FURTHER EVIDENCE

Video below from the Sun Ra Tribute show at the Pharaoh's Den in Riverside. The video projections behind us (courtesy of VJFranzK) are all live effects, i.e. the video fx parameters are being altered by the music in real time:

THE BAKERY SET

Some photo evidence here from last Monday's hit at the sadly-soon-to-close Jazz Bakery in LA, most of them shot by our friend Allen Glass (he's in the green plaid jacket in the third pic below).

Commentary soon.

WEEKEND TOUR RECAP

Some images below from the last two Empty Cage gigs. Tomorrow (Monday) night we wrap it up at The Jazz Bakery in LA. Get tickets here, or find more info on Facebook.

On Friday we were at Metro Galleries in Bakersfield, sharing the bill with saxophonist Santiago Latorre from Barcelona. Santiago had a nice set exploring very delicate, slowly evolving sax loops while Sara Paniagua provided video projections behind him. Afterward was the requisite late night truck stop diner food hang at Zingo's Cafe.

(Thanks to James Sproul for the pics from our set)

Last night we were at the Pharoah's Den in Riverside, taking part in their weekend-long tribute to Sun Ra, who arrived on Earth 95 years ago Friday. Great scene they have down there, and it was a special occasion, obviously, so we did something unprecedented - we performed our first cover in nearly seven years together as a group, jamming Ra's "Moon Dance" to kick off our set...

OPPOSING WINGS

Something new for this weekend. An explanation of the basic system is available here - see the composition notes for Gravity No. 1.

This is the first of the second-generation Gravity pieces which will utilize non-transposing gravity points (the longer pitch sets in the square boxes). The emphasis here is on symmetry, hence the repetition of 4s and 3s (major and minor thirds). These intervals yield a non-transposing set that duplicates the octave at 12, returning to A in order to re-route back into the piece.

The ascending version of this set (A-C-C#-E-F-G#-A) is basically the "Bitches Brew" scale transposed to A; the descending version incorporates the same intervals going in the opposite direction
(A-F#-F-D-C#-Bb-A).

EMPTY CAGE: THE MOVIE

Our DVDs just arrived - this is the video documentation of a gig last September at the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy. More info about this fantastic new DVD series here, and here are a few clips the Sanctuary has posted from our show (or check out the embeds below). They look amazing, expertly produced audio and pro-shot video with multiple cameras. What did we do to deserve such lavish treatment?

If you want a copy, we will have them at our shows next weekend. I believe they'll also be available shortly from Downtown Music Gallery.

UPCOMING GIG PROPAGANDA

It's been nearly two years since Empty Cage Quartet has done anything on the West Coast, so this time we're doing it right: we finally got a Facebook page, we will be celebrating the release of a new live DVD, we're playing on a Sun Ra tribute, and wrapping everything up by helping to close out the final week for the venerable Jazz Bakery at their current Culver City location. Angelinos, don't miss that one - you can buy tickets here.

: : :

EMPTY CAGE QUARTET
SoCal Tour May 21-25

Thursday, May 21, 7pm
OAKWOOD SCHOOL, North Hollywood

Friday, May 22, 8pm
METRO GALLERIES, Bakersfield
w/Barcelona saxophonist Santiago Latorre

Saturday, May 23, 8pm
THE PHAROAH'S DEN, Riverside
Homage to Sun Ra w/Your Majesty, Synthenezian Duck Project

Monday, May 25, 8pm
THE JAZZ BAKERY, Culver City
w/Oakwood Nuems Quintet

: : :

WHITHER THE ARTS CZAR?

Quincy Jones is still at it, again calling out for the current President to appoint a Secretary of the Arts. This time at HuffPost:

"Every great society from the Egyptians, to the Greek and Roman Empires, has been defined by its cultural contributions. The commercial benefits of the arts not withstanding -- our artistic endeavors are a consistent source of revenue in the United States and our nation's largest export -- can we really run the risk of becoming a culturally bankrupt nation because we have not inserted a curriculum into our educational institutions that will teach and nurture creativity in our children? That when future generations look back our cultural legacy is an age of disposable, vapid pabulum.

