RealNewMusic 2008

RealNewMusic 2008

Saturday, June 21, 2008, 7:00 pm

Tickets $10.00 / $7.50 / $5.00 (students & seniors)

The Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Performing Arts

Whittier College, 6760 Painter Ave., Whittier

Box Office: 562.907.4203

Google map to the Shannon Center

featuring:

PBE

is an alt-classical garage band that plays the music of a variety of living and dead composers. it was created as a d.i.y forum outside the usual and limited channels of art music presentation.

Sylvia Desrochures, mezzo soprano

Paul Cummings, bass

Bruce Gallego, electric guitar

Paul Bailey, kaossilator/ableton live

(Requiem for a High Homicide Enclave)

is a deconstruction of Purcell's Funeral Music for Queen Mary (1694) based on excerpts from the from the LA Times Homicide Report which documents every murder that takes place in Los Angeles County using blog posts, comments, and Google Maps.

link to trailer

blog

website

Steve Moshier's Liquid Skin Ensemble

The Liquid Skin Ensemble is a 7-member post-minimalist acoustic/electric chamber ensemble that has been performing composer Steve Moshier's work extensively in Southern California for over ten years. Previous performances included evenings at the Getty Center, the Luckman Theater at Cal State LA, Highways Performance Space, the John Anson Ford Theater, the Japan America Theater, Los Angeles Theater Center and in 2004, international exposure with Hae Kyung Lee's Dancers at the LG Arts Center in Seoul, Korea. For the past four years, the group has bi-annually performed at the AH Gallery in Chinatown, downtown Los Angeles.

John Marr / Brother Mallard

Brother Mallard is a four person ensemble assembled by John Marr in order to perform The Continuing Story of Counterpoint (TCSOC) by David Borden. Aside from "Part Nine," none of the remaining eleven movements have ever been performed on the West Coast. Borden originally wrote the music for his group, Mother Mallard (the inspiration for Brother Mallard's nom de plume ) which consisted of three keyboardists. The group's ultimate goal is to create a functioning ensemble that will present new music to all listening ears.

Lauren Baba: Violins

Audra Blackner: Voice

Ralph d’Ignazio: Electric Guitar and Electric Bass

Scott McIntosh: Winds

Satomi Otsubo: Keyboards

John Marr: Keyboards

also with music and words by:

Susan Asbjornson Ziegler

Brian Kehlenbach

Melody Versoza

Sean Gunning

REDCAT spring studio 2008

its been a good run since the middle of april that culminated in two great shows this weekend at REDCAT. for me it was very strange to be backstage without a trombone in my hand (or any instrument at all) it was easier to keep the laptop and kaossillator plugged in onstage, but i found myself actually a bit nervous without anything in my hands.

the path of bringing a piece from an idea to a premier is quite a journey. but at some point you have to go forward with what what you got and see how it works 'live'. on the 2nd night, somewhere in the last third of the requiem i realized that i was asking my vocalists to sing at the a full fortissimo at the top of their range for a good 6 minutes. while i was watching them brilliantly pull this off i knew there was there was a much better way to write this. its funny, before the show i did warn the singers (sylvia desrochers and paul cummings) that were were going to take it up a notch, but their looks of surprise and fierce determination to match our energy level was something i wont forget that soon. the fact that they rose above the limitations of my writing and pulled it off was a testament to the great musicians i get to work with. with all that being said, i'll have time to make those edits when we will be performing it in a few weeks at the shane cadman's REALNEWMUSIC in whittier on June 21st.

there is quite a bit to be happy about and some other great stories that i'll eventually tell (naked curtain call), but after sitting around the house in daze yesterday its time to get back to real life. yesterday i couldn't really answer emails and return phone calls. after you get home from a show you don't really know what to do with yourself. there is nothing that you have to do and nowhere you have to go. one of the things they don't ever tell you is that the creative process can terrorize you other responsibilities and relationships. luckily we have been through this before and my wife deb knew the drill; keep me in clean clothes and fed and we will get through it.

i started the day by filling a trash can just going through the mail that had piled up the last 6 weeks, not to mention my change oil light started blinking about two weeks ago and i haven't even started grading finals exams. all i can say is that i'm really lucky to have the support from my family and by the end of the week i'll be ready to start the process all over again.

he was mad against this life

REDCAT Spring Studio
May 17 & 18, 2008, 8:30 pm
Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater
631 W 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

The latest edition of REDCAT's ongoing performance series brings
together a dynamic range of six emerging and established Los Angeles
artists to launch new projects, investigate new forms and experiment
with new ideas. Curated by Leslie Ito and George Lugg, the evening
features:

PBE: REQUIEM FOR A HIGH HOMICIDE ENCLAVE
Fusing a deconstruction of Henry Purcell’s Funeral Music for Queen
Mary (1694) with source material from the Los Angeles Times Homicide
Report, including blog posts, comments and google maps, The Paul
Bailey Ensemble (PBE) performs an audio/visual eulogy for the
homicide deaths in LA County in 2008.

