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Looper's Delight
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David Gans wrote: "I tried, believe me. But I just wasn't weird enough." Oh, I"m sure you did and sometimes, I agree, we are just not the right thing for a gig and it's good to 'get' it. Although another thought I had about this later was that one of the most enjoyable experimental music gigs I"ve seen in the past year was when our own Ted Killian played with Jeff Kaiser. Ted did an amazing job of providing Jeff with beautiful and relatively inside and consonant background pads that were constantly evolving..................judged alone, they would have fit in with most ambient concerts but the backdrop was exquisite for Jeff's really fascinating and more avanted garde explorations. I have to admit, a lot of new music and experimental music performances leave me cold because they tend to be devoid of contrast other than the: Cliche formula for multiple person free improvs: play disonantly and really sparsely........................(the quiet section) now play disonantly and really fill all the space (the loud part). go back to the disonant, sparse approach until you just stop playing. Of course, there are wonderful free players who avoid these cliches. My wife and I were lucky enough to participate in the longest running free music weekly improv in London a couple of years ago when the fantastic musician Paul Shearsmith took us. we had nothing to play but what people lent us, objects in the room and our voices and there were a good 7 or 8 musicians in a couple of hour improv that never stopped. It was amazing. I wish to hell we had taped it because it was one of the best things I've ever heard or participated in in the free improv scene. D: "That's the ticket. As I've said before, I am a pretty straightforward singer-songwriter type with a passion for loop improv. I'm better off slipping my weirdness into straighter gigs than vice versa." R: I'm with you there. D: "BTW, I played a gig with Joe Rut a couple of months ago. He left all his gear at home and delivered a set of great solo acoustic songs." R: Many, I am impressed with Joe Rut, I have to say. He just seems like someone who really listens and really thinks about his response to everything. I can't wait to see Lucio and him play in Boise in a couple of weeks. That show that had Ted and Jeff on it also featured Lumper/Splitter was really enjoyable that evening too, one of the best 2nd Sundays shows we've had to date. D: I've been playing with Henry off and on since 1988. The last time we played together, on March 9, the set list included Richard Thompson, the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, "Spill the Wine" (Eric Burdon and War), and other pop classics. R: Wow, that's incredible. I"m soooo jealous of you. D: There was a gig in 1993 (I think) in which I found myself on stage between Henry and the saxophonist David Murray - two veritable fire hydrants of music - hanging on for dear life. That was a blast! R: Again, what an amazing experience that must have been. D: But I too, feel that I like conventional music too much for the avante garde scene and am too 'out' for the conventional pop world R: I so relate to you. D: We need to find a scene that supports precisely our weirdness quotient! R: Well, funny you should mention it. Are you familiar with AmyXs work? her husband, Herb Heinz's music? Do you know the SF band, Eddy the Rat? Niki Selkin's work? Peter Whitehead's work? eve someone big like the Sleep Time Gorilla Museum. They are all bay area people doing unusual pop music that is decidedly out of the box. I've been thinking that someday I should put together an experimental pop festival here in Santa Cruz and over at an art gallery in San Jose. Would you want to participate?