Back from Richmond, VA...

ADA Gallery artist Nick Kuszyk

Lynn recording a murder of crows...


Lynn Wright, Paul Watson, Flip Barnes, and Chris Becker at ADA Gallery right after performing Music For Silent Films


THANK YOU to everyone who came out to our show Saturday at ADA Gallery. You were a great audience. And the four of us felt pretty good about our performance. The music we play in this case is completely improvised to a semi-changing program of contemporary silent films. Performing in this context is completely exciting and never predictable for me. Paul, Lynn, Flip, and I come from such different backgrounds musically speaking and bring different approaches to this sort of improvised performance. And somehow (or maybe because of that?) it works. Consistently.

I've heard some composers - many who should know better - denigrate improvisation for a variety of reasons. Improvisation is just another way of composing. Why measure one against the other? There are differences between the two - and you can define either in a myriad of ways - but one approach to creating music isn't superior to the other. That's nonsense.

One audience member told me he'd never heard anything like what we did before. Now THAT is a compliment.

More soon...

Listening:
Paola Prestini - Body Maps
Miles Davis - In A Silent Way
Tricky - Knowle West Boy