the Universe and the Blues Band in NYC

I was at the premiere of Charles Ives' Universe Symphony as
realized by Johnny Reinhard on 6/6/96. Quite impressive,
I couldn't pick out all the tuning details, but it was a blast to
hear an orchestra play those unusual intervals. I wouldn't
mind hearing this again.

Last night, LaMonte Young's Forever Bad Blues Band
played the Knitting Factory. I wasn't a big fan of the CD,
however I couldn't resist the opportunity to hear LaMonte and the
Catler brothers in action. Starting with a 45 min. solo piano "alap"
section by LY, the three hour concert was bit of a marathon.

Improvisational, more like rock then jazz, I got enough out of
the show to make me want to go again tonight.

I was particularly impressed with Jon Catler's guitar playing.
Previously, I have found electric guitar in tunings a bit
of a gimmick where the main goal seemed not to
explore the tuning but get "Hey! Look at me!" attention.
There's none of that here. In the FBBB, Catler really takes
to exploring and pushing the envelope using interchangeable
fretless and JI fretboards. JC didn't just force blues licks
in to the tuning or obscure the tuning
with DSP effects, using just good old distortion to enhance tone.

Brad Catler played mostly fretless bass although he
switch to a JI bass towards the end.

Young's Dorian Blues in G is in 6/8 and during parts of the concert
LaMonte and the drummer seemed to be in a battle with
LaMonte pumping out 4/4 accents over the 6/8.

For those who didn't catch the original announcement,
here's who is in the band:

La Monte Young & The Forever Bad Blues Band

La Monte Young, Korg synthesizer in just intonation;
Jon Catler, just intonation and fretless guitar;
Brad Catler, just intonation and fretless bass;
Jonathan Kane, drums;
Marian Zazeela, light design.

I listened to the CD this morning. I think I like it now. :)

just lucky to be able to check it all out,

* * .. * D a v i d B e a r d s l e y ... .*
. . . * . . ... dmb5561719@aol.com
I M M P & B i i n k! m u s i c * ..
. .. .*.. . .. . ..* . . .. . *. .

Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl
with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sun, 9 Jun 1996 08:52 +0100
Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI)
for id XAA28380; Sat, 8 Jun 1996 23:52:19 -0700
Date: Sat, 8 Jun 1996 23:52:19 -0700
Message-Id:
Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu