I’m posting a blog that has absolutely nothing to do with music.

Or me…amazing, isn’t it? Don’t worry, I’ll get back on track with the next blog.

The fact of the matter is, I have been surrounded by pain and death very recently. Not only in my own family with my uncle/Godfather passing, but also the passing of friends and members of friend’s families. My Memorial Day post referenced my close friend Sam Parkins who passed–along with another dear friend halfway across the world–the week of Thanksgiving. I have been touched as recently as this past week by the death of people and also learning about the struggles of others who are fighting with their last will to survive.

So what I want to do today–here and now–is publicize some links and give information that may potentially make a difference in someone’s life. Much of this is Boston/Lowell, MA centric, but information is applicable anywhere.

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First and foremost, if there is any plague or pestilence ever levied upon mankind that could ever be traced to Infernal doings, it is cancer. I am at a loss to even go into my feelings towards this one, having lost so many people to it very recently, including my father who passed on Father’s Day weekend–that anniversary is coming up next week for those of you outside the US. The pain, the slow decline into oblivion…horrible…and it seems that more and more people that I know are getting it.

A friend from my high school has it. He is not winning…

There are kind and loving people who are helping by organizing a benefit to help his family pay their bills:

Skaff Family Benefit

If you are in the Greater Lowell area, please consider helping this family.

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Also in Lowell on September 23rd will be the Show Of Hope Benefit Concert

Website:

“The best laid schemes of mice and men / Go oft awry…”

This is actually one of my favorite sayings; seems appropriate most of the time.

Of course, I could also reference the Grateful Dead and say “what a long, strange trip it’s been.”

I’ve been having a difficult time with my titles. Not only the complete album title, but the titles of the individual tracks. The original working title, as you may recall, is Painting, referring to the fact that the pieces on the album were to be musical sketches or portraits of places, ideas, feelings, relationships, etc. That may or may not still be the case, but it seems that the ‘model’ I’m painting is wearing different clothes…

The original concept of the album was about relationships: to each other, to nature, to spirituality. My idea was to come to this lovely rural setting at ARTErra in Portugal to write esoteric music that communed with nature and dealt with Transcendental spirituality…

…well, that didn’t happen.

You know what happened: I started composing very intense jazz fusion music instead. I even started writing these pieces with the original titles that I had in mind, but that didn’t change how the music evolved…my esoteric titles about nature and relationships quickly became obsolete, and inappropriate…

It really didn’t hit me until a couple of days ago: I came to rural Portugal to create an album that for all intent and purpose is a love letter to New York City…

…funny, ain’t it?

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder”…another oldie but goodie…

So here I am, in the most idyllic and Arcadian of setting writing the most intense and aggressive music I have ever written.

Which leads me to my titles…once I came to grips with this fact, the titles were able to work themselves out (with a lot of help from me and a scratch pad and pencil…). My lovely Edenic titles like The River and Spring became more appropriately Broadway Boogie and Ruthless on 2nd Avenue.

[Side note: Speaking of Edenic, there's an "after the Fall" joke just begging to be told here--the implications and parallels are frightening, aren't they?]

But I’m now OK with it, really. I was feeling very unsettled about the whole project, but I’ve learned to (ahem) “Let it Be”…

The album title? I don’t know…maybe that will change, too…I need another week or so to work that one out.

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But onto my last day trip!

On Wednesday I took a trip to Porto, the major city in the north of Portugal.

In all honesty, there is a certain vibe that all ‘second cities’ have. The main cities in a country are usually bustling international centers. The second cities have learned their role, become comfortable with it, and take on an air of a big city with small city values; the quality of life is usually extremely higher, albeit a tad boring. One loves the excitement and energy of a New York City, a Moscow, an Athens, but the draw of quality of life in a Boston, St. Petersburg, or Salonika (Thessaloniki) is quite appealing, as well. It’s easier to live there…you can breathe.

Porto is beautiful, reclining on the Duoro River and basking in its charming splendor. Needless to say, this is also the center of Port production, of which I indulged at the Sandeman factory (and museum!). But, the city is just lovely to walk and relax in and take in the scenery. This was a much needed break from the intense, daily grind of my work here.

