Unsnared Drum Update

As you might remember, I'm embarking on a commissioning and recording project with the goal of changing how people think about the snare drum.  After the premiere of her wonderfully creative Heart.Throb last month in Lawrence, I sat down with Nina Young to talk about how she approached writing for the snare drum.  I'm looking forward to recording her piece soon, but in the meantime, you can watch some of our conversation, which quickly devolved into an extended improvisation on her Marvin.

Blue Skin of the Sea

Tonia Ko’s Blue Skin of the Sea is now out on Vic Firth’s YouTube channel. Evan and Kevin at Four/Ten Media filmed the piece with me in February 2017, and we’re thrilled to share it with the world.  

Blue Skin of the Sea, commissioned in 2014 by a consortium of percussionists organized by myself, takes  a closer look at the “skin” of the marimba by exploring what Tonia calls the “intimate, horizontal world of marimba bars” and the way the instrument’s sound seems to float several feet above the instrument. At the same time, Tonia uses the distinctive way the marimba’s sound is created to steer the work’s large-scale structure, creating a gradual timbral transformation from soft/resonant to dry/brittle and back again. The 1st and last movements emerge from the 5th partial above the marimba’s lowest C with a wiggling grace, while the 4th is a combination of the Hawaiian lullaby “Pupu Hinuhinu” (“Shiny Shells”), ragtime xylophone, and a tuning ditty used by “a classroom full of fourth graders strumming tiny toy ukuleles in not quite unison.” The 3rd movement (“Curiouser”) is a rustle-y interlude.  The 2nd movement—the piece's musical center—is a flabbergastingly unique world of melodic scrapes.

Blue Skin fuses inspiration, form, musical content, and performance practice in a unique and poetic manner. In my opinion, it’s one of the most creative marimba pieces in recent memory, and certainly  one of the most expressive works I’ve commissioned.  Hope you enjoy!

And All the Days Were Purple

So happy for Alex Weiser’s new album, just released on Cantaloupe Music.

Alex sets Yiddish and English poems with beauty, grace, and poignancy. I was proud to be able to contribute a little bit of vibraphone and glockenspiel, and to be part of such an amazing ensemble : Eliza Bagg (voice), Lee Dionne (piano), andPlay (Maya Bennardo and Hannah Levinson, and Hannah Collins (cello)

Alex wrote a nice blog post about the album’s genesis HERE. This project hits home for me. It combines study of archival texts, personal cultural history, and new work which rethinks historical ideas. Alex is the perfect composer to tackle these texts, and the disc is really amazing.

At the same time, being on a Cantaloupe release has been a dream of mine for many years, since my first year at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, when I realized all my favorite music was being released by one record company. As always, it was a privilege to record at Oktaven Audio.

Listen and purchase here, or below:

Dream Team!

Concert Honesty

Josh Quillen’s Concert Honesty podcast has inspired me for some time. His long-form conversations elicit greater understanding and deeper connections, and really highlight the value of simply speaking with someone in person.

At the same time, Josh’s generous, humble, and diligent persona really seem to draw out his guests’ first principles, sitting somewhere between therapy and an informational interview.

I had a wonderful time chatting with Josh about doubt, perfectionism, learning new skills, and the importance of studying Spanish. We also talked about long-distance musical projects, and what’s up with Unsnared Drum, New Morse Code, etc. Take a listen!

Ghost Sketch

Digging these technique videos from Amy Kirsten, designed to help me prepare for her forthcoming “Ghost in the Machine.” We had a blast inventing some sounds last summer at Avaloch Farm, and it’s really amazing to see where the piece has gone since then. I’ll play “Ghost Sketch,” a part of the final product, next Thursday night at the Cider Gallery in LFK as part of our Wunsch New Music Festival