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howdy y'all.
found this review of the santa cruz bass loop fest on a bass list i'm on.
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 11:50:59 -0800
Subject: Santa Cruz Bass looping show review
Greetings all,
I had the great pleasure of getting to hear TBL's own Steve Lawson headline
an all bass live looping show in Santa Cruz Tues night. Four bassists and
percussionist extraordinaire Rick Walker on "prepared" bass put on a rather
unusual musical evening showing some of the potential of live looping on our
favorite instrument.
Trey Donovan opened up with some interesting combinations of bass and stick
followed by a very creative fellow from Tahacipi (sp?), CA whom I didn't
capture his name (Rex * ? my apologies!) who came out with a very musical
and spirited spontaneous piece followed by several equally musical tunes on
different basses. Scott Kungha Drengsen from Oakland came out next and was
having problems with his rack plus an excessively high noise floor so
limited himself to singular use of 2 different basses and played a piece
dedicated to Jaco followed by some extensive sci-fi tonal compositions
containing verbal poems. Considering his technical difficulties Scott
managed to deliver a very moving performance. Scott's ending loop segued
into Steve's opening notes moving into some pieces from his CD and some
spontaneous compositions. Steve's showmanship, playing and technical
abilities shined and he brought an element to the looping that was unique to
the evening in that he would manipulate or replace some of his loops during
a piece which allowed him to play longer and more interesting compositions.
Rick Walker interjected the prepared bass at different parts of the evening
and co-looped on Steve's bass as part of the later segment and added some
well placed rhythmic and tonal elements. I picked up Steve's CD after the
show and found it very enjoyable and well worth a listen.
My only critiques of the evening would be that most (not all) of the tunes
focused on the more somber side of our instrument making for an evening that
could have used a few more "up" moments. Also, many of the compositions were
short and ended rather abruptly due to, I believe, the technical challenges
most of the performers had controlling the loops and their racks.
Overall, creativity and expression won out for the evening and I'd go to
such a show again. It was obvious from Steve's performance that he has spent
a good bit of effort into musically exploring and expanding this art form.
Check it out with open minds if you can.
Cheers,
Toby Gray
www.DavidLaFlamme.com
www.TheRoadBand.com