Cartoon Justice East Coast Tour Dates

In early June, Cartoon Justice will be heading to the East Coast of the U.S. to play some shows!
Details:

Sat., 6/2/18
Muchmore's
2 Havermeyer St.
Brooklyn NY, 11211
9 PM
Matt Lavelle's 12 Houses Ensemble
Cartoon Justice with Grant Calvin Weston


Mon., 6/4/18
Bushwick Public House
1288 Myrtle St.
Brooklyn NY, 11211
9 PM
Cartoon Justice with Grant Calvin Weston

Tue., 6/5/18
AS 220
115 Empire St.
Providence RI, 02903
Cartoon Justice

Thu., 6/7/18
The Rotunda
4014 Walnut St.
Philadelphia PA, 19104
Elliot Levin Trio
Cartoon Justice with Grant Calvin Weston

Sun., 6/10/18
Trans Pecos
9-15 Wyckoff Ave.
Queens NY, 11385
1 PM
Welf Dorr Unit
Matt Lavelle Unit
Cartoon Justice

Mon., 6/11/18
Downtown Music Gallery
13 Monroe St.
New York NY, 10002
6:30 PM
Cartoon Justice

There may be some changes to these lineups, but this is the most accurate view that I have so far. Looking forward to seeing some new venues and playing some shows on the East Coast!

Early May show roundup!

Another fun weekend of creative music making draws to an end, and I sit here somewhat drained but feeling very fulfilled!

Cartoon Justice/Broken Whole-Adobe Books, SF CA; 5/4/18
As Mika Pontecorvo loves to do, he set up a show in which new configurations of the core Cartoon Justice players would get to play with close/new associates. For Friday night's show at Adobe Books, he pulled in expert drummer Tim Orr to guest on two sets. The first set, played by Broken Whole, featured Mika on electronics processing plus Tim and I on drums. We got into some fun, interactive Electro-Acoustic zones. Things felt really subtle and linked, in a mostly quiet way. Lots of clicking percussion and whirring electronics processing. Eli eventually joined in on bass, and his extensions added some pretty great, block-like bass touches to the emerging sound. Super fun to get deep with Broken Whole!
After a brief break, Cartoon Justice brought its Harmelodic Punk Jazz in, with Tim continuing on drums. Things got pretty loud, pretty quickly. Our 6/8 jam, Spirit Aligned Truth, is really coming together nicely, going to some interesting places sonically. I'm feeling stoked that I can hold that rhythm down for longer and longer periods of time. We continued with two or three more improvisations, in which Mika played really inspired-he was clearly reveling in the sound. Kersti may have gotten a bit drowned out, which I felt bad about. We'll have to work on dynamics a bit. Cartoon Justice is getting heavy, that's for sure.

Below: Broken Whole/Cartoon Justice (photos by Josephine at Adobe Books; thanks, Josephine!)

Amy Reed/Mark Pino Duo-Gold Lion Arts, Sacramento CA; 5/5/18
After a fun trip along 80 East with Melissa and yummy meal at a really fine downtown Sacramento eatery, I got to Gold Lion Arts for a set with Amy Reed as part of the series that she curates, the Ma Series. I kept things really simple for this set, with just the large roto tom, some gongs, and some shakers. This was by design, as I know Amy's music well enough to be aware that she keeps her set up quite minimal, too: just guitar and amp, usually. Amy did augment her rig with some samples of various voices, seemingly recorded by her "in the field". Quite inspiring, actually! At times I found myself playing along to them, at others simply listening to them and waiting. The set definitely had a spacious feel, but I recall things getting dense and frenetic at times as well. At one point, I swear that we sounded like Crazy Horse! It is always satisfying to play along with Amy's singular guitar techniques, that's for sure. I admire her aesthetics greatly. A set of chilled intensity, if that makes any sense!
After our set, Mooncake Trio played: if you get a chance, go and see them. Not so much a Power Trio, but a Subtle Trio. Really fine music coming from Vinkeloe, Hay, and Honda.

Below: Amy Reed/Mark Pino Duo interacting, Mark yammerin' (photos by Melissa Crockett, thanks Melissa!)

