Following the amazing eighth blackbird concert on Thursday (Nov 8th, 2012), I had two more engagements. I was a last minute add to the Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance program Perceptions/Reality. As always I welcomed a chance to work with my friends at KcEMA. Now that I am less involved, it was nice; just walk in, sound check, and eat some wonderful Mexican food. The venue, La Esquina, is in the Crossroads district and on Southwest Boulevard by La Esquina is an abundance of fantastic Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants. My piece I Do Good at Grammar was performed by the esteemed Brad Van Wick. Brad isn't known as a vocalist, but the piece isn't exactly vocally demanding. On the contrary, it's much more about acting.
The performance was good, but not well attended. We were up against eighth blackbirds solo show at UMKC, so a fair bit of our regular crowd was gone. While the crowd was small, they were responsive, and were treated to the show being free. Too bad there wasn't a larger crowd, as the show was fantastic.
While the night was full of great music and great performances, including works by a new ensemble of old friends, The Ensemble of Irreproducible Outcomes, with David D. McIntire (head-hog at irritablehedgehog ), Brian Padavic, and Ryan Oldham; Teri Quinn and Eli Hougland, two former students of mine (Teri even premiered a piece started in my class. woo!); and great playing by Eric Honour. But, for me, the real winner was Joseph Post.
Post comes to KcEMA by way of the "popular" scene. And boy was it a breath of fresh air. Now, I love EA concert. Even more so when different mediums can be incorporated- the night had fixed media, video, interactive, and instrument plus fixed. And the styles were somewhat varied. But the world of house, dance, trance, dub, etc are never really represented. Alluded to, perhaps, but not represented.
Post brought that. He improvised over a set form, using software (i neglected to ask which. woops) running into a custom analog synth. Post pieced it together from synthesizers.com, and did a great job putting together a setup that creates great sounds for his music.
Things are faded a bit from my mind, but I was so freakin' happy to have something with a solid beat, nice timbres, and an eclectic form. So many nods to so many different styles of "popular" electronic music, from drumstep to ambient. Great to see him at a concert that, dare I say, can get a little too serious...of course, that's one reason I Do Good at Grammar exists. heh
And Post brought friends, that heard new music. And he heard the music, and enjoyed the night. So, hopefully, there can be more crossover between our not really different, but somehow "exclusive" clubs.
And then I had to go to a high roller party hosted by the Kansas City Friends of Chamber Music. Not my usual scene, but everyone was nice, had a couple good conversations, then quietly snuck out. It was nice to toast off the week with a few glasses of champagne.
