Good news, my pretties: there’s free music in this post to quench your thirsty ears!
Last June, I ambled out to the countryside to Komplex Studio for an afternoon of convivial, improvisatory meanderings by two string ticklers under the watchful eyes/ears of an ace engineer. Shorter: I hung out with cool people and recorded loose jams for a couple of hours.
It was a lovely afternoon that was long overdue. And, thought I, that was that. I had a great time, but nothing I played felt special. Truth: I felt a bit embarrassed by my feeble noodlings.
But my pal Tracy Chow and her hubs Chan had designs. Six months later, I received a message:
Wanted you to hear and give your feedback/approval/disapproval. I can easily take it down or make adjustments.
So I listened. And then again. And I am pretty knocked out by the production T/C put together here. They imagined the larger picture in ways that were invisible to me. And after a dozen or so listens, I gotta say this is one of the most satisfying recordings of my playing I’ve ever listened to.
And it’s available here, for free (or if you’d like, for an optional donation to keep Komplex Studio in tall clover). It falls pretty squarely in the ambient vein, but it has a great deal more structure and definition than I would have expected. All props to T/C for their imagining the greater whole and giving me the gift of golden ears interpreting my work in a way that makes me feel very proud.
And for helping me realize that the thing my playing needs more than anything else – including practice, of which there can never be enough – is collaboration with other people.
So as the year winds down (or up), I’m all about shocking a few new and revived music projects into life for 2016.
Long wished for by tens of people, the Jake Legg Trio is rising from the ashes with some local Tallahassee players. This is long overdue, but look for us soon. Natch, an active local trio also mean the Jake Legg Half Quartet will also be available for service.
As it has for the past 11 years, RoboCromp remains available to active duty. Cromp and I began playing together in 1989, far and away my longest musical partnership. And we’re still in love. What does it sound like?
And yet another: an old pal from the glory days of the Center for Creative Aspiration lives an hour or so away, and we have planned some material to work on together. Distance is a pisser for rehearsal and consistent work, but if we can overcome that obstacle, this could raise some neck hairs among the unsuspecting, innocent listener.
Who knows what else lies in wait?
The Shadow do.
All in all, some good prospects looming. It’s a good way to end/begin the year.
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