Vision Fest 6/12/09

The only other night I made it to was Sat. It just worked out that way. I saw the end of Rob Brown's set, which was incredibly awesome. I should have gotten there sooner. This is one phenomenal trio with Craig Taborn and Nasheet Waits.

When I got there, it was pretty crowded downstairs, so I went upstairs to the loge. It is so much better up there. I usually don't like up, but its awesome at Abrons.

I also loved the Milford Graves Quartet. I didn't know about him. He's awesome. He came out on his own chanting and drumming, eventually making himself comfortable at his expanded drum kit. The other guys gradually came out and joined in, with William Parker coming out last. It was excellent. I wanted to stay, but I was too tired.

Vision Fest is awesome! I wish I could have enjoyed more of it, but what I got was fantastic.

Ropeadope Anniversary/Scotty Hard Benefit @ Sullivan Hall 6/10/09

Otis Grove opened and they were good and funky. I. got about 3 or 4 songs. I liked it more when they really rocked out with the guitar. They closed their set with Whipping Post.

I was completely blown away by the greatness on the stage after that. This was another one of those dream bands that I never could have possibly dreamed up myself. Billy Martin, John Medeski, Charlie Hunter, John Ellis and Brad Jones. Amazing! They got funky at times, free and improvised at times, and just incredibly awesome in every single moment.

The only problem is that any talkers were very loud. I would say that 80% were completely into it, but that other 10-20% kind of dominated to an extent. The waitress was especially loud, and I don't remember her being so disrespectful of the music like that before. Its a shame because I saw how people seemed to stop ordering from her so she couldn't be so disruptive.

I will say none of that diminished my enjoyment of the incredible music I was so fortunate to be a part of. They did one long set.

In the middle of the set, Scotty Hard and a bass player came out. Brad Jones left the stage never to return. I was a little disappointed. The electric bass player was fine, I was just really digging Brad. It got a little more crowded up front, so I moved to the back.

After a bit, they took a super-quick break to change it up a little. Then we had a mini set with Joe Russo, Big Sam, Medeski, Ellis, Hunter, and Billy played cowbells. It was awesome.

Then, that was it. Otis Grove came back on for the next set, but you can't follow that. There was something weird about that, since it was previously announced there would be a late set with Joe Russo and Big Sam. I thought that's why they started earlier. I wasn't actually disappointed. The music I had the privilege of witnessing was just too phenomenal. Yes, the stuff dreams are made of.

Someone put up some vids, so you can see some of the awesomeness for yourself.

Tonight!

I'm getting very excited as I'm about to leave for the Ropeadope Anniversary/Scotty Hard benefit show at Sullivan Hall. I was going to go to Vision Fest first, I really want to see Bill Cole. But, I got the email things were going to start earlier. Then, I listened to the opening band, Otis Grove, on their website, and I'm interested to hear them live.

Douglas R. Ewart and Inventions @ Vision Fest 6/9/09

This is one of those incredible things I would probably only get to see at Vision Fest. Lots of alto flutes and tribal flutes and a bass sax and a clarinet and rhythm in the poetry. It was very well done and engaging. It was stellar and really touched me.

I wanted to stay for Butch Morris. I like how he was going to conduct poets and musicians. But, I have a big night tonight, so I felt I had to leave.


Douglas R. Ewart and Inventions
featuring:
Shaku Joseph Jarman - flute, sax, poetry
Douglas R. Ewart - winds, percussion, voice
J.D. Parran - flute, clarinets and bass sax
Donald Smith - piano
Thurman Barker - drums and vibes
Amiri Baraka - words

Brass Bang @ Vision Fest 6/9/09

I missed the invocation, but this was a splendid way to kick off my fest. After they were introduced, Billy came out and said a few words about this new ensemble. It was influenced by great cats he's met and played with including Don Cherry and John Coltrane and many others. He and the drummer were on the stage from the beginning, but they were the last to join in. I like how they started it by having the horns walk onstage and join into the music one by one over a period of time during the 1st piece. It was a lot of fun and they were all so excellent.

Billy's music is usually exciting and lively and this was no exception. I had a good amount of chair dancing since Abrons Art Center doesn't really have anywhere I can stand and dance. I was pretty hooked for this entire 1 hour set.

Brass Bang
Billy Bang - violin
Ted Daniel - trumpet
James Zollar - trumpet
Ahmed Abdullah - trumpet
Dick Griffin - trombone
Russell Carter - drums

Gu Zheng with Courtney Chen 6/7/09

I went to a lecture/demo of the 21 string Chinese instrument today. It was also about tea, and it was very interesting. It was a large range of sounds. I think it's like a piano meets guitar in a way. It's got an interesting twang. There's so much more in the invite below. It was awesome to get a little more info.

