Stimulus

I got an e-mail today from Meet the Composer announcing that money from the economic stimulus package is allowing them to double the total dollar amount of commissions funded through their April grant cycle. What a great country we live in! Now I just need some stimulus for an idea good enough to snag one of those $10,000 grants...

Clap Hands

Last night I thought of something I heard a few years ago that really stuck with me: Beck's performance of the song "Clap Hands" on Saturday Night Live. I love the whimsical form and transitions, and the theatricality of the simultaneous puppet performance, but the element that excites me the most is the organic percussion made with dining implements. There is something so elemental and authentic about communal percussion, and it is free from the typecasting that I tend to experience with more specific percussion instruments (conga = latin, drum set with brushes = jazz, etc.). Here is a link I found to the Beck video, well worth three minutes...

Incidentally, I used stereophonic clapping by the ensemble in the third movement my Concertino for Clarinet. This still may be my favorite music I have ever written! Brook Martinez helped me work out the clapping parts, by the way. I would love to do more with this kind of sound.

Other People's Music

I worked on a really interesting project this week: I arranged (or maybe re-composed) a rock song written by an eminent journalist who happens to lead an amateur rock band. I started with a sketchy recording of just a few notes, a sheet of lyrics, and a few instructions about the assets and liabilities of the band. My first thought was that I had an impossible task, but I soon found a way to bring out the songwriter's intent. After a few hours, I had a song that I really liked! The Reggae-meets-The Eagles groove might be a little heavy-handed, but I think it matches the irony of the subject matter I was working with. It never would have occurred to me to participate in such song-polishing, but now that I see that it works I am eager to do more. I don't even know what to call my role: producer? composition teacher?

I also got a call today about a possible lead to rent some arrangements I've written of Edith Piaf songs, or maybe even to create some new charts. I love that 50's French jazz orchestra sound, and the two songs I already arranged felt great. I actually never got to hear either performed, so I hope they worked! I really want to arrange more of those songs, until I have a full Piaf set. In many ways, I have more fun writing arrangements like that than going through all the struggle of creating new pieces.

In essence, my realization is...I like working with other people's music!

One of my favorite arrangements I ever wrote is a chamber music take on Cole Porter's Night and Day. Here is a link for your listening pleasure!

The Best Homework Assignment Ever

My first semester at NYU, I took a poetry seminar taught by David Lehman, an excellent poet and editor of the Best American Poetry series. One of the homework assignments he gave us has stuck with me all these years: He instructed us to read Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" and then either walk across the Brooklyn Bridge or ride the Staten Island Ferry. Our assignment was to write a new poem inspired by our experiences. I chose to walk across the bridge, for the first of what would be many times during my years in New York. The most striking detail I remember was the feeling of being supported in a web where the diagonal and vertical support wires overlapped. (This picture I just found really shows that detail.) Of all the great spots in New York, that is still the most special to me. A few years later, I ended up riding the Staten Island Ferry, too. That is also an experience not to be missed, with a great view of the harbor and the Statue of Liberty. Why pay Circle Line when you can take the SI ferry for free?

I think of this now as I consider incorporating the Whitman poem into a new piece I am planning. The piece will incorporate sounds I recorded about eight years ago from a clavichord my father built in the 1960's, which itself is an instrument that has been outmoded since about 1750. So my piece already incorporates layers of nostalgia and memory, matched perfectly by Whitman's dialogue between past and present. And the poem is such a lovely tribute to the city I miss dearly! I am excited to see where this all takes me.

(Extra credit to anyone who completes this homework assignment and posts their poem here! I, however, will not subject the world to my feeble 18-year-old poetic voice...)

Heartwarming music for a cold winter day

I listened to something today that I haven't heard for years: Rob Jost's senior recital from NYU. Rob is the bass player in my current band, and our friendship and musical collaboration stretches back almost 10 years at this point. For part of his recital, he enlisted my quartet Yoga* to play some of his compositions.

Listening back now, eight or nine years later, I still recognize the amazing love and connection that flowed through that group. The saxophonist was Jason Hassenstab, my favorite person ever to share a melody with. We spent a summer shedding Bach inventions, really learning how to get inside each other's sounds. Rob was as solid then as he ever was, and Brook has always known how to add just the right color and rhythmic inflection. I remember how much of a treat it was for me to step out of the leader/composer role and focus on my contributions as a guitarist, and I found some sounds that are long overdue for a comeback.

