Patchwork, Samson Trinh, S & P, and the death of Fusion

So the Patchwork show went pretty well last night. Atlas played an awesome set, but it was weird seeing the whole audience sit down to watch a rock band. We had the chairs set up, but I didn't realize how weird it would look. Fight the Big Bull sounded better and tighter. Matt has written some pretty sweet new charts that sound nice, and Brian Jones continues to amaze in his auxiliary percussion chair. At times, with Matt and Brian both standing up, Matt conducting and Brian pounding woodblocks, it almost looked like a face off. A face off of excellence.

Samson Trinh came out, and gave me a copy of his new cd "Very Strange Night", of which I play on most of. Its a great sounding cd that is very well put together. My brother's sweet photography is showcased, as well as Samson's weird-ass sense of humor. Samson is the founder and leader of the Upper East Side Big Band, of which I've been a member from the start. Its funny but no matter how avant-garde I get, I still love sitting in a big band, and just playing chords---and occasionally quoting songs from "Once Upon a Time in China" during Mingus tunes (which we did several times).

Then, after the Patchwork show, Shareef Taher and I played our first gig as a duo. Our band "standards & practices" is now officially just the two of us, so we've been slowly putting together tunes just for guitar and drums. It was loud and fun, and the people there seemed to really like it. It was very encouraging to see that our moving into a totally new sound wasn't too offensive! Its basically the slow realization that you don't need sound all the time in music, and when you play against each other, it pretty much always sounds cool. We should be able to solidify the new sound soon, because it looks like we will be playing every other Wednesday at Empire with my brother's amazing band: The OK Bird. More details as they develop.

And Fusion finally closed. It was a great venue, but it was in a bad location, and the cover charges were tough to pay (because most of the time you had to pay cash, and you couldn't put the charge on your bill). Its a bad combination, because you have great food, and then a band with a cash cover. Its awful because people going for the music aren't gonna spend money on food, and people coming for the food will not have cash to pay the cover. That's what sucks about the state laws regarding venues having to serve food. That's why Patchwork does most of its shows at Art Galleries.

Anyway, I think that's all I got for today--now its off to New York to see Mary and Jess with Anthony Braxton!

Links:
standards & practices -new stuff posted soon...
The OK Bird
Atlas
Samson Trinh -check it out