythm pyramids, some Concertina Hand Teasers, working basic rudiments, each taking it as far as they could comfortably go. It works wonderfully. looking forward to growing this class. I can imagine a room of 15 - 20 folks tapping happily away... My vision is for an open class that anyone interested in learning about rhythm can attend. See YOU there.

My website

I have made a website for myself at long last. There you can see what I've done, what I'm up too, and other bits and bobs... Go check it out: http://musicworkings.weebly.com/

music that hurts and music that heals

Julie Hill is writer of plays and maker of radio programs. She made a couple of interesting ones for Radio National a while back - Music that Hurts and Music that Heals. She talked with me a bit in the Music that Heals section.
Here is a blurb and photo.
Listen to it here.

Carriage of Angels

19/8/11
On the train from Henderson back into town and there is a carriage full of disabled folks many in wheel chairs and some not, I'm guessing cerebral palsy issues… hmmm my knowledge of what their conditions might be is very sketchy… but its a joyous ride! They are enjoying being on the train en mass I think. Most of the commuters have scampered to the other end of the train but I have come to join the 'outcasts'. The train guard felt he had to apologize to me, which is sad. These folks have a right to be on this train as much as any the rest of us.
Its the sounds I'm enjoying. Beautiful repetitive groans and whines, sudden rhythmic iterations bu! bu! bu! bu! bu! Its a lively trip! I won't be falling asleep on this journey. The gentleman in front of me has found delight in something and is half singing and half laughing, then breaking into a conversation about next Friday - "it IS next Friday!!" "Whats next Friday?!" "No its Thursday!"
Snatches of conversations being yelled across the carriage. It makes such a refreshing change from the usual polite quite.
Keening and wheezing. Clapping and whistling. But not a riot of sound… more an excited gentle hubbub.
At each stop passengers ready to enter at the rear of the train are asked to go to the front as our carriage is packed to the rafters. The gestures of the guard are echoed by the more able bodied ones, his requests too - "Move up the front of the train thanks." "Up the front!" "Other door!"
The carers traveling with these folks are angels. I bask in their presence.

Vitamin S Improvisation Workshop - 1/8/11

Vitamin S Workshop - 1/8/11

I focused this workshop on the ONE TWO piece as taught by John Stevens in his book Search and Reflect. i thoroughly recommend you check this book out. Here's my understanding of how the piece works...

The group is seated in a circle.
A person starts the piece by saying "One".
The person to their left waits a period and says "Two".
If the person who says "Two" waits a short period, the tempo will be quicker.
If they wait a longer period the tempo will be slower.
So, the 2nd person, on beat Two, sets the tempo.
The third person in the circle will be on beat One with the first person.
The fourth person in he circle will be on beat 2 with the second person, etc…
Everyone joins in either on beat one or beat two, until everybody is counting.
The tempo should remain constant (try not to speed up or slow down).
The improvisation begins when the whole circle is counting. At that point, anyone may change the beat they are counting, jumping from the One to the Two or from the Two to the One, at any time.
There are some simple rules to follow.
You must not skip your beat before moving to the next count.
If you jump to the other count, you must remain there for at least one beat before you jump back again eg counting "One, two, one, two..." is forbidden.
Participants must stop if they lose their place or become confused or accidentally skip a beat, if they hear anyone else do the same, of if they become aware that someone else has stopped.
Once silence is achieved, a person starts the piece again with the count of "One".
The person to their left brings in the count of "Two", setting the tempo, and each person in the circle gradually joins in… once everybody has reestablish the count, half the circle on "One" and half the circle on "Two", then the improvising begins again. The piece comes to a natural end one everybody hits the same count - it could be a One or a Two, with the following count being in silence.

Good lord is that at all clear to you??

Anyway, the interesting thing with this piece is listening for the break-downs into silence. It creates a lovely ebb and flow. Its a challenge to get participants accepting this process and honoring the silence - not breaking the silence with utterances that articulate frustration at making a 'mistake'… It was well worth persevering with. We got there eventually!

