Engineer's Daughter

spectrum

Roscoe Mitchell and Henry Grimes

Currently native to: Oakland, CA and New York City, NY, respectively

Recent Bay Area appearance: The Center for New Music and Audio Technologies, Berkeley; Friday, October 15, 2010

Next gig: ??? for Mitchell.  The Stone, NYC; Wednesday, November 3, 2010, for Grimes.

Notes: I'm still a little flabberghasted that I even got to see this show, two of the true greats of improvisational jazz performing together in a room barely larger than a closet.  It pays to get in line early, my friends.  Grimes used his bow on his double bass to create a stuttering backdrop to Mitchell as the latter musician rotated among alto, soprano, and baritone saxes.  Mitchell would sometimes just fill the room with long, rich tones and other times would nimbly run from one end of a scale to the other.  Grimes too would occasionally put down his bow and pluck a few notes, or lay down the bass entirely and pick up a violin.  I was impressed with both men's stamina as they performed what amounted to one piece for a solid hour without pausing.  My friend Andrew texted me much later that evening with an excellent description of his own impression of Mitchell and Grimes during the second set: "Like 2 kids pushing the squares where the triangles go."

Buy: Roscoe Mitchell - Nonaah (Nessa) and Henry Grimes - The Call (ESP-Disk) 

See also:

jerusalem mall

Eat Skull

Currently native to: Oakland/Sacramento, CA

Recent Bay Area appearance: The Speakeasy, Oakland; Thursday, October 14, 2010

Next gig: Sutro Cave, San Francisco; Sunday, October 24, 2010

Notes: Having just seen these guys rip it up as a three-piece at the Bus Benefit a few weeks back it was awesome to see them bring in the oil drums and two additional members on this particular night and proceed to rock the fuck out.  I won't describe them as scuzzy or garage (they hate that), but I will tell you they can turn out a perfect noise pop singalong just as easily as they can spiral into blissed-out shitgaze.  Balanced right on the edge of utter chaos.

Buy: Jerusalem Mall 7" (Woodsist) and Sick To Death (Siltbreeze) 

See also:

stentorian

Words, lines, colors: score for Aria by John Cage, USA, 1958

See also:

• John Cage performing "Water Walk" on I've Got a Secret
• Performances of 4'33" from SFMOMA's The Art of Participation

swarmth

One of the many things I love about the Headlands Center is how they are not afraid to experiment, and last Tuesday night a brand-new short-term on-site project called L'esprit de Corps yielded sweet results indeed.  Headed by Stephanie Sherman of Greensboro's Elsewhere, L'esprit de Corps brought her together with four local artists who are also members of art collaboratives to spend ten days at the Center doing, well, whatever they organized themselves to do.  The other participants were Aaron Gach of the Center for Tactical Magic, Christian Nagler of Nonsite Collective, Ian Alan Paul of the Friendly Fire Collective, and Sam White of OPEN Restaurant.  Last Tuesday, just before the end of their residency, the artists hosted a spectacular dinner for the public called Swarmth in which we were all seated at one of six tables, each one of which held one course, and every time the dinner bell rang everyone got up and moved to whatever next table appealed.  The menu was based on a Christmas dinner that had been served back when the Center was still an army barracks, and my own meal trajectory started with oysters and ended with soup (with vegetables, tempeh, salad, and bread somewhere in the middle).  We were given nine minutes at each table and instructions to follow for each course, like no talking during the first or constant applause for the kitchen during the fourth.  It injected a genuine sense of play into the meal, and I never sat with the same group twice since everyone was following their own path around the room.  After dinner we "retreated" to the Officer's Club upstairs to have dessert and play games that had us laughing and running around the room like kids at summer camp.  Finally we went for a walk around the Center grounds under the stars and crescent moon on one of the warmest nights of the year, ending up with reflections and conversation on a basketball court which had been strewn with candles.  I felt a little sad as the evening came to a close, knowing that particular group, both of artists and visitors, would not come together in exactly the same way ever again.  But that's also what made the experience so meaningful to me, a microcosm of the real-life coincidences that trigger intersections, connections, relationships.