I’ll let the photos do the talking for me.

Until Soon,

Demetrius

Avenida dos Aliados and City Hall

Torre dos Clerigos

View from the Torre dos Clerigos

View from Ribeira

View from Gaia

Attention: we have found the motherload...

Typical city street

Trecking up to The Se

The Se

So today, it happened…

Over the last couple of days, I have been listening to the tunes (well, midi realizations of the tunes, somewhat arranged) of what I have written. I was starting to become of two minds about this project. The issue was that balance was missing…I seem to have written pieces that were falling into two categories: some more rock/fusion oriented, others more new age/esoteric. The problem was that there was no flow to the tracks in and out of each other; the adjacent tracks were too different, thereby undermining any sense of a unified artistic whole…I was starting to get frustrated…I mean, I *like* everything I’m writing–really like everything–but how to bind them into one, complete statement?

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Rewind to the early 90′s: I am spending a week with my closest friends from high school–granted, we were in our mid-20′s by this point; but we were all still close–up on the New Hampshire sea coast. Now, I won’t bore–or frighten!–you with the details of that week, which was probably run-of-the-mill for guys in their mid-20′s in a resort area (this is a family show, after all…) but I will say that a series of ‘recreational events’ led to the creation of this little bass-line–a little funk bass-line–that for the last 20 or so years has decided to occasionally pop in and out of my psyche…

Fast-forward to my first week at ARTErra: I’m reclining on my bed, between working on things, and I hear this insipid little bass-line knocking on my consciousness…knock…knock…”Who is it? Oh…it’s you…OK, well, come on in for a bit”…the funny thing that occurred to me is that I never wrote the bass-line down before, so then I did. It’s actually quite tricky and syncopated, so I had to think about it for a minute. I played it on my computer a few times, and went back to work on my other tunes.

This morning…after a long day yesterday and a long frustrating night (until well after 2AM) listening and listening over and over and not being happy about the record’s balance, I woke up to this little bass-line…knock…knock…

OK, fine…you wanna hang around and play with the big kids? Let’s see what you got!

So…I started playing around with it. It’s actually quite catchy. I started to think what kind of melody would work over it, and what kind of drum beat. I needed it to be hip, real hip.

I started to like what was happening…it felt right…I got excited…

After a few hours, it came together really nicely. It was definitely in the funk/fusion realm, but with a great deal of melodic/rhythmic counterpoint which throws everything off at an obtuse angle, if this makes any sense. It also begged to be placed in the middle of the CD: 4th of 7th–batting ‘clean-up,’ if you please–as a way of rotating the rest of the tunes around it. needless to say, I’m delighted.

I do find it amazing that little melodies and ideas I wrote so many years ago have been finding their ways into my current work. It’s like remembering your ‘roots’ and where you came from–this helps you see where you’re going.

But…I won’t tell you the name of the tune just yet. I really can’t–I’ll have to then explain it, which will give far too much insight and breed many questions about the ‘recreational activities’ and circumstances that created it. (shhh…I’ll tell you all later )

I will, however, add that I have been in discussion with a record label about this new CD. In fact, I edited and sent them short clips of all seven today (yep, including the one I penned today) to bring the discussions to the next level. I, of course, can’t tell you the record label *just* yet…but we both want it to work out–I will, however, give that information well before I tell you the title and explanation of the new tune…sorry…

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Tomorrow, I will head to Porto for the day to breathe in the culture of that city. I need the break–it’s been an intense weekend–and I must take day-trips like this to really experience Portugal’s culture. Being at the residency is wonderful, but we are somewhat abstracted and removed from daily life here. That, and I spend numerous hours without seeing or talking to anyone, save myself…sometimes I’ve completely missed daylight…can’t do that too often, it ain’t healthy.

I am at the moment enjoying a glass of Port in honor and anticipation of my journey tomorrow. I may even not work anymore tonight after publishing this…imagine that…

Until Soon,

Demetrius

View from my favorite work studio at ARTErra

It’s my third Saturday here at ARTErra.

