Live Shot #27!

 

Multi-instrumentalist, singer, audio engineer HL Nelly. Eli's Mile High Club, Oakland CA 2017.

Live Shot #26!

 

Bass player, composer, and vocalist Elijah Pontecorvo. Hemlock Tavern SF, circa 2018.

Live Shot #25!

 

Woodwinds player, composer, visual artist, and film maker Brandon Evans. Born and raised in SF. Tempered in NYC. Complexity of mind and depth of soul. Richmond CA 2018.

Live Shot #24!

 

Claude Palmer, oud and Peter Altenberg, tabla. The Ivy Room, Albany CA, 2017. Deep focus and grooves.

Live Shot #23!

 

Multi-instrumentalist for Big City Orchestra and internet radio podcast practitioner Ninah Pixie. Cafe Colonial, Sacramento CA 2017.

Live Shot #22!

 

Multi-instrumentalist, dancer, visual artist, shamanic practitioner Bob Marsh. Dance piece at Berkeley Arts Festival, 2015. Bob's roots go back to the mid-20th Century in Detroit. He attended shows at the Grande Ballroom. He currently runs qi gong classes in Pueblo, CO.

Live Shot #21!

 

Joshua Marshall, tenor sax player of excellence. Berkeley Arts Festival Building, 2015.

Live Shot #20!

 

Instrument maker, visual artist, master carpenter Sung Kim. Berkeley Arts Festival Building, 2015.

Live Shot #19!

 

Guitarist and visual artist Jacob Pek, Berkeley Arts Festival Building, 2015.

Live Shot #18!

 

Zach G the Outlaw. Party in Richmond CA 6/19/21. Emerging Country singer/songwriter and astute interpreter of songs by earlier artists such as David Allen Coe, Willie Nelson, Hanks I-III, etc. His album is being recorded.

Live Shot #17!

 

Multi-instrumentalist, singer, and composer Polly Moller. Berkeley Arts Festival Building, 2015.

Live Shot #16!

 

Collision Stories, Berkeley Arts Festival Building, 2015. Bryan Day, Michael Gendreau, Jorge Bachmann, Mason Jones.

Live Shot #15!

 

Dancer, Berkeley Arts Festival Building, 2015. I do not know this dancer's name. If my memory serves correctly, she was affiliated with Anna Halprin's dance company.

Live Shot #14!

 

Blipvert, Berkeley Arts Festival Building, 2015. Impassioned laptop-generated Noise with howling vocals.

Live Shot #13!

 

Cellist, percussionist, vocalist, and electronic musician Ann O'Rourke, KZSU studio, Stanford CA, 2018. Self-made and unashamed.

Bill Brovold-pi; Public Eyesore Records #149 DVD, 2021

 

Let's take some time to step away from live shots of various SF Bay Area improvising musicians, shall we? 

Disaster Amnesiac received Bill Brovold's new release, pi, on DVD from Public Eyesore a few weeks back, and I've had some time now to sit in front of the tube and take it in. Let me just say, it's a lot to take in! pi is the result of Brovold's work in education. It stems from building projects that are utilized as a means to teach math to children. These projects involve guitars that are tuned to specific pitches and struck in sequences of ten. I can't really explain it too well, but essentially what happens from this action is that a sequence of pi emerges from it. It would be fascinating to actually have Brovold do an interview and explain it in a better way, that's for sure! Hmmm.......

As for the sounds of pi, what the listener is treated to is a five hour meditative-sounding coil of chiming guitar tones, struck with gracefully patient strokes. It's been quite fun for me to ponder these tones as they tail off and mingle with sounds either emerging from subsequent strokes or previous strokes. These blends are hypnotic as they shift from spare to dense, depending on where within the sequence of strokes they are positioned. Disaster Amnesiac would recommend the listener move around within the environment in which pi is being presented, as I've definitely noticed differences in timbre as the sounds have been reflected off of diverse surfaces within my space. Bring your deep listening mind, as its perceptions will be rewarding for the patience. 

pi being a DVD, its graphics should also be mentioned. Designed by Daniel Liss, they present simple graphic fields, say orange-red or teal or lavender, with the numbers 1 through 9 (plus 0, is 0 a number?) placed at their middle. My screen is of a decent width, and noticeable is the richness of the shades of these seemingly simple colors, along with how nice the chosen font of the numbers is. One can stare at these fields for hours as they move from one to another. The experience is akin to washing waves lap up to earth or grasses swaying within the wind. 