See also:

• Headlands Center for the Arts
• L'esprit de Corps blog
• Elsewhere
• Center for Tactical Magic
• Nonsite Collective
• Friendly Fire Collective
• OPEN Restaurant

reclamation

The influence of the Headlands is clear in Michael Hall's work, especially in the pieces recently on view at Patricia Sweetow Gallery.  An impressive suite of paintings depicted abandoned and decaying bunkers, watchtowers, and guardposts, some tagged by graffiti artists and all set against those stunning hills and oceanside cliffs I love so well.  No surprise then to find out Hall was a Graduate Fellow at the Headlands Center a few years back.  Though they have a documentary feel to them his images are too painterly to be completely photorealistic, and it was a treat to get up close to the canvases and see the care with which he'd detailed every chain link in a fence or the subtle reflection of the sky in a puddle.  Hall also had installed a life-size, partially-buried concrete bunker in the gallery for the show with real grass growing on top and a field recording playing inside that nicely foreshadowed an experience I was to have out in the Headlands in the rain yesterday (more on that later).  This recent series continues Hall's previous explorations of military imagery and his interest in history, and I am curious to see if he will choose to stay on this particular topic or, if not, what it will evolve into next.

See also:

• Patricia Sweetow Gallery
• Michael Hall

drugs

Fun Santa Maria

Currently native to: Oakland, CA

Recent Bay Area appearance: Ivy Room, Albany; Monday, October 11, 2010

Next gig: ???

Notes: Before he and George Chen formed Chen Santa Maria, Steven Santa Maria was Fun Santa Maria, a one-man experimental noise outfit also known for his CD-R releases and his collaboration with Randy Lee Sutherland in Jah No Dead.  And having never seen him do his solo thing it was cool to catch Steven at the Ivy Room last week as part of an awesomely distortion-heavy line-up that also included Vholtz and Gaze.  It was also the record release of the new Fun Santa Maria Drugs box set, which I'm sure will be for sale through Zum soon and at noise shows around the East Bay.

In the meantime, buy: Chen Santa Maria - S/T (GSSD/Shit On Records) and Chen Santa Maria - 7/24/09 CD-R (self-released) 

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show 173

playlist

The computer in the air studio was broken so I had to keep running out to another room and back to log my tracks.  In case I sounded a little distracted on air.

art publishing now

In case you didn't make it to Southern Exposure's Art Publishing Now summit and fair that took place all last weekend, I highly recommend checking out their online archive.  I've included the link below along with a handful of my own favorite local publishers who were in attendance, and the site offers an excellent compendium of the huge variety of art writers, bloggers, publishers, and makers that are currently plying their trade in the Bay Area.  Documentation of the panel sessions from the summit should be posted soon as well, with topics ranging from art criticism to collaborative creativity.  It's such an inspiring time to be living (and writing) here.

See also:

• Art Publishing Now
• [2nd floor projects]
• Alula Editions
• Open Space
• The Present Group

what is known

Lisa Mezzacappa

Currently native to: San Francisco, CA

Recent Bay Area appearance: Koret Auditorium, de Young Museum, San Francisco; Sunday, October 10, 2010

Next gig: Meridian Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Monday, October 18, 2010

Notes: I had just seen Mezzacappa back up Marco Eneidi on her double bass at First Church of the Buzzard a few weeks ago, so I was stoked to see her leading her own group Bait & Switch (that also includes drummer Vijay Anderson, guitarist John Finkbeiner, and Aaron Bennett on sax) at the de Young.  The group played a mix of Mezzacappa's own compositions that freely incorporate improvisation along with their interpretations of other great works by Lester Bowie, Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris, and Roscoe Mitchell.  Best of all the whole show was free, part of a Bay Area jazz series that runs every Sunday in October as put together by Intersection for the Arts and the de Young.  Beth Custer's Clarinet Thing will be there tomorrow, with Anthony Brown and Trumpet Supergroup rounding out the rest of the month.

Buy: What Is Known (Clean Feed)

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public service announcement

I'm DJing tomorrow:
9am - noon PST, Sunday, October 17
KALX Berkeley 90.7fm

Two significant news items: My first fundraiser shift will be next Sunday, so get ready to speed-dial for awesome CD packages and other premiums.  And I was just awarded the Sunday morning shift all official-like, so now you're stuck with me in that time slot for a whole year.