Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Esteemed Attendees

Great couple sets last night at The Stone. 8pm set was an improvised first meeting with Charles Burnham and Shanir Blumenkranz. We've played in other contexts but this was the first as a trio. Had a lovely time and what a treat to see my friend, the fantastic Cuban bassist Yunior Terry in the audience. Think he ended up there with a friend of Charlie's; great to re-connect.

The second set was my horn band, Gewel, with Michael Attias,
Taylor Ho Bynum, Russ Johnson, and Nate Wooley. Three trumpets (well, two and one cornet) and bari sax. Oh yeah. First gig for this group; we played my arrangements of Senegalese sabar drum ensemble music plus some transcriptions of old-time Senegalese pop music (mbalax). We had a quick 1.5 hour rehearsal the day before and all things considered, the music came off fantastic. Kind of sparsely attended as much of New York is on vacation, but had the good fortune to look out in the audience and see a couple good friends, composer/percussionist Aaron Siegel and Bjork trumpeter Sylvia Hlynsdottir who had come straight from the airport, plus the esteeemed composer/performer Henry Threadgill. A true honor to have Mr. Threadgill there.

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