The Pure Finder-Studio Grand, Oakland CA; 2/22/16

In some ways it's a miracle that this show happened at all: when Andrew Palmer and I arrived at Studio Grand, we spent over thirty minutes trying to get the damn space open; it seems that we could both use a bit of work on our skills with keys! After this prolonged struggle and a hasty call to Fernando, the booker for Oakland Freedom Jazz Society (then on the road up from Los Angeles), we somehow figured it out.
As an added bonus, there was actually a small audience to play to. It strikes me that, for Improvised Music, even when one person comes through the door of the venue, one feels inclined to walk around doing fist bumps in the air. I don't write this as any kind of value judgement, but just a simple observation. Fans of this type of music are picky, for sure, and rare is the act that can draw more than a few, and for me, even that feels lucky. Still, I enjoy playing the type of sounds that the Pure Finder plays.
Play we did, too: a nice 34-ish minute long set. Things flowed nicely in my opinion, with plenty of the requisite spaces and stops added to the busier moments. At times, I had fun dancing around my kit, along with getting long, ugly scraping sounds from metal rods on the sides of cymbals and drums, and a small gong.  Many of these sounds were fed back into Andrew's rig, which he then processed into his analog synth and shot through the PA. I recorded the set, but that was a bust; at best the recording sounds like we're playing at the bottom of an ocean.
Roger Kim's ensemble was quite impressive. Their use of composed pieces for guitar, clarinet, voices, and dancers was beautiful and humbling, the latter in the best possible way. I felt lucky to hear it!

As usual, big ups to Fernando for his adventurous and supportive booking!

Below: Andrew sets up, and my kit/percussion stuff

Above: Fernando, fresh off the 5 from Los Angeles!