Playlist

Live


March 29, 2012

Embers of Discontent - Ian Bell & John Teske, with Begin Scarseth, violin; Brianna Atwell, viola; Maria Scherer Wilson, cello
Gallery 1412 - Seattle

Two sets of songs - Honeymoon and Embers of Discontent - each exploring quintessential tropes of the evolved Seattle male animal: heartfelt sensitivity and leftish leanings respectively. Ian has a listenable, if breathy, voice, and his straight-ahead delivery provided a stable point of reference as the string arrangements periodically veered us into traffic or suddenly tipped the floor into a wall. I left thinking that parts of this were unfinished, which is not a bad place for a collaboration to be.

Recorded

March 25, 2012
Banned Rehearsal 235 - (November 1990 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt)
Psalm 22:9-10 - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey

Thread of violin. Rock and bone.

March 27, 2012
Gradus at Gallery 1412 (May 2005) - part 1 - Neal Meyer

Scribble In Wax

In Session at The Tintinabulary

March 26, 2012
Banned Rehearsal 810 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Meyer


Upcoming

Friday April 6, 2012 doors open at 8:30 PM
Your Mother Should Know - Live at the High Dive
Karen's & Neal's rock band opens for Curtains For You, The Tailenders, and Youth Rescue Mission, in a benefit to support UNICEF's TAP project.

Saturday June 23, 2012 concert begins at 8:00 PM
Keith Eisenbrey - piano recital at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
music by Emily Doolittle, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, and J. K. Randall

Saturday October 13, 2012 concert begins at 8:00 PM
Keith Eisenbrey - piano recital at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
Preludes in Seattle Part 4: Preludes by Ken Benshoof, Keith Eisenbrey, Lockrem Johnson, and Greg Short

Playlist

Recorded


March 20, 2012
Squeeze Me - Bessie Smith [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune] 
We Got The Same Kinda Power Over Here - Rev D. C. Rice and his Sanctified Congregation [from Dust to Digital's Goodbye, Babylon]

And they got some fancy piano playing too.

Rev. D. C. Rice

 
















White Christmas - The Drifters [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

Deep in the background check out the organ track. Nice!

This Magic Moment - The Drifters [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
I Don't Know What You Got, But It's Got Me - Little Richard [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

An index point for the committed vocal.

Now Be Thankful - Fairport Convention [from Meet On The Ledge: The Classic Years (1967-1975)]
Clocked In - Black Flag [from The First Four Years]

Irony without irony.

March 22, 2012
Banned Rehearsal 27 - (May 1985 - Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Meyer)

Militantly non-interactive incessancy. A dis-cooperative venture. Part of what has been so fascinating about participating in this project all these years is how often the sessions are far more interesting than they are good.

In Session at The Tintinabulary

March 19, 2012
Gradus 208 - Neal Meyer

Upcoming

Friday April 6, 2012 doors open at 8:30 PM
Your Mother Should Know - Live at the High Dive
Karen's & Neal's rock band opens for Curtains For You, The Tailenders, and Youth Rescue Mission, in a benefit to support UNICEF's TAP project.

Saturday June 23, 2012 concert begins at 8:00 PM
Keith Eisenbrey - piano recital at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
music by Emily Doolittle, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, and J. K. Randall

Saturday October 13, 2012 concert begins at 8:00 PM
Keith Eisenbrey - piano recital at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
Preludes in Seattle Part 4: Preludes by Ken Benshoof, Keith Eisenbrey, Lockrem Johnson, and Greg Short

Playlist

Live

March 10, 2012
Orfee et Eurydice - Gluck

Seattle Opera - McCaw Hall, Seattle

In considering another time's consideration of another time's story it is important to keep in mind that our own time's consideration of that other time's story is just as suspect. Hence our discomfort with the neo-classical aspects that seem to us most perverse - the happy ending and the Deus ex machina - was made evident in the Teletubbysian fields and the clown on the bicycle. But opera staging, at its very best, is a botch, and this production did have some attractive aspects. We seem more comfortable with the dark aspects of the story, and the production of those moments was effectively stark. Musically I can only listen with jaw agape. It is a truly stunning thing.

Recorded

March 11, 2012
Sweet Man - Danny Small and His Ukulele Boys [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

As though not directly singing the song, or at least not singing it directly to us.

