As we are in the middle of Passover, it seems like a good time to look back at a Jewish-themed show in which I participated earlier this year. The Amy X-Perience brought together a mix of artists in solo, duo and ensemble sets at the Jewish Community Center in Berkeley, California. The evening was curated by our friend and collaborator Amy X Neuburg.
The night began with a piece by Neuburg featuring electronics and potato chips. Yes, potato chips. Small vending-machine-sized bags were distributed to the audience, who were instructed to on cue open the bags and start chewing the (edible) contents loudly, as Neuburg manipulated the sounds and added additional musical layers.
I was up next. Regular readers have likely already heard part of my solo set from this show – I posted the performance of piece White Wine in this article a couple of weeks ago. I also performed a live version of my piece Donershtik (Yiddish for “Thursday”), which you can see below.
Amanda Chaudhary performing "Donershtik" at JCC East Bay from CatSynth on Vimeo.
I was quite happy with how both solo pieces came out, but the real treat was having Amy join me in a duo of my piece North Berkeley BART, humorously appropriate for the location that evening.
North Berkeley BART w/ Amy X Neuburg – JCC from CatSynth on Vimeo.
I have always been impressed with Amy’s musicianship, discipline and ability to learn songs quickly, and very much appreciated her joining me. We also performed an avant-garde rendition of the American standard All of Me later in the evening.
Between the two of us, there was quite an impressive collection of musical electronics on stage.
My solo set was followed by Alex Kelley, a veritable one-man band on cello and electronics.
Next up was Solstice: A Female Vocal Ensemble. Sadly, several members of the group were unfortunately absent that evening due to illness, but that didn’t stop the remaining trio from delivering a strong performance.
Solstice’s repertoire spans a variety of styles and languages, and their set that evening included pieces from several places. I was quite impressed with their ability so sing in so many languages.
The second half of the program brought together the various artists in different combinations. I already mentioned my duo rendition of All of Me with Amy X Neuburg. She also performed show tunes with Alex Kelley, and joined Solstice for a virtuosic rendition of an Eastern European song. And finally, all of us joined together for a rousing rendition of Mein Herr from Cabaret. It was a fun and fitting conclusion to the evening.
All of the performances were well received by the enthusiastic full house. Thank you to Amy X Neuburg for inviting all of us to participate in this event, and to the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay for hosting! Please visit their website to find out about the many performances and other cultural programs hosted by the JCC.
Over the past month I had performed my piece White Wine twice in very different settings. We present them both below.
The first is with my band CDP (Census Designated Place) in early March. Performing with me are Tom Djll on synthesizers, Joshua Marshall on tenor saxophone, and Mark Pino on drums.
This version follows a basic jazz structure of a head, follow by solos, and finally a recapitulation. But the solos are much more free form, not defined by a specific number of bars. The rhythm and tonal center remains constant, although the pitches and timbres move around quite a bit. I think it’s fair to say the whole band was happy with the way this turned out. And for me is what a chance to play I style of music that I most want to. The performance reminded me of early Miles David fusion albums, or late Soft Machine.
One week earlier, I performed the same piece at the Jewish Community Center in Berkeley, part of a program curated by Amy X Neuburg.
White Wine JCC February 2017 from CatSynth on Vimeo.
The melody – this time accompanied by a Casio SK-1 as part of a solo performance – is unmistakable. The open section even starts out with the same four-on-the-floor pattern. But it quickly diverges to more abstract electronic sounds. This is direction I am taking much of my solo work, mixing the jazz/funk elements into the more abstract electronics that I have long done. Astute listeners might spot the cat at the end.
I will be writing about both shows, including the other artists who participated, in upcoming articles. For today, I just wanted to raise a glass of White Wine.
To mark the composer, multi-instrumentalist and band-leader Vinny Golia’s 70th year, over 70 musicians gathered together for the largest of Vinny Golia Large Ensembles. The event took place at the Finnish Kaleva Hall in Berkeley, California.
The ensemble was arranged into sections based on instrument group, e.g., percussion, guitars, winds, brass, electronics. I was in the “piano” group rather than the electronics, since I had opted to read standard notation rather than graphical scores. None the less, I brought a tiny setup to this “yuge” ensemble: a Roland “Boutique” JP-08 and a Moog Mother-32.
The two-hour long performance consisted of 25 or so pieces composed by Golia, a mixture of standard notation, graphics and instructions. He conducted the ensemble quite closely, selecting pieces, encouraging sections to emerge, and singling out folks for solos. Musically, the sound has a film-score-like quality. Given the length and duration, there was the hazard of the ensemble degenerating into a loud morass of free improvisation. Golia’s conducting – which he was quite meticulous about with us during rehearsal – and the various solos punctuating the sound helped prevent that from happening.
Golia himself performed during the set, using his trademark array of reed instruments, including the multiple saxophones and the visually striking contralto clarinet.
Not surprisingly, the woodwinds were featured prominently. But he also made extensive use of the guitars – something I was able to experience up close given my position behind them.
Overall, it was quite an experience to be part of and to hear this ensemble, which brought together so many familiar faces from the Bay Area new-music scene, and some new artists I had never met.
Here is the official list of musicians from the program. It includes some who were not there, and unfortunately misses a couple who were.
Aaron Bennet, Beth Schenck, Collette McCaslin, Dan Plonsey, David Slusser, Henry Juntz, Isaac Narell, John Vaughn, Jon Raskin, Joseph Nobel, Josh Allen, Joshua Marshall, Kersti Abrams, Phillip Greenlief, Rent Romus, Steve Adams, Tom Weeks.
Amanda Chaudhary, Andrew Jamieson, Andrew Joron, Bryan Day, Cheryl Leonard, David Samas, Derek Drudge, Gregory Scharpen, Jake Rodriguez, Philip Everett, Scott Looney, Soo-yeon Lyoh, Tania Chen, Thomas Dimuzio.