The Everywhere Quintet + 3 @ Spectrum 8/25/12

This is a project led by Thollem, a pianist who travels perpetually.  That's one way to get to see who else is out in the world playing music.  And he seems to find awesome people to play with.  He was here for a week and this was the only thing I could make it to. I have the whole NYC schedule below because it's interesting.

The venue is very cool.  It's someone's apartment.  A music lover with money to set up a really nice space for great musicians to play.  The room isn't much smaller than The Stone.  The sound is phenomenal.  There is a lot of very nice equipment including a Steinway and a cool lighting system.  There's a bunch of really nice leather lounge chairs to sit on.  Of course, the entire cover goes to the artists.  I always thought if I had massive amounts of money I would buy a whole building and have a few rooms to do something like this.  In my fantasy, I never imagined it being so nice.

The music was stellar.  All improvisation, which was impressive given 8 musicians many of whom never played together before. They sounded as if they've been together forever.  It was also cool that I only knew one of them prior to this show, Fay Victor the vocalist.

I loved having 2 drummers.  They switched kits for the 2nd set.  The amplified violin was very cool.  I liked what Fay was doing with the vocals, she would often sing a phrase from something familiar in the rock or funk genre.  She was definitely another instrument.  Eric Holmes was very interesting as well.  He had a guitar, baby mandolin and harmonium.  He sometimes played the strings as a slide.  Thollem sounded great on the beautiful piano.

For the first set, they all just improvised together for about an hour.  It was announced as the Everywhere Quintet Plus Three.  The concept is to have different people every time.

C. Spencer Yeh had to leave after that, so the 2nd set was the 7.  The listing did say 2 different groupings.  It was pretty different.  They decided on a concept of overlapping solos, with each solo being 1-2 minutes.  It started with a piano solo then add drums for a duo.  Next was a vocal solo, adding the baby mandolin for a duo.  Vocals drop off at some point so Eric had some solo time.  The violin then came in first for the duo and then for a solo.  Next there was a piano/violin duo into a piano solo into a piano/voice duo into a voice solo into a voice/drum duo into a  drum solo into everyone improvising together.  What was so impressive was there was no plan as to who was going to go when. It was all spontaneous.

I had a great time.

This show:
August 25 at Spectrum The Everywhere Quintet (Two sets with two different groupings, 7:00 and 8:30)
with Laura Ortman (amplified violin), Fay Victor (voice), Michael Evans (drums/percussion), Ravish Momin (drums/percussion), Eric Hubel (guitar, mandolin, harmonium), C. Spencer Yeh (violin), and Patrick Holmes (clarinet)

The NYC Schedule:
-------6 Nights of NY/Brooklyn Concerts-------
August 21 at The Stone with Pauline Oliveros and Susie Ibarra NY, NY
August 22 at Douglas Music Collective with James Ilgenfritz and Brian Chase also Jeremiah Cymerman / Josh Sinton duo
and Daniel Rovin, Austin White, and Dave Miller Brooklyn, NY
August 23 at Goodbye Blue Monday with James Ilgenfritz and Brian Chase also Chuck Bettis, Joe Merolla Brooklyn, NY
August 24 at The Stone Thollem Sworld NY, NY
August 25 at Spectrum The Everywhere Quintet (Two sets with two different groupings, 7:00 and 8:30)
with Laura Ortman, Fay Victor, Michael Evans, Ravish Momin, Eric Hubel, C. Spencer Yeh, and Patrick Holmes NY, NY
August 26 at Zebulon Cafe Thollem Electric with Gregory Saunier (Deerhoof et al) Brooklyn, NY
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