inspiration and attendance

New York has an expensive reputation. The classic irony: live here to catch the amazing concerts and culture happening every night, and then end up staying home because you paid all your money on rent and bills. For the resourceful though there are many incredible and affordable treasures out there, whether it's the free night at MOMA, or free concerts at Downtown Music Gallery. This week, FOCUS! is hosting six free concerts of the music of Elliott Carter up at the Juilliard school in honor of his 100th year. I attended last night and the one before and experienced some amazing music and a further irony: light attendance!

On Monday I arrived at 7pm expecting a line at the door, but found only 3 people waiting. By the time they started letting us in, we were a line of maybe 9 or 10. By the 8pm start time the theater was maybe half full. Tuesday night there were a few more people, but not many. I wonder how many people stayed home expecting to have to fight a crowd. You could have showed up 5 minutes before the concert and still gotten a seat in any section. Totally bewildering to me.

Anyway, the music these last two nights has been a much-needed shot in the arm for me. Too many highlights to even talk about I guess, but special note must be given to their performance of Tempo e tempi (1999) which I know via the recording by Ensemble Sospeso. Soprano Jennifer Zetlan really was spectacular.

Carter was in attendance last night and for several minutes we applauded the man, 99 years old, still working, still writing. Unable to make it onto the stage itself, and too surrounded by well-wishers to be seen by most, he raised his cane above his head and shook it, a gesture of the aged but not infirmed...

Speaking of composers, Monday February 4th I have the honor of performing at the Cornelia Street Cafe in NYC with Guus Jansen on piano, with Thomas Heberer of ICP on trumpet and Harris Eisenstadt on drums. Harris, Thomas, and I have played a few times now but this will be a first with Guus. Should be exciting! Then Wade Matthews, Andrew Drury, and I have gigs in Philly and New Haven, and I have a couple gigs at Barbes in Brooklyn with Butch Morris, a hit at Zebulon with Mary Halvorson, Peter Evans and Kevin Shea, and another trip to Cornelia Street this month with Joe Giardullo, and Todd Capp doing Paul Motian's music.

Amidst all of this I'm trying to write new music for my string group which will be playing Roulette in the spring...

Exciting times.

Meanwhile: I had to leave my studio space in September and am starting to look around for another. If anyone has any leads on something in Brooklyn please let me know so I can continue the Studio STATS tradition. In the meantime I continue to mix and master projects for myself and others at my home. It's working out well and I like not paying an extra rent, but I miss recording groups. Your ideas are much appreciated.

revived

I was down for the count the last couple days, almost sick, not quite well, in that limbo in between...

The Denman Maroney Quintet conquered Baltimore this weekend! Thanks to Bernard and the crew from An Die Musik for treating us so well. I had a blast playing on Denman's evil charts, as usual. Ned drove which was as luxurious for me and it was fun to get into some iPod shuffle-play blindfold testing. Ned stumped me yet again with a Jaki Byard quartet date, and I got him with Alan Shorter's "Orgasm."

This friday we hit Real Art Ways in Hartford, and The Flynn in Burlington, and then it's back to Brooklyn to bring Denman's new thing to CIM on Douglass St. http://www.schoolforimprov.org/ Check it out...

Before I go I'm playing Goodbye Blue Monday in Bushwick with World on A String (Wednesday) and Thursday I'm at the Tea Lounge with Laura Cromwell's Queen Moonracer. Busy week!

Speaking of "revived," I'm doing a rare performance of my trio music on Nov 24th at the Jalopy Theater in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Details to follow, but we'll be playing the hits from "Intersections," with Matt Moran on vibes, and Matt Bauder on clarinets.

Another revival coming up soon is the Nate Wooley Quartet, hitting it at CIM on the 25th. Color me psyched!

Same old Surprises

A few weeks ago was the 25th anniversary of the first gig I did with the first serious band I ever played in. We were only together for a little over three years I think, but in my memory it was a lot longer. We were incredibly prolific, writing hundreds of songs together and recording constantly. That band got me started playing bass, got me started improvising, and trained me well for the grassroots tours and organizing I do to this day. I was the baby of the group, a high school dropout, and serious as cancer. At the time I really had no idea what a kid I was. I look at teenagers now and think "I was THAT?" Thank you Dan Kozak, Pete Levine, and Sam Imhof. I'm forever in your debt.

I just got back a couple weeks ago from a long tour in Spain, Portugal, and France with Madrid improviser extraordinaire, Wade Matthews, and something happened that should not have surprised me, but did just the same. For the last 25 years it's been pretty much a constant that the town I wasn't expecting much from turns out to be the sweetest gig. Every tour I forget this. Every tour I'm surprised. It never fails.

Hospitalet is a suburb of Barcelona. People I met in Barca said not to expect much from Hospitalet. They described it as a dull place, a conservative place. They couldn't be bothered to go there, and were surprised that we were. Wade had never even been there. Well, sure enough, after basking in the touristy lameness of Nice we drove an eternity and arrived in Hospitalet, expecting nothing, and what we got was something like a heroes' welcome. People cheered for us, gave me gifts, the room sounded great, and the vibe reminded me a little of Brooklyn. The audience was full of visual artists. I love artists. They always seem to meet the music in a very special way. I had a beautiful evening there, and though I shouldn't have been surprised, I was.

