Portland Scene

The city of Portland has been treating me well. I've been very busy building something of a niche here and i do believe it's happening. I have been enjoying meeting and playing with alot of really great players and people and getting involved with different projects. I have been playing alot or original stuff with my trio, which constists of Drew Shoals on drums(on of the baddest portland has to offer) and a either Damian Erskine or Jeff Picker on bass. Damian is an absolute pro on his six string electric and Jeff is an absolute prodigy(17 yrs) on his upright. And they both catch when I fall(obviously the most important part, right?).
I am also in a project called The Through Line with a great percussionist, Clif Koufman. Usually with a couple other players added in, we improvise a film score to movies projected onto the wall. The last show we did was Jeckyl and Hyde. Very fun stuff.
I've been playing alot of fretless, which brought me into the realm of Indian and microtonal music. Very soon I will also be building a 31-tone equal tempered guitar. I will definately be posting the progress of that project. While in Boston, I was able to study some with microtonal godfather and saxophonist Joe Maneri, who really opened my eyes to alot of things. Someone who I feel might be a little further along with the composition with the 72-tone scale(the division Maneri uses) is Ezra Sims. Also in the Boston area, he is in my opinion hugely important to the development of microtonal music, as he has developed a system of harmony and composition that does not rely on the triad. This in itself is a pretty huge deal, and something that is really not possible in the 12-tone ET system that dominates now. He represents a strong movement forward in the natural evolution of the musical tone system of which are steadily closing in on.

More to come on that!

Peace