First up, Ornithos Loom, a new trio featuring Andrew Joron, Joe Noble, and myself, will be making our public debut at VAMP in Oakland on Friday night.
Details:
Fri., 12/2
Oakland Freedom Jazz Society Presents
Tristan Norton
Ornithos Loom
VAMP Oakland
331 19th St.
Oakland 94612
8-11PM
Free (tips encouraged)
Part of Oakland First Friday
Next, Surplus 1980 will be making our final appearance of 2016, along with it being bassist Steve Lew's last show with the band.
Two shows by two bands over two days. Here's the breakdown:
Surplus 1980-First Church of The Buzzard, Oakland CA 11/11/16
First off, what a great space! Shows have been happening at this spot in West Oakland for some time, but it was the first time I've been. Very cool, with paper mache sculptures of William S. Burroughs holding shotguns, strange films projected upon the walls, great art all over the place. Just ruling!
After really hot sets by PG 13 and Gentleman Surfer, both bands featuring incredible drummers Thomas Scandura and Jon Bafus, respectively, Surplus 1980 had our work cut out for us. Very tough acts to follow. Thanks to an exemplary sound mix from our pal Nelly, a GREAT engineer, we managed to throw down what seemed to me to be our best set of the year. I finally got through Failure of Commitment mistake-free (!!!!), Morale Is High was tight, our cover of Ornette's Theme From a Symphony felt all kinds of funky loose, just.....YES. Playing Bafus's hand made, beautiful kit was a joy, too. I can really only think of a few, very minor clams, and other than that the set was good to great. What a fun damn night!
Below: a glowing skull at First Church of The Buzzard, and beautiful drums (with cowbell!)
Below: Live Surplus 1980 footage!
Ear Spray-Noise Bridge Hackerspace, San Francisco CA 11/12/16
After getting what seemed like no sleep at all, I managed to drag my tired ass over to SF via BART. The Mission was lovely: sunny, warm, with the smell of fresh produce wafting off of the outdoor bins of small stores and roasting coffee permeating the air. I got to Noise Bridge with just minutes to spare before Ear Spray's opening set for a Godwaffle Noise Pancakes show. Carlos and Ann had, thankfully, already set up, so I was able to quickly get my small amount of gear in place and ready. Our set centered around Ann's vocals and Carlos's samples. Many of these samples came from short snippets that Ann and I had sent to him. He then loaded them into his sampling keyboard and had them ready for playback. It was fun to add to those voices with my raw circuit bent Casio and a singing bowl with contact mic, along with banging metal folding chairs with metal rods for that early z'ev feel. Thanks, z'ev. A fun, short set on a sunny day. Woot!
Below: great Grux art and simple gear
Below: live Ear Spray clip from Godwaffle's Youtube page. Thanks, Grux!!!!!
Now I sit here, exhausted, and prepare for my art opening this evening. Busy days to end the year! I guess that I kinda asked for it all, and am most definitely NOT complaining. Thanks to all of the musicians that I know.
It seems to me that I have a kind of binary relationship with the Monday Makeout sessions at Make-Out Room: I'll have a really satisfying gig there, and then a terrifying one. Thankfully, last night's session fell into the former category. Everything fell nicely into place, from getting a really choice parking spot right along 22nd St., to the set up/sound check and on into the actual playing of music. Things just went well. Such a relief.
After listening to a sweet, pastoral set from Entartete Ensemble, Hare & Arrow took the stage: Sung Kim on self-designed stringed instruments, Timothy Orr on traps, and me on traps as well. I felt as though it was thirty minutes of musical bliss as we pursued Sung's concept of making a musical tapestry, trying to get our respective instruments to speak with each other simultaneously. The drum interaction seemed tight and focused; I know that playing with Tim made me extra conscious of paying attention and really being there. It was also a blast to play along with Sung's self-designed string instruments. It felt like a cool set to me; at times, it seemed like we were moving pure energy around. Bonus points for getting a really nice compliment from a total stranger. That's a win, for sure.
Below: Drums and strings, Timothy Orr getting situated
Above: Dapper Kim, post set!
Below: Lingua Incognita crib notes for drummers
The second iteration of Lingua Incognita got off to a pretty good start. The group had a relaxed, kind of jungle-ey feel for a while before dipping into a more Funk mode in tribute to post-1960 Miles Davis. At times, the group may have gotten a bit muddled and off kilter, but that stands to reason with a large, relatively unrehearsed ensemble. Despite that, the feel was groovy and good; my favorite individual moment had me slamming what I felt was a pretty sharp back beat to lead the band out of a quieter passage, mid-set. Also cool was an extended, spiritual vamp upon the main riff for Coltrane's A Love Supreme; things got pretty wiggy there! All in all, a fun, albeit a few times unfocused, set. Not that that gave me any of the abject terror that I've felt, playing at Make-Out Room before.
Many thanks to all of the musicians that played, and to Karl Evangelista for continuing to book the Monday Makeout events.
I will play in two different groups this Monday, 11/7, at Make-Out Room in San Francisco: Hare and Arrow and Lingua Incognita Sesssion #2. The former will feature Sung Kim, Timothy Orr and myself in improvisation mode. The latter will feature several players doing some of Mika Pontecorvo's Miles Davis/Ornette Coleman-inspired ideas.
Details:
Mon., 11/7
The Monday Makeout
Make-Out Room
Wayne Grimm's Entartete Ensemble/Hare and Arrow/Lingua Incognita Session #2
3225 22nd St.
SF CA 94110
8PM
Free-donations encouraged
