Seen any great avant-garde musicians live? Post anything related here.



I have just arrived home from a concert at Gallery 4016 in Los Angeles. Here is the URL: http://www.gallery4016.com

When My father & I arrived, we both met Wolfgang(he is a German improviser). He was smoking a cigarette while we were chatting with him, I did not really mind, we were so occupied with the conversations that it was not really a distraction. We were just shooting the breeze about various musicans in the improv scene & discussion about the great jazz musicians of our time on how they perished so young. It was great conversation. My father purchased a compact disk featuring Wolfgang & other great musicians in the free improv scene such as: Evan Parker, Tony Oxley & the one & only: Cecil Taylor. It is Taylor's ensemble actually. It is The Workshop Ensemble. I have not listened to it yet, but I bet it will be a good one.

The ensemble consisted of:

Christiaan Cruz, alto saxophone
Jeremy Drake, acoustic guitar
Bruce Friedman, trumpet
Wolfgang Fuchs, bass clarinet, sopranino saxophone
David Kendall, keyboard connected to a laptop
Ben Rosenbloom, piano
David Rothbaum, contralto and Bb clarinet
Jeff Schwartz, double bass

The first set consisted of collective improvisation by the ensemble that was led by Wolfgang. Then as it proceeded, they did an interesting activity, Wolfgang gave the whole ensemble a piece of construction paper & they were to create a random illustration. After they have completed that, they were to present it to the rest of the ensemble. So therefore, the group would have to perform based on what ever the illustration was, how they interpret it. The person that would present the illustration would some what "conduct" the improv. So this done about 8 times considering the fact that they were 8 performers. After the conclusion, my father exited to retrieve a sharpie(permanent marker) in order for Wolfgang to sign my CD booklet. While my father was outside, & approached each musician & expressed my gratitude by shaking their hand & complimenting them in their performance. When my father arrived with the marker, he signed my booklet, complimented on his performance one again, then I received a print out from the Jeremy(guitarist) for upcoming performances. It was a great night & a highlight of my life. Just like the Fred Frith concert!

Regards,

Alexander

Just bumping this up in case anyone else wants to post...

In that case, I'll re-post my Fred Frith live review:

On May 17th, 2004, I attended a Fred Frith concert(Former Henry Cow guitarist) performing with the California Ear Unit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Great show! Good ensemble work with Fred & the Ear Unit. Incredible improvisational work.

First half: Fred performed unaccompanied, performing in a technique called: "Prepared Guitar." Which is applying or performing with foreign objects on your guitar. Weither brushing then with a paint brush(which he used) or just dropping small beads on the strings(which he also used.)He preformed with many other avant garde techniques & such.

Second Half: Performed with the California Ear Unit. Incredible ensemble playing & incredible septet improvising. For good amount of performers, it was ordered chaos, Fred was still keeping the timing with the ensemble.

After the performance, I met up with Fred, I just shook his hand, complimented his performance asked for an autograph, & he signed it! He signed the back of Henry Cow's Leg End booklet.

Great expirence, I really enjoyed myself.

Regards,

Alexander

I missed that concert. Thanks for reminding me.