MIM in Phoenix
A few photos, by Jeff Insel, from our performance at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, on Sunday, 7. May.
LINK to Jeff’s Smugmug page.
LINK to photos of our 2018 performance.
A few photos, by Jeff Insel, from our performance at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, on Sunday, 7. May.
LINK to Jeff’s Smugmug page.
LINK to photos of our 2018 performance.
Alberta Rose
A good day in Portland. Weather was beautiful. Good coffee everywhere. Long conversation with Matt who drove up for the day. Performance was joyful. I don’t think many audiences understand just how much they can influence a performance. The enthusiasm and active listening at this venue in Portland always brings out the best in us. Afterwards our engineer Stephen announced that he decided to record the performance. Right on. I’m glad.
Tucson
Sinks filled with dirt and succulents at Cartel, the cafe across the street from the Rialto in Tucson.
Interesting plant at the hotel in Tucson. Smooth, bean-like stalks. Very graphic and stark.
Showers + Wavelength
I could not figure out how to switch from faucet to shower. There was no lever or switch I could find. We use the Wavelength app to communicate and so I posted my question in the Hotel category of our group chat. I highly recommend Wavelength. Encrypted, private, group chat, with multiple categories or subjects, that can each be muted. There are iOS and Mac apps.
Sure enough, one of us had figured out that one can pull down the ring, at the bottom of the faucet, to switch from the default, which is faucet, to shower. I would never have found the solution myself.
I have been thinking about Wavelength versus Twitter or other forms of Social Media. Wavelength can be your personal social media. Connecting with a few friends or colleagues rather than the entire world. Perhaps that leads to more depth instead of width? Maybe the end of social media will just be a tiny wimper and not a bang. Slowly the dust begins to gather in that particular bar and people are meeting elsewhere?
Sedona, Day 2
I had a rough week. Although I always wear a mask in airports, and especially on the plane, something penetrated the shield and infected me with something while I was traveling to the U.S. from Lisbon. One has to eat and drink during a 20 hour trip, so it must have been such a moment of vulnerability when I was attacked by unseen elements. I am not sure whether it was covid, a monster cold, or a flu, but it wasn’t fun. At least I had an excuse to relax and not to do much work.
As I flew to Phoenix, on Thursday, I wondered whether I was ready to travel at all. As the day progressed I felt a little better than expected. Stephen, the engineer, met me at the airport, in a rental mini van, and we drove to Sedona. I wore a mask the whole time, for his protection. I didn’t think I was infectious anymore but caution is often best.
At yesterday’s first performance of this tour we all had to rely on our body memory of the music. I thought the show went very well. The music seemed to play itself. There is a wonderful beauty to the improvised solos when a song hasn’t been performed in several weeks. I don’t really like the word soloing anyway and would prefer melody-ing, if that was a word. Well, it is now. Didn’t Joe Zawinul once say, about Weather Report: We always solo and we never solo.
Rehearsal
Walked to Jon’s studio this morning, openly carrying my white guitar case over my shoulder. We decided not to play with the full setup, through IEMs, in favor of sitting in the same room. This way we could hear ourselves acoustically and could easily talk about finer points of the arrangements. We set up in a circle. Jon used a very small amp, placed behind the chair he was sitting on, for his fretless bass guitar. Robby brought the cajon and used Jon’s hi-hats. Super simple and so much fun. While we played, Jon would sometimes talk us through the arrangement. He would announce the violins, then the cellos, and here come the basses. I told him he should have a microphone and do that for the concert. At least he will wear a mic and do that for the rehearsal with the orchestra tomorrow afternoon. :-)
We worked through the whole set list for two hours, but there was a fair amount of talking and laughter, too. At one point I said how much fun it would be to have recorded the rehearsal… the music, the stories that bubbled up. I wonder how long it would take to forget that a recording is being made. Because, if one couldn’t forget that, the magic would probably be lost and one would perform rather than just hang out and work.
