20 June 2010

Final concert in a crazy week- Powerhouse Sound at the The Hungry
Brain. Saturday’s morning rehearsal went really well, music remembered
and ideas about expanding and shaving the density of the material
worked easily. I wanted to use flow charts for the sets, indicating a
broader range of improvising contexts, and
everyone was ready to try this on stage. After the show I’ve come to
the conclusion that the compositions are just too complicated to be
practical without more rehearsal and performance time, and this just
isn’t possible with everyone’s schedules. I believe that a band should
be more than the sum of it’s parts, and when you’re playing with
musicians with the talent level of Jeff Parker, John Herndon, and Nate
McBride, the end results should be monumental. What I’ve tried to put
together failed in Oslo for similar reasons. So much good music is
there, is being played, but pure cohesiveness always seems just out of
reach, and I’ve got to take responsibility for this- the material is
too problematic to allow the musicians to think freely and play openly.
Very frustrating on my part, but Jeff, John, and Nate played some
fantastic music between issues with the charts. Kurt Schwitters and
Eric Dolphy share a birthday:

http://www.ubu.com/sound/schwitters.html