Critters Buggin Releases Count Cancellation. Guitar feature on 'Rooster Time'.

Critters, the legendary band from Seattle, asked me to sit in on their House of Blues show in 2001 when they were on tour with a couple of the Moroccan Master Musicians of Jajouka. They called the result ‘Rooster Time’. You can hear on their bandcamp page here…

…Honor to be asked and I hadn’t remembered what the sound was but I did remember the great feeling of playing.

I think you’ll find it right in line with what else you need that you forgot.

ESPLANADE at Improv Conference 2019

The screening and Q & A went extremely well. We hope to have more coming up but so far thanks for all the support and look for soundtrack announcements and more.

Is strongly encourage a look at the fantastic program during the conference. It really offers an edifying program that will somewhere have appeal for folks from all walks with a plethora of curiosities and great speakers.

Wadada Leo Smith at New Quorum. Also, the new Group: J. Free and the Down-Low-Mon. 9th of May.

It's been so busy that there has been no mention yet of my new operating group- J. Free and the Down Low.  We have had two shows so far and they have gone very well.  I suppose the group is exploring original compositions and arrangements, but also new ways of dealing with the language of developing improvisations.  There are many stages to the rhythmic nature of the music, some masked beneath the surface and some openly manifested in the sound surfaces.  Check the exciting lineup-

Dan Oestreicher- Alto sax/ Bari sax/ Electronics
Jeff Albert- Trombone
Doug Garrison- Drums
Devon Taylor- Tuba
Jonathan Freilich- guitar

Who is J. Free?  You'd have to ask Wadada Leo Smith or Lisa Harris or Gianna Chachere or Damon Locks.

Which brings me to the more important part of this post.  Wadada Leo Smith is coming in to New Orleans to give a presentation on his cycle, Ten Freedom Summers,  about the civil rights movement across the 20th century.  This will be at The New Quorum, on this same evening.  The talk is part of gearing up for a performance on the work in New Orleans later in the year.  The whole thing kicks off at 6:30pm.

Where: The New Quorum- 2435 Esplanade Ave, New Orleans, Louisiana 70119

Other details: 

Trumpeter/composer, 2016 Doris Duke Performing Artist, and former New Quorum resident, Wadada Leo Smith is returning to New Orleans! Join us for a special presentation about his Pulitzer Prize nominated work Ten Freedom Summers, which will be produced in New Orleans. Followed by a short performance by Wadada and additional music by J.Free and the Down Low. Refreshments served.

Ten Freedom Summers is the work of a lifetime by one of jazz’s true visionaries, a kaleidoscopic, spiritually charged opus inspired by the struggle for African-American freedom and equality before the law.

Playing with Stephanie Nilles and James Singleton. Cafe Istanbul- 9pm 8/18/15

Don't miss! The best thing for your Tuesday night.  Very interesting grouping here in the mellowest mid week listening room in town. The music will be raucous and refined.  

Stephanie Nilles-keys
James Singleton-bass

Two shows this week-trio at Yuki tonight; Maple Leaf with Mike Dillon Friday

Have two interesting hits this week:

Tonight with a Trio at Yuki on Frenchmen St at 8pm.

Joe Cabral-bass/vocals
Jonathan Freilich- guitar
Doug Garrison- drums

Expect a Jackal-ish guest and then expect the unexpected...

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Friday will be at the Maple Leaf Bar on Oak St in Uptown New Orleans.  Show starts @10pm.

Mike Dillon is a fascinating multi instrumentalism who has some unbelievably exciting approaches to things like vibraphones and Marimbas.  There's a punk thing, a surf thing, a Jazz thang, a Metal thing, a Funk thang, a surf thing.  Lot's of things and thangs.  A good deal of tings, dings, damns and dangs.