It's Disaster Amnesiac's hope that pi has had a chance to have been presented within a gallery space or two, as that would be its natural habitat. It would be so cool to walk into a darkened space with big screens and really great audio systems and be confronted by it there. That said, it's worth having within one's home habitat as well. Load up your player and allow yourself to be transfixed for a while.

Live Shot #12!

 

Drummer Aaron Levin, Berkeley Arts Festival Building, circa 2015.

Live Shot #11!

 

Drummer Patrick Telesfore teaching students at a school in Concord, CA, 2019.

Live Shot #10!

 

Theremin player and poet Andrew Joron, Berkeley Arts Festival Building, circa 2015. Exploring sound through the mechanisms of movement.

Live Shot #9!

 

Violin improvisor and composer gabby fluke-mogul, KZSU Stanford Studio, circa 2017. A moment of repose in between the musical missions.

Live Shot #8!

 

Dancer Amy Lewis and guitarist Bill Wolter. Berkeley Arts Festival Building, 2015.

Live Shot #7!

 

Cellist Crystal Pascucci, Berkeley Art Festival Building, circa 2015. Talent plus intelligence equals focus.

Live Shot #6!

 

Paul Winstanley, Berkeley Arts Festival Building, circa 2015. Paul's main instrument is the electric bass. He uses all kinds of extended techniques, and always searches for new sounds. His project Music For Hard Times is really great.

Live shot #5

 

Aaron Sheppard, American Primitive guitarist, Emerald Tablet Gallery, SF circa 2012.

Live shot #4!

 

Well, technically not a live shot! 

This is Eric, also known as Grawer. He's a drummer, an engineer, and just a great person. His contributions to KFJC are immense, and if you aren't aware of KFJC, go and find them NOW. The best radio station in the world, KFJC is a true friend to independent artists of any and all flavors.

Another live shot!

 

Joseph Noble and Will Alexander at Meridian Gallery, SF in 2012. Both of these men are published poets, and I can't recommend their work enough. If there's a piano in the room, Will can be found there. He loves to play music, as does Joseph.

Bryan Day/Seymour Glass-Crooked Doppler; tanzprocesz Records cassette, 2021

 

To paraphrase good old Michael Corleone, just when Disaster Amnesiac thought I was out, I get pulled back in! Recently I'd been suffering through feeling at a loss for music to listen to and review, but thankfully along came yet another surprise package from Public Eyesore headquarters in Richmond. This was entirely good and welcome news, and I began to listen to Crooked Doppler, the new cassette collaboration from Bryan Day and Seymour Glass as soon as I was able to free it from its packaging.

What one will find on Doppler is the sounds of two very established artists/writers (me reviewing the guy behind Bananafish? gtfo!) delving deeply into their respective methods and fusing them into pieces that integrate them seamlessly. As Disaster Amnesiac has listened to this cassette, these pieces have always felt cogent and coherent. The attention to detail and pure awareness that Day and Glass clearly brought to the production of this release is evident throughout. They leave tons of spaces and gaps in-between the noisier parts, spaces and gaps which allow the perceptions to process and prepare, and even dare I say relax as the sound worlds reveal themselves. Even a waterfall of literal glass breaking sounds at one point does not collapse into incoherence (not that that ever should!) but instead becomes a musical timbre within the gestalt of the piece in which it is contained. 

Speaking of timbres, Disaster Amnesiac has certainly felt pleasure in seeming to be able to identify some of Day's invented instruments from theirs. Having seen him play live more than a few times, it's been really satisfying to recall them as I've listened to what I believe to be their distinctive sounds.

In addition to such aspects, the listener of Crooked Doppler will be treated to odd moans, crinkling clicks, mysterious synthesized buzzes, radio broadcast voices, found sounds of the urban variety, even what seemed to be Glass quoting a Gospel hymn. All of this and more within a matrix of deftly organized Music Concrete that would surely appeal to a wide swath of musical adventurers from the scruffy post-Industrial dudes to the serious intellectuals of academia; there's sonic goodies for them all within this release. 

Be sure and take a bite, but remember to take your time chewing, as you'll not want to miss any of the richly complex flavors of Crooked Doppler.

Another live shot!

 

Continuing with the theme from the previous post, here's another shot of an SF Bay Area musician, taken by Disaster Amnesiac out in the wild. This is Bill Noertker, bassist and composer. Bill's compositions are often inspired by visual art. This photo was taken at SF Musicians Hall Local #6. 

I will be posting some more shots from a cache that I have been going through. I really like their candid nature, and hope some others will, too.