I'm Just Wild About Henry - Jimmy Dorsey [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

Tonguing display almost like crazy Polka music.

The Great Pretender - The Platters [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
Spanish Harlem - Ben E. King [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
I Do - The Marvelow [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
Bonny Bunch of Roses - Fairport Convention [from Meet On The Ledge: The Classic Years (1967-1975)]

The antithesis of eighties drum sound, fat and soft, without impact.

White Dress - Fairport Convention [from Meet On The Ledge: The Classic Years (1967-1975)]
Crocodiles (album) - Echo & The Bunnymen

Narrow vocal melodies, like psalm intonation. Anxiety as a tightly-held corporation.

March 13, 2012
Banned Couple 2 - Banned Rehearsal (1985)

Seattle Gothic - photo by Jill Borner

The tapes going in each have their own distinct trajectory, and their details are heard in the context of that trajectory, forming it, informing it, being formed by it, and being informed by it. When the two tapes are mooshed together the details don't gain a new contextual trajectory so much as become divorced from it, cast loose, flotsamed and jetsamed.

March 15, 2012
Banned Rehearsal 234 - (October 1990 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt)

We share readings of Poe. Aaron begins with the Raven and ends with The Cask of Amontillado.

Psalm 22 (midi) - Keith Eisenbrey
Gradus 80 - Neal Meyer

There is a stillness about it.

Time Spins - Paul Eisenbrey

Another song by my brother. This one is a strongly built number with a fabulous vocal. I might quibble about the mix (too big guitar), but hey, the playing is pretty nice.

In Session at The Tintinabulary

March 12, 2012
Banned Rehearsal 809 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Meyer

Upcoming

Friday April 6, 2012 doors open at 8:30 PM
Your Mother Should Know - Live at the High Dive
Karen's & Neal's rock band opens for Curtains For You, The Tailenders, and Youth Rescue Mission, in a benefit to support UNICEF's TAP project.

Saturday June 23, 2012 concert begins at 8:00 PM
Keith Eisenbrey - piano recital at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
music by Emily Doolittle, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, and J. K. Randall

Saturday October 13, 2012 concert begins at 8:00 PM
Keith Eisenbrey - piano recital at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
Preludes in Seattle Part 4: Preludes by Ken Benshoof, Keith Eisenbrey, Lockrem Johnson, and Greg Short

Playlist

Recorded

March 6, 2012
Banned Couple 1 - Banned Rehearsal

Anna K sets her cap at Neal Meyer - 1985

Early in 1985 it occurred to us that when thirty-two 45 minute tapes are lined up they add up to 24 hours of improvisation. A short leap led to the idea of playing them all at once. Not having 32 tape players handy, hampered by the fact that you can't play both sides of a tape at the same time, and possessed of only rudimentary hardware for mixing (two feeder tape decks, one target tape deck, and some 2-to-1 adapter patch cords from Radio Shack) we did the best we could mixing two at a time to create 16 Banned Couples, again to create 8 Banned Mixers, again to create 4 Banned Seminars, again to create 2 Banned Thologies, and finally again to create the Banned Day. As one might expect the actual result was a nearly unlistenable gray fog of glooby aural crud. As I was recently copying tapes to digital I decided to remix this project in hope of balancing levels more carefully and of preserving a bit more detail into the later iterations. Modest success.

March 8, 2012
Soundtext for J. K. Randall - Elaine Barkin [from Open Space 12]

In listening it is easy to treat the discourse as distinct from the collage elements, until those elements intrude upon and obscure the sound of the discourse in fashions uncomfortably wrong-sounding, as though they have sneaked in illegitimately, via some obscure software glitch, rather than as an intentional just-so placement. The effect is disconcerting and alarming, never resolving itself into what should seem to be the obvious intent, pushing a button we would rather not have been pushed, dis-jarring us from easy enjoyment, acceptance, digestion. It should be the point, if we could accept it.

Banned Rehearsal 577 (eisenbrey) - Banned Rehearsal (July 2000, Peter Comley, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Meyer)


My recording (rather than Pete's).