Featuring:
Sylvia Desrochers, mezzo soprano, Paul Cummings, bass, Bruce
Gallegos, electric guitar, and Paul Bailey, laptop, kaossilator and video.

trailer, homicide report and links
http://www.vimeo.com/936614
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/homicidereport/
http://www.paulbaileyensemble.org/

and also performances by:

CYNTHIA LEE: I LONGED TO GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING…
Live tabla and cello accompany a trio of dancers in this movement and
music investigation of sam in Hindustani rhythmic tradition: the
moment where musical tension is released and begins again, where
union and loss coalesce.

MIWA MATREYEK: DREAMING OF LUCID LIVING
Using projected animation to enliven objects, transform space and
illuminate live performance, this work is a hypnotically layered
construction that seamlessly melds the fantastical with the real, and
the seductiveness of cinema with the immediacy of the stage.

SARAH PAUL OCAMPO / ADVANCED BEGINNER: ROOMS
Leading a six-person orchestra playing everyday objects—comb, cheese
grater, flyswatter, and more—Ocampo, on guitar, sings a four-song
cycle that evokes a stifled domestic world of tattered hearts and
longing.

PEGGY JO PABUSTAN / AMANDA ALFIERI: SERIOUS WORK
The collaborative team of Pabustan and Alfieri play with, and prey
upon, a wealth of influences from the history of video and
performance art in a work that is both traumatic and healing,
feminist and exploitative, playful and very serious.

WU INGRID TSANG: LAMENTO DELLA DRAG
Performing three vocal selections of mixed-genre repertoire alongside
musician Giles Miller, Tsang's manifests an elaborate and
extravagant Diva who sings traditional and baroque compositions, and
intertwines the histories of opera and queer identity.

the police and the mayor

Today at 4pm I'm going to talk with Martin Perlich about my REQUIEM FOR A HIGH HOMICIDE ENCLAVE and its source material; the latimes homicide report, blog comments and google maps on KCSN 88.5 (05/14/08)

the sandbox

after another long day of composing and video editing the wife unit looks over and states "its an addiction, right?" i nod silently in her direction and realize its probably a good time to stop for the day. although we have been married 15 years, i don't think we have had the conversation that followed. composing is something i do, but really this blog is one of my few outlets to "talk" about it. calling it an addiction is probably technically true, but we did agree that over the years i have become more a more functional human being in the process.

i used to be pretty bad and could easily ignore everybody for days trying to get a project started (and i even asked her to leave the house a few times) just so i could write. it seems silly now and i'm pretty embarrassed about it. over time i have learned to trust my instincts and as long as the ideas are flowing i cancel everything else and write until as much and as long as i can.

right now i am in what i call "the sandbox". its the stage when i have a fully realized idea. every morning is another opportunity to 'play'; build new castles, and tear down the old ones that the tide is starting to wreck. its a very satisfying place to be.

first there is the idea (sometimes i sketch them out, or write them down for a later date), and if wake up the next day and still think it is a good idea i'll start to make it real. this is where the most unpleasant and painful part of the process is. until that idea is "real" and becomes a full piece i usually find myself in a focused mad dash to get as much of it on paper as possible.

sometimes the ideas are quick fully formed (life's too short, retrace our steps act II, summerland and principal of sufficient irritation) other times the initial idea seems strong, but somehow the realization feels a little off (fearless leader, retrace our steps act I, myinnersatan).
why and how this happens, i don't know? i think pieces are like kids, and i want to see them all grow up and be successful, but in the end you learn to accept their strengths and weaknesses as part of the human condition. one of the stranger recent developments is that i have noticed that some people have much higher opinions of some of my "kids" than i do. both pieces have had many versions (awkward teen years) and though my group really enjoys performing both, i still flinch and shuffle my feet during various sections.

there is a strange process in which the initial "idea" becomes a composition. all i can say is that it is a gut feeling and you know when it works. sometimes i have to confirm it in rehearsal, but these days my intuition is getting better. this is the problem solving part of the process, a little nip and tuck here and there, from that original idea a universe is implied and i get to live in it for the duration of the creation of the piece. this part is wonderful. you know you are here when you can walk away from the piece and come back in few days and still are interested in the same things. no matter which metaphor i use (playing in the sandbox, living in matrix...) this is very much like a video game where you get to live inside of the world you created.