Stay tuned for Cartoon Justice tour dates later this month!

Upcoming shows!

Two shows this weekend!

Fri., 5/4
Adobe Bookshop
3130 24th St.
SF 94110
Broken Whole (Mika Pontecorvo w/ Tim Orr and Mark Pino)
Mogauwane Mahloele
Cartoon Justice w/ Tim Orr
7PM
$

Sat., 5/5
Gold Lion Arts
2733 Riverside Blvd.
Sacramento 95818
Mooncake Trio
Amy Reed Project w/ dance by YAYA
8PM
$

Looks to be an exciting weekend of improvisation and creative thinking!

New Crow Crash Radio digital tracks up!

From a great session with engineer Bill Wolter. We will have physical product available by the end of this year, if all goes according to plan......

John Vaughn Trio-Gold Lion Arts, Sacramento CA; 4/27/18

It was most definitely not a smooth Friday evening drive up to Sacramento from Concord yesterday afternoon. 80 East was seriously gummed up pretty much the entire way in fact. No worries for me, as I knew that once Gold Lion Arts would be reached, I'd see plenty of the sweet people from the Sacramento Jazz/Improvised Music scene, and all would be good. A few minutes after taking the above photo, in fact, Exploring Miles! leader Tony Passarell pulled up and we had a really great talk about Go Go. It turns out that Tony played in a late 1980's band that was heavily influenced by D.C.'s cultural fucking GIFT to the world. I was blown away, hearing about this!
A bit later, John Vaughn showed up. We talked over the charts that we'd exchanged: his Monk-ish eight bar melody and my piece Dream Etude. I was getting a bit neurotic about planning things out, but thankfully John reminded me that we would be improvising, and to just roll with things a bit more. Sage advice!
Our set started with bassist Robert Kuhlmann, having just had a cigarette, striding back into Gold Lion, a few minutes after 8PM, and stating simply, "...let's do it now..." We did, jumping right into some good improvised zones. I was feeling heavily into a call and response type of playing, along with thinking, as deeply as possible, about the words of Jack Wright, whose book The Free Musics I've been reading of late. Wright brings up many questions and insights as to what Free Improvisation really is made up of, and I couldn't help but be under their influence, at least a bit. Despite all of this, I feel as though I was able to be present and interactive with the bass and alto saxophone. This first section lead to Dream Etude. I've tried to play this piece live once before, but I'm still into trying it. It's really just a loose sketch; John and Robert did a really nice job with it. Hopefully the audience was feeling it as well. Next up came John's piece, on which he played soprano sax. I tried to swing it with some down Funk beats. At times, it seemed as though I was crossing up the rhythm a bit, lagging even. Things got a bit jagged here, I felt, but Robert kept things solid with his bass. I must take the blame for possibly dropping things a bit too much, for sure. That said, I kind of enjoyed the drama of the possibility of things completely collapsing. I have a tough time listening to recordings that I play on (no, really, I do), but I look forward to possibly hearing this section, just to get a grasp of how things transpired.
After these three pieces, Kuhlmann needed to stop due to some pain in his shoulder. I really didn't want to stop, so Exploring Miles! bassist William S. Jones joined us for a closer. I switched to brushes and played pretty spastic. William hit a deep pocket, and John wailed a bit more on the reeds.
This set had an effect upon me that's been lasting well into today. Deep lessons learned about improvisation, I think. Couldn't have asked for a cooler spot or finer players from which to have had them.

Below: Gold Lion drums, with beautiful, creamy Zildjian, borrowed from drummer Dax Compise, thanks Dax!

Above: John Vaughn Trio awkward ussie; live shot by and courtesy of Russ Tucker, thanks Russ!

Playing in Sacramento with John Vaughn Trio this Friday!

I'm happy to be headed back up to Sacramento this Friday, 4/27 for a gig with a trio that John Vaughn has put together, with Robert Kuhlmann and myself!
Details:
Fri., 4/27/18
Gold Lion Arts
2733 Riverside Dr.
Sacramento CA 95818
8PM
John Vaughn Trio
ExPloring Miles!
$

New Radical Medicine videos up at Youtube!