Playing with James Singleton's Force Majeur at Zeitgeist

We played a slamming show at Zeitgeist last Friday and this will be a repeat.  If you've had enough of the same old same old you need to make this.  It's a fascinating art space also.  Last week the drummer was different- the great, (that's what I'll call him now that i've played with him) Bruce Golden.  This time the lineup is:

Rex Gregory- woodwinds
Brad Walker- saxes
Jonathan Freilich-guitar
James Singleton- Bass
Justin Peake- drums
Mark Southerland- odd tubing somehow related to the old instruments in a scary way.

James tunes are something else and here he has them approached in quite a different way.

Don't be a square, get over there.  There's too much zombie conformity around the fest these days.  Come out.  We have the fucking antidote!


 

Playing with Dave Capello Trio at Open Ears this Tuesday

Dave Capello, Helen Gillet, my Chip Wilson seven string at open ears

I'll be playing with the Dave Capello Trio this Tuesday the 14th of October at 10pm upstairs at The Blue Nile at 532 Frenchmen St. New Orleans.  COME OUT AND CHECK IT OUT!

Dave Capello is one of the most unusual drummers in town.  There is a reason; a background of very interesting radical theater and music situations in New York and Kansas City before his move to New Orleans 20 years ago.  I interviewed Dave a few years ago.  Surprising stuff. If you are interested in music ideas and where they come from and whether your ears are as open as you hoped you can check out the interview here...

Jeff Albert's Open Ears series has really become an event, over the years, for those still driven by music and sound.  The fact that it goes on amidst the grotesque and never ending cheapening of Frenchmen St. makes it even more of a diamond in the rough.  

This show will feature songs from the bassist, Cecile and Dave is trying to get me to do the same.  She has a wild and varied background on the Chicago music scene including long stints with Fred Anderson and Famodou Don Moye (Legends everybody- google it- get involved in what goes in your ears! Ditch the complacent attitude!))  She sings really nice.

Oh yes- improvisation will occur for those of you enraptured by this central of all music language developments.  There will be also elements of some other lines in music thinking.

Tribute to Tim Green w/ Johnny Vidacovich, James Singleton, Rex Gregory, Jonathan Freilich-At Snug Harbor Sept 28

Sadly, a major loss to the New Orleans music community happened a few weeks ago with the passing of saxophonist Tim Green.  He was to be on this show!

So come out, tomorrow night- Sept. 27th at Snug Harbor on Frenchmen St. 2 Shows 8 &10pm!

Tim was so important to my own musical development early on that kit is hard to put into words. There are luckily recordings of him playing with myself as well as all the others on this show at snug harbor.

This promises to be a great sunday evening of music.  

Johnny Vidacovich-drums
Rex Gregory-woodwinds
James Singleton-bass
Jonathan Freilich-guitar

At 3muses tonight at 8pm-joe Cabral band

Tonight. after your linen has been truly gallery dirtied. get over to three muses- nola. great songs played at a high level. no sacrifice of essential humanity involved. you will beam and easily grab a fine wine at the same time!

Alex Mcmurray-guitar/vocals
James Singleton-bass
Joe Cabral-saxophone
Jonathan Freilich

w/ James Singleton Quartet at Cafe Istanbul- Wed 31, July at 9pm

James Singleton- bass, composer, leader, legend

Mike Dillon- assorted percussion, stamina, and other experimental fits with a high creative yield
Tim Green- sax, deep thought, style, will cut through those barriers that perpetuate the isolation
 

I will be playing with that bunch.  The last few times have all been epic, and completely different from each other.  I think you like music...you should struggle to make it in a way that nonetheless doesn't compromise your basic recreational mindset.  We will handle the other imbalances. 

Monday June 3rd at cafe Istanbul

Monday nights show at cafe Istanbul with James Singleton(bass), Tim Green(sax), and Mike Dillon(drums, vibes) was a vast pleasure. It was perhaps the fourth time playing on this configuration and each has been successful and completely different. One of the great factors was the quiet listening of the audience- so quiet that the miraculous happened- I was able to take an extended guitar solo on a flat body telecaster without amplification.
What a crowd! What a club!

Evan Parker

Great clip. Other things to do with a saxophone.