Here is a short sample from that recital. I don't even remember what this song was called, but it makes me want to go sit on a Caribbean beach!

P.S. Happy Birthday, Rob!
P.P.S. Welcome Henry Hassenstab, newborn son of Margaret and Jason!

(*The original name of the band was "Yoga for Big Bodies," but it lived on simply as "Yoga*")

What's next?

Last Monday night, or rather Tuesday morning, I awoke at about 4am with my brain spinning. I had just finished the second concert with my new band, Petrichor, after rehearsing for two days in Brooklyn, driving down to DC to play our debut show, and then driving back to NY for our premiere there. I was exhilarated and exhausted from the weekend's efforts, and a little lonely to be by myself in a bed in Brooklyn. And, as happens from time to time, my overactive brain decided that the hours between 4 and 6 in the morning were the ideal time to think about my next musical projects. I have a concept for a large-scale piece for guitar and pre-recorded clavichord sounds, a possible lead to write a quartet for four violins, another prospect for a piano trio, and a host of other half-baked ideas that rattle around my head.

I also wondered what to do next with the new band that just launched, Petrichor. We put so much time into learning this music, it would seem a shame to retire it now. I also know that I am utterly burned out on this music after living with it so intimately for the past few months - I need a break. One thing I need to do now is make sure that as many people as possible hear the music. To that end, I have posted recordings and links to youtube videos on my web site. I am eager for feedback about the music; feel free to post comments here! I know that a studio recording would serve this music well, and I also hope someday soon to assemble an even larger hybrid group, possibly building on some of this music.

Many people have asked me, "How did it go?" Let's see if I can give a brief summary here. The greatest highlight was collaborating with such amazing people. Eric, Malina, Rob and Brook are my heroes. It was especially lovely to play a trio with Brook and my partner, Jen. I wish all music making could feel so comfortable. I was pleasantly surprised at my guitar playing, after many years of minimal playing. I still don't have quite the speed that I did when I was a performance major in college, but I love the sound of my guitar and I held my own. I made some bonehead mistakes in my parts, but it did not ruin those songs for me. There have been many times in the past that my perfectionism has kept me from seeing the benefits of a particular performance, but, for whatever reason, I hear these live recordings for what they are, warts and all, and I am very proud of what we accomplished. I was most nervous for the three songs I was singing, and those worked pretty well. I feel less excited about them musically - they are really straightforward pop songs, and I am more drawn to the selections with tinges of chamber music.

The greatest adventure of the whole project was the hour leading up to our performance on Monday. I had spent weeks trying to book a venue in New York, eventually getting through to the Brooklyn Lyceum. When I showed up for our load-in at 7pm, they told me I couldn't play in the space I had booked because of a rehearsal that was supposedly taking place on the opposite side of a wall (even though nobody was there for the rehearsal), so they tried to put me in an unheated gymnasium that smelled like a locker room. There were actually people working out a few feet from our "performance space." What a mess! Brook, the drummer in the band, saved the day - he went up the street a few blocks to a much nicer space, The Tea Lounge, where he plays regularly with his group, the Brooklyn Qawwali Party. The wonderful bartender/music coordinator Michal let us move our show over there, we taped a sign to the door of the Lyceum, and off we went! It was a little disconcerting to play some fairly intimate music in a room with about 50 people chatting and working on laptops, but we played great and had a supportive crowd.

The next most common question I have been getting is: What the heck is Petrichor? Click here for the answer!

It's been a long time...

Well, I had these grand notions for a while that I would blog consistently, and then life got the better of me for the past few months. The main action was a huge upswing in the number of program notes I had to turn in between November and February, and also finishing up the music and preparations for my concerts that I just finished. I hope to use this space to process exactly what those shows were all about for me, and what the next steps are in both sides of my music career, but right now I need to sleep off the 1,000 miles of driving, kilos of amp hauling, and hours of rehearsing and performing from the past few days. I should have sound clips and video posted soon...

(P.S. Mike - thanks for reminding me that at least one person reads this stuff!)