What's New(s)

Well, I thought I was going to contribute posts in this section fairly frequently, but here I am nearly FOUR YEARS after my last post of this type... anyway. Many things have happened recently about which I am quite happy: 1. I've struck up a duo with vocalist Ron Heglin which is bearing some very interesting fruit, 2. I've moved EVER SO SLIGHTLY into the realm of SOMETIMES using (actual) words, through my collaborations with both Ramon & Jessica's Gertrude Stein project and very recent 8-voice ensemble works led by Pamela Z and Amy X Neuburg. And last but certainly far from least, 3. I just returned from a great trip to NYC, where I performed in a group led by Ches Smith, also containing Stephan Crump, Jonathan Finlayson, and Matt Mitchell. This went far better than I expected it to go, frankly, given that I don't play with such people generally. Oh, and also: A little more than a year ago, I played in duo format with one of my current contemporary heroes, Louis Cole!! But back to the Ches Smith hit... I can see that my recent work with Ron Heglin, which is situated entirely within the open-improvisation arena, has helped to strengthen parts of my musical self which often lie dormant in more traditional "straight-ahead" settings; and this indeed works decidedly in my favor when I am presented with musical environments where indeterminacy plays a substantial role, as was the case in key PARTS of the aforementioned NYC gig with Smith et al. In the future, I plan to nurture these tendencies further, while continuing to strengthen my improvisational skills when dealing with predetermined seed material. 

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