Improv Night Part I 11/15/08

Note: I wrote this in between sets, which is a good thing or I wouldn’t remember anything.

This was one of my favorites. I must go to the 2nd set.

It started with Sylvie Courvoisier on piano, Ches Smith on drums, Trevor Dunn on bass and John Zorn on sax. Sylvie had the piano all set up, with the balls and whatnot already placed on the strings. It was great, improvised, somewhat "out there" music.

Next was Ikue Mori on laptop, Erik Friedlander on cello and Adam Rudolph on percussion. I want to be able to sit behind Ikue some day. I'm very curious how she does it, and what those sounds are about. I love it. Adam had a table set up with singing bowls, gongs lying flat on the table, some blocks and a few other interesting things. He had a very beautiful small xylophone type thing that I wish I had gone up to get a better look at later. Friedlander is so phenomenal. His playing was very soulful for this piece.

After that was the 3 guitars. I see The Stone lists Scott Johnson, who I must have seen before but can’t remember. There was again that lap guitar player I think is great, but don’t know his name yet. I saw him at a previous Improv Night. They fit very well together.

Next up was a Courvoissier/Friedman duo. Have I ever seen that before??!! Someone should curate that in some time for a whole set. Actually, Zorn had come up with them and then decided last minute they didn't need a sax. I'm sure it would have been great with him, but I'm glad he opted out. It was stellar.

After that was Ches Smith, Trevor Dunn, Eyal Maoz and Scott Johnson. Those guitars really are great together.

Then it was Ikue Mori, Adam Rudolph, John Zorn, and the lap guitar. At one point, Adam had me mesmerized with a repetitive rhythm he had going on with the congs.

Next up was an awesome Friedman/Dunn duo. It started out very "out there" and ended slightly more down to Earth.

Then it was time for the grand finale with all 10 of them. That was phenomenal. It went a littler long because Scott Johnson, Eyal Maoz and Adam Rudolph got into a zone together. Then it was just the Eyal and Scott until Zorn had to tap Eyal to tell him its time to stop.
I can't wait until the next set!