"I am of the mindset that you have to know where you come from to get to where you're going. The time has come to make a concerted effort from both the public and private sectors to put in place a system whereby our children and future generations will be aware of our county's rich cultural legacy and contributions to the world. The arts, particularly our music, are the soul of our country. They are an expression of our spiritual ideals and a timeline of the emotional state of our nation... scars and all. It is a disservice to every American not to recognize them in their proper light."

That much I can agree with. And if this ever was to happen, the Obama presidency would certainly be an appropriate moment. It's so rare, though, for a public figure - and particularly a President - to do much more than pay lip service to the idea that jazz and the multitude of other styles pioneered by African-Americans are (and continue to be) an integral part of our cultural legacy.

If Obama was to do this right, he would have to do it soon, to be sure to imprint the position with a strong and effective sense of advocacy for the kind of diverse cultural portfolio that Quincy is talking about. Lest we further empower a Ken Burns-esque backwards view of American cultural history, or even worse, embolden some future POTUS to come along and use the post to emphasize a political agenda. I get chills thinking about how someone like GWB might have leveraged an Arts Secretary position, after pulling a boneheaded move like appointing Lee Greenwood (!) to the NEA...

OLD, NEW, UPCOMING MUSIC

I finally posted the live recording from the concert pictured above, which took place last May 30 at Baloard in Montpellier, France.

This was the third of three shows the Empty Cage Quartet played with French clarinetist Aurelien Besnard and guitarist Patrice Soletti. Each of us contributed original music, and we combined these pieces into extended suites for the live gigs. Both sets from this concert are available as free mp3 downloads at my archive page.

We recorded all of these tunes in the studio shortly thereafter, and that album will be released later this year on Aurelien's record label, Rude Awakening Présente. A video documentary of the entire project is scheduled to be released on limited edition DVD-R prior to that.

Exciting stuff, and I'm really very happy that this music is coming out. Consider this an advance preview...

(WHY DO) SCHOOLS KILL CREATIVITY?

I was teaching my Music Education class last night and the topic was arts in elementary education in the climate of NCLB, specifically focusing on this TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson (embedded above), and this New York Times article from a couple of years back. We were talking about the systematic dismantling of arts education in public schools since the late 1960s, the political figures who have been primarily responsible for it, and what a tragedy it is that we have now raised several generations of students that have been progressively more deprived of the arts as a creative and expressive outlet. To make things worse, they are simultaneously being fed on some of the most image-driven (rather than content-driven) pop culture in modern history.

Suddenly (inevitably?), the conversation drifted a bit toward conspiracy theory, and the fact that music, poetry, and art were all central to the counterculture and protest movements of the 1960s. Is it any coincidence that our cultural, economic, and educational systems have been gradually and dramatically transformed over the ensuing decades? Instead of a unified, expressive, and conscience-driven conception of the arts, youth today are generally pushed to think of music, image, and language as little more than a narcissistic and ultimately selfish display of hipness and an affirmation of personal status. We no longer celebrate or encourage our great intellectuals, poets, musicians, philanthropists - instead we fetishize and commodify empty spectacle and bling...

Convenient, but for whom? Is it any wonder that during times of political and ideological oppression, the production of artists and musicians is stunted by the educational institutions that are shaped and regulated by those in power?

TO WHOM WHO KEEPS A RECORD

My new email address: kristiner at me dot com

Hooray, MobileMe!

FOR FOLKS HERE AND THERE

No fooling, we're gearing up for a trio of Industrial Jazz Group shows this weekend in Bakersfield (CSUB), LA (El Cid), and San Diego (Dizzy's).

Leave it to Durkin, this is the first tour I've ever been on that's had it's own trailer:

NOTHING IS FREE

There are so many layers to this, I don't know exactly where to start... iTunes is offering the first movement of John Cage's 4'33" as a free download today.

Is it just me, or does this piece seem a bit incongruous with the typical Apple marketing hype?

"Listen carefully, and you can hear traffic outside, creaking floorboards and a clock ticking somewhere in the building. If you like it, you can download the remainder of the album..."

It will cost you $1.98 to get the other 2'46". And a buck more if you want to purchase it as a ringtone...