the next step is taking it rehearsal and seeing how everything translates to the real world. over
time this has become easier and usually have an idea of what will work and where the problems might be. the first few readings are very important and feel that if a group of intelligent adults dont "get it" within a few hours then i really need to look long and hard to answer those "why's?" (that is why i tape all my rehearsals") i think there are two sides to this coin. on one side we reasonably only have 2-3 rehearsals before a show and need to be able to put something out in a short amount of time. if there are problems i know that we can smooth over the initial bumps and i can make some changes over the next few months, but its very important to be able perform the new works in a timely matter so you can always be rotating in new repertoire into the show.

its a strange dichotomy; when i'm writing i'm thinking about performing and when performing i'm thinking about writing. i'm not sure how to turn that switch off and afraid what would happen if i could.

retrace our steps, act II

take two

today (03/05/08)
4pm (pacific)
radio interview with martin perlich
rebroadcast thursday evening at 6:30pm
KCSN-FM
ARTS & ROOTS RADIO
listen online

next thursday (03/13/08)
lloyd rodgers group
csuf recital hall, 8pm
program:
discourse on the measurement of tones, books I, II, and III
All the counterpoint you can stand for $10

picutre above
(l-r) matt menaged, pb, ryan nunes, bruce gallego, john mahr, scott mcintosh

Paul Bailey Ensemble at home in Fullerton

thanks again to all of you who made our "home" show at csuf on tuesday night. it turned out to be a great evening; nice crowd, saw some old friends and made a few new ones. i'm kinda short on words today and humbled by tim mangan's very thoughtful review of us in the oc register.

http://www.ocregister.com/entertainment/music-bailey-composer-1852433-three-one

how wonderful is brian ferneyhough?

so this is the post where i'm supposed to give you some special reason to come to our next show on tuesday september 25th. i just got back from a really great rehearsal and ready to start spreading the propaganda.

with the traffic in southern cal i know it takes a special kind of person to drive anywhere after a long day of work. the real question is why is this concert worth attending? first off we are sharing the concert with the new kids on the block of new music (NKOTBNM or as they liked to be called real quiet) the nyc based chamber group is making its first los angeles/oc appearance the just released their new album tight sweater (featuring the music of marc mellits)which is pretty frakkin' great. besides mellits music they are playing music of phil kline, and annie gosfield.

as for the pbe. i'm kinda surprised that we are even playing this show. last may it looked like curtains for the us, carl, ryan and bruce would all be leaving the pbe after graduation. thankfully bruce decided to stay for the time being and our original bass player matt menaged moved back into town this summer. this lineup is a powerhouse and has gelled quite nicely. i'd say its pbe 3.o.

so what about the show? or as they used to say "where's the beef?"our goals are very consistent and simple. we want to entertain you, we want to make you think and we want to have a great time performing music that we wouldn't get to play anywhere else. entertainment wise, its the strongest set we have yet played. as a show its got something for everybody; garage band jam's, covers, vocal fun and some modular improvisation. so go ahead see for yourself...

cheap admiration-
its technically a harmonic deconstruction of johann pezel's sonata ciacona in B. its a great introduction to what we do and always lets the audience know we are more garage band than chamber group.

fearless leader-
this tune has had more versions than a cat has lives. it started very unsuccessfully as an ambitious modular experiment that failed miserably in a live reviewed performance at whittier college (thanks again to the oc register's tim mangan for a really polite review of that debacle). over time it became more of an orchestration study. its not a perfect piece, but at the time i think i was creatively blocked and i looked at finishing it as a challenge to overcome. i keep asking the group if they want to take it out of the set, but they seem to like it more than me.

eye for optical theory
this probably has to be one of my favorite michael nyman tunes. i have never been able to find a score of it, so one summer i decided to write it down. its based on a repeated ground bass (kind of like fearless leader) and about halfway through i realized his "trick" is that he only was using combination of about 8-9 repeated melodies. my version plays on this and i just started with my sheet of melodies and hooked them together like lego's to make my own version. in last nights rehearsal i added a call and response introduction where our keyboard player eric plays one of the antecedent licks and we play its consequent answer. we play this game until he wants to start the piece and then plays the first line in octaves to let us know to go on. its fun way to bring a little life to one of our fluffier pieces. i also strongly feel that a night of any one composers music can be pretty exhausting. a little nyman along the way sets up the rest of the show really well.

life's too short
this is the showpiece of the night. its one of the few compositions that i have written that came out effortlessly fully composed and orchestrated. in our first rehearsal we played it head to toe without stopping once. its a pretty damn good piece and i'm still couldn't tell you how i wrote it. what is it about? self actualization through nihilism, nietzsche meet tony robbins. its in english. you will be able to understand the text. its over the top. its funny. its in your face.

