extremes at 1067

Marianne Trudel arrived at the airport Friday afternoon and the whirlwind began. In the midst of a national tour with her group, she has a talent at packing so much into her day that I can't keep up with her for too long. After a short rest at my place, she was off to the festival, catching up with people she hadn't seen in a year.

My main concern was preparing for the evening's ion Zoo gig at 1067. As per usual, I opted to go heavy rather than light. In addition to tenor sax and bass clarinet, I had to bring along our full sound system plus my full percussion setup. Despite arriving extra early at the venue, it took a couple of hours to clean up the stage area and then set everything up.

One thing that I was very sure of was that even though they had never previously performed together, Marianne and Lisa would be a great pairing. I have joked that 1067's pianos are in such bad shap that they are pre-prepared. Lisa and Marianne took quite a lot of time deciding how to alter each piano, then insert various objects between and on top of the strings, different ways of striking the strings, and talking strategies as to how to approach the modded pianos.

We had decided to play one extended set, starting off with just the two pianists. Other people would join in, as Bob Brookmeyer would put it, when it became inevitable. From the first notes, they established an immediate rapport and played a long time before I got the twitches and had to join in. The piece continued to evolve as Clyde and Carol came onstage. People would choose to lay out for extended periods and the music grew in a very natural way. It reached a very emotional peak, and then just as inevitably, it ended. A single improv lasted for an hour and half.

We all knew that something special had taken place, and the people in the audience (a reasonably good-sized crowd) all seemed to confirm our feelings. Our special thanks go to Blythe Polreis for handling the door and bar duties, and to Bruce Freedman who most unexpectedly show up with his .wav file recorder. I have yet to listen to it - setting aside another hour and a half to give it a careful listening is not something you do during festival time.

Everyone was feeling deeply moved, and we packed up feeling very satisfied with the evening's music. My thoughts centered on how to get this lineup recorded, and how we could ever set up a dual piano concert in future. To find a proper venue with two grand pianos, with permission to prepare them, is going to be a challenge indeed. And I thought it was hard enough selling Coastal on our standard lineup! No matter, the important thing was the fantastic music that was created that evening. From an emotional viewpoint, it was certainly on a level that surpassed the improv that I had seen during the Festival. We all had that buzz that comes from really connecting and creating something very significant.

As I was packing up, we heard a cry from the alley. We rushed out to see Lisa laying in the alley in great pain. As she was loading her Rhodes into Clyde's car, a carload of Granville St. yahoos drove by and hit her, stopping their expensive car on top of her foot. After some frantic discussion, they finally moved off her foot. The driver got out to check her out, and we got outside in time to see him jump back in the car and take off.