Poetry

Just got back form a lovely gig at Lopdell House in Titirangi, The Late Great Poetry Show. There were loads of fantastic poets reading their work: Rosetta Allan, Murray Edmond, Siobhan Harvey, Alice Hooton, Michele Leggott, Judith McNeil, Bob Orr, Alistair Paterson, John Pule, Jack Ross, Ila Selwyn, Penny Somervaille, Robert Sullivan, Denys Trussell.
Nigel Gavin and I played some duet pieces, to open the night as guests arrived and in between the sets. I enjoyed Bob Orr the most I think. He reminded me a bit of Bukowski.
Nigel and I played some nice improvised pieces that went own well. Michele Leggott gave Saly Rodwell and Alan Brunton a shout out before her reading which was lovely. I miss those guys.
Ahh poetry. Some of my other favourite poets: Kenneth Rexroth. Robert Creely. Rabrinath Tagore.
I teach a young girl, all of 5 or 6 or 7 years old, the guitar. We mostly have been focusing on nursery rhymes - Row Row Row Your Boat, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star etc... but recently we were inspired to create some original music, and here is the genius that she came up with:

Love and,
family.
Angel... Bruce.

Perhaps you had to, as they say, be there.

Sound Walk.

I did the Sound Walk with students from AUT early this week. Could be a new dance craze sweeping the nation...now what would that look like? But no, I lead these mostly very young folk around downtown Auckland and we listened. I devised a wee form they could fill out as they listened, suggesting things to listen out for. It asks them to note the presence/absence of the following qualities in a particular sound they are hearing:

Emotion (-: )-: |-:
Duration S/M/L
Frequency H/M/L
Drone Y/N
Melodic Y/N
Rhythmic Y/N
Proximity N/M/D
Location F/L/R/B
Natural Y/N
Mechanical Y/N
Distraction Tally:

Here is my explanation of each category:

Emotion – does the sound provoke an emotional reaction in you?
Positive (-: Negative )-: Neutral |-:

Duration – how long is the sound you have noticed?
Short/Medium/Long.

Frequency – Is the sound that has captured your attention of High Mid or Low frequency?

Drone - Does the sound have sustained/continuous qualities?
Yes or No.

Melody - do you hear a melody in the sound? Yes or No.

Rhythm - is the sound rhythmic? Yes or No.

Proximity – how close is the sound to you?
Near/Mid distance/Distant.

Location – where is the sound relative to where you are facing? Front/Left/Right/Behind.

Natural – is the sound a product of nature? Yes or No

Mechanical – is the sound the product of a machine? Yes or No.

Distraction Tally - track how often your thoughts distract you from listening to the sounds around you. Try not to be judgemental if you keep being distracted by your thoughts. Just make a note in the tally and return your concentration to what you can hear.

The Distraction Tally is the most interesting part of this process to my mind. I've always been intrigued how a thought, which has no objective decibel reading, can drown out even very loud sounds. And its nice to sneak in some good old fashioned mindfulness training thanks be to Shakyamuni!

frequency and tempo

Soundings

I gave a talk at the apartment of Nisha Nadan (and flatmates) as part of Fredtalks… the talk was entitled Advanced Metronome Techniques, and it branched off into a general discussion about the nature of perception.
I showed how you can use a metronome to cultivate the ability to view a rhythm from different perspectives. Like a piece of sculpture, a rhythm will take on a completely different shape and feeling depending from which perspective it is heard. I stumbled across this quite by accident. Perhaps you have had this experience too? Turning on a radio, I happened across a song midway through, and my mind placed the gravity (or the 'one', as muso's like to call it) of the music in a different spot from where it was intended, the result being a wonderfully weird sounding piece of music. Alas this state didn't last, as the many pointers and cues in the music muscled this fresh perspective to where it was intended, and the piece morphed before my ears back to a run of the mill pop song.
I have had similar experiences with harmony, hearing a song from a different tonal centre to the one that was intended with similarly delightful results.
But back to the talk on rhythm… it stemmed as well from some renewed investigations of the correspondences between an exercise called the Rhythm Pyramid and the ratios of the intervals found in the harmonic series.

If quarter notes = C1, then 8th notes = C2, 8th notes triplets = G2, 16th notes = C3, quintuplets (a 5 note subdivision) = E3, 16th note triplets = G3, and 32nd notes = C4.

frequency = tempo and melody = rhythm (from a certain perspective anyway).

a new tack

So the ol listing of stuff I do is proving too overwhelming to sustain. You get the idea I'm a busy fellow in music. So for this blog I'm going to change tack and muse as the whim takes me…
I'm coming to the end of this years first semesters teaching and thats a relief!
Today is the first of the ZEAL performances by my Unitec students. I'm looking forward to it. Some wonderful naive and wonderful songs have been put together.
Got some interesting work next year at AUT taking some sound walks and an improv tutorial.
Other upcoming projects include a piece of children's theatre called The Butcher and the Bear (more about that in a later post), The Wizard of Oz, gigs w Andrew Keoghan, Surfin USSR, Francis Plagne, the Songs of Kurt Weill and the Sad Lament of Pecos Bill on the Eve of Killing his Wife..

finally I'm falling for Zappa

thanks to Brett for turning me on to this one - One Size Fits All.

a new tack

So you get the idea.. my music work is made up of gigging, teaching and touring with the odd recording session thrown in and rehearsals for gigs/recording sessions/tours.
Writing up every bit got too labor intensive - and probably a bit boring to read, so I'm gonna take a different approach.

