(05/12/2013) 12 Moons Solo Project Day 132

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 132

Date: 05/12/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Oroville Dam in Oroville, California.

Notes:

Now on day 7 of our tour, Bad Luck plays tonight in Chico, California.  On our drive up from Sacramento, we decided to burn some time exploring the Oroville Dam.  After a bit of searching we eventually arrived at the massive vista point we were searching for.  We set up camp to do some playing on the South facing side of a massive man made river that flowed hundreds of feet from the top of the dam.  The platform for the river appeared to be of concrete, with six or so enormous cubes breaking up the water’s flow before it pounded into the river below it.  We shot a few music videos, one of which was a solo improvisation that accompanies this post. 

During this improvisation I approached the piece more from a place of energy than any pre-scripted model.  I focused on the massive torrent of water in front of me, and from the outset of the improvisation I gravitated towards a sound gesture with medium intervals that was created using a multiphonic fingering with a trill key set against it.  Later in the improvisation I used an alternation of trill keys in the right and left hands to create the quick, cyclical cycles heard throughout.  Near the end of the piece I began watching the water flow from the top of the river shoot towards the bottom where it slammed against the man-made, massive blocks of concrete.  This helped to inspire the fluctuation in range towards the upper register squeals. 

-Neil

The image accompanying today’s post is a man-made river descending from the Oroville Dam.  

05/11/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 131)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 131

Date: 05/11/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: A hallway in my brotherâs apartment. San Francisco, California

Notes:

This afternoon I spent a bit of time practicing in my brother’s apartment. The unit is in the top floor of a building constructed in 1904, and as I practiced throughout the space I found that the hallway wall was playing back at me. In the top center of the wall I discovered what I assume must be old doorbells that reverberated as I played. The bells responded with full resonance on the concert pitches F and C. Perhaps because this is a perfect fifth interval, they seemed to hold the resonance of any pitch, though far more diminished in not the F or C. 

In this improvisation I explored tight, puckish pitches, and multiphonics, and intermittently zoning in on the F and C. I found that these two pitches would respond far better if I was very accurate with my pitch, and this was particularly true of the top altissimo concert C. As the piece moved forward I began to create focus areas, including multiple repetitions of specific pitches, and eventually at the piece’s conclusion, a melody with some regularity in shape. 

-Neil

The image “Saturn’s Small Moons” accompanying today’s post courtesy of NASA.

05/10/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 130)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 130

Date: 05/10/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Dead end of a service road off I-5 between Los Banos and Merced, CA.

Notes:

Now on day five of our Bad Luck tour, this morning Chris flew back to Seattle to play a show and I drove the car from San Diego up to San Francisco.  I struck out by myself at 4:45am.  There’s nothing like waking up early and driving away. 

I recorded this improvisation about 9 hours into my 11 hour solo trip, between Fresno and the turn off onto the highway towards San Francisco.   The landscape is consistent, marked by almond and citrus tree groves, dusty fields with brown and tan hills in the distance.  At one point the Freeway began cutting through the hills, and I found a good spot to exit off.  I followed a service road until it stopped well into a cattle grazing area.  To the East the highway was clearly audible, but to the West the hills seemed to go on infinitely in their independent environment.  I decided to record an improvisation inspired by the urban promise of the freeway and the stark natural beauty of the hills.

I explored a two-fold shape, the first being an ascending sound that quickly worked up from a concert E into the altissimo range, exploring a combination of tempered pitch and noisy embouchure flutters.  The second shape was the sustaining of an indeterminate chord, where I would balance the low register with altissimo pitches. During both shapes I growled or hummed into the horn against the low E fundamental.  It’s also of note to say that I was plagued by tiny black sand flies that bit my face and arms as I recorded.

-Neil

The image accompanying today’s post by Peter Brotzmann.

05/09/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 129)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 129

Date: 05/09/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Small bedroom in an acquaintanceâs house. Los Angeles, California

Notes:

This morning I found myself with an hour of time to practice while out on the road. This is a rarity made all the better by a quiet room to focus in. During this improvisation I explored two altissimo pitches: Concert Bb and Concert B, using atypical fingerings to produce a quiet, muted tone quality. By gently closing particular keys against the body, I was able to arch the airflow to create evenly descending pitches while maintaining the upper tones. This particular descending motion is an area Iâm exploring with pretty novice ability, and the descending shape is much more audible from behind the drivers seat. However, the gesture was captured during the recording process.

In this piece there is an imbalance of sound. The upper register tones carry about 99% of the sound space, with the breathy descending shapes and other dots of sound take up the remainder. I anchored my sound on the two upper tones, being careful to maintain them the bulk of the time. As the improvisation progressed I began pulling other overtones and chord clusters out of these fingerings to momentarily break off from the high tones. The fingerings used were as follows:

Concert Bb:
(Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Palm Eb // (Left Hand) E-D keys

Concert B
(Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Palm Eb // (Left Hand) E-D keys, Side F

To create the downward bending arches of sound beneath these sustained tones, as well as to explore other chord sounds, I would slowly bend side keys closed, most often in the following order: Low C, Low B, Low Bb, slightly close the Palm Eb.

-Neil

The image “New York 1912” accompanying todayâs post by. Max Weber

05/08/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 128)

12

Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 128

Date: 05/08/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: A field near the freeway outside Gilroy, CA.

Notes:

I’m always struck by the bare, earthen expansiveness of Southern California.  The fields look so pristine from the freeway but underfoot the dirt is clotted, cracked and smells of manure and chemicals.  The piece was recorded in mid-day, on a sunny, clear afternoon outside Gilroy.  I had my band-mate Chris drop me off at the side of the freeway on his way to the gas station.  I recorded at the base of a small hill that separated the freeway onramp from a brown, dusty wheat field that went on for miles.  I set the recorder in my case and knelt on the ground to record.

During this improvisation I created puckish sounds on the horn, selecting tones that had a ringing quality when articulated short against one another.   I indeterminately selected pitches to create these melodies, and as the improvisation evolved I began threading the pitches together.  I used a new technique to do this, lowering my jaw considerably while using a great amount of back pressure.  I held my tongue against the reed and used my air while cupping the back of my tongue against the reed to create pops of sound.  I was surprised to hear the sustain between the percussive pops and smears. 

 -Neil

The image “Ram’s Head” by Georgia O’Keeffe