Paul Bedal, Tim Daisy, & Charlie Kirchen @ Myopic Books, 12/9/2013

Here’s a theory/some information for you to disregard completely[i]: For better or worse, whether standard operating procedure or totally idiosyncratic to my personal process, when I go to see live music and know that I’ll want to (or have to…) write it up later, it’s pretty basic what I do during the gig. I sit there, watch and listen, and occasionally jot down little notes or ideas that the music stirs into my head. Generally I’ll have at least 2-3 ideas or observations that come for each tune. Here’s the catch: these thoughts about the music can behave like a dream upon waking: if they’re not captured while I’m having them, or very soon thereafter, they dissipate quickly with next to no chance of retrieval. Gone like a train. Like the music, certain thoughts and ideas about the connections of things can be very “in the moment.” Of course, not all my observations end up being so interesting, clever, or illuminating. But I’ll generally get enough down to allow myself a good jumpstart on writing something.

So what’s all this bullshit about writing process, ideas, thoughts behaving like dreams, yada yada yada have to do with Paul Bedal, Tim Daisy and Charlie Kirchen? In a way, nothing I guess. But maybe this: I wrote nothing down as I was checking out this trio’s three-tune set. Why? Because all that “writing process” crap I tried to explain involves a certain level/style of thinking. The music these guys were making was wayyyyyyyyy too good for me to interrupt my enjoyment of it by forcibly turning my thought process away from the music to trying to capture and transform my thoughts in the moment to describe that music. Fuck that. Often the music can be really great but there are enough breaks that I can get my thoughts/ideas on paper without much interruption in the enjoyment. But this trio was too good and too consistent. Thinking would’ve gotten too much in the way.                    

The music was all freely improvised and in some key ways outside most folks’ listening comfort zone (pulse/no-pulse, lack of standard melody, structurally loose, etc…). But the fact that the group’s instrumentation was basically that of the most recognized and oft used jazz trio - piano, bass, and drums - and that, for the most part, the instruments stayed relatively close to their regularly scheduled timbres, gave it something of a built-in accessibility. This accessibility in no way should be seen as detracting from the creativity and depth of the improvisations. Apparently you can eat your cake and have it too. Bedal’s warm and inviting electric piano tone was at the heart of making this music immediately digestible while remaining adventurous to anyone within earshot. Kirchen and Daisy followed suit in their ability to combine the eating of things with the having of them. But no, they didn’t drop any musical references to tunes from the band Cake. Though that woulda been fine by me - I love me some Cake…       

This trio made a killer, classic rhythm section; with Bedal functioning as icing on the rhythmic cake (what’s up with all the cake?). Daisy and Kirchen came off as something of a rhythm section within a rhythm; and Daisy seemed to be a rhythm section within a rhythm section within the rhythm section. Daisy’s barrage of non-stop ideas and techniques in no way interrupted what ended up being an unbroken flow through each of the three pieces played in this endlessly enjoyable set. The ideas built on one another like findings through scientific method. And even when Daisy is playing free, there seem to be hidden rhythms present, which one can only feel and never count; like secrets which can only be told through the subconscious. Kirchen regularly seemed privy to the inner workings of Daisy’s secret method (maybe I should’ve called it his secret Cake recipe?). In addition to Kirchen’s clear and intricate bass lines, his focus and attention to his fellow players was empathetic and razor sharp: See his entrance with Daisy after the drummer’s short introductory solo on Piece 2 below. It may seem like it was outta nowhere on a dime, but he was simply paying close attention to his band mate, then trusting and acting on his own musical instincts; which can be harder than it sounds.     

Particularly impressive is that the current premise of the ongoing Myopic Books Experimental Music Series is “no bands;” 1^st time encounters only, please. Yes, this was Bedal, Daisy, and Kirchen’s first time playing together and their music was completely improvised. But there are other groups who completely (or near completely) improvise their music that play together for years, yet don’t come off as cohesive and fluid as this first time meeting. It was like making a perfect Flourless Chocolate Cake on your first try, and eating it too…

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[i] From Philip Seymour Hoffman as the great Lester Bangs in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous.

