Blue Halo Effect

The upcoming launch of Blue Halo Effect is an exciting and busy time. David Biglin and I are in the studio finishing Blue Halo’s first full length release.  We are launching a cool new website that will be as interactive as possible in the coming months,  as well as all the other online goodies,  facebook,  myspace BLUE HALO EFFECT,  etc .   Plus we are rehearing for our first live shows in NYC.  The first being at DESMOND’S TAVERN on Saturday Nov. 14th at 9PM.  Our first few shows will be in a semi-unplugged format, with different combinations of guitar/keyboards/percussion in addition to vocals. We also recently finished a photo shoot with iconic rock photographer  Mark Weiss and are in post production on a video for one of songs with Director Roy McDonald .  Feels like a musical birthing process for sure and one we are looking forward sharing with our new fans.

the leaves are fallin

Even if no one listens…the tree expands…step away from the closing media…

walk in the woods…Don’t tell us what to do?  Right you are…the polarity of it all, love hate night

day…there must be a way off…what if everyone was right…would it make em happy…..

sincerely,

ebb and flo

To many notes…

In the epic battle over technique, for it’s own sake it always falls far short. Yet technique married with the connection that happens when you are “in the zone”, where real ideas flow and churn like hot lava bubbling and boilling as it flows up not down, in a molten river against gravity directly into  an imaginary upside down ocean, cooling at the moment of impact and producing lot’s of gas. Technique has a cold sharp sound, virtuosity a certain flair but are they not both tools?  Like the brick it can be used to build a house or break someones window  (or hurt thy ears).

But what does that word virtuosity really mean. Websters defines it as 1. a taste for or interest in virtu  2.  great technical skill(as in the practice of fine art)   Virtu is defined as a love of or taste for curios or objets d’art.  Again what is objets d’art…what is art… very subjective …

Lately the less is more road has been real refreshing.  Unless it is really called for and some music it really is, an amazing display of “chops” which again by inself falls short but when combined with a story line, some subtext,  when the playing is a real connection and dialog with the other musicians,  when you are saying something and not imitating,  then all bets are off and the sky is the limit, especially in improvisational music.

Indian improvisation music has a deep complexity that is astonishing when one even peers into a layer or two of what is really going on there.  Bbeing able to internalize form so you know what is coming way in advance, one can work out intricate cadences that resolve beautifully.

And all the polymetric stuff.  Again this stuff shines when it’s used in great compositions and it’s use makes musical sense.  By themselves they fall into exercises.  I’ve been doing these hikes lately working on 5 and 7 in the time of 2,3 and 4 beats.  Working in into the inner vocabulary . Sometimes 4 is not enough and 6 is too much.  So 5 can be the perfect thing.  When great feel is married to diggin into deeper layers of rhythms, like Jammey Haddad so elequitly told me at a lesson in NYC back when.  ” you start to see many many facets appearing”.

The world is our oyster.  The internet has made contact globally instantly for all of us a reality. Musically we can peer into every corner of the earth and hear what type of music is happening .  What is going on and where.  The cross pollination potentiality is astonishing.  What a time for sure.  More music…..  less violence……..

to find the humor

there’s plenty of funny stuff out there most everywhere….

9/11 memories, I had been preparing for a concert in San Francisco w/Stanely Jordan, Kai Eckhardt, and an ending jam with Zakir Hussain, Mikey Hart and a bunch of other great musicians, I guess the name dropping ain’t all that important but it was a big deal to me at the time. That morning I was faced with all of my BS.  For a minute I was like “the concert is going to be cancelled, damn”. And then the truth of all them people down there at the towers and nearby sank in, the reality of it all. It’s like a tee shirt I’ve seen with a nuclear bomb detonating in the background and someone running screaming “my career”.

I later hiked behind by house in northern new jersey (about 45 mi out of NYC) and I could see the smoke rise in the distance. Then a freaky thing happened on that mountain, I found a little green toy soilder, like the ones I had as a kid, some dude in an army uniform carrying a rifle.  I immediately thought we must be going to war. You know how the rest goes…

Skin in the woods

The art of making smaller.  So much has been the bigger wins but not one u-haul will you see behind a hearse. So much competition in areas that are not meant for it. Competitive eating contests?  Competitive drumming: the fastest drummer wins?  the mass’s get tuned to mediocrity and then crave it, they’ll fight you for it. There are instruments to measure how many strokes a drummer can play in a minute. But the drum is a tool for communication. It’s an instrument to connect. Miles Davis could floor you with one note.   That is such a beautiful thing.  I believe we can tune to this. Everywhere you turn someone,  some group wants you to join their way. But path’s are many.  Can you find the truth that you need for yourself? What allows equilibrium is different for each of us. Caution is needed. But there are times to throw all caution to the wind. Again those words comes to mind……..balance/equilibrium.

