In attendance tonight were Victor McSurely, Rick McCarthy, Chris Paquette and Glenn Hughes.
A bit of an informal beginning to the meeting began in the bitter cold at approximately 2145 with Victor and Rick working on Calliope in sections. Chris joined a few minutes later and Calliope was first looped in sections and then played with abbreviated sections to work the transitions, all with a metronome. Victor was stressing the importance playing the bass part with authority and conviction. And possibly emotion.
Glenn arrived roughly an hour in and joined the Calliope work and the piece seemed to work though Chris mentioned having some difficulty with the phrasing on the C bass part immediately after the intro. Victor suggested that the first three notes where of paramount importance in establishing the part and that playing while counting the eight notes might be helpful.
The group then moved on to Bicycling the Afghanistan as a trio with attention on dynamics before splitting up to have Chris teach Rick the beginning of Batrachomyomachy's bassline. As we only spent a few minutes on this Rick played only the first few bars before dropping out to let the piece be performed as a trio.
On to work on Opening with severe timing issues with Rick in the bass part and later left hand tension which forced Rick to sit out while the leads worked their part. Victor suggested trying the exercise of counting “1 and 2 and 3 and...” as the piece might be more accurately thought of as being in 6 instead of 3+3. Victor suggested that the piece might sound better with the bassline circulating between players as it would circulate at a different rate of speed than the lead lines. Glenn commented that he would be satisfied simply pulling it off properly.
Moving Force was up next with Victor suggesting that Glenn cover the notes prior to Victor's harmonics in the ending to create a bit of “spread.” The group then fearlessly embarked upon working Derailed. Rick continued to massage his hand.
Larks'/Thrak up next with the full group and a few details then worked out in the rock and roll section, a re-clarification of chords.
Logistics regarding lodging for and arrivals and departures of our out-of-town performer guests at the 10/30 show where discussed as well as our practice schedule and gig itinerary leading up to showtime. The meeting adjourned in the bitter cold at approximately 2335.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
10-11-2009, GCNE Meeting, "The Loft"
In attendance: Victor McSurely, Glenn Hughes, Chris Paquette, Rick McCarthy, Brad Hogg.
Commenced, tonight, with practice on entering the space. Glenn and Chris had forgotten to arrange their cables, so were treated to "cable arranging music" as they did so. They returned, and we entered the space, acknowledged the group, then the future audience, and then the group again, and then sat down and began in silence.
Mostly adhered to a slightly-solid set list tonight, in anticipation of the gig. First song: "Growing Circle". Played once through, and sounded very good. Next was a free circulation. This wobbled and bumped for about five minutes, until Victor called it off. We worked for a bit with circulating clapping, first without a metronome and counting, and then with. We first simply counted in five and clapped on our respective beats, starting from Glenn:
Glenn
Brad
Chris
Rick
Victor
and running through that several times. We then upped the ante, trying 8 counts and moving to 9, and then running in the opposite direction:
Glenn, Brad, Chris, Rick, Victor, Rick, Chris, Brad, Glenn
Victor, Rick, Chris, Brad, Glenn, Brad, Chris, Rick, Victor
Victor then presented and led us through an exercise, leading directly into a circulation in C Major. This was completely different in character--music felt present, to this "scribe," and we were definitely listening more to each other. When this finally ended, another couple of minutes of silence followed, with Victor asking us to try and take that with us into other music [my paraphrasing].
Batrachomyomachy up next, with a slower start for practice and then an at-tempo runthrough. Calliope was mentioned, but not played, and the trio (Victor, Chris, Glenn) worked on Bicycling to Afghanistan. Passing by Askesis, we moved on to Philip Glass's "Opening," from his Glassworks album. We initially began looping just the first four bars, with and without the metronome--the rhythm and timing is the same throughout the entire piece, so it is key to really get the duple-against-triple feel completely locked in. For the basses, this is especially crucial, as their downbeat becomes the homing centre for the circulated melody chords (and, since the bass will eventually be circulated as well, it's even more important to know exactly where the downbeat sits). Rick and Brad were still not one hundred percent on the actual bass notes and structure of the piece, so after working for a bit on the first and second portions, Victor and Glenn took to the hall to allow Chris to teach Rick and Brad the bass parts. On their return, we ran the C section of the piece a couple of times, and moved on to Third Relation. Work on this primarily consisted of working with dynamics, as well as firming up the tempo. The mirroring of the intro and the popping/dancing of the midtro and outro are really starting to pop out and become tangible, in a very good way.
