Another great way to make it up to myself that I couldn't see Clapton with ABB at The Beacon. I REALLY enjoyed Wu Fei and Billy Martin. I was front row center and I was more present than ever before.
It was wonderful watching Billy play and listening to the numerous sounds coming out of all of his various instruments. He started out mainly playing gong bells on the floor. He occasionally hit the bamboo reeds in that portion. He was on the floor right in front of me, so I could see everything. He moved on to various bird call things. I also got to learn about the difference in various shells-on-strings shaky things played in the same hand as bells on strings. He also had a couple of tambourines. I never noticed just how adept he is with one finger and a tambourine. He's getting pretty used to the berimbau. Oh yeah, and he played the drumkit and a bunch of other stuff at times.
Billy and Wu are great together. This is probably my favorite project I've seen her in. Well, maybe its tied with the duo with Eric Friedlander. She said the first time she and Billy played together was at The Stone. I got the impression this was their 2nd gig together. I think they are meant to play together a little more often.
It turns out the lyrics she was singing were Mandarin tongue twisters she learned from her father. She was great and I had fun watching her when I could tear myself away from Billy for a bit, which wasn't often.
I saw Taper Bill, who sent me to The Santos House for Melvin Gibbs and Vernon Reid and DJ Logic. The door guy thought they probably were almost done and I wasn't feelling it, so I decided to save the 17 bucks and stick with my original plan and head over to Cornelia Street.
March 20, 2009
Tremble and Quake, - Wu Fei with Billy Martin
Guzheng experimentalist/vocalist Wu Fei has worked with the likes of John Zorn, Fred Frith, Erik Friedlander, Elliott Sharp, and Cecil Taylor. A native Beijinger now based in Brooklyn, the artist-composer will unfurl acoustic vignettes for guzheng (ancient Chinese zither) and voice, including music from her latest album of chamber works...
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