Poor Boy is almost finished, 2 shows to go. Thank goodness! I get the feeling we'll all be happy to see the back of this one. Thanks to John, Brett and Maree for being so lovely to play music with.

The Songs of Kurt Weill is about to have another incarnation, in a couple of weeks at the Wanaka Festival of Colour.

Teaching has gone well, mid semester break coming up. I'll be off to Chch in the break after the Wanaka stint to look after Fern while Tahi teaches. Hope to catch up w Chch muso buddies and do some jamming!

Got some recording coming up on Sat avo w Geoff Maddock looking forward to seeing what delights he has in store..

Catch Up

Tues 22nd
10:30am - 12:30pm Unitec Diploma class in the music bunker

6:30 - 8:00 Poor Boy

9:30 A song w Andrew Keoghan, "Every Orchid Offering" The gig was at the Comedy Club and was very well attended. Andrew played with his band then about halfway through the band left the stage and I was invited up, the first of a number of cameo appearances by collegues of Andrews. Every Orchid Offering has had an amazing journey as a song. I first started playing it with him on tour with Flip Grater last year. ANdrew was playing a solo set to support Flip and he invited me to jam on this song. It went from that to a recording session/video shoot late last year, and then the performance this evening. WHo knows where next...?

Wed 23
12:45 - 2pm Drum lesson with Dean looking at Advanced Metronome Techniques.

6:30 - 8:30pm Poor Boy

9 - 10pm Drum lesson with Cameron looking into advnaced metronome techniques and begining the Teed Reed syncopation studies..

Monday night w Elsebeth

2 - 3 Drum lesson. A quick look at the rhythm pyramid and jazz coordination drills. Showed a sneak preview of some advanced metronome techniques I've developed. We then got into Ron Samson's coordination drills, started reading through the Ted Reed Syncopation Studies, and looked at playing Gary Chester's excercises in the context of some basic rock beats. A jammed packed lesson! Afterwards on the walk back to Uni, we played John Stevens ONE TWO game in 2/4 and 3/4.

3 - 5 Combo8 at Auckland University. The group is finding its feet. A big jump from when I last heard them a couple of weeks ago. I showed them some nice arrangement tricks and still trying to get them to crack the dynamic thing. They need to bust out of the gray area and really explore the extremes of very quiet and very loud.

6:30 - 8 Poor Boy. The first early show of the season. The show is consolidating well, though the pre-recorded sound cues get worse with every hearing.

Ended the evening jamming along to my compilation of Alan Lomax recordings of old blues tracks. Elsebeth (my guitar) is sounding wonderful. I'm in love.

the BIG screen

Wow a photo taken by a mate of my mother's who happened to be at the Roxy Music gig.

Jazz at the Rotunda

12pm - rocked up to the Auckland Domain Band Rotunda to meet Kingsley and chat about our set this afternoon. It was to be the last in the Jazz at the Rotunda series for this summer. Our band was lead by Kingsley Melhuish, with Neil Watson on guitar and Ross Larson on bass. Kings had put together a nice set of music, which featured his multi-instrumental skills - guitar, trumpet, trombone, conch shells, and vocals. Kings and I have played a lot together over my years in Auckland in various line ups, but I'd never backed him singing before. His voice is beautiful!
Our set:

1. Collective Improv
2. Bemsha Swing (Thelonius Monk)
3. Come Rain or Shine (Harold Arlen lyrics Johnny Mercer)
4. Mood Indigo (Duke Ellington, Barney Bigard lyrics Irving Mills)
5. Don't You Feel My Leg (Danny Barker, J. Mayo Williams, Blue Lu Barker)
6. Monkey Man (Toots and the Maytals)
7. Cy's Eyes (K Melhuish)

What a fresh repertoire. I'd never played Monkey Man, though I know it well. I love playing tunes I know and love for the first time on gigs.

I played the gig on Frank Gibson's drums, a tidy wee Yamaha bebop kit. Tight tuning on the toms, a beautiful snare and lovely small, open bass drum. Apart from the kick pedal which kept slipping off the bass drum, it was enjoyable to play. Cheers Frank!