Intergalactic Boogie Express with the trio, with Glenn and Chris on bass, and Victor on unharmonized lead. Moved on to Eye of the Needle, with Victor halting us in the first go-through to remind us of the exercise from earlier. We played this twice, followed by a break for standing and discussion of logistics (regarding load-in times for the gig, what sound equipment to bring, rehearsal times that can and will include the travelers from New York and elsewhere, the upcoming workshop with Tony Geballe, various sleeping and transportation arrangements).
Returning to the circle, we dived in with Moving Force, with some clarification of the bass parts for Chris. Lark's Thrak, playing through once. We then touched on Asturias; we have not played this together yet, but all seem to know it (with the twinkle parts not exact, but easily corrected). Back to the trio and Bicycling, which was much better than earlier in the night (which was not bad by any means). We closed with a circulation in C Harmonic Minor, moving to C Major--it was interesting to hear the two keys crossing over each other, in the middle, up until the end. Ending the meeting in silence (it was roughly 11 pm), we all bid adieu for the night.
Commenced, tonight, with practice on entering the space. Glenn and Chris had forgotten to arrange their cables, so were treated to "cable arranging music" as they did so. They returned, and we entered the space, acknowledged the group, then the future audience, and then the group again, and then sat down and began in silence.
Mostly adhered to a slightly-solid set list tonight, in anticipation of the gig. First song: "Growing Circle". Played once through, and sounded very good. Next was a free circulation. This wobbled and bumped for about five minutes, until Victor called it off. We worked for a bit with circulating clapping, first without a metronome and counting, and then with. We first simply counted in five and clapped on our respective beats, starting from Glenn:
Glenn
Brad
Chris
Rick
Victor
and running through that several times. We then upped the ante, trying 8 counts and moving to 9, and then running in the opposite direction:
Glenn, Brad, Chris, Rick, Victor, Rick, Chris, Brad, Glenn
Victor, Rick, Chris, Brad, Glenn, Brad, Chris, Rick, Victor
Victor then presented and led us through an exercise, leading directly into a circulation in C Major. This was completely different in character--music felt present, to this "scribe," and we were definitely listening more to each other. When this finally ended, another couple of minutes of silence followed, with Victor asking us to try and take that with us into other music [my paraphrasing].
Batrachomyomachy up next, with a slower start for practice and then an at-tempo runthrough. Calliope was mentioned, but not played, and the trio (Victor, Chris, Glenn) worked on Bicycling to Afghanistan. Passing by Askesis, we moved on to Philip Glass's "Opening," from his Glassworks album. We initially began looping just the first four bars, with and without the metronome--the rhythm and timing is the same throughout the entire piece, so it is key to really get the duple-against-triple feel completely locked in. For the basses, this is especially crucial, as their downbeat becomes the homing centre for the circulated melody chords (and, since the bass will eventually be circulated as well, it's even more important to know exactly where the downbeat sits). Rick and Brad were still not one hundred percent on the actual bass notes and structure of the piece, so after working for a bit on the first and second portions, Victor and Glenn took to the hall to allow Chris to teach Rick and Brad the bass parts. On their return, we ran the C section of the piece a couple of times, and moved on to Third Relation. Work on this primarily consisted of working with dynamics, as well as firming up the tempo. The mirroring of the intro and the popping/dancing of the midtro and outro are really starting to pop out and become tangible, in a very good way.