The work has been going very well. I have ‘down on paper’ six pieces (or at least parts thereof) which I know will make the new CD. I feel that the magic number for this project is seven–I like the number seven–because I think that the music selections will be best in-balance with seven. I think I have an idea of what the seventh will be, but I need to see how the other six will come together. I am spending this weekend editing and arranging what I’ve got to see what I’ve got.

I am enjoying working here tremendously and I am having great fun writing the type of music that I’m writing. However, as I’ve mentioned, the entire vibe of the CD has changed, which will in-turn completely change the eventual production of it. Style of music aside, the project has gone from an ensemble recording to an entirely me-centric recording. This isn’t a bad thing, mind you, just different. Initially, I was to create this ensemble and rehearse for a couple of months since most of the music would be through-composed. The recording sessions then would’ve been the entire ensemble in the studio at the same time; the chamber-music nature of the music would demand this since success would depend upon visual communication.

Now, since everything has changed, this process becomes obsolete and unnecessary.

Considering the fusion (jazz-rock) nature of what I’m doing, and considering the fact that this CD is really about ME, after all, what I will probably do is hire session players to come in and lay the tracks down, not unlike a rock album. I can also use different players for different tracks, depending on the vibe I want. The music’s structure will be pretty concrete, and for the most part purely as a platform for me to play over. I can worry about live performances and touring after the fact.

The nature of the music I’m writing is very virtuosic on numerous levels, not the least being harmonically. I am writing music that will show me off, most especially my improvising and technique. I do have to be careful, however, to make sure that it’s not all fire and flash. I think that this is potentially an issue for many composers who are also performers. In my case–and I’ll be completely honest here with all humility aside–I have very fast and clean technique; I’m very proud of this. In my mid-20′s, I was savvy enough to realize that my technique was lacking, so I spent years (still do!) working my technique, sharpening those skills. This has served me well since many composers and producers will call on me to play virtuosic music in performances and sessions, and is also the basis why there have been so many pieces written for me as a soloist or for me within an ensemble, across all genres. I am known as a technical player, and I am constantly called on to stretch the envelope and the limits of the horn(s); this is funny considering that early on in my career my lack of technique was almost my downfall professionally. Practice does make perfect…

Needless to say, the classical composer that I most identify with is Franz Liszt.

Franz Liszt

Liszt was the greatest pianist of his–if not ANY–time. He was also a great and innovative composer and conductor; he also led a very interesting life. Liszt wrote for himself, and did it beautifully: the music was firery and virtuosic yet had incredible levels of substance far beyond most concerto or solo works written before or since. This is the standard that I aspire.

I am editing this weekend so that I can at least have saxophone parts to start working on Monday. As I said, the music is hard…real hard. My harmonic relationships sound very smooth, but are very difficult to play/solo over, which is *exactly* what I want. Even though I wrote it, I will have to spend time working out all of the possibilities on the horn; considering that I do only have the soprano sax with me, this won’t be easy. The music has all been conceived for tenor–I actually don’t think that I’ll use the soprano at all, after all–and is very ‘tenor-oriented.’ In layman’s terms, this means that trying to produce on soprano some of the ‘tenorisms’ I use will be very difficult: the horn is half the size and considerably less flexible, especially in the extreme registers. There is at least one tune that I won’t even attempt for fear of damage to myself or anyone in listening distance…I’ll wait until I get home for that one…

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On a completely different topic, I took a lovely day trip on Thursday to Coimbra: a Medieval city that was once Portugal’s capitol and is also the location of it’s oldest and most prestigious university. This is exactly what I needed to ‘get out of my head’ for a bit. The Old City is built upon a hill and is capped by the University; the modern city surrounds it. The Old City is a lovely maze of winding cobblestone streets that are at very steep grades. Climbing up to the University via this route ain’t easy, but it was fun. At the University, I got to see the newly-renovated Baroque Library (no photos allowed, unfortunately), which was breathtaking with its gilding, carved walls, and paintings…not to mention the incredible collection of old tomes. The neat thing is that one of the ways that they protect the books from insects is to care for a colony of bats in the Library: every night, they cover the delicate furniture and shelves and let the bats go to work on the insects. Brilliant, really.