in many ways i think its a conceptually a reaction of going to a very well performed master chorale concert in which all the music was by american composers but none of it was in english. everything was well written and orchestrated, but the concept of having your audience sit and listen to some "secret code" was insane. scanning the crowd from the back row of disney hall this performances seemed more dehumanizing as the evening wore on. the audience wanted to like it, and seemed desperate to connect with the music. (it was beautiful) but what kind of conversation goes on for an two hours in a variety of assorted foriegn languages? sitting in the audience felt like a strange ritual listening to an evening of recently composed choral music without theater or narrative.

anytime you add vocalists to anything its like hearding cats. on most nights the energy they add to an instrumental show can be hard to control. when they come on stage its easy for me to forget my job (the cues and conducting) because i really love to hear them sing. over time i realized that once i get them to the middle of most pieces we loosen up and have a lot of fun on the back end.

principle of sufficient irritation (11/25/05)
this is probably or favorite piece. its written in a modular style with a variety pre-composed melodic syncopated and ostinato lines. (terry riley's in C is the most famous example). overall its more similar to the improvisational process used in tv shows like curb your enthusiasm or any of christopher guest's wonderful movies. the piece has a very clear beginning middle and end and we all know our responsibilities in each section. for instance i play some melody in the first section, lead the group into the canon in the middle, and play ostinatos in the third. how and what i'll play i can choose every night. over time there are happy accidents that turn the piece in new directions. each new player that comes in also brings their own personality into the piece. one of the good things about 11/25 is that its got a nice rhythmic/melodic turn when it we start moving from the submediant to the tonic moving from a hard charging 6/8 to 3/4. (and back to the original opening statement) while it serves as a very energetic totem that no matter how the evening is going that once we get rolling towards that 'turn' its a very simple engine that creates quite a lot of energy. some nights we even feel like we can levitate the stage during this section which is the whole reason i got into this racket.

are you sold yet? still skeptical? i know i have been to more bad new music concerts than i count. please don't hold that against me. i hated them also. how about if i sweeten the deal with a guarantee (of course i can't really afford to give you a money back offer... i'm only public employee) if you don't like the show i'll buy you a beer, i just don't want to hear about how wonderful brian ferneyhough is.

those who can't teach

work summers.

back to school tomorrow. 4 classes, 1 student teacher and little sleep tonight.

upcoming...

life's too short II
tue, sept 25th
pbe and real quiet
@csuf (meng hall)

that was a great show yesterday, here are some of the highlights:

1. my apologies for sending bruce gallego (pbe guitar) on unexpected tour of east-la trying to find the gallery
2. i was surprised that kathy hargraves (dangerous curve gallery owner) was able to kick a film shoot off her street because they didn't have the proper permits (especially on a sunday in downtown la). later we paid the price when the rent-a-cops and production trucks continually circled the gallery trying to disrupt the show. only in la
3. its been real fun having nicole baker (mezzo-diva/musicologist) premier both retrace our steps and life's too short. if you are to study music history you might as well make it also.
4. david borden should send john marr and norm weston a case of beer for all the hard work they have done performing his music. its hard to believe that this was only their 3rd show.
5. we have good recordings and videos from the show, give me a few weeks for them to find their way online.
6. the life's too short premier felt like a 3rd or 4th performance. i was able to make quite a few small edits that cleaned up much of the piece.

i know i mentioned that we are going on hiatus because the possible departures of carl and/or bruce. i was surprised and encouraged by the immediate concerned reactions about when we will perform life's too short again. don't worry, i'm really happy with it and hope to perform it again soon (maybe july and/or sept) i can see keeping things going if for a few more shows to tie things up, but adding new members is a lot like dating. i have enjoyed playing with this group so much (carl, bruce, eric, and scott) that i can't see replacing anybody.

i'm not done with this performing thing, i still plan to perform and put a group out there, just not called the pbe. who knows maybe it will be laptop and cowbell, but one way or another this is what i do. i can't survive without it.

the next two weeks i'm locking carl and bruce in the studio to record our playlist from the last two years. then back into the studio for the final cleanup mixing and mastering of retrace our steps. the graphic libretto for retrace is also coming along fine and jared and i should be able to finish it this summer. its been a busy year and there is just is not enough time to get everything done. now its time to finish these recording projects. it will be great when we everybody can hear the results of the last two years.

showtime

tonight, 8pm csuf recital hall
'decent into formalism' lloyd rodgers group with john glenn, electric bass; gary hung,
violin; melissa rodgers, trumpet; bruno cilloniz, vibraphone and percussion;
luigi cilloniz, marimba and percussion; and lloyd rodgers, keyboard.
'rodgers' ensemble was the most artsy (and technically accomplished), with a
certain pretense to grandeur” — Timothy Mangan, OCREGISTER.COM

sat oct 28th, 8pm lincoln center
los angeles master chorale
(pbe vocalists nicole baker, nike st. clair, sean mcdermott, paul cummings)
music by steve reich
clapping music
telhellim
you are (variations)

sunday, oct. 29, 7pm
cat hair ensemble
smart girls speakeasy (mt. hollywood underground)
email me for password
curated by cecil castellucci

sunday, november 12th 8pm(2nd sunday's at mr. t's bowl)

