November, 2007
Just finished a two-week Bill Horvitz Band to the NW with Steve and Harris (Paul Kikuchi and Skye Brooks subbing beautifully on drums for part of the time) and a recording session with Steve and Harris for our next CD, which went really well. Now have two projects recorded and on to mixing etc etc etc......very exciting all around!
September, 2007
Upcoming trio tour with Steve Adams and Harris Eisenstadt to the NW in late October, Early November (see performances). Hoping to record at the end of that time. Tonebent is working on a CD, slowly but surely and has a few gigs coming up (see www.tonebent.com)
And ... working on the Expanded Band recording from Roulette in NYC this past May. Very cool sounding, great playing, figuring out takes and rough mixes, then on to final mixes and getting the CD out. Look for news about that here early next year.
June 2007 Back home after a great tour with the trio in April/May and culminating with a stellar Expanded Band tribute to my brother Philip on May 6th at Roulette in NYC. The band played so beautifully, I was completely blown away. Many friends of Phil's were there as well as family and lots of old friends from NYC, including Stephanie Stone, which was a wonderful surprise. I could go on and on, but won't at this point. The performance was recorded and videotaped and the band came back the day after the concert for more recording, which was done at Roulette as well on a 24 track system. The video looks and sounds great and I think there will be a CD taken from the concert and the session, which should be out by the end of the year.
April 2007 The main thing happening at this point is a Bill Horvitz Band tour (with Steve Adams and Harris Eisenstadt)in late April and early May in New England and New York, culminating in an Expanded Band tribute to my brother Philip on May 6th at Roulette in NYC. The trio has 9 gigs (see Performances) and this version of the Expanded Band for Roulette is now 20-members strong and a wonderful band, including singers and a poet. It's going to be a reunion of sorts, with some of the players being people I've played with over the past nearly 30 years. (David Sewelson, Vincent Chancey, Jason Hwang, to name a few). We did two performances in the SF Bay Area in Nov. 2006, and the band was fabulous. Some of them (Steve Adams, Kyle Bruckman, Darren Johnston, Omid Zoufonoun, Katie Harlow, and Joseph Sabella) will also be performing at Roulette. There's a family connection this time as Wayne will be playing piano and Robin Holcomb will be singing along with Robin Eschner and myself. We also have Brian Thorstenson, one of Philip's closest friends, reading poems for Philip, which was a powerful and very moving part of the performance in SF.
I also wrote my second choral piece this past January and February and probably March. It's an arrangement of a song that Robin and I wrote a couple of years ago, called "Betting Kind." It will be performed during the May, 2007 concerts of the Occidental Choir. (see Performances)
Spring 2006
A lot going on these days, much to do with the choir and my first choral piece based on a true story about Japanese-American farmers in California's Central Valley, who were taken to camps during World War II, and during that time a few of their farms and homes were saved for them by their neighbors.
It seems these acts were done privately and silently, acts of great courage in a time when Japanese Americans were generally being ripped off and were looked on with tremendous animosity. The lyrics for the piece are by Marcy Telles and the title is "Life Is What You Make It."
TONEBENT is now starting to record the first Tonebent CD. After a very fun and rewarding tour in January, we've been staying closer to home, but are heading out for some gigs during the summer, both in the Bay Area and other locations. Stay tuned on the TONEBENT site for more info.
Robin and I have just finished the sound track to a 15 minute film noir/horror movie called Jack's Arm, which was
which was made by artist, writer, filmmaker Patrick Fanning
(www.fanningartworks.com).
Recent Discography
with Harris Eisenstadt's Ahimsa Orchestra
Nine Winds CD0237
wth Myles Boisen and Jon Raskin "Music + One"
Rastascan Records BRD 054
with Bret Martin
cancercrooner.com 5266
with Moe! Staiano's Moekestra
"Piece No.7: An Inescapable Siren Within Earshot Distance Therein and
Other Whereabouts."
Rastascan/Amanita Records
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