Comments (0)

By admin, May 15, 2013 11:20 am

A couple of really fun performances around town over the past couple of weeks:

Claudio Rochat-Felix and Michael Marcus at 418 Public House:  Drums, Bass, and Saxophone.  Really cool chance to stretch on things and mess with forms in interesting ways.

Claudio, Tim Kennedy, Ian Sheridan, and Thomas Marriott at Vito’s:  First time playing with Tom and a great time playing tunes and interacting as a quintet.

Eric Hullander, Owen Ross, and Tyler Graves at the Seamonster:  Another standards gig, for the most part, but run through the Seamonster lens.

Bill Bradburd, Geoff Harper, and Tim Kennedy at the Columbia City Gallery:  Sort of a Dexter and Hayes reunion; it had been too long since I’d played with Bill!

Jacob Zimmerman jam session:  This was just Jacob and me playing saxophone and talking; I left his house really motivated to continue getting deeper into playing music!

I was really happy to be a little busier in town with different people; Although I always feel connected to the music community in Seattle, this added something different to the connection, in a great way.

I also participated in a student recital as a teacher for the first time!  Although I still want my focus to be performance, I really enjoy teaching kids, and I was happy and proud that some of my students were able to perform in front of friends and family.  Hopefully the first of more to come.

Last but not least, this past weekend I played in the Lucky Mystery Now Orchestra, which was essentially a conglomeration of several funk groups including the Polyrhythmics, and performed original music written and arranged by Lucky Brown.  Many of the other Polyrhythmics members have known Lucky for years and years, but I’ve known him just for the last year or so, and I admire his dedication and energy that he puts toward his music.  To see him in front of the LMNO so happy to hear us play what he wrote was inspiring to me, and something I hope to remember as I continue to write and perform.

Comments (0)

By admin, April 22, 2013 11:35 am

I added a new gallery of photos taken from Hardcoretet’s performance at Central Washington University.  The show was after an evening clinic/master class with some of the music students there, our second one at CWU, and the reception was very warm and enthusiastic.

I enjoy playing music at bars and smaller clubs; I think the social/party atmosphere can really help people get over their discomfort at trying to get into types of music they don’t hear very often.  If the setting is too formal, I feel as though listeners sometimes question their own reactions to the music, because they think they need to know more to enjoy it.

That being said, I don’t get a chance to play at concert or recital halls very often, and to be able to do it while at Central was an awesome opportunity.  Something about the darkened hall and silence as everyone there focuses on the sounds to come creates an atmosphere that can heighten the experience.  The audience was attentive but also threw out some great energy, which really helped us rock out a bit at times, and in the end we put on a great show, which is always at least part of the goal.  Hope to do it again soon!

Comments (0)

By admin, March 17, 2013 11:53 am

Posting from my phone for the first time, while riding in the van with the Polyrhythmics in Idaho! I plan on putting up an album with some of the more beautiful views when I get back home.

This is the longest amount of time that I have been on the road, traveling and playing music, and this is after traveling with Hardcoretet the previous weekend, so the last month or so has been an interesting combination of lots of time with my bandmates and lots of time meeting new people that came out to the shows, which has been encouraging and enlightening.

I am still learning about engaging and connecting with listeners at shows. In both live stage performance and face-to-face contact, I feel like there are opportunities to really bring an audience further into the experience without compromising my own personal musical expression, and I feel as though I don’t always do that, which is something I can work on.

Loving this time traveling and playing, but also excited to return home to Seattle with some major motivation and direction!

Art

Comments (0)

By admin, February 1, 2013 12:46 pm

It’s been a really fun run of performances the last couple of weeks.  Polyrhythmics had a memorable mountain show at the top of Heavenly Ski Resort in Lake Tahoe, Hardcoretet played the Comet Tavern for the first time with two great bands in Industrial Revelation and Skerik and really got to rock out, and there were a couple of pick-up gigs that felt great for my playing:  Grant and Delvon (airing out an old Pocket Change tune!), sitting in with McTuff, and a semi-Dexter-and-Hayes-reunion with Tarik, Tim, and Ian.

In addition, I’ve been able to take a little bit more time and practice, which has made a huge difference (what a surprise).  I hope to keep the momentum going in the coming birthday month!

Comments (0)

By admin, January 15, 2013 3:06 pm

WARNING:  EXPLICIT LANGUAGE

I love that movie.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve enjoyed a real boost in new stuff to listen to.

When I heard that Easy Street Records in Lower Queen Anne was going away, I headed over to Sonic Boom in Ballard.  I hope to make it a monthly trip.  I bought “Oblique”, by drummer and composer Tyshawn Sorey.