After our set Frank played with Andy Atwell on bass, Murray McNab keyboards and a visiting saxoophonist and vocalist from the UK. I heard a few of the usual jazz standards before I had to leave.

ethipoiques, rhythm pyramids and poor boy opening

1pm Rehearsal w Don McGlashan. We are learning a piece of music called "Yekermo Sew" by Mulatu Astake. Its for a gig organized by Nick Dwyer, a multicultural fest at mid-day Sun 27th in Mt Roskill Park. Its a pretty straight forward tune, though Don is playing the melody on Euphonium which seems quite challenging!


3:30pm A drum lesson, focusing on the rhythm pyramid and the preliminary jazz independance exercises. A good lesson. Taylor is doing well.

8pm Opening night of Poor Boy. Well it went okay I thought. The bands performance was generally excellent though we had a few weird moments - which probably went unnoticed by the audience.. The comments after the show were generally along the lines of "wow the music was great" (which it is!!) the subtext being that the play wasn't so good... Sure it isn't everyone's cup of tea I guess. The story is growing on me. It has a lot of depth. Has Raymond done it justice as director?? Perhaps not... perhaps it needs to be dirtier, more dynamic... The sound effects in the play are terrible in my opinion. AH well.. come and see it and you be the judge!

Unitec and Poor Boy Part 2

9:30 - 11am Todays class was the drum lesson class. I explained the rhythm pyramid and we went through the basic subdivisions exploring the different styles of music characterized by each subdivsion and how this changes when the tempo speeds up/slows down. I then demonstrated a basic drum beat in each subdivision and we went round the class giving everyone a go. When you take it a beat at a time, anyone can do it, even after they insist they cant.

12pm - 2 Diploma Group. A small group this one a quartet. It'll be a nice group, heavy metal and RnB/gospel being the two main influences. That should make for some interesting flavors I hope. We jammed a bit, and then we had a close examination of John Stevens ONE TWO game, taking it into versions in 3/4, 4/4 and 5/4. The group took to it well. We then played a cool game setting up different themed pathways around the group - names, a phrase from a song, and an animal sound. Each theme forms a unique loop and the challenge for the group is to have all three simultaneously going. Looking forward to putting this one on instruments.

2pm Fern Christi stage manger for Poor Boy picked me up and we raced back to the Maidment for a 2:30 dress rehearsal. From the bands perspective it was a shocker. Loads of mistakes, weird volume levels... and to our astonishment we get wonderful praise at the end of the run. Go figure.

6:30m Drilled a bunch of the songs for the 2nd preview later this evening. Especially the first one, Poor Boy. Its a tricky arrangement with lots of changes in dynamics and texture. We got it sitting nicely after a few goes.

8pm 2nd preview. A very good performance. We nailed our monitor levels before the show and it made a big difference compared to the earlier performance. We were able to really inject some feeling into the songs, and the singers responded with good performances too. Brett played some killer solos this evening. I'm thrilled to be sitting right next to him! Raymond reckoned in his notes after the show that we own it now, its ours. He's right. Opening night is going to be just fine.

Unitec and Poor Boy

9.30am - 11am Unitec Certificate Class - an unruly mob of rough diamonds. They have come to the course learn about music and are up for it it seems. I cajoled four of them into singing an accapella number and their voices are beautiful! Another couple of ensembles rose up out of the throng of around 20 to play a little bit. There is plenty of good talent in there, and the usual few cheeky lads. We examined furthur John Stevens rhythm piece ONE TWO. An hour and a half goes by very quick!

1:30pm - 3:30pm Poor Boy dress rehearsal. It was shaky. Our first time through with the whole production in full swing. A new acoustic space to adjust to. There are some big spaces for me in this show where I am not doing much.

6:30 Back to the Maidment to run a few tunes that went pair shaped earlier today, and tighten up a few things before the first preview at 8pm. We still hadn't tried the music for the bows yet, a nice down beat version of the song Poor Boy.

8pm First preview. There was an audience of about 200 folks. The show was definitely still undercooked, but I guess they weren't paying full orice. Stil I feel for the actors having to perform a piece still ubder rehearsed.. The run went great from our perspective, a definite step up from the afternoon. Feedback from Tim was that we can really go for it in the scene changes with the transition music as there are no lines being said and no one on stage even, I'm going to err on the side of VERY LOUD tomorrow and see what happens. Looking forward to two more runs tomorrow the opening night Saturday.