Intergalactic Boogie Express with the trio, with Glenn and Chris on bass, and Victor on unharmonized lead. Moved on to Eye of the Needle, with Victor halting us in the first go-through to remind us of the exercise from earlier. We played this twice, followed by a break for standing and discussion of logistics (regarding load-in times for the gig, what sound equipment to bring, rehearsal times that can and will include the travelers from New York and elsewhere, the upcoming workshop with Tony Geballe, various sleeping and transportation arrangements).
Returning to the circle, we dived in with Moving Force, with some clarification of the bass parts for Chris. Lark's Thrak, playing through once. We then touched on Asturias; we have not played this together yet, but all seem to know it (with the twinkle parts not exact, but easily corrected). Back to the trio and Bicycling, which was much better than earlier in the night (which was not bad by any means). We closed with a circulation in C Harmonic Minor, moving to C Major--it was interesting to hear the two keys crossing over each other, in the middle, up until the end. Ending the meeting in silence (it was roughly 11 pm), we all bid adieu for the night.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
GCNE Meeting, 10-04-2009, "The Loft"
In attendance tonight were Victor McSurely, Glenn Hughes, Chris Paquette, Rick McCarthy, and Brad Hogg, with Dev Ray stalled elsewhere with a thirsty vehicle.
Jumping right in at 7:40, the first subject we touched upon was performance practice, and how an entrance and beginning should run for a performance: the leader leads on, with cable ends conveniently placed on the seat for being able to grab and plug in with one movement. Plug in, and while still standing, look in, look out, and look back in, and then sit. It begins the set, so to speak. At end of the set, stand, look in, look out, look back in, unplug (hopefully the sound guy has it together enough to bring mains down at this point), and leave from whence one came.
While practicing this, upon lead-in and plugging in, Brad managed to get his cable stuck, and took a little bit to remedy the problem. Victor took this opportunity to discuss "when something goes wrong", and the acknowledgement or none of an on-stage issue. Discussion conveniently ended when the cable agreed to work with Brad.
Beginning with a circulation in C Majorish. Out of five people, four will circulate for four bars, with the fifth soloing. The next four bars will be the next person's chance to solo, while the circulation moves around him. This looks like this:
and so on.
This provided some pretty interesting moments, and really seemed to force listening, along with knowing exactly where one (and "one") is. We did this several times, with a few derailments, but also a couple of multiple-time passes.
Leading from this, Glenn presented something he'd been working on: circulating Coltrane's Giant Steps with him blowing on the top. He showed us the first seven chords (Bmaj7, D7, Gmaj7, Bb7, Ebmaj7 twice, Amin7, D7), which we picked up pretty quickly.
This prompted Victor to mention a story that Bob Moses told him, about when a young kid he'd never met before sat in at Wally's Cafe in the '70s (one of the more famous jazz clubs in Boston, and one of the few left over from pre-gentrified Boston). This kid comes up to Bob while they're playing a set, and asks if he can sit in on the next song and play bass. The band agreed, and asked if he knew Giant Steps. The kid had never heard the song, so they handed him a chart. He looks at it for about ten seconds, says, "Okay," and proceeds to nail the song. This was apparently the first time Bob met Jaco Pastorius.
Moving from this, we warmed up a little more with the 16-bar exercise, followed by working with EotN. Twice through, though the first time it crashed, and then limped along. Not the best we've played it, and a little rushed. Second time sounded much better, but it still feels rushed.
3rd Relation: unseated in spots, but the middle section (F#m-Em-C#m-Bm) is starting to sound pretty good, and the dancing rhythms are starting to pop out quite nicely. Victor addresses this, and we play through a second time--the tempo feels better, and the song slots in a bit more.
Thrak: twice through, sounds good both times. At this Rick bids adieu to go home early for family business, and we decide to take a break. Roughly 5 minutes after he leaves, Dev shows up.
Sitting back down, and with Dev expressing some general fatigue, we choose to just circulate, to set our minds. This eventually breaks out of C Major, and starts to explore some other tonal territory--Victor lobs a couple of double-stops at one point that prompt some more outside harmonies to enter in. This eventually ends quite unexpectedly on C Major.