"Qin" means Chinese instruments. The "Way of Qin" is called "Qin Tao". Today we talk about Qin Tao again following our music lecture on May 17th by Dr Ye Mingmei through performance of old Chinese instrument -Gu Qin. We are going to introduce another Chinese music instrument – Guzheng today.

Qin is No. 1 skill to master among four literary arts. Most of those instruments have a long history. “Qin Tao” includes Tablature, Aesthetics, Music Scale and Notation. Learning “Qin Tao” and listen to the ancient music bring relaxation, beauty and virtue to life.

There are four types of ancient Chinese instruments: 1st. Wind - Dizi, Suona; 2nd. String-Er Hu, Jinghu, Banhu. 3nd. Plucked-string Gu Zheng, Gu Qin, Pipa; 4th.Percussion - Luo, Gu.

Unfortunately many beautiful ancient Chinese songs were lost. Today we still preserve some famous melodies, such as:

Ambush on All Sides (Shi Mian Mai Fu)

Spring Now (Yang Chun Bai Xue)

A hundred birds pay homage in the phenix (Bai Niao Chao Feng)

Spring river moon night (Chuang Jiang Hua Yue Ye)

The moon reflected on the second spring (Er Quan Ying Yue)

The Gu Zheng or Zheng is a traditional Chinese musical instrument. The “Gu” means “ancient”. Guzheng belongs to the zither family of string instruments. The Japanese “Koto”, the Mongolian “Yatga”, the Korean “gayageum”, and the Vietnamese “dan tranh” are all transformed from guzheng. It is the parent of all of these instruments.

The modern-day Gu Zheng is a plucked, half-tube zither with movable bridges and 21 strings, although it can be very from 15 to 25 strings. The Zheng strings were formerly made of twisted silk, though by the 20^th century most Zheng players used metal (mostly steel) strings. Since the mid-20^th century most players use steel strings wrapped with nylon.

The Zheng has a large resonant cavity made from Wutong wood (firmiana simplex). It existed since the “Warring States Period” and became especially popular during the Qin Dynasty. That’s why Zheng has another name called Qin Zheng. Until 1961, the common Gu Zheng had 16 strings, although by the mid-20^th century 18-string Zhengs are also in use.

In 1961, the first (1^st) 21-string guzheng was introduced by Master Wang Xunzhi. He also invented the “S-shaped” left string rest, which was quickly adapted by all Guzheng makers and is still is used by today. Master Wang Xunzhi is also the founder of the Zhejiang Zheng style. The “S-shaped” curve allows for greater ease in tuning the strings and for broader pitch ranges by adding more strings to the instrument. The 21-string Zheng is the most commonly used nowadays, but some traditional musicians still use the 16-steel-string Zhengs, especially along the southeastern coastal provinces of China and in Taiwan.

There are many techniques used in the playing of the Guzheng, including basic plucking actions (right or both hands) at the right portion and pressing actions at the left portion (by the left hand to produce pitch ornamentations and vibrations).These techniques of playing the Guzheng can create sounds like waterfall, thunder, wind howling and many more. Plucking is done mainly by the right hand with four plectra (picks) attached to fingers. Some players use picks on both hands. Plectra are used solely on the right hand for the use of melodic purposes and the comparison to the left hand which is used solely for ornamentation. Ancient picks were made of ivory and later also from tortoise shell. Unlike piano, the Guzheng’s pentatonic scale is tuned to Do, Re, Mi, So and La, but Fa and Ti can also be produced by pressing the strings to the left of the bridges.

The Zheng is like martial arts, has different styles. Two broad playing styles can be identified as Northern and Southern. The northern styles are associated with Henan and Shandong while the southern styles are with the Chaozhou and Hakka regions of eastern Guangdong. Now there is another new style call Zhejiang which I had mentioned before, was founded by Master Wang Xunzhi in 1960s.

Courtney Chen is our guest speaker and performer of Gu Zheng. She has been learning Gu Zheng for more than 10 years. She is going to play 3-4 classic Chinese music and also introduce the background of the beautiful classic music she plays.

Charlie Hunter @ The Stone 6/5/09

It was his first time there, and I think he loves the place as much as I do. He was having so much fun, he started a few minutes early and played for about an hour and a half. It was him and Eric Kalb on drums. They were playing for us and playing for each other. There was no contrived setlist. They just called out songs to each other and played them. They were having a great time and it was an awesome intimate show. It really had that living room feel to it. If I wasn't right up front, I would have gotten up and danced. It was really grooving.