Gimel Performance

Tues 15th March 6 - 7pm We (Gimel) played our set this eve and it went very well. I got a sketchy outline of the music off Jonathan minutes before our set started and, on top of our rehearsal last Sunday, it worked great for me. Just one piece of paper with the important data I could take in at a glance - more like a set list with time signatures and the odd phrase written out. It meant my head wasn't buried in a chart and I could catch Jonathan's visual cues - of which there were many! We successfully toned down our performance to great effect. I felt there was much more breathing space in the music. It had more poise and composure than our performance at the Band Rotunda in Albert Park a month ago. Wayne Laird from Atoll Records was there to record the concert and I gather it was captured without any hiccups. So the proof shall be in the pudding. Good comments afterwards from friends and colleagues in the audience. More and more I can appreciate positive feedback.
So that was my last gig at the Garden Bar. Thanks to Sandy the sound man and Amber the stage manager for being helpful and relaxed and wonderful.

rehearsals, a lesson and a new release

Sat 12th
10am - 1pm Our 2nd Sitzprobe for Poor Boy. We mostly looked at the in between music bits like scene changes and segues between tunes, playouts, intros etc.. Shaping up well. Tim Finn was there. It got pretty intense with the actors copping instructions from every side. I thought John handled the situation very well. Tim, while not directly involved in this production, still has a lot invested in it of course because they are his precious songs. John has really gone out on a limb with his interpretation of the songs, moving away from a pop treatment into a more chamber like, sonically playful world. Tim isn't shy about suggesting changes to Johns arrangements (and neither is Raymond for that matter!!) and John is so gracious and humble at accommodating their ideas. Tim to his credit has been very open minded about the whole affair. I think, musically at least, this production will be a great success!!

2pm - 3pm drum lesson. Ah yes a great lesson today, thanks Taylor! When you learn a new beat, how well have you learned it? As well as the amount of tempos you can play it, and it is going slow that counts, and I mean S L O W . . . .
Plenty of work on the amazing wonderful rhythm pyramid too. I love that thing!

Sun 13th - Gimel rehearsal at Jonathan Besser's house. We have a gig at the Garden Stage in Aotea Square this Tuesday. Jonathon's music is beautiful. I have always liked it. Its kind of romantic and programmatic and just breathtakingly beautiful. Jonathan plays the piano with such unabashed enthusiasm and passion, it more than makes up for his erratic time keeping. John Bell plays vibraphone and Peter Scott plays bass. Our last gig at the Band Rotunda in Albert park was recorded and some of the music came out wonderfully. We are much better rehearsed for this Tuesday and its being recorded by Wayne Liard of Rattle Records. Fongers crossed we play a good set!

Mon 14th
8:30am - 12pm Sound checks and band rehearsals for Poor Boy down at the Maidment theatre. Its a much better sound down there than at the ATC rehearsal rooms so that was a relief. Our set up is nice and intimate. I'm sitting very close to Brent and John, and I can see Maree just over the piano. Its coming together well. Tim was all smiles and Raymond was enjoying our music too.

3 - 5 Poor boy run through of all the songs. Fine tuned levels. The actors are all mic'd and we have a couple of monitors to hear them. The songs really coming together now we've played them a bunch of times. Great fine tuning the parts and dynamics. I have some great triangle moments!

Jonathan Crayford has released a trio recording he, Patrick Bleakley and I did quite a few years ago. Here is the link - http://music.jocray.com/track/decision
There are some hard swinging moments!!! Cheers Jo!

The Birth of Tihn Lantern

10am - Poor Boy Sitzprobe. This term is an odd one. It refers, as I understand it, to the moment that the band and cast get together for the first time and sing through the material of the show before putting it on its feet in the context of the acting and/or dancing. It was cool to run through a bunch of the somgs in order and get a bigger picture of the whole sound world of this show. We have another one Saturday morning - in a few hours yikes!!
It went pretty well considering how undercooked a lot of our parts are. Raymond seemed to like a lot of it.

1:30 Last rehearsal with Sean and James before heading down to sound check at the Garden Bar. We ran through the few ideas we'd dreamed up and Sean bought another synth to try. Short and sweet and off to soundcheck...

4 - 4:30 Sound check. Yep Sandy the sound man for the Garden Stage is onto it. All the sounds working. Its shaping up to b a good gig.

4:45 - 5:45 Drum lesson for Cameron, a student at Massey University. We ran the independence drills based on Alan's teachings and then did some mind bending rhythm pyramid work. I love the rhythm pyramid/table of time body of exercises.

6 - 7 First set of the night was a BLINDER!! We easily filled the time with synth soundscapes and minimalist beats, a slowly evolving cinematic sound world. The pieces we prepared slotted into set very nicely. I had a hinch this combunation would work a treat and I was right. I think this band has legs.