8:30pm
hans fjellestad(solo moog synth & vacuum tubes)
"unbridled sonic freedom... raw, almost shamanic energy that embodies the true essence of unrestricted music"- XLR8R)

9:30pm
paulbaileyensemble (workshopping new large scale work life's too short)

10:30pm
matt margucci duo (trumpet/bass circus spectacular)

2nd sunday

great show tonight, probably the best one we have played in a club.

for part of the night we were a cover band playing a variety of music; lloyd rodgers great piece, bonedance, radiohead's national anthem, eric hendrickson's great modular piece 'seven', and michael nyman's 'eye for optical theory'.
the rest of the concert featured a reworking of my piece overcoming tourism that was recomposed for the smaller 6-piece pbe. i'll check the recording tomorrow. if the levels come out fine then i should post parts of the show by the end of the week.

it was also great to have a visit from the blogosphere. thanks again to eric reda and his sister for stopping by from chicago.
we are going to keep this 2nd sunday show going. our next show will be sunday, nov 12th 8pm.

the show will go on

sunday's show is still on. i postponed my root canal until next tues because i need to clear up the infection and swelling before they can dig in. i feel much better although the painkillers and penicillin have kept me sleeping all day. i guess the good news is that i'm glad this happened while i am working for the state. my old private school insurance would have never covered much of this. the emergency visit only cost $15 and the root canal and crown replacement should be under $500. go public sector health insurance!

a heathly respect for the job

its my first day back to school tomorrow and i can't sleep. right now those who are sleeping like babies are probably have no idea what is in store for them or too burnt out to care. someone once told me its the last bit of our animal instinct trying to 'keep us on our toes' so after 12 years of teaching i agree with that.

a heathly respect for the job i figure never hurt anybody.

so what to do... take stock of how things are going?

lately i have been thinking on how strange it is to still be teaching. when i was a kid that is all i wanted to do, but as i became older its clear that it wasn't enough.

not long ago teaching was the only thing i did, the only thing i had done, the only thing i had succeeded at;
early morning rehearsals, music festivals, 5th grade instrument selection, football games, concerts...

and just like that its all changed; sunday morning pbe rehearsals, late night gigs, the endless cycle of writing, recording and mixing.

i love it, i love them both and wonder how i ever got this far with such an unbalanced life. i'm so happy to have the time to be composing, performing, and teaching that i think its too good to be true.

some would say that teaching college is easier (those are the ones that are sleeping soundly tonight),

teaching is never 'easy' and is best explained by my friend scott:

"if you don't know who the sucker is at the table, its probably you"

i'm really looking forward to taking the train into work in four hours. i can always nap later.

new wine in old bottles

since our last performance at whittier college we have added a new guitarist (bruce gallego) and workshopped some new new tunes. i have updated a piece that i wrote a year ago (myinnersatan), and arranged one of michael nyman's more lively chaconne's from the movie the draughtsman's contract.(eye for optical theory)

my good friend and orignal guitarist, sean ferguson, is back in town for a wedding and is going to sit in for a few numbers, and our original bass player matt menaged has managed to be in town long enough from his ongoing indian casio tour with the kid and nic show.

setlist:
overcoming tourism
the palimpsest
eye for optical theory (nyman)
myinnersatan (revised)
obsessive love (with sean ferguson)
112505 (with sean ferguson)
summerland (with sean ferguson)
cheap admiration
sweater song

Thursday, Aug. 17
9:00 p.m.
Mr. T's Bowl
5621 1/2 N. Figueroa
Highland Park, CA 90042
(between Ave. 56 & Ave. 57; parking and entrance behind club)
myspace

show order
9pm.RICE CUB
http://www.myspace.com/ricecub

10pm.DORIAN WOOD
http://www.myspace.com/dorianwood

11pm.pbe
http://www.paulbaileyensemble.org/

12am.CAT HAIR ENSEMBLE
http://www.myspace.com/cathairensemble

island of broken toys

the pbe has been going through some personnel changes this summer. we just added a new guitarist (bruce gallego) and are working in another vibe player (ryan nunes) so that carl can play bass when matt or john are not available. it was one year ago that i started experimenting with having a variable ensemble, and it has had its high and low points. it does take a high level of musicianship to pull it off, but it also offers more chances for the group to perform.

