Sunday, February 22, 2004

Toronto - Santa Fe: 2004 Band It's Sunday and in a few hours we will start our journey home. 1. Quintet with Guitar, Bass, 2 Percussionists + Laptop DJ/Electronic Percussionist? 2. Quintet with Guitar, Bass, 2 Percussionists and Trumpet? 3. Quintet with Guitar, Bass, 2 Percussionists, Trumpet and hidden laptop? Pat Metheny and bands like U2 have used computers to augment their live sound for a decade, but since they hide the computer they are considered "great live performers". How many people would even notice extra sounds coming from a laptop, if they don't see the computer? Very few, I would think - although you would, because you have read this diary... "La Semana" uses a lot of Palmas (clapping), which takes at least three people to do well, and where do you find qualified Palma-ists? Why not have the palmas and maybe the kick come from a laptop? What about the guitars then? Most La Semana songs use a lot of guitars, since I am not using any keyboards or synths at all. That means between 4 and 10 guitars per track. Now, even if I can play something that approximates the sound of several guitars, it would never sound even close...on one hand that's fine because it is a live performance and as such very different from a recorded version...on the other hand it might be fun to occasionally add some more guitars via the hidden laptop... Our performance last night was different, because we did not use a kick drum, aside from the low sound that comes from the Cajon. That's unusual. In the early days (1989-1994: Davo or Mark) I always had a percussionist who would play Congas and percussion and a kick drum, then I had a second person play the Roland drum set/pads (1996-2001: Carl or Michael) and finally last year the kick drums came from Canton's laptop. The kick drum is an interesting element in my music as most traditional musics don't use a kick. In Salsa a cowbell keeps time instead of the kick, in African music it is usually a low hand drum, in Flamenco it is the cajon. The kick is a modern pop element. Like the hi-hat, which I don't like to use live because it is loud and its sharp sound cuts into the guitar, the kick is a simple time keeper for people. It makes it obvious for the audience what the pulse is that is underlying the music. It is a simple road map, if you like, dividing the music into a simple grid of Quarter notes from the kick drum or maybe 8th or 16th notes from the hi-hat...performing without that grid is at the same time freeing and less obvious...and sometimes obvious is good when you perform, especially when your music uses odd meters... I have quite a lot of options available to me and a few months to figure out which way to go. 8:52:46 AM    comment []; Toronto Performance Music: loud fan of the heating system Mood: bright Friday's travel schedule was thankfully uneventful, except that drivers in Toronto, being used to snow and ice on the roads, drive much faster than anybody in New Mexico would, which was a little scary at times. We flew from Albuquerque to Dallas and from Dallas to Toronto. The hotel was decent, but had no high-speed access - note to self: always inquire about high-speed access before agreeing to a hotel. Walked to a Chapters (Canadian version of Borders - or is Borders the U.S. version of Chapters?), because I was told they would have Wi-Fi there, but found out they no longer did. PLUS: the organizer of the benefit raised close to half a million Canadian dollars yesterday for fighting Breast Cancer. MINUS: we didn't find out until long after contracts were signed that we would be playing in front of some 1,000 stationary bikes. You can imagine the noise that created...Since we performed for the last hour of a 24 hour spinning marathon, it would have been good to find out more details ahead of arriving here, in order to create a set list more geared towards the event. In other words, if I was in the last of 24 hours of riding a bike, I would want to hear nothing but rhythm to get me through to the end, and maybe some pretty music to cool down afterwards... 8:52:23 AM    comment [];

© Copyright 2004 Ottmar Liebert. Last update: 3/4/04; 11:17:34 AM.