it says live, so we lived...

Thanks to the folks who came out to hear us last evening at the Lily Pad. We had a lot of fun, and the contrast between the two bands (I thought) really worked well. It was great to see some old friends, old students, and make a few new ones as well. For those who care, the set lists(s):

Lift
The Happy Song (Donaher- I really need a new title for this one. I'll post a version on the myspace page soon. All suggestions are welcome.)
God Must Be a Boogieman (Joni/Mingus)
Empty Your Cup (Donaher)
Evidence (Monk)
Rainbow Connection (Williams, yes, that one. I'm clearly going soft)
Affront (Donaher)
Ball Square (Andrew Hill. We just played the excerpt he used as a theme with his sextet when I saw his band. Our little tribute)

It Says Live
Free Quartet
Bright (Monika)
instructions to portrait artist- based on a poem by Billy Collins
Duo (Monika & Lucy)
It Says Live (based on Rumi excerpt)
Duo (Michael and Pat)
Your World (Donaher)

There's been an interesting back and forth about laptop performance, starting from this post. I thought about that a fair bit as I prepared all that goes along with "playing laptop" last night. It was actually probably the thing I was most nervous about. I thought for the most part the laptop worked (used a very little with lift, more with it says live), for me anyway- it was another color, or set of colors, in a very colorful group. That said, I can't imagine playing a whole gig just on laptop- it doesn't especially feel like performing to me (TIG makes the same point). I can imagine it being interesting to watch when I'm bouncing back and forth from my horn (or horns) to the computer and back, turning knobs and trying to play all at once. (when that works, I can imagine the rush Roland Kirk must have gotten.) But for me performing is a very kinetic experience, one that just pusing buttons on a screen, no matter how interesting the sounds that come out are, doesn't entirely satisfy.

One interesting point- these days a lot of the software that's out there, even the little freeware programs, are very powerful, and have lots of little tricks built in that you only find by doing. (me being something of a diletante doesn't help) For instance, I didn't realize that when you hit play, then rewind on Quicktime, it plays the recording backwords in real time, rather than just skipping back like Itunes or many other programs do. That totally changed the "instructions" performance on the fly. That part I always like.

The next date is TBA, probably late June or mid July. Maybe more Lift, maybe something else. Stay tuned.