Diva @ The Stone 12/17/08

All I had written down was Ben Perowsky and Marcus Rojas. I didn’t explore further as I was up for whatever they had to offer. It was awesome. They started a little late, about 10:20 and played til about 11:20. Marcus got there a little late, but before they started. When they came up from the basement, Ben closed the door before Marcus came up. One of his friends in the audience asked about him and we were informed that he didn’t have his mouthpiece. Then we were asked if anyone had a tuba mouthpiece. You never know in a place like The Stone, but there was only a French Horn mouthpiece in the audience, which wouldn’t work. I immediately thought it strange than Marcus wouldn’t play anyway, having seen him be extremely versatile with his instrument. Sure enough, he was on the stage right after that thought, sans mouthpiece, to add great sound to a great ensemble.

They had the lights dimmed very low, and Perowsky was laying on some serious beats for most of the performance. There were many interesting looking electronic apparatuses around. A lot of stuff on top of the piano and one of the drums and just all over the place. Rojas just had a mic, but that didn’t stop him from being interesting. If I had to name it, I would say “avant-techno”, but that’s probably not doing it justice. It was awesome. Lots of chair-bopping going on. I’m surprised I didn’t get up and start really dancing. I wanted to.

The whole thing was awesome. Blume is listed as having a guitar, but he just had a laptop. It was sometimes hard to figure out what sounds were his and what were Rojas. Rojas had his back to us, so we really couldn’t see what he was doing. He was indeed playing that tuba and doing some kind of vocals at times, sometimes through the tuba. He also used the tuba as a percussion instrument at times. I really liked the piano.

It was all somewhat surreal. The weather and the ambiance added to it.

Diva
Ben Perowsky (drums)
Danny Blume (guitar)
Glenn Patscha (piano)
Marcus Rojas (tuba)
Diva is a new project led by drummer/composer Ben Perowsky. He will be joined by "Liminal" founder Danny Blume, as well as long time improv associates Glenn Patscha and powerhouse Marcus Rojas for an evening of beats and melodies.