the new guys are working in pretty well. on sunday i think we had our first taste of how good it can be when everybody is the same place. i know its never going to be perfect, one of the problems of having a larger ensemble is that somebody is always going to be coming or going, but it seems like we all in the same place right now.

besides working in new players we also focused on the "island of broken toys" set. its basically a collection of music that isn't quite ready for performance, but with a few edits and some rehearsal it might find its way into a show. last sunday we brought back my inner satan. its a pretty severe counterpoint exercise that somehow became a piece. its different from anything else i have written is a nice contrast to the music we are currently playing in the club show. its a little longer and unfolds a little slower than my earlier works. i don't think its ever going to be great piece (like cheap admiration), but i'm going to give it another chance to get off the island.

next off the island should be fearless leader. it started as a traditional chaconne, but then morphed into a modular version. its got a few flaws, but i'm going to give it few weeks of work and see what happens. its based on a great idea and i think it would be a shame to shelve it. after our unsuccessful last attempt to perform it, i transcribed a few chaconnes by nyman and purcell that i thought worked really well. i had admired michael nyman's an eye for optical theory for quite a long time, but once i wrote it down i was shocked to see how simple it really was. conceptually only made of of 8 lines, its built on mostly on fake counterpoint, which seems to be orchestrated piano noodling.

although not really a broken toy its another piece that we have added, our version is even simpler than his. i wrote out one page and turned it into modular chaconne like my others. its fun to play and, we can play a new version each night based on the size of our group and what kind of trouble we want to get into.

realnewmusic review (tim mangan, oc register)

tim mangan (oc register) has a well written review of our performances at the realnewmusic festival. his descriptions of the evening and performances were spot-on. it was not one of our better shows, but i'm real proud of how the group handled it. in the middle of the show we ran into a buzz saw, on some nights a tear like that can ruin the rest of the evening but we ended with a strong performance of my modular piece 11/25/05.

i'm pretty dissapointed at my reaction to the performance (more introverted than extroverted). i talked it out and know that every night is not going to be perfect. my drug of choice is a good show and nothing puts me in fowl mood than falling short. on a performance like saturday night's i have to find ways to temper my frustration. i'm really happy with the direction of the group and wouldn't change a thing. being able to write, rehearse and perform is a great alternative to the infinite sadness of life.

tonight we are playing at the scene in glendale around 9pm with pruitt igoe and the hearers. what could be better than having a drink with the pbe?

mention the blog and get free ringtones!

google map

btw...tim is also a blogger. you can view his latest pictures and comments of the construction of the orange county center for the performing arts new segerstrom hall.

d.i.e. all-stars

our current lineup is very special because we all are alumni of the d.i.e. (diverse instrument ensemble) at csuf. next year many of them will be leaving for grad school so i asked them to play with the pbe for this show. they are all too talented to hang around southern california much longer and its been great to have them in the group. regular bios in the program do not do justice to why they are important.

they are:

xico castano, clarinet
has developed into a great musician who has a real bright future ahead. its hard to believe he that he hadn't had lessons until college. xico will be applying for grad schools in the fall and is spending two weeks this summer playing in vienna.

ryan nunes, marimba
has not given up on playing even though he is pursing an academic career in philosophy. i'm glad that he is going to stay on for the next year while he applies to grad school.

veronica paez, oboe
i never thought oboe and trombone would work in this group, but in our last rehearsal i think we decided that our personalities have transcended the limitations of our instruments. veronica is one of the most determined and scholarly minds to grace csuf, and next fall she will be pursing her masters in musicology at the royal holloway school of music in london.

jon brenner, bass
i first met john when he was a freshman at csuf. because of our age difference we never really hung out, but i always bugged him to send me his music. he finally did (just this summer) and i was shocked. i don't expect much from anybody under 30 (i know its bad to assume), but his music is really good.he is now back for the summer from mills college where he is getting his masters in composition. its been a real joy with him in the group and i'm are going to try and play some of his pieces in the future.

carl stronach, vibraphone
it was a year ago on this gig when carl first joined the group. he jumped into playing a concert that he probably had no business playing (in theory), but he put in the time and learned the parts (the summerland vibe parts are really not easy), and has nailed every performance since then (i'm not sure if he every has had an "off" night). this past year has been inspiring watching him discover the joys of tuning and temperament, and by the end of the semester he passed my basic understanding and has found a "sandbox" that will keep him busy for some time. carl is going to finish his bachelor's this next year and has a great future ahead. i'm not sure what we will do when he leaves, but i'm really glad to have had him around.

on hiatus

since my college classes are now under control, the past few weeks i have been getting a lot of writing in. i have sketched enough material for probably 5 or 6 new compositions. the material came fast and furious so i'm going on hiatus to get some writing done.