There is a place where the drum can bring wisdom and strength.  When it feels like you are stepping out of the way and the instrument is playing you.  It can happen all alone in the deep woods.  A real connection……. A communion of sorts. And take care telling people about the little flame you have found.  I think it may be in us all, this wanton stepping on people. Everyone wants to rule the world. The internet has made us all want to be heard,  who has the best picture, the hippest website, the coolest music. What do we do now that the music industry is a fossil of what it was.  So many musicians I know are all scrambling to make a dime and so many will step and claw their way over anyone stopping em.  So if one wants to enter the world of the professional musician there are many  solutions needed to the problems that will arise.  But I digress,  It seems to be in some a birthright that their path evolves in what seems to be easy street, the grass seems greener there.  All the money and fame and girls and all. Rock N Roll.  On another level when the day is done are you cool with it all ? Really cool and at peace. The thing I’m learning is the way boundaries are needed cause there are good and not so good people that will take all day unless you say NO.  My evolution is happening whether I fight it or be at peace with it.  I’m believing more and more not to fight with what is in the moment but this is not alway easy.  I can write for days about stuff like I just did but can I live it, otherwise,  more hot air. So it’s been nothing but soul searching for along time.  Fall down, get up.  Feel sorry for yourself,  get up.  Are you breathing, cool…  get up,  one foot in front of the other. There will be days you can’t see the horses for the hills. Confusion set’s in.  No different than stormy seas.  Parents ask me ” my daughter(or son) wants to be a musician what should she do”. Run for the hills!  Ok,  it’s a deep path if it chooses you,  I don’t think you can choose it in the long run. But my answer these days is that it takes alot more than how well you can play,  but how you can interact with others and how good are you at negotiating things fairly and how good are your sense of boundaries.  I’m learning to deflect alot more now.  Time is precious. Lot’s of people I know, only few are real close friends. How many friends do you have on Facebook or myspace ?  Lady Gaga has the most tweets, whoopi…….Sports are competitive by nature,  music not so much so.   Music for me has been evolving in way I never imagined.  One day at a time,  chipping away at the stone,  Rome wasn’t built in a day.  I am really excited about my new duo with David Biglin……Blue Halo Effect….. www.myspace.com/bluehaloeffect

Pacific Garbage Patch

What are we to do with the giant mass floating out in the PacificGiant garbage patch floating in Pacific?  Last I heard it’s several times the size of Texas.  With all things “Green” gaining somewhat in momentum maybe there is a way to harvest the plastic in the mass and recycle it.  If we are a bit more conscious of what is really going on we’d buy whatever  items are produced.  We need someone to come up with a real solution. And impelment it soon.  We need multi-country support.  Maybe that will only happen when the origin of this stuff is revealed.

Yet another hike

While hiking today, I worked on vocalizing and playing the frame drum. First working on scales, arpeggios and some other warmups with a cool accompanying groove. Then worked on singing the songs while playing a cool groove in the right tempo.  If it works this bare,  then that’s a cool place to build from.

Evening walk

Really helped to get out of the studio tonight and hike,  some much needed lyrics nicely flowed in…………….gots to get out the studio…………….that was a cool lesson. I’ve been trying to get these lyrics with slow progress and then walking and clearing my head out in the open night air did it. My Zoom H4 H4n Handy Recorder was with me to capture the raw ideas. David BiglinDavid Biglin on MySpace Music – Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads,  collaborated the next day and he moved the melody around some and had some cool lyric ideas.  Time to really clear up nebulousness and instill some clarity.  Although the whole impressionistic approach to music is really inspiring,  where one may draw there own conclusion to things.   We are working on a balance in the lyrics……..can’t wait to release this music!!

a very exciting time to be working. David Biglin and I have found a rare collaborative space.

Framedrum hike

Did another nice hike with a frame drum http://www.rhythmweb.com/frame.  Walking became the metronome http://www.metronomeonline.com.  Each step a beat of whatever value needed . On the frame drum I improvised for a nice long while,  then got down to some specifics I wanted to work on.  That day it was 3.  I was feeling a longer 3 ,  so each step was an eighth note.  6 steps to a measure.  I worked on playing 4 notes on the frame drum over  the 3 beats (steps),  this gives you  a familiar 4 against 3  polyrhythm common in jazz and  african rhythmic drumming and dancing. I worked on this till it felt comfortable. Then 5 over 3 again untill it really grooved nicely keeping a good pocket with my steps.  I’ve been wanting to explore  playing  rhythms based on 5’s and 7’s where the groove  felt as natural as anything in 4 or 6.  I know this is going to take some time because  I want to be able to play them over  a long group of notes.  It’s easy to play 5 notes in the time of a quarter note,  but playing 5 notes in the time of 2, 3 or  4  beats takes some shedding.  Once I’m able to feel and lock into 5 over 2 beats or 5 over 3 beats then the fun starts.  Where you leave some notes out. punching holes in the rhythmic grid. A goal is to be able to fluently play any grouping that you wanted that worked.  5’s into 7’s into 4’s or 3 s,  the list is endless. Same is true of 7 over 2, 3 ,4 5 or many others.  Gary Chaffee http://www.garychaffee.com hipped me to so much cool stuff like  this when I studied with him, ……way deep.  Groove is king and it has to be music not mechanical sounding…………  Getting behind the drumkit and connnecting with other musicians and incorporating this stuff into good music is more like it…………. More hiking in the next few weeks.