Re: Joshua Redman and the Repeater

[Eric Williamson <erwill@suitandtieguy.com>]

On Monday, June 30, 2003, at 01:25  PM, Jon Wagner wrote:
> reverbed noise art, ok stop, and we're back to jazz.  My take is that 
> the
> elastic band has not really figured out how to integrate looping into 
> what
> they do and are still experimenting heavily to figure out how it fits 
> into

this is because Sam Yahel has not taken the step of bringing the 
looping rack, nord, and bass synth into the organ rig. you will 
_always_ get that jarring style clash when switching instrument rigs 
like that mid-set.

i have to play gigs with either the organ or the electro rig right now, 
i would never try both. as soon as i get my looping rack finished 
(second looper, eventide. mixer) i'm going to put it in a separate rack 
so i can use it at organ gigs as well. i'd like the line between 
stg/electro and stg/electromechanical to blur a bit. i would really 
like to have the small looping rack, my Moog, and some sort of analogue 
bass synth integrated into my lower manual. that would be sweet.

> some basslines - there's no bass player in that band and he was playing
> basslines all night.  Unfortunately, both his basslines and his
> comping/soloing suffered - its hard to play interesting basslines 
> while also
> playing something else, and its hard to play an interesting solo while
> playing a bassline.

i must disagree, his playing did _not_ suffer because of the "division 
of attention" (as Fripp calls it). Bass-playing organists (or "jazz 
organists") find it _very_ difficult to play interesting solos when we 
are not in control of the bass as well. the absolute WORST jazz organ 
records are those that have string bass players on them ... the 
organist always feels like a fish out of water. however, i do know he 
was having trouble routing aftertouch in the Nord Modular when i spoke 
to him last, he did want to increase his expressiveness. he was also 
still getting the hang of the repeater when i saw them. personally i 
think maybe an EDP would be more appropriate for what they're doing. i 
mentioned the EDP to them, and they were pleased to know that if their 
Repeaters die (which they will, sometime) that they have an upgrade 
path.

we organists are bass players first, and solo/compists second. whenever 
i'm at an open stage and i have to play with a string bass player, my 
mind goes blank and i can't play for shit. at the last open stage i was 
at, we started to play "I shot the sheriff" and during the first verse 
a string bassist jumped up and basically displaced me in the low end. i 
was completely demotivated.

seeing Josh Redman was the best concert experience i've had in the past 
year (except for maybe King Crimson). i really liked his new direction 
and i hope that Sam figures out a way to integrate his two keyboard 
stations into one.
---
Eric Williamson
www.suitandtieguy.com