Pick it up, pick it up, pick it up

D&H

 

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!

 

 

New Listening

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.

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year!

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It may be a bit early for this, but I don’t care.

So…I had planned a New Year’s-themed post, with resolutions and everything, and then realized I would basically be typing the same thing I typed last year.

Sigh…

I was not exactly stellar in following through on my resolutions.  When I look back on 2012, though, I don’t regret all that much of what I did, even if some of it was contrary to those resolutions.  For the most part, I moved forward, took care of business as best I could, and took some chances too.  I will say this:  I wish I had more pictures.  For all the jerking around Facebook can sometimes do with us, and although it can have some pretty negative effects on my social interaction, I was happy to have a timeline to look back on this year.

There have been a fair amount of changes; nothing huge, just a lot of social and personal things.  I made new friends, adjusted to changes with old ones, played and heard a lot of inspiring music, taught and learned from fun students, and kept a roof over my head.  I don’t want to ask for much more than that.

 

 

 

 

Updates

Hi all!

Happy holiday season to everyone; so far the Winter has me settling in to a new living space in the Magnolia area of Seattle and getting my playing and teaching schedule together, hopefully in some kind of sustainable manner.

Bands have been progressing forward in really notable ways: tours, new venues, and plans to record; and I’m very happy to be teaching excited students, which hopefully become greater in number in the next year. If you know of anyone, of any age, interested in lessons, please do not hesitate to have them shoot me an email!

Festival Mode

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!

 

Brooklyn Buddies

I ran across an interview with Nature Conservancy scientist Joe Kiesecker where he talked a bit about keeping in touch with his childhood friends from Brooklyn, some of which “are in prison, and a few are no longer with us.” When asked why they’ve stayed friends even in those cases where their lives went in such different directions, he said:

“They’re real people. I spent most of my career in academia. Those people think what they’re doing is the most important thing in the world; they think that because they’re only talking to other academics. My childhood friends were my connection back to that real world.”

This answer made me stop because I think about my life in a similar way fairly frequently. I think it’s important to value the opinions of my friends that aren’t musicians as much as those that are musicians for reasons similar to Kiesecker’s; they keep me aware of how my musical life appears and sounds to people.

I also love that they share music and bands with me that I never would have listened to, and (hopefully) when I share my music with them it’s something they wouldn’t have heard otherwise.

Bottom line, the more varied experiences my friends have around me, the better off I will be, and I’m thankful to have so many different personalities in my life.

– Art

 

 

Gratitude

 

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.

Listening

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.

3 Months In

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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

 

New Year’s Resolutions

My New Year’s Resolutions. They’re fairly general, and although I make them and quickly break them every year, this time around feels different; I think they will stick, at least for a little longer than normal!

1. Take it easy – sleep more, drink less.

2. Practice – every day, if possible.

3. Get out more – see more music (especially that one), go to the museum, aquarium, movies, etc.

4. Lay off the computer – except for email, calendar, and website. Lay off the social networking and make the effort to reach out to people more rather than just peek at their profile and see what they’re doing.

5.  Bring my horn to sessions – I’ve gone back and forth on jam sessions/sit-ins for a long time, and now I’ve switched again.  Yes, they always have the potential to spiral out of control, and the music suffers in those cases, but they can also help solidify connections with other musicians, and (sometimes) be really fun!

 

Even if I don’t end up strictly adhering to these, I think January is always a good time to reevaluate things and take a look at some self-improvement; it’s better than fooling yourself into thinking that everything is going how you want it to and you don’t have to change anything about yourself.

Wish me luck!

 

– Art