11 - 12 Second set was fun too! A bit odd to wait 4 hours between sets, but we did come up with a name (thanks Chelsea!) Tihn Lantern. I felt a tad tired just before going on, but once we began I dropped back into the zone and before I knew it 40 minutes had gone WOOOSH!!!! Another beautiful set.

teachin' and giggin'

9:30am First class at Unitec this morning. First year certificate students, a group of about 16 students mostly younger folks. We talked music for a bit, I showed them John Steven's ONE TWO exercise. Its great for fine tuning one's sense of rhythm. I then split the class up into two groups and they'll be devising a piece of music tomorrow in my absence..

4pm Sound check at the TV3 Garden Stage for gig w Age Pryor.

6 - 7pm Age and I were very excited about this gig. We've been work shopping using Ableton Live for the last few months, and a few practices ago we abandoned doing anything pre-prepared. So just before going on, while being well drilled in our process, we still had absolutely no idea how the music would go. Brilliant. And the gig went well, especially the first part. There are still a few problems too iron out, especially keeping track of where beat ONE is once the layers start building up. I have a gig booked at the Wine Cellar in May so we'll look forward to working towards that one.

two rehearsals + two students = cup of tea and a lie down

Am really packing it in at the moment.

9:30am Rehearsed with Sean and James for our gigs at the Garden Bar Stage in Aotea Square this Friday. Sean has this amazing keyboard that has an iphone dock so you can play the synth apps. It sounds amazing. We gonna bust out some wicked electro-kraut-minimalist jams this Friday I suspect!!

12 - 2 Had a couple of students. Dean from the jazz course at Massey and Cameron form the jazz course at Auckland University. I'm getting them both familliar with the Table of Time and Allan Dawson's system of developing jazz drumming independence. Still working through the preliminary stages with the guys and its bending their heads. Brilliant stuff!! Set them both the task of establishing a research angle with their music listening and both have decided to start with Jack DeJohnette. I think we'll work backwards through his influences towards the origins of the drumset.

7 - 9.30 Poor Boy rehearsal with John Gibson our musical director and bassist Maree. We did some great detailing tonight, nailing down exactly whre the accents need to be on some of the tunes. We have our sitzprobe on Friday and it will be the bands first appearance in front of the dreaded Raymond Hawthawne. I hope he isn't too badly behaved.

Todays work and a gig at the Ak Fest

Had a get together with Sean James Donnelly to discuss plans for our two sets of music this Friday in Aotea Square. I showed him my ideas - a melody and some chords, and Sean is gonna play his iphone synth apps with a keyboard you can plug into it... wow looking forward to hearing that. We rehearsing tomorrow with James Duncan so we'll see how it goes. I'm hoping we can have a pretty relaxed jam on the day.

Trained with Fern into the Henderson campus of Unitec to the music department, where I have some teaching work this year, and caught up with Glenda Keame my fabulous boss and Age Pryor who had his first class there today. He had a good time. Mentoring bands is probably one of the most satisfying music teaching gigs I know of - especially when you have colleagues as amazing as the ones at Unitec. My first classes are this Thursday and Friday. My first couple of weeks will be disrupted a bit with Poor Boy rehearsals, but Age can cover me and Glenda is cool with that.

Played my second gig on the TV 3 garden bar stage this eve with The Grant Winterburn Experience - Grant on keys and Aaron Coddel on electric bass. What an eclectic set we played... Grant had an arrangement of Thus Spake Zarasthustra, Aquarious (from the HAIR musical), Caravan, James Brown's I Got You... yes something for everyone. It was a beautiful afternoon.

Ned Ngatai showed up for the dj set afterwards and rightly queried about the lack of free drinks. I must say that the AK Festival doesn't really look after local musicians very well. During the set with Storehouse on Saturday the show in another venue in Aotea Square was running late. Tom, the main vocalist, suggested that we wait and start a bit later and play a bit later, but we had to start at 11pm on the dot and had to play with the main PA speakers turned off until the other show finished, which is kind of ridiculous and inflexible, kind of "computer says no".

The last few days....

These Four Walls - The rest of the season went well as far as the audiences went. Each night more people came. The show itself deteriorated over the three nights I felt. We drilled it so hard leading up till opening night, then took our feet off the gas and the next two shows were both wobbly, especially in the chorus work. No doubt my dissappointment after the last show was exacerbated by my high expectations. A good lesson there. And over all still a very rewarding experience.