recently i have noticed some patterns developing in my compositional output. for some reason i alternate between writing one piece at a time (retrace our steps) or quite a few at once (music from summerland). my current project is more in the summerland camp (direct, music for popular consumption), although one of the pieces is at dealing with some longer forms.

on a daily basis i'm pretty consistent about doing something musical until the next ideas hit (transcription, score study, counterpoint, eartraining... i know it sounds really boring). this process is much like daily the practicing i used to do on my trombone.

now i need to drop most nonessential projects and let the chips fall where they may.
i'm also pushing my next vocal piece the on backburner while accumulate libretto sources. on the slow days i'll probably, jump back to mixing my cd. it used to be hard to work on more than one project at a time but i'm getting better at it. i think revisiting my previous works while creating new ones sometimes helps me get over whatever obstacles i have encountered (aesthetic, conceptual, or technical).

for the near future i'll probably be bookmarking through my del.ico.us feed. (thanks to the standing room for the idea). you gotta listen to the podcast of elvis mitchell's interview of david mamet.

you go to war the the army you got, not the army you wish for

its funny how things can be going well but are never perfect. right now we don't have a regular bass player. matt's finally making a decent living on the road and i gotta wish him well. since last summer i gave up the idea of having the "perfect" instrumentation. its more fun to work with what you got, although that means that i might be playing some tuba for a while. this (future) version of the group is probably more like a brass/dixieland band and adding a trumpet could be fun.

"you go to war the the army you got, not the army you wish for"

all i know is we gotta play, i miss it and we will have new music soon. until i figure out what the most likely instrumentation is, i'll probably write in a 4-5 line c score and orchestrate it in rehearsals.
sometimes working out the orchestration in rehearsal leads to trying things that you thought would never work in your head. the new pieces are starting to take shape. there is a whole bunch coming and we whatever form we take in our next show, it will be unique.

paul bailey ensemble live, beyond baroque, 021206

the mp3's are up from our concert at beyond baroque on 021206 (venice, ca)

retrace our steps, act 1
retrace our steps, act 2
retrace our steps, act 3
retrace our steps, act 4

retrace libretto

cheap admiration

summerland

sweater song (weezer/bailey)

recorded on sony mz-rh910 minidisc, using my sound professionals portable recording rig (SP-SPSB-5)

that's the way its supposed to go

sunday's show was a blast.

thanks to all of you who made it across town to venice to see the pbe.

thanks to my great vocalists who gave an incredible performance with only one rehearsal

thanks to nicole and the "continuo" who just keeps getting tighter and more fun to play with.

the show was a great 4th and final performance of retrace our steps (for now). it was a whole other level above our cerritos center show a year ago. we played way outside of the score taking the piece to its definitive performance.

some nights the first half is great and others the 2nd, but when it starts good and keeps getting better those are the rare evenings that everybody can remember exactly where they were.

i can't emphasize enough how fortunate i feel to be able to perform with such great musicians.

i can't emphasize enough how the process and realization of these great performances are the reason for getting out of bed in the morning.

i cannot emphasize how exhilariated and tired that i am right now. after the concert is over you then realize what abuse you have been doing to yourself (and your family)

i'm sorry if this sounds a bit melodramatic, but sunday night's performace is the reason i do this.
so... i'll try to get another day of rest and then start planning for the next one.

paul

p.s. mp3's coming soon. we had a great minidisc recording of the night.

R+R

some people thing break is about rest and relaxation, but i think its all about rehearsal and recording.

rehearsal went well today. we started sifting through a wide variety of music that we might "cover"this spring. we looked at music composed by lasso, bach, satie, rodgers, as well as one of my new modular pieces. with all the interesting gigs we play you never know when a bach fugue or renaissance motet might come in handy, so its always good to have the possiblity of playing much more music than you need. i also feel that concerts that feature single composers almost always end up being a little tiring on my ears. i think mixing up the evening with scratch arrangements and/or deconstructions makes for a much more enjoyable performance. i know i get sick of my music and its probably better to not show all of your tricks at the same time.

after rehearsal we compared holiday plans and or semester successes and failures over 99 cent tacos and i then made it back to los angeles to continue editing the most recent vocal recordings for retrace. the recording and editing is going much smoother this time around in the studio. so far we have the recording and editing of the first two mvts. completed and over the next two weeks we will be finishing the last two mvts also. i'm not sure if i'm going to release retrace on its own as an ep or continue recording my latest compositions this spring? once i get done with the vocals i'm sure i'll have a better idea.

