22 November 2006

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Part 2: Scandinavian trio #1 fills the gap.

The day after the Enschede concert Paal and I flew to Oslo from Amsterdam. Nate was supposed to fly back to Chicago, but he missed his plane because he overslept- big surprise. Originally I had about a week of down time before starting a tour with Per-Ake Holmlander and Jon Falt in Sweden as the Jon Vanderlander Trio. Paal and David Stackenas organized some trio concerts to help keep the work happening on the days off between the Free Music Ensemble trip and that trio stretch. Our first gig together took place in Oslo on the 18th and was a great evening of improvised music. The next day we took the bloody bus to Stockholm (a wonderful 8 hours, I’m somewhat surprised that my knees still work) so we could play a couple of nights at Ugglan, on the 19th and 21st. During the afternoon of the 21st and at the show that night we recorded a bunch of material. Both sessions were quite different from each other; the improvising seemed more introspective during the day and then quite aggressive at the concert. Between the two I think we have the potential to put together a very diverse and interesting album.

On the remaining free days I worked on new compositions for the Vandermark 5 and the Jon Vanderlander Trio, and also visited the Modern Museum to look at some fantastic pieces of art: Jackson Pollack’s, ‘The Wooden Horse,’ the only statue I’ve seen by Barnett Newman, and a tremendous mobile by Alexander Calder. On the placard next to the mobile was a quote from the artist, ‘Just as one can compose colors, or forms, so one can compose motions.’ Though meant it in regards to his own work, I think that Calder’s comment could be understood in relation to way we think about the construction in music.

Part 3: Scandinavian trio #2, Swedish first encounter.

Per-Ake and I started to work on the Jon Vanderlander Trio at a duo session at his rehearsal space in Stockholm on October 24th. He had selected a number of really interesting pieces from a variety of composers, beginning with the work of Arthur Blythe and Sam Rivers that also utilized the tuba. New arrangements were put together for ‘Mamie Lee’ and ‘For Fats’ by Blythe, and ‘Dazzle’ by Rivers; there were also compositions by Amina Claudine Myers (‘Cameloupe’), Alexander von Schlippenbach (‘Inri’), Leo Cuypers (‘Misha’), and the British saxophone trio S.O.S. (‘1st’). In addition, Per-Ake brought in two of his own tunes, ‘Tom Sack’ and ‘Varmepupa.’ I got ‘Compass Shatters Magnet’ finished in time and this was added to the stack. We began working with Jon in Umea the following afternoon but finding rehearsal time around his schedule was difficult, Jon was involved with a variety of projects happening throughout their jazz festival. Our concert took place on Friday the 29th and was recorded for broadcast by the national radio. Though some of the execution was rough around the edges, the trio’s energy was good and the audience seemed very happy to be hearing us.

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