Paul Mitchell Trio @ Myopic Books, 11/25/2013

“That is not what I expected,” remarked a previous Myopic Books music series participant after the set ended. I had the same reaction. Saxophonist Danny Kamins, guitarist Alex Cohen and drummer Ryan Packard called their trio Paul Mitchell. Yep – Paul Mitchell. You know, that hair products guy. Maybe it’s a coincidence. Or maybe not: That name seems more suited to an ironic punk band than an improvised/creative free jazz group. And much of Paul Mitchell’s vibe came closer to late 60s period, pure psychedelic freak-out “rock” jams than most relatively developed free jazz; though I sensed the intent was to be seen as closer to the latter. Pure musical freak-outs are always welcome in my book (well, almost always), so that’s not necessarily either good or bad. Unexpected is all.

The beginning of Paul Mitchell’s last piece felt a bit more like they were following the music instead of leading or forcing (not that that always has to be the goal…). It’s, of course, always originating in the players. But sometimes players are aware, sensitive, and practiced enough to create a feeling of near total organicness; an illusion of “channeling.” This illusion was not so present here. Still, I salute Paul Mitchell. Any person/group that has the stones to name their band after an icon of hair care/styling products deserves some props.

What they may have lacked in technique or subtlety, Paul Mitchell made up for in enthusiasm and energy – in spades; Particularly drummer Ryan Packard. In a Celebrity Drummer Deathmatch, Packard would easily TKO Muppet drummer Animal early in the first round; or any other drummer for that matter. Well… maybe not Keith Moon.

But whether or not pure energy and enthusiasm make up for a perceived lack of technique, cohesiveness, or subtlety will depend on the individual. And even then, the listener’s perception in this regard may vary depending upon that individual’s particular mood on that particular evening. Endless variables. But I’ll leave that type of “music appreciation and ideation as effected by subjects’ mood variants, coupled with personal background/history analysis” research to the pharmaceutical industry; or maybe some starry-eyed, hippie wannabe psychology grad student. Maybe Big Pharma – based on extensively documented, scientific journal confirmed, double-blind 3-yearlong studies - will eventually market a new line of drugs that will allow the “patient” to better enjoy and “understand” musical styles heretofore beyond their ability to appreciate. I can see it now: It will be found that stimulation of the blah blah enzyme in the blah blah portion of the anterior blah blah section of the posterior lobe will be discovered to trigger its synaptic serotonin bridge, which has been found to become nominally active whenever a subject listens to more than 3 minutes of late period Coltrane. Relatedly, pharmaceutical researchers will discover that their newly synthesized chemical compound, Stylopraxanol, has been shown to be effective in triggering the posterior lobe’s synaptic serotonin bridge function (now referred to as the “Coltrane Bridge”) in 50.1% of the study’s subjects. Stylopraxanol and its variants will be marketed toward specific stylistic demographics, heightening the user’s pleasure while concurrently broadening his/her “musical cultural affinity”: A black pill for blues/jazz, a white pill for heavy metal/bubblegum pop, a brown pill for Indian/Middle Eastern musics, etc… The possibilities are limitless. I smell fat year-end bonuses and lawsuits! Congress will pass legislation banning the marketing of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Hip-Hop/Rap pill for “public security” reasons. This legislation will be buoyed by Tipper Gore’s independent study group’s findings showing that the marketing of such a pill could increase the level of political/social unrest by 3%; upping the trace amount of true revolutionary impulse throughout the population to an “unhealthy” level. Historically, FDA regulations will be narrowly written and strictly enforced on this issue. Additionally, these new regulations will make the Debbie Boone pill (clear gel in its meds script form) a required ingredient in all breakfast cereals in its undetectable form, and will appear on the side of the box listed with the other ingredients as “artificial and natural flavors.”