From here, Victor chooses to run some repertoire, which includes Bicycling to Afghanistan (a trio of Chris, Victor, and Glenn), Calliope (Victor and Glenn on leads and Dev and Chris on bass and mirror bass, respectively), Batrachomyomachy (trio again), and possibly something else--Brad sits these ones out and listens. After this, we discuss various self-advertising points, such as telling/inviting friends, posters, facebook adverts, and other methods. The setlist is beginning to germinate in Victor's mind, but he doesn't have anything set in stone, just yet. A couple more minor points are discussed, Victor thanks everyone for staying late, and we call it a night at roughly 10:20 p.m.
Jumping right in at 7:40, the first subject we touched upon was performance practice, and how an entrance and beginning should run for a performance: the leader leads on, with cable ends conveniently placed on the seat for being able to grab and plug in with one movement. Plug in, and while still standing, look in, look out, and look back in, and then sit. It begins the set, so to speak. At end of the set, stand, look in, look out, look back in, unplug (hopefully the sound guy has it together enough to bring mains down at this point), and leave from whence one came.
While practicing this, upon lead-in and plugging in, Brad managed to get his cable stuck, and took a little bit to remedy the problem. Victor took this opportunity to discuss "when something goes wrong", and the acknowledgement or none of an on-stage issue. Discussion conveniently ended when the cable agreed to work with Brad.
Beginning with a circulation in C Majorish. Out of five people, four will circulate for four bars, with the fifth soloing. The next four bars will be the next person's chance to solo, while the circulation moves around him. This looks like this:
and so on.
This provided some pretty interesting moments, and really seemed to force listening, along with knowing exactly where one (and "one") is. We did this several times, with a few derailments, but also a couple of multiple-time passes.
Leading from this, Glenn presented something he'd been working on: circulating Coltrane's Giant Steps with him blowing on the top. He showed us the first seven chords (Bmaj7, D7, Gmaj7, Bb7, Ebmaj7 twice, Amin7, D7), which we picked up pretty quickly.
This prompted Victor to mention a story that Bob Moses told him, about when a young kid he'd never met before sat in at Wally's Cafe in the '70s (one of the more famous jazz clubs in Boston, and one of the few left over from pre-gentrified Boston). This kid comes up to Bob while they're playing a set, and asks if he can sit in on the next song and play bass. The band agreed, and asked if he knew Giant Steps. The kid had never heard the song, so they handed him a chart. He looks at it for about ten seconds, says, "Okay," and proceeds to nail the song. This was apparently the first time Bob met Jaco Pastorius.
Moving from this, we warmed up a little more with the 16-bar exercise, followed by working with EotN. Twice through, though the first time it crashed, and then limped along. Not the best we've played it, and a little rushed. Second time sounded much better, but it still feels rushed.
3rd Relation: unseated in spots, but the middle section (F#m-Em-C#m-Bm) is starting to sound pretty good, and the dancing rhythms are starting to pop out quite nicely. Victor addresses this, and we play through a second time--the tempo feels better, and the song slots in a bit more.
Thrak: twice through, sounds good both times. At this Rick bids adieu to go home early for family business, and we decide to take a break. Roughly 5 minutes after he leaves, Dev shows up.
Sitting back down, and with Dev expressing some general fatigue, we choose to just circulate, to set our minds. This eventually breaks out of C Major, and starts to explore some other tonal territory--Victor lobs a couple of double-stops at one point that prompt some more outside harmonies to enter in. This eventually ends quite unexpectedly on C Major.
From here, Victor chooses to run some repertoire, which includes Bicycling to Afghanistan (a trio of Chris, Victor, and Glenn), Calliope (Victor and Glenn on leads and Dev and Chris on bass and mirror bass, respectively), Batrachomyomachy (trio again), and possibly something else--Brad sits these ones out and listens. After this, we discuss various self-advertising points, such as telling/inviting friends, posters, facebook adverts, and other methods. The setlist is beginning to germinate in Victor's mind, but he doesn't have anything set in stone, just yet. A couple more minor points are discussed, Victor thanks everyone for staying late, and we call it a night at roughly 10:20 p.m.
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