Jack Dejohnette Workshop - so great to see Jack play again and hear about his ideas around music as a healing force through the power of the intent behind it. He played some nice solos and used a mic to pick up the lower frequencies of the cymbals - the soul of the cymbals he said.

Don McGlashan and the Seven Sisters supported Roxy Music on Sunday at Villa Maria. WE had our last practice on Saturday afternoon and it was a goodun. The gig on Sunday was a ripper. We played great. There were thousands of people in the audience, the sound system was fantastic and apparently we towered like gods above the audience on two huge screens that flanked the stage. After our set there was a huge line of folks waiting to buy CD's off Don and get them signed. It was great to see Don so excited about that!

Storehouse at the Festival Garden Bar - 11 till midnight on Saturday I played w Store House and it rained and the good people danced anyway! Very hard not to dance when Tom Rodwell is stomping his box.

So that brings me up to Monday:

Rehearsed with Age Pryor this morning for our gig on Thursday eve at the Festival Garden Bar. Another couple of nice pieces improvised into the looping universe of Ableton Live.

Took a music class at Auckland Uni with Combo 8. They're a very studious group, thankfully. We played an original, as well as Spain, and a John Scofield tune. Twas a good session.

Poor Boy rehearsal in the evening. things making progress there. Completely abandoned the drum kit now. Going for a percussive set up with lots of sound effects. Its bound to change again before opening night next week!!

Frank Gibson got on my case about the bebop drummer Pete La Roca. I ran into Frank at the Jack DeJohnette workshop. SO tonight I downloaded Sonny Rollins live at the Vanguard. It features both Pete and Elvin. Thanks for the tip off Frank its a great record!

The After Glow

How wonderful to make a performance work with a group of talented artists with no budget and no time and pull it off!! We did it tonight! These Four Walls, I am happy to say, is a beautiful, challenging, delightful piece of performance art.

On getting home after the show, still bathing in the euphoria of our accomplishment, I sent off this heart felt invite to my Auckland friends:

dear friends,

tonight was the opening night of These Four Walls in the Auckland Fringe Festival (we have TWO MORE PERFORMANCES) and I am delighted to say it was WONDERFUL!!!

Its a stellar cast:

Genevieve McLaine
Tahi Mapp-Borren
Nigel Gavin
Chris O'Connor
Regan Taylor
Tessa Mitchel
Matt Sunderland

The show is all about Lopdell House. An olde worlde parlour variety type show brimming with improvisational creativity and wonderful performances. Poetry, music, story telling... its a treat.

The two remaining shows are Friday and Saturday nights 7.30 start. There are door sales.

I know its a dreadfully busy time, but if you can make it along, I'd be proud to perform this show to you.

Chris x

I hope we get good houses for our remaining shows!!

musical workings March 2nd 2011 (yesterday)

Musical workings March 2nd 2011 (yesterday)

9:30 - had a rehearsal with Mr James Duncan for our gigs in the Garden Bar that has been set up in Aotea Square for the Auckland Arts Festival. We playing a couple of sets Fri 11th March - check out our timings here. Generating some very nice material for these sets.

7:30 - did a couple of run throughs of our Lopdell House piece with the These Four Walls crew. We open tonight!! The first run was a nightmare for me. I seemed a leats a scene behind everybody else. After solving a few problems the second run showed glimmers of brilliance. Tonight our dress rehearsal will be a big leap forward again and then its our first go with an audience!

Rehearsal w the Seven Sisters for the Roxy Music gig

Playing with Don McGlashan and his band the Seven Sisters at Villa Maria I think it is this Sunday supporting Roxy Music. Nathan Haines is on the bill too. What a crazy line up. We had our second to last rehearsal before the gig this eve and it was very good. A few tunes that hadn't been feeling that great came together thank goodness. Envy of Angels had proved elusive before tonight- a minimal brushes feel pitter pattering away needing too be plain yet breathing with the dynamics of the words. Finally getting it I hope! Dave Khan is our new member on fiddle, accordian, guitar and backing vocals. He is great he adds heaps!
One more rehearsal on Saturday to run the set and we'll be ready to bust some very beautifully sculpted pop songs on the good peoples' ears.

A Big Day

Music activities on Mon 28th Feb....

9am A meeting at the Auckland University music school w Ron in the jazz department at he Kenneth Myers Center on Shortland Street. I'm tutoring a couple of drummers up there this year - Tristan and Taylor, and I'm mentoring Jazz Combo 8 as well. Ron has put together a thorough bunch of material for the drummers to work through. Classic stuff that I've enjoyed wrestling with myself in the past. It will be nice to re engage with these classic jazz drumming techniques!

