DO THE MATH

Cocktail Hour

Gabe Kahane (MySpace) has just asked me to help out at his gig Thursday night at LPR.   His bulk email made me laugh:

As the tour winds its way back to New York, I have a bit of exciting news: Ethan Iverson, pianist of The Bad Plus, has graciously agreed to open for us at Poisson Rouge with a very special solo piano set. Ethan claims that he will be doing a "cocktail hour", though with his keenly developed sense of irony, I can only imagine with watering mouth what musical perversions that ostensibly banal descriptor may hold. The band and I could not be more thrilled.

details:

Thursday, November 20 @ (le) poisson rouge - 158 Bleecker Street

7:30 doors
8:30 Ethan Iverson
9:30 Gabriel Kahane
            w/ Rob Moose - violin, tenor guitar, electric guitar, bass
                 CJ Camerieri - trumpet, french  horn, piano
                 Sam Sadigursky - clarinet, bass clarinet, bass
                 Casey Foubert - drums, banjo, acoustic and electric guitars

Only $10!

(Gabe was previously on DTM here)

The Goods

Swedish Dance Bands of the 70's.

(Courtesy James Diers.)

More Tour Pics by Wendy Lewis (volume two)

Mitch Mitchell (1947 -2008)

The great explosion of hard-hitting rock music in the 1960's was powered by an unparalleled crew of  distinctive, hard-hitting drummers:  John Bonham; Keith Moon; Ginger Baker; Charlie Watts; Mitch Mitchell.

While all these drummer knew and played jazz, Mitchell was probably the "jazziest."  The 3/4 undulation on "Manic Depression" is a distinctive gloss on Elvin Jones and his fills on medium-tempo pieces like "Hey Joe" and "Are You Experienced?" have a kind of strut related to swing.

What was really important about Mitchell, though, was how well he played the song's form.  Arguably Mitchell's replacement, Buddy Miles, had the greater feel.  But Mitchell worked harder at finding the drama in each piece, carefully guiding every song home. 

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Mitchell, Noel Redding, and Jimi Hendrix play "Hey Joe."

More Tour Pics by Wendy Lewis (volume one)

Keep it coming

Hello from Burgos, Spain.

Every person we have met in the last couple of days has congratulated us on our new President. 

An unoriginal thought:  maybe things had to get so bad for change to happen.

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Further music blogosphere musings:

Alex Ross

Terry Teachout

Kyle Gann

Dave Douglas

Doug Ramsey

David Byrne

Thom Yorke (remix!)

Obama's Victory Speech

The World Breathes a Sigh of Relief.

One Day to Go

(William Hogarth, "The Polling," number 3 from  The Election; more here.)

A basic fact - not discussed in the American press enough - is how much non-Americans are pulling for Barack Obama tomorrow.  For those of us out here on tour in Europe (and South America recently) it could not be more obvious.  The whole planet is biting its nails.

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Some non-presidential links:

Alex Ross' essential The Rest is Noise is out in paperback and boasts an expanded Audio Guide.

Ben Ratliff covers the Woodstock Creative Music Studio; unusually for the NY Times, there are audio samples too.  Nice to hear Roscoe Mitchell's words of encouragement to his large ensemble...and nice to hear his criticism, too!

Chris Nakashima-Brown on Zebulon Pike et al.  (Sorry the gig is over already.)

All Hallow's Eve

October 31 is a great day to reread some horror short stories by Ambrose Bierce.  Both of these tales were very influential to future horror, fantasy, and science fiction writers.

"An Inhabitant of Carcosa"

...I noted not whither I had strayed until a sudden chill wind striking my face revived in me a sense of my surroundings. I observed with astonishment that everything seemed unfamiliar. On every side of me stretched a bleak and desolate expanse of plain, covered with a tall overgrowth of sere grass, which rustled and whistled in the autumn wind with heaven knows what mysterious and disquieting suggestion. Protruded at long intervals above it, stood strangely shaped and somber- colored rocks, which seemed to have an understanding with one another and to exchange looks of uncomfortable significance, as if they had reared their heads to watch the issue of some foreseen event. A few blasted trees here and there appeared as leaders in this malevolent conspiracy of silent expectation.

"Moxon's Master"

     Moxon was speaking with unusual animation and earnestness. As he paused I heard in an adjoining room known to me as his 'machine-shop,' which no one but himself was permitted to enter, a singular thumping sound, as of someone pounding upon a table with an open hand. Moxon heard it at the same moment and, visibly agitated, rose and hurriedly passed into the room whence it came. I thought it odd that anyone else should be in there, and my interest in my friend -- with doubtless a touch of unwarrantable curiosity -- led me to listen intently, though, I am happy to say, not at the keyhole. There were confused sounds, as of a struggle or scuffle; the floor shook. I distinctly heard hard breathing and a hoarse whisper which said 'Damn you!' Then all was silent, and presently Moxon reappeared and said, with a rather sorry smile:
     'Pardon me for leaving you so abruptly. I have a machine in there that lost its temper and cut up rough.'
     Fixing my eyes steadily upon his left cheek, which was traversed by four parallel excoriations showing blood, I said:
     'How would it do to trim its nails?'

Europe Tour Diary

Photos by Wendy Lewis

European Tour Starts Tonight

Three solid weeks:

October 2008

19 Berlin, DE* -- Quasimodo Club
20 Zurich, CH* -- Moods
21 Milano, IT* -- Blue Note Milano
23 Toulouse, FR* -- Auditorium de Balma
24 Bratislava, SK* -- Bratislava Jazz Days
25 Prerov, CZ* -- Mestsky dum Prerov
26 Prague, CZ* -- Lucerna Music Bar
27 Belgrade, RS* -- Belgrade Jazz Festival
29 Vienna, AT* -- Porgy & Bess
30 Innsbruck, AT* -- Treibhaus Club
31 Kempen, DE* -- Campus

November 2008

01 Lunen, DE* -- Hansesaal Lünen
03 Malmo, SE* -- Jazz i Malmö
04 Odense, DK* -- Jazzhus Dexter
05 Antwerp, BE* -- Arenberg Theatre Downstairs Club
07 Burgos, ES* -- Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos
08 Gijon, ES* -- Teatro Jovellanos

* = joined by vocalist Wendy Lewis

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Wendy is featured extensively on our next release For All I Care.  For All I Care won't be out in America until February, so DTM will be relatively silent on that topic until then.  For All I Care will be just coming out in the various European territories as we tour.  (Amazon.co.uk.)

The new record is all covers, including some 20-century classical music.  (There's an amusing recent post over at ALARM: Top 10 covers of The Bad Plus.) For those requesting current and unrecorded originals, please sit tight until our next CD, which is scheduled to be solely our own pieces.

Again, much more on the record, Wendy, and everything else For All I Care in 2009.