I spent the rest of the day lounging about at lunch (close to 3 hours, but who’s keeping track), visited the Santa Cruz Cathedral and Monastery, and poking around the city, both old and new. I need to remember to take days like this and actually enjoy this lovely country once in a while…

Until Soon,

Demetrius

Coimbra; at the foot of the Old City

Gate to the Old City

Old City street

Old City street 2

The University

View from the main University building

View of the City

Santa Cruz Cathedral and Monastary

Inside the Monastary

Praça do Comércio (Commerce Square)

Greetings,

I want to muse about perception and the sense of belonging.

I think what has generated this topic has been my work here at ARTErra. Probably the crux of it is the type of music that I’m writing. I am writing what I’m hearing, and I am having fun doing it, but…maybe my concern is expectation; what is expected of me, from my peers and colleagues…I think I’m bothered that what I’m doing may actually be perceived as nothing but a vanity project and go no further…I mean, the music is good, really quite good, and maybe part of my perception of this project is clouded by the fact that it has been so easy to write (granted, being away from my normal over-taxed lifestyle probably has something to do with it…).

And it IS fun…but it is also causing me some existential angst…

You know, I am an improviser. I came to through-composed music from a  jazz/rock background. I have always had my career on both sides of the fence–classical and (for lack of a better term) jazz/commercial–and had taken quite a lot of grief professionally for it during the Boston-centric period of my career: the jazz guys called me classical, and the classical guys called me jazz. I saw it as making a living…it wasn’t until I started to become more in touch with the NYC scene (and eventually moving there) that I realized that what I did was purely acceptable, even lauded.

Boston is a rather small and conservative music scene…a great place to study, and greater place to leave…

But back to my dilemma:

After my first solo CD (classical), I swore never to do another classical CD; my second, however, was also classical–granted, more experimental with more improvisation, but still contemporary classical. Both of these CDs were on Capstone Records. There were numerous reasons why I did these, and many had to do with certain composers who I liked and worked with and who supported (both artistically and financially) the projects. I have no regrets, but I’ll still never do another one…

My third CD was a collection of improvisations with vocalist Galina Parfenova (Sfumato); this was a gem, but a once in a lifetime gem. It won’t (probably can’t) be repeated. And to be honest, I didn’t know what to do with the masters, but it was the end of 2009, it had been almost 3 years since my last CD, and I had to get something out, so I produced it. Even if it could be repeated or evolved, I don’t know if I would.

Which brings me to what I’m writing now. I have been wanting to do something like this for years, but maybe I’ve been afraid of perception and no longer ‘belonging’ within certain circles…of course, I never really was in any given circle, which is what makes a lot of this ambivalence very funny…I NEVER felt I belonged…sure, I skimmed the periphery of certain circles: orchestra, music theater, big band, etc., even the NYC contemporary music scene, but I never felt part of the clique…but again, I don’t think I ever wanted to…

I am a soloist…a loner, really…that’s how my career, my life, has evolved. Outside looking in…invited to all the parties, but never go…

[Side note: You know, it's funny. On Facebook there is a lot of action happening on a page dedicated to my Lowell High School graduating class because of the upcoming 25th HS reunion. I'm thoroughly enjoying the interaction with people whom I haven't seen since that time, and many whom I didn't really speak to that much then. It's interesting because sites/pages like this also create an interesting sense of belonging...very human while being very abstract...if I actually go to this reunion (which will more than likely be when I'm out of the country; these things usually are) I'll tell you if this sense is actually reality...]

Perception is a funny thing. I was discussing with my host about the village here. She said that it is 1000 years old, and also jokingly said that something “100 years is very old in America, but here, this village is 1000; Americans are babies!” My response: well, my family is from Greece; 1000 years? Please. Villages there are well over 3000…you are babies. Of course, I then related similar conversations with colleagues from Egypt…”3000? Please…you Greeks are babies!”