Songs, Psalms, Sarabande - Keith Eisenbrey

I assembled this album in 2005, collecting all of my Gathered Songs, sung by Karen Eisenbrey, Sarabande for trumpet and piano, performed by Jim Knodle, an improvisation by Jim and me at Gallery 1412, and my 2005 remix of Psalm 23 (meditation, responses) using taped sounds of me at the clavichord and of Neal Meyer reading. There are some technical issues here and there, but I think the album holds up pretty well as an interesting listen. The Psalm 23 setting is so off kilter from the rest that it brought me up short, in a way I really like.

Driving To Hawaii - Paul Eisenbrey

My brother Paul is a fine singer/songwriter/guitarist and amateur luthier. This song is a fully realized studio demo. "I'm driving to Hawaii / I hope the danged bridge ain't out".

The world needs more guitars

In Session at The Tintinabulary

Gradus 207 - Neal Meyer

Playlist

Live

February 25, 2012
Adam Tendler
Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle

Sonatas & Interludes for prepared piano - John Cage

Within the context of keyboard literature this piece provides an intriguing comment on the apparent flatness of the timbral surface. The conceptual impact of the various preparations doesn't so much create the image of a new instrument - it is always clearly a piano piece - as bring into brilliant relief the figurational aspect, the fingery playingness of it, anchoring us firmly within the discursive realm of Couperin, Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Scriabin, Debussy, and possibly more apropos, Scarlatti. On top of that it is sheerly gorgeous, and Adam knocked it out of the park. You can download a free recording of a recent live performance on his website. I did. Thank you Adam!

March 2, 2012
Seattle Composers' Salon
Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle

Solo String Bass Piece - John Teske

A stunner. John tuned the lowest string down to an A and bowed it slowly 28 times, leaving space between each iteration long enough for him to no longer hear it or to feel his instrument producing it. An elegant dynamic design both freed us from the need to con his game and riveted our attention to his engaged care in producing sound. And a ferociously lovely sound it was. Damn!

88 - Terry Wergelend

Interestingly, this piece shares with John Teske's the nearly instant liberation from any need to figure out what is going on, leaving us to enjoy the delight of wondering and discovering which note would and did come next. I was particularly pleased at how different the effect of this was from my own "all the notes but each just once" piano piece N. Apparently Terry had to write a computer program to discover an ordering that would accomplish his intended image of proper randomness - or perhaps more precisely, his particular image of maximal local variety. Fascinating on all sorts of levels.

Prelude for Piano Trio - Clement Reid

A series of harmonic stations without progression, twisting around itself.

Selections from Who Are You And How Do You Know? - Jay Hamilton

Our local side-arm pitcher emitting ideas so fast and from so many directions your head will spin. Always a treat. The whole show, God-puppet and all, will be produced at the Chapel on April 7th.

Recorded

February 25, 2012
Banned Rehearsal 577 (comley) - (July 2000, Peter Comley, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Meyer)

Pete brought over some new microphones and this is his recording.

February 26, 2012

Gathered Songs Takes 2 - Eisenbrey
Gradus 177 - Neal Meyer

February 28, 2012
Sugarfoot Stomp - Merrit Brunies and Friar's Inn Orchestra [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

Delights. A new one every few bars.

China Boy -  Red Nichols [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

There's a piano solo in the middle of this that is well on the way to Cecil Taylor. The other treat is the opening as it emerges and re-emerges and re-re-emerges.

Smokey Joe's Cafe - The Robins [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

The brilliantly wicked sideways sax entrance is prefigured by the vocalist's entrance right at the beginning. In media res all over again.

Save The Last Dance For Me - The Drifters [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
I Can't Explain - The Who [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
Sloth - Fairport Convention [from Meet On The Ledge: The Classic Years (1967-1975)]

A high-school friend was a major FC aficionado. I recently decided it was long past time I gave it a listen and see what was up. At the time I was more of a Pink Floyd-ianado. Who would have thunk that at times, conceptually, the only real difference was a few amplifiers?

Stranger To Himself - Fairport Convention [from Meet On The Ledge: The Classic Years (1967-1975)]
The Puppet - Echo & The Bunnymen [collected from Nancy's Mix]

I'll say it now so I never have to say it again. Echo & The Bunnymen made U2 unnecessary.

In Session at The Tintinabulary

February 27, 2012
Banned Rehearsal 808 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Meyer


Ping pong balls were released.