I’ve also been rocking the library quite a bit, which is a HUGE resource.  Between the opportunity to place holds on items at any branch and the jazz sections that I can comb through whenever I go in, I’ve found a lot of great stuff.  Checked out albums by Loren Stillman (also the saxophonist on “Oblique”), Donny McCaslin, Ike Sturm, Ben Allison, and several other jazz artists, as well as Noah and the Whale, Little Dragon, and other bands from different genres.  It feels great!

I’m really hoping this recent boom will help me find some more specific ideas and approaches to both improvising and composing, and I’m excited to see if that’s the case.

Comments (0)

By admin, August 15, 2012 11:58 am

The hot weather took its time, but it is finally here, and my schedule has been pretty effective as far as getting me out there to enjoy it!

Festival performances with the Polyrhythmics and Theoretics have been really fun, especially because I hadn’t really gone to many music festivals before, either as an audience member or a performer.  The last few months really hooked me (combining car-camping with live music in the outdoors?  How can you go wrong?) and I hope to make it a tradition to go to at least 1 or 2 each Summer, regardless of whether I’m playing.

It’s not over yet though; I’m excited to hit the road in the next couple of months with both Polyrhythmics and Hardcoretet.  Also, Hardcoretet will be enjoying some new musical partnerships soon.  Time to start composing!

Comments (0)

By admin, May 28, 2012 2:07 pm

Taking a moment to send a general thanks out to the amazing community of musicians and music-lovers I’ve met recently. Whether it’s a small town or a big one, huge stage or tiny room, the support that I’ve gotten from those who are listening is essential to me; I could not perform music otherwise. In addition, I’m humbled and thankful to have been given amazing opportunities to play with incredible musicians, all of whom are also beautiful human beings. Every day my goal should be to live up to the standards and examples set by these two groups.

Okay enough schmooze, carry on.

Comments (0)

By admin, April 4, 2012 12:30 pm

Two tracks I can’t get enough of right now:

Claudia Quintet – Keramag, from Royal Toast

I love the melody that first shows up at 1 minute 1 second that the vibes and piano play together. It gets moved around and displaced throughout the entire song.

Christian Scott – American’t, from Yesterday You Said Tomorrow

For me, this one is all about the guitar part 32 seconds into it.

Comments (1)

By admin, March 10, 2012 2:57 pm

So here I am, almost 3 months into working exclusively as a musician and teacher.

It feels as though my workdays have become compressed; lessons can’t start until kids get out of school, and gigs and rehearsals are almost always at night, plus most gigs are squeezed onto the Fridays and Saturdays of the week.  In this way, I kind of have an early night schedule now, which is kind of funny.  The trick, as I’ve told several of my friends, is turning that downtime during the day into something productive, which I’m still learning to do.  So far I think I’ve been doing okay.

I also feel like I’ve learned a bit about the business and non-musical side of playing saxophone over the last 3 months.  I’m really lucky to be playing in 3 bands with a member that has taken it upon themselves to handle those aspects, and in all 3 cases I’m really impressed with what they do.  Right now I’m just trying to watch them and pick up what I can.

Something I’ve been thinking about more and more is how important it is to believe in the value of your music.  It may seem obvious, but I have to condition myself to see the music I play as something of real value and importance, and a service worth paying for.

Of course, that mindset can be taken to an extreme, and of course I want to share my music with as many friends and family as possible (without milking them for money all the time), but I think I do need to get more into that mindset of music performance as a job, a job I enjoy and am lucky to have, but a job nonetheless.  And, by the same token, I always should work toward doing that job in a professional way and at as high a level as I can.

See you out and about soon!

-Art

Comments (0)

By admin, September 26, 2011 1:32 pm

Last week was one the busiest playing weeks I’ve had in a long time.  It’s not often that I have many weekday/midweek performances, so it was kind of a new experience for me.  This is also on the heels of a couple of sub gigs I’ve recently done, so I’ve been thinking a bit about playing music and playing with different people.

- So many great musicians!  There’s always that amazing player in town that you haven’t met, or that person you’ve seen around but haven’t listened to and then they blow you away.

- Interacting with a lot of different musician friends makes me a better saxophonist.  Sometimes when playing in a band, you get really comfortable just doing what you’re already good at, so it was great to be challenged to play in a different way to fit whatever setting I was in. 

- I can see now the huge difference time can make on a band and the way musicians play together.  The level of music-making that comes from people that play together all the time and have done so for a while is super high. 

- On the other hand, there were many moments where I really felt like there was some awesome music going on with people I had either just met or didn’t know very well, so I guess it just depends.

I made many of these same points in my previous sideman post, but recent events brought them back to the forefront so I thought I would share them again.  That’s what a blog is for, right?

- Art