11am - 2pm Rehearsing for These Four Walls. A hard core session of blocking scenes, drilling songs, and problem solving tricky bits, of which there are still a few!! Opening night is immanent!

3 - 5pm Combo 8. A nice wee band I'll be working with at AK Uni this semester. Louis on drums, Nik and Sam on guitars, David on bass, Erina on vocals, Alina and Crystal playing piano. The rehearsal room had nice acoustics and natural light. We jammed on a few pieces to get acquanted - an original work by Alina called Saraband, and the ol classics The Girl from Ipaneeeema, Footprints and Bags Groove. ALl the usual issues to be addressed - listening listening listening!! Making the music interesting w devious and cunning tricks. DYNAMICS!!! They sounded pretty good for the first day of semester. We''l have fun I think.

7:30 - 10 Poor Boy band rehearsal. The highlight of my day in that I got to sit down behind my drums and do what I do best - explore my drums with exquisite musicians, which Maree, John and Brett indeed are. We found some gold today, as director Jade Ericson would say, GOLD!!! There's gooold in them there hills! The cello is sweet so sweet. Brett brought some flash pedals and we nailed a few arrangements. Raymond Hawthawne threatened that there would be changes though, so better not get too attached to anything. We spent a bit of time figuring out our set up. As usual the set designers have given the band a very small space to play in... but we came to a cozy solution...

Poor Boy band rehearsal

Had 1st full band rehearsal this afternoon. Brett is an amazing guitarist. AMAZING!! Maree had her cello. Its proving to be a very acoustic sound. Warm and rich. I'm liking this direction. Almost chamber music. We explored a bunch of the tunes - getting into the subtle details, finding ways to highlight the forms with slight changes in texture and lots of space. The songs are growing on me. Tim Finn's sense of harmony is fantastic. There's one bit that could have been lifted straight from a Sun Ra composition if you can believe that!
I'm thinking again to make a set up more percussive and less drumkit based. A big deep drum, triangles and finger cymbals, gongs and singing bowls. Another practice tomorrow eve.. looking forward to that.

TFW: Fringe Fair in Myers Park

Today was the Fringe in the Park mass showing - a load of acts converged in Myers Park to show some tit bits, including Genevieve, Nigel, Tahi and I of These Four Walls. John and Genevieve set up the Booth of Echoes and Remembrances early in the afternoon. Tahi, Fern (our 14 month old daughter) and I arrived a bit later. Tessa, who is performing with us at Lopdell House, was there handing out flyers and looked after Fern while Tahi and I performed. The four of us improvised our way through some poems of Genevieve's and we slipped in some snippets of some of the scenes we had devised last week. Played for about 15 minutes. I played bodhran (which always sounds so beautiful through a nice big PA), gongs, and sampler. Nigel played banjo. Gen sang and spoke. Tahi sang, spoke, and gonged a bit. It was fairly chaotic and fresh as a Wellington southerly. No doubt our show next week will be more drilled, but I for one hope we can retain the freshness that comes from not quite knowing what will come next...

Before our performance I handed out a load of flyers to passers by and explained what we are about - here is my take on us:

These Four Walls is a company interested in site specific work. We find a building we like, delve into the history of it, learn some of its stories etc, and present our findings in a poetic, musical, theatrical complex from within the very building.

Festival Garden

I'm performing a few gigs in the Festival Garden as part of the Auckland Festival. Here's the list of acts. I'll be playing with the Grant Winterburn Experience (definite jazz leanings), James Duncan and Sean Donnelly (kraut minimalist tendencies), Storehouse (old calypso and blues - really old, and very very groovy), and Age Pryor (loop based avant pop improvisations)...  

Poor Boy

Auckland Theatre Company are putting on Poor Boy for the Auckland Festival. Had my first rehearsal with musical director John Gibson and bassist Maree Thom on Wednesday night. John's interpretations of Tim Finn's songs are superb!

These Four Walls

Its coming soon!! Here is a link to the website:
http://fourwallstheatre.blogspot.com/

Its an Auckland Fringe Festival show

And you can buy tickets here - I hope you buy a ticket! I think it's going to be a fabulous show.

Its been great working w Gen, Tahi, Tess, Regan and Nigel. The rest of the cast join us for todays rehearsal and we open next week! I'm looking forward to sculpting the music as the whole piece comes together over the next few days. Lopdell House is a beautiful venue and the acoustics in the upstairs space are exquisite!

The Year Ahead

Things are hetting up and its going to be a busy year I think! I'm going to document my musical work as best I can to give you a taste of what is going on in the musical worlds I inhabit........ enjoy!