Roscoe Mitchell Trio at the REDCAT, Los Angeles- 10/2/2011

   Roscoe Mitchell!!?!!-  I am still trying to put into words what level of mind shattering sonic experience this was.  It started with a bass recorder and a whole universe came from there.  It felt like it was about the sounds inside the sounds.

What could the sounds inside the sounds mean?  

   There is a poise of delivery that can really make individual sounds have the appearance of a longer life in time.  I say the appearance of, but in terms of perception and our minds it could really be a longer life.  The mind gets closely in tune so that the delivered sound appears to sit in the consciousness longer than the time that it is really there.  This effect (and I don't mean it like a cheap veneer)thoug, is not what I am referring to in Roscoe Mitchell's presentation last night.

  This went deeper.  It was as if he was describing a more naked place where that sort of poised delivery, the one that can really help us hear,  might be arising from.  Probably for many it might have been difficult to listen to.  The initial sound palette would come across to many as screechy but if we relax and go inside of that, many other musical relations begin to unfold.  These were clearly vibrations that could be generated just as the diatonic notes can generate from a fundamental tone.  

The following day at a brief seminar I got to hear Roscoe Mitchell talk about music and some about the above mentioned music of the previous evening.  He talked about his work early on, in the 1960s on getting away from the 12 note system.  It wasn't not a matter of plain rebellion.  He pointed out a certain point that he loves tonal music when he was answering a question from a student about whether there is value in music if you want to hear it that way.  

Roscoe Mitchell is still interested in music- all facets of it.  Since he has been involved in such a deep exploration of its possibilities for so many years he has so much striking wisdom to offer.

He mentioned many intriguing things that afternoon, here are a few...

A major component of music is silence and this offers a serious challenge; since silence is always perfect, it is a difficult proposition to come up with something that fits with that perfection.  (I'm probably going to be meditating on that viewpoint for the rest of my life.)

Roscoe talked about the need and the existence of both creative musicians, and re-creative musicians.  It left me in a more positive frame of mind because these days I am so frequently agitated by the seeming over emphasis of the recreative across all the arts these days.

Best of all he said that music functions best when it is out amongst people (that they are using its techniques) and he mentioned to try to make it exciting which is something that I think gets left out of presentations of work by a good deal of the artform's explorers these days.

Roscoe just turned 71.  He's still out here with extremely vibrant contributions, real mind openers.  The other two players in his trio also completely took me apart- James Fei, and William Winant.  

Check them out.

Trio

RC show details

Interview with Tim Green

Tim Green is one of the most interesting saxophonists that you can hear in New Orleans.  Occasionally he travels, but most of his career has been within the city.  Over the years he has played with many of the greats that people associate most with the city- Walter "Wolfman" Washington, Irma Thomas, Cyrille Neville, Mem Shannon, Herlin Riley and many legendary others. In fact, he is one of the greats, but he plays a unique role by very particular design and musical conviction. 

His affection goes out most to original, creative, music projects.  He is interested in so much music and, has brought himself to a place where he can insert very creative ideas in almost any context without breaking the balance or excitement of a piece of music or its setting.  He was a large figure in many explorational bands from, Gulfstream and the Stick Band in the 80's, to Michael Ray, Naked On The Floor, and James Singleton, Dennis Gonzalez, and others like  Fred Wesley in the 90's.  In fact, he was a huge supporter of my own musical developments and projects and I think there are many things in life on which we see eye to eye and this really is something, speaking as a grateful collaborator, that Tim is able to show just by playing- support!

Tim has a very deep linguistic or conversationalist playing style that really has its best place on stages for live audiences.  Where the musical "moment" happens is where he strives to be and his best work is there.  For that reason, you won't find records under his name.  One day perhaps someone will be brave enough to release some of the extensive collection of recordings he keeps of his involvements in truly epic improvisational moments.

Tim's genius and where it resides really emerge in this relaxed, and probably pretty rare, interview. 

POTTS

...idea maker in action!