Reading Don Quixote hasn’t helped matters. In fact, it’s quite difficult to read because I think it hits very close to home. Artists live in a state of perpetual illusion: our perception of the world is a little different…our perception of what we do and our connection to it defines our psyche; the fact that our ties to reality are gossamer at best enhances this. The sense of delusion in Don Quixote is similar, in certain ways. I mean, we’re not clinically crazy, us creative types, but we do see the world in a very different way. What we create relates in a way to the Platonic Ideal…are we just Demiurges of our own little universes trying to put in physical terms what can’t ever be? Are we ’tilting at windmills’…?

I’d like to believe that what I’m doing with this project isn’t ’tilting at windmills’ but that it is a representation of my purest expression in a different format. I feel as if this needs to happen at this point in my life. I am actually more convinced today then yesterday; this morning, I penned what will be probably be the closing track…I’m calling it Only The Beginning…

Let’s hope so.

Yours,

Demetrius

Quiet contemplation...

Memorial Day

Since I inevitably seem to be out of the US on Memorial Day in recent years, I want to talk a little about it.

But first, my updates:

Firstly, I’m delighted to say that pianist Susanne Kessel presented a wonderful premiere of my composition jalewä for solo piano with Tibetain singing bowl (one player) on Beethoven’s own grand piano (a Graf-Hammerflügel of 1826)! This concert took place at Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, Germany. Susanne sent me this wonderful photo of the piano with my composition spread ready to play and the Tibetain singing bowl positioned accordingly:

Beethoven's Piano, "jalewa", Tibetain singing bowl; Bonn, Germany

The other thing that I wanted to muse about is my practicing sessions. It’s really quite something: sometimes, the instrument practice has been leading directly to the new compositions, and sometimes it has been completely abstracted from it, like today when I worked on technique and ‘color’ practice. It’s is interesting having only the soprano sax with me. I mean, I am basically a tenor player, and though I do actually play lots of soprano, I haven’t had an extended period of practice on only it for years, really. I also, as you know, play lots of clarinet, which one would think would make the soprano easier–it does and it doesn’t. The clarinet in many ways is much easier due to the shape of the bore and mouthpiece–it’s more exact. The soprano has the wildness of a saxophone, but also has an extremely small bore, especially at the top. Doing what would be a tenor practice routine on soprano is challenging to say the least, especially where altissimo is concerned. The challenge is fun, though. I have to work at it, but I like it.

But on to Memorial Day.

It is important to remember our history. I fear that so many Americans have lost touch with our collective history that the meanings of these Holidays that we celebrate has become lost on successive generations. As a college teacher, I don’t even want to begin to get into the lack of knowledge of history of this current generation…

Memorial Day–formerly Decoration Day–was started by Union veterans of the US Civil to not only remember and honor the fallen, but also as a ritual of reconciliation after the Civil War. Those of you reading this who are not Americans have to understand our relationship to our Civil War. The remnants of it–150 years after it began–still influence our ways and modes of thought and how we define ourselves. Many of the major domestic policies of the 20th century were a direct or indirect result of it. It is in our collective consciousness; our ‘long body’ as psychology calls it. Even if our families came to the US after the fact as mine did, it becomes absorbed into our psyche.

One of the people who wrote most eloquently about it was a very close friend and mentor of mine named Sam (Leroy) Parkins. Sam, a saxophonist/clarinetist, composer, and Grammy winning producer (for the Columbia recordings of Charles Ives, the most ‘American’ of American composers) was one of those children born in the wake of WWI and went on to serve in WWII; he passed at Thanksgiving time in 2009.  A few years back, he wrote and published this wonderful essay called The Distant Trumpet in which he recalls as a boy the number of Civil War veterans, proud but very aged, taking place in the Decoration Day ritual, and the presence of the trumpet playing Taps. He recalls his own life and service and how he remembers after only a few years the final surviving Civil War veteran, in attendance, listening for the distant trumpet…

[I have to say that I think the most difficult performance for any trumpet player must be playing Taps at a Memorial Day celebration (or at any military occasion that calls for it); I know as a fact that I wouldn't keep it together...I tear up just thinking about it...]

