The solo tour concluded on Tuesday, May 14th, in Barcelona, at Jamboree jazz club, in a concert which included a solo set, followed by a duo with Augusti Fernandez. Little sleep at night throughout the tour, catching up on the flights and drives, naps in the afternoon when possible. Again enroute, another direct solo influence realized: Conlon Nancarrow.
The solo set started very well- tenor then clarinet- began the 3rd piece on the baritone with a low drone, developing this slowly- until someone’s phone went off. I pause to let her shut it down but for some reason she can’t and the noise continues for a minute or more. Unfortunately, the mood was disrupted, as was my focus. I responded by diving into a groove-based melodic funk piece, trying to regain momentum and pull the performance and audience back together. It took a couple of pieces for me to do so, but I felt that I was again able to regain my presence in the music. I played the “dream ballad” again, and concluded with “Brullt,” a “maximalist” baritone piece inspired by Jaap Blonk’s reading of the poem. Great response to the performance, good crowd, again physically drained.
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