$20 dinners

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

one of the best things about technology is the ability to give people the right to use your work for a variety of purposes. today i found that my piece boundary violations was being used for episode one of an indie online cooking show called 20 dollar dinners. i'm sure they were just trying to find something online that was free to fit their project, but it does serve the diy purpose i intended by setting up a flexible copyright. at least they gave me credit for it instead of stealing it. btw the music comes in around 4:00, near the end of the segment.


by the way what is up with being twenty years old and eating $20 dinners. in college i remember $2 dinners of cheap hotdogs and mac and cheese. they must have parents sending them money.

mr. t's 092505

great show last night. we stretched out to play two sets and pulled it off. arlo gave us a great mix and it was satisfying to play such a wide variety of music.

the first set was mostly covers and the second we played a rare night of all seven mvts. of music from summerland. its always good to get the taste of an uneven show off of you asap. i always have the feeling that what happens if we do it again? i also feel the same way when i teach. after one bad class i'm pretty pissed, but know the students will cut you a little slack here and there. after two bad shows/classes you can start to lose them, and god forbid three bad classes/shows in a row, you can lose them for good. although we added some music at the last minute, i feel really confident of the musicianship and maturity in the group. it was nice to mix things up and raise the stakes last night. these days i'm trying not over-rehearse the ensemble, great musicians can do magical things when left to figure it out in performance. most of the audience seemed to prefer the newer first half (which was the newer music).

anyway it was nice to see some of my friends from the arroyo arts collective come out. its really special when an visual artist that you really like diggs your music.

right now i'm pretty proud of the recent adjustments with the pbe. the last few shows represent that we can succeed as two distinct ensembles tailored to fit concert and club venues. we are in good shape and have enough new music to keep the shows fresh until the spring. its now time to get back to writing again.

mr t's, 091505

overall a good show last night. i am still kicking myself because i didn't pay enough attention during sound check to our levels. it took a while to get the sound dialed in so parts of the evening were better than others. the audience was great(a weekend size crowd on a thursday). for most it was their first experience with the pbe.

for our 2nd club show i am still surprised how many "got-it". afterwards i had a lot of great conversations about the obvious philip glass/reich/riley/nyman connections. the funny thing was at yesterday at biola (and most other concert venues) the conversations/comparisons move towards movie composers like clint mansell and curtis armstrong. either way not bad people to be compared to, but i guess it kinda funny that reich/glass/riley/nyman names are only recognizable in clubs.

the night was a great mix of bands. sporto (fronted by accordian) has got an easy going feel that is a cross between irish pub/french salon/norteno mix. i really want to get a cd to give them more of a listen. the cat hair was great! my friends came out to really hear them and were not dissapointed (especially by rod's lyrics). i was packing up when warm climate came on and after the noise-band introduction they settled into a mix of music that reminded me of a mix of white stripes, radiohead and david bowie. i'm not sure if that sounds good to you, but parts of it worked really well. by the end of their set i would come hear them again.

putting this in perspective, it was great to play a show in a club with other "alternative" bands. i have more in common with the people and music on stage than the "new music ghetto" i am forced to associate with by default. from this mornings perspective (and 4 hours of sleep) its probably important to keep playing to both audiences. however we build an audience, i'll take it.

not a bad day

its the end of a show day and i'm just pulled all the equipment back into the house. i'm just sitting down to do the dance all over again for tomorrow. sync the ipod with a new playlist for the train, make lunch, go over lecture notes for tomorrow's classes, send out reminder emails for tomorrow's show and now its getting hazy.... what am i forgetting? hopefully i'll remember by the end of this post.

anyhow the show today at biola was top shelf. we are starting to get into a groove and playing is such a joy. things are moving along; dave has been workshopping his guitar sounds and is bringing an slightly adjusted pallette to every rehearsal. it great to listen him adjust the music to fit his own style. its also been interesting how the music changes over time. the last couple of rehearsals i have let some of the tempos rise and fall and it seems to bring out parts of the music i forgot i wrote. its just feels strange to play it the same way everytime, this is (living) music not a mcdonalds hamburger. since this was sam f.'s ((form) not the other sam f. (fish)) home show the strings were obviously on top of their game. it was nice to have greg adamson sitting in for vic. i have heard about greg and seen him play for at least 10 years. he is close friends with scott, but this week was the first time i met him. he is a hell of a musician and hope that he can come back soon. everybody else had to make the usual sacrifices for a lunchtime gig; missed classes, skipping out on the day job, sending subs to other rehearsals and all for a $33 dollar gig. these days, i wonder if that is higher scale than big band?

we had a large and enthusiastic crowd of students at biola today. i'm sure some of them were required to be there, but they were very happy to see sam play (he just joined their faculty). playing the concert reminded me of my first "recital hour" at wichita state u. sometime during the performance i couldn't help thinking about excited i was about music back then and i don't remember exactly where and when i lost that feeling, but damned glad it came back.

anyway... just remembered gotta play ball with the javi.