As an American who travels a great deal overseas, most especially to countries that are not in the West, I am always amazed by the respect that people have for the US and what we stand for: Freedom, Democracy. Many of the places that I travel to are under very harsh dictatorships where human rights is something only mentioned in movies. However, these people believe in the US, believe in the promise of freedom and aspire to have it.

Maybe we have grown lazy…we forget what we have, we forget what we have done in the past, and we forget what our service-people do for us everyday and how they are representatives of the hope and promise which is the United States.

Never forget the ideals which we promote and stand for–we must live up to these ideals if we are to remain the beacon of hope that we are…

And never forget the distant trumpet…

Blessings on this Day of Rememberance,

Demetrius

Sam Parkins and I; NYC, June 21, 2007

Memorial Day, 2011

Now, I told you that I’d be doing this regularly while I was at ARTErra, didn’t I?

I’m just making good on my promise.

However, before I jump into today’s topic, I want to announce again that tonight the wonderful German pianist Susanne Kessel will premiere my composition jalewä for solo piano with Tibetain singing bowl (one player) on Beethoven’s own grand piano!

This concert will take place at Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, Germany. The instrument is Beethoven’s Graf-Hammerflügel of 1826. Special private concert for Deutsche Rechtsanwaltskammer. The last pianist allowed to play this instrument was Alfred Brendel!

I wish her the best!

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It’s time…let’s let that cat out of the bag:

I came here to this residency to create what I thought would be a post-classical/avant-jazz/world-music mix CD…well, to put it succinctly, that ain’t happening…

What IS happening is that I am writing the music to a different kind of album…I’m going back to my roots: I’m writing funk and fusion tunes.

The ideas of the pieces are actually the same–even the titles for the most part. I mean, hey, my music skims the borders between these styles, anyways…just now I’m going fully in one direction, and instead of acoustic instruments I’m writing for me backed by electric piano, electric bass, and drumset.

And I like it…

I think part of my worry was that I had this one idea in mind and now it’s gone off at an obtuse angle…in the past few weeks, I had been listening lots to the music of my formative phase: Motown, Rolling Stones, Weather Report, Michael Brecker–and lets not forget that the better part of my career was spent playing with folks like the Funk Brothers and Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles and others in that world…I left that world a few years back, and maybe it’s time to dive back in under my rules, with a quartet and playing only my music…

But, what I’m doing isn’t rock or R&B, it’s most certainly jazz fusion–high intensity with complex harmonic relations.

…this ain’t smooth jazz, neither…

My other worry was that this was some form of mid-life crisis compensation…I don’t think so, and I hope I’m not that pathetic…

Well, that’s *that* story–I have even written the title track; if you recall, the CD was to be named Painting, and I wrote that when I arrived! I’ve sketched/written six tunes this week–which is pretty amazing even for me, I dare must say (I hope I just didn’t jinx myself…): four I’m happy with, and two not so happy with yet; I want to talk about the third and fourth ones I like.

Two days ago I took a walk to this church named Nossa Senhora do Crasto which is relatively close to the residency. The church itself only opens once a year, and the grounds are very quiet and lovely; a perfect place for contemplation and meditation. Also, only a few kilometers from the church and down in the valley is this river that was recommended to me to find.

So, on that first day, I walked and sat around the church grounds. I could just slightly hear the river down in the valley below…couldn’t see it, but the topography implied its whereabouts. I started to walk towards the sound, but after a few minutes, I started to get this tune in my head…a tune about the river…I had to (literally) run up the hill back to the residency to jot down what I was hearing–I basically wrote the entire tune in that sitting; I called it The River.