Now I'm in upstate New York, crashing for the evening at Art OMI (www.artomi.org) after an enjoyable afternoon concert with the Flexible Orchestra. Tomorrow I play a solo bass gig in Boston and then Thursday I fly to Seattle for a couple gigs in the Earshot Festival, one with Wally Shoup, and one with Jane Rigler. Really looking forward to it. I haven't been to Seattle for a couple years...

Then when I get back from that I go into daily rehearsals with composer/pianist Denman Maroney for his upcoming tour with a quintet including myself, Ned Rothenberg, Dave Ballou, and Mike Sarin. I can hardly believe my good fortune. Then a handful of New York gigs with good friends, and I go on the road for a week with brilliant young players Jacob Wick (trumpet) and Andrew Greenwald (percussion). I'm a lucky man.

accounts

Both my solo shows this weekend got writeups.

One from David R. Adler in the Philadelphia Inquirer at http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20070716_Abstract_sounds__lots_of_rhythm.html and a far more interesting and enthusiastic account of the Balto gig from composer/engineer Devin Hurd.

I am really torn when reading reviews like Adler's. On the one hand it's great to see a journalist from a daily newspaper show up for such a grass-roots gig, stay for the whole show, and try to describe it. On the other hand, his writing comes off like that of an uninformed, prim, school marm who conspicuously leaves out any judgment of quality or mention of historical reference, resulting in a passively snotty tone that makes it seem like he may or may not have an underlying contempt for experimental music, or assumes that his readers do. Nevertheless, I'm opportunistic and practical enough to lift a half-sentence quote from it for my website, ("One of New York's top avant garde improvisers.") and I really hope Adler continues to come out to Bowerbird events in Philly. They are presenting an amazing array of great experimental music.

a blurb and big news

I'm playing solo in Philly tonight at the Rotunda, and on Saturday in Baltimore. For tonight's show I got a nice advance blurb by Shaun Brady in the Philadelphia City Paper: http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2007/07/12/reuben-radding

I was really glad he wrote about the 12 In 2007 project. I've been at it for 5 months and word is still just getting out.

Meanwhile, for the last 4 years one of my favorite ongoing (though all too occasional) projects has been the trio Crackleknob with my dear friends Mary Halvorson (guitar) and Nate Wooley (trumpet). Very few people have heard us, as we've tended to gig about 2 or 3 times a year. Well, I'm incredibly delighted that that is about to change, thanks to one of my favorite record labels ever: Hat Art. Aside from my excitement about Crackleknob finally getting a chance to be documented, I'm also just personally excited to be associated with the label. I'm a huge fan of Werner Uehlinger's work. To me, Hat Art really sets the standard for record labels as far as quality goes. There are other great labels, but as I look at my shelves I have more Hat releases than almost anything, and so many are my favorites, like Braxton Quartet releases from the early 90's, the incredible Giuffre 3 live recordings, Guillermo Gregorio, Steve Lacy, Joe Maneri, and recent faves like Christan Weber... I am really honored, and so glad for us as a band. I've known this was happening for a little while, but I wanted to wait till the contract was signed and sent off to Switzerland to make any public announcement.

For you New Yorkers, Crackleknob is playing on August 9th at Cafe Grumpy in Greenpoint.
And, like everyone else, we have a Myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/crackleknob

Slight Return

Going to Germany/Austria always brings up complex stuff for me. Inevitable...blurry. Everything is in an existential jumble. I've tried my whole life to escape my semitic heritage (can't), but facing the Germanic collective guilt is a puzzle, every time. How long do these things go on? Painful sometimes, watching them reduce us to stereotypes in order to praise us, instead of attack. Is it better? It's alienating. My Virginia childhood was spent passing for cracker. In Europe that's hard to do. Everyone is more aware of each others' origins, and they think it's important. Hard to explain assimilation to them. Anyway, I had an amazing hang with Brave Old World accordionist Alan Bern, my new long lost brother, that covered a lot of moral ground, Dr. Seuss, the Twilight Zone, gender issues, Willie Wonka, and yes a lot about Jewishness. Thanks Alan. You really got me charged up for the gig!

Heading Out

I'm heading off to Vienna in a few hours to play a quick gig in the Klez-More festival at Klub OST. For all of you film nuts, my hotel is supposedly about a 15 minute walk tot he Prater, where the big old ferris wheel from THE THIRD MAN still resides. I rode it 11 summers ago with Anthony Coleman on the now-infamous Myth Science tour. Those were the days. Ironically, especially since I haven't been to Vienna since then, I am playing this gig with the same drummer from that tour in '96, Aaron Alexander.

I have a day off there so I'm going to try to hit some things I did last time, like the ferris wheel, but also Oswald & Kalb (slammin' Austrian food) and Cafe Alt Wien accross the street, where I spent about a zillion hours last time. 11 years ago it was a great hang. Let's see what happens...

When I get back I'm recording a duo set with Robert Dick, and engineering a new record for composer/trumpeter Jacob Wick, and then in mid-July I do a little solo tour. A crazy summer, no doubt.