Rick, Dev, Brad and Chris (scribe). We tread some well-defined tonal space during our opening circulation which leads to a question about listening to tonality as it morphs during a free circulation; then for a warm up, we tackle the "hammerhead" variation of a familiar left hand exercise at a moderate tempo for a few minutes.
For repertoire work, we begin with a take of Eye of the Needle which leads to a comment and retake of the ending. It is here that we turn to our performance the previous Sunday for guidance on what to work on tonight, and Flying Home is first on the chopping block. After one take, Dev says that the biggest problem with our performance of the piece is the basses and leads not being in the pocket together; we then take turns pairing up a lead with a bass (conveniently two of each present) while the remaining players listen and offer performance notes in this regard. It sounds better when we do a full-group take again, and we even give it a shot at concert tempo with fleeting glimpses of success.
The small group takes some time to help Chris with his work on playing fast, offering some pointers and an exercise. As a group, we take on a speed-oriented version of a left hand exercise and have some fun pushing our limits.
After a short break, we return to work with Third Relation. Chris is apparently familiar with a part that makes a full-reading of the piece possible with the present configuration of the group, and that reading is given two hearings and some bass treatment. We play Calliope after some discussion of the fingering of a certain part in the bass, and we work some more on our time feel. Then a take of Bicycling to Afghanistan, Thrak, and an improv to end our work for the night.
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