Improv Night Part I 7/16/08

Wow! That one may be my favorite so far!

Walking over, I heard a drum kit in Tompkin Square Park and immediately thought "I hope there's a drummer tonight. I hope there's a percussionist, too, and I want it to be Cyro Baptista."

I walk in and I'm told there's no seats but I can have a cushion. I tell him I like to stand. I get out of the way for a musician who just came in and see its Marty Erlich. Cool. I also spot a front row seat, right next to the drum kit. Oh yeah! Then I see Cyro walk by and I visibly get very excited.

I start telling the guy next to me how happy I am when I spot Sylvie Coivossier and practically scream. The guy tells me he has no idea who these ppl are, but I'm getting him excited to find out. I notice Shanir's bass in the corner and a guitar that looks like it might be Eyal Maoz's. Its gonna be a good one!

First up is Sylvie and Zorn. He starts playing in that wierd way for a while and it resulted in him spitting on a few of the people on the floor. Later, he was playing wonderful melodies, still very avant-garde, but it was more what you expect to hear out of a sax. It was fantastic and it just kept getting better as the show went on.

Then we have Cyro, Shanir and Eyal. All I have to say is they should be a band. Cyro started off doing voice percussion and beating his chest for a while. They covered a broad range and it was phenomenal.

Then came the reed section. Marty and Zorn on sax, Jeremiah Cymerman on clarinet, and Micheal Lowenstern, the 2nd half of this month's curator. It was more subdued than the other night (Albert Ayler birthday celebration) and really great.

Then we get Mike Pride, Sylvie, Shanir and I think maybe someone else. I'm a little fuzzy on this one but I know it was great.

I think next was when we had 2 clarinets and a bass clarinet and Cyro. Cyro started out playing the drums on the kit with brooms and boy was it grooving. The whole thing had an African feel to it. There was even one point where it felt like we were in the jungle.

Then it was Sylvie and the bass clarinet and it was really phenomenal. That really showed off the low tones and I loved it.

Then a killer final improv jam with everyone. It really melded nicely.

Yeah, this is the night to see what its like to go to both shows. I'm writing it up on my Blackberry while I enjoy my peach Itea at the little French cafe around the corner.