Today I went again. I passed the church and went straight down the hill in the direction of the river’s sound. I was humming the tune that I had written, as well as Shall We Gather At The River and Michael, Row the Boat Ashore. Going was difficult–I was trying to find the right path–the main road seemed to curve far away from the sound I was hearing. I kept trying to cut through brushes and paths laden with thorned bushes–lots of thorned bushes. Eventually, I got back on the main path where eventually, there was a smaller path going in what seemed like the direction I wanted. It was. In the distance, I saw a small bridge and finally encountered my river–I then tried to get close enough to the falls (which was making the noise), but it was rather tricky and dangerous, so I decided against it, but I was satisfied.

On the long walk up the hills out of the valley, the skies opened…the rain came down, baptizing the land, the trees, and me…standing there, drenched and smiling in my private and not so private epiphany, the fourth tune was born…Sweet Rain.

Until soon,

Demetrius

On the way to the Church

On the way to the Church, 2

The Church

The river valley

The intrepid--albeit ignorant--American

Not a great path choice...but I took it, anyways

The River...Halleluja

Greetings All,

Finally…I was able to get  a piece of hardware that connects my camera’s memory card to my laptop–it appears that the cable I need isn’t available in this region–so you will get the first batch of photos here, and more on my subsequent blog posts.

But first I want to talk about what’s going on here…

I’m here, in Portugal, at a rural artist residency for one month to stimulate the creative process–my creative process–to write the music for my next CD. If you know me and are reading this, you know this fact…

What you don’t know, but may have gleaned from my last post and from my twitter and facebook comments is that the direction that this music is going is not what I expected. I went into this conceiving a post-classical project with jazz elements, mainly me improvising. What is coming out, however, is something much more raw and perhaps much closer to my essence as a player and musician. I don’t want to let the cat completely out of the bag yet, but let’s just say that this initial acoustic project has become ‘switched-on’ and that I may have to trade-in my string players for some amplifiers…

Strangely too, my writing process has also morphed somewhat while here–again, it may be the nature of the music I’m writing, but still…my music (at least my more ‘through-composed’ classicalish music) traditionally has been very melodically based with little harmonic motion, if any; heck, the piece I just wrote for Susanne Kessel is basically only a Bbm6 chord; simple and meditative. I am writing some very complex harmonic relations right now. I’m also taking a more pure jazz approach and starting with these chords/harmonic relationships and expanding from there, rather than basing it on melody or form. Very different for me, but it’s generating some interesting results.

Rhythm is very essential to all of my music, but what I’m writing now is very groove-based.

I will also say that in only a few days I have five ‘tunes’ down on paper–still in the working stages, believe me–and I am very happy with three of them. As i mentioned earlier, I will more than likely write a number of pieces and then decide later what may or may not work for this project.

I also have to be very careful and allow myself ‘break time’…I can see me falling into a pattern of constant working and not giving myself the downtime I need to recharge the batteries. I do get into very intense work-modes in which I tend not to emerge from until I’m completely finished with my given task; again, not particularly healthy. I was awake working until 4AM the other day…

I also have to remember to carry paper and pencils with me…today as I was walking, I had an idea and had to run back to the residency to write it down…this is a story for my next blog, which will posted very soon…

So…here are some promised photos:

Morning from balcony

View of garden from my work-space

View down the street

Artist work studios

Grounds and garden

Grounds and garden 2

Critters

Main residence house

My new friend Balzac...he greats me every morning

First traditional Portuguese meal of the trip

‘Til (very) soon,

Demetrius

Hi All!

So…I made it!

The trip itself was actually quite easy: two flights (NYC-London; London-Lisbon) and a 3-1/4 hour bus ride from Lisbon to Viseu. I have to say that Virgin Atlantic was probably the most comfortable–and friendly!–overseas flight that I have ever taken. No issues whatsoever with my saxophone, the seats very mostly comfortable, all and all a good experience–kudos to them!

So, ARTErra is just beautiful! A lovely Arcadian setting, with artist studios, a vegetable garden, and numerous chickens, ducks, and bunnies. Portugal itself is just a lovely country full of kind people: beautiful rolling hills, gardens, everything has that Mediterranean orange/green/white thing happening…you know what I’m talking about. Micaela Ferreira, the director and owner of the residency is not only a kind and brilliant supervisor, but also Portugal’s main voice-over actress; she is the Portugeuse voice of ‘Casper the Friendly Ghost’…I mean, how cool is that?

The other artist here with me right now is NYC-based film-maker Noe Kidder who is working on a short film while here. We very may well do something here together in the next day or so…so be ready…

I have to admit that I had–and still really have–no idea what to expect of this experiment of ‘forced creativity.’ I mean, in all my many years as a professional artist, I never applied for an artist residency. I mean, sure, I’ve been resident artist at many international festivals and at conservatories and what not, but I never applied to create my own project–in this case my next CD–in a new location to stimulate artistic, oh, creativity.

I think I’m prepared…

I brought manuscript paper, pencils, computer, soprano saxophone…that”s good!

I brought a month’s worth (with obvious laundry expeditions) of clothing…I do, however, have to admit that it occurred to me yesterday that my entire wardrobe consists of blues and various olive colors…maybe that’s odd?…I am happy to report that my wardrobe is not overwhelmingly black like many of my colleagues–granted, much of that is for professional reasons, and it’s just easier to wear black most of the time. Plus, it does give this ‘New York City Hip’ vibe…what do blues and olives say about me, I wonder…? May need a fashion expert’s advice here…anyone???

I also brought the Edith Grossman translation of Cervante’s Don Quixote. Maybe I meant this as a subconscious sick and twisted joke; maybe I thought that after a month of working that I’d be ’tilting at windmills’…I had/HAVE no idea…

But, as of now (knock on wood) this experiment has gone well. In the first 2 days, I sketched 3 pieces; two of them I like very much and the other I may easily learn to. Instead of writing today, I edited to see what I had written…it is good. If I actually keep up this rate, I’ll have the music for the CD done by week’s end. What I’ll probably end up doing is writing a number of tunes, then wade through what I think may work best for this CD project and ‘file’ the others for future usage. Or, I could say ‘to Hell with it!” and make a double album like they used to do in the 70′s, complete with album-jacket poster.

The main issue that is intriguing me may or may not have to do with the idyllic setting (although communing with Balzac the turtle seems to be improving my worldly disposition exponentially: more on him on a later post) : all truth be told, the music that I have been writing (and hearing in the dark corners of my brain…) has absolutely NOTHING to do with what I planed on composing…totally different, and I mean totally! Maybe I’m feeling nostalgic and want to get back to my ‘roots’; maybe it’s all of the music that I have been listening to lately having a profound influence on my psyche (I did listen to the Rolling Stones’ Beggar’s Banquet and Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On numerous times on the flight to London…but that’s all I’ll give you…for now…); I mean, it’s wild…odd…but I’m running with it and we’ll see what comes of it…

…more on that later…and I’ll be writing lots in the weeks to come…

Speaking of which, in my grand organizational scheming I forgot the cable that connects my camera to my laptop, so I can’t post photos just yet…but will within a couple of days when I get a new cable.

So…I will leave you with a photo (taken via Blackberry) of the view from my balcony on my first morning here; quite something, isn’t it:

View from my balcony; ARTErra

‘Til Soon!

Demetrius

Hello All,

So…I have finished my semester commitments at Five Towns College, just in time to start my 48-hour whirlwind preparation for Portugal. My semester was a busy one, but also successful. I know that we are being advertised–and that some of us are being featured–in an upcoming issue of Chamber Music America, and that the College has requested that Jazz Times interview me personally for an upcoming article on film-scoring. That, plus the fact that the College is commissioning me to write a new choral piece for them are good signs for continued success in the future.

On Thursday, I leave for Portugal to begin my month-long artist residency at ARTErra Residences Rurais Artisticas (notice my photo and write-up in their blog). The goal of this residency, as you all know, is to compose the music for my new CD, which I will entitle Painting. I want this music to be about relationships: human, to nature and environment, to spirituality, to our times. Ideas have begun to creep into my consciousness…some are being rather insistent about it. The interesting thing is to see what will actually happen; will the ideas stay to the fore and evolve into fully bloomed works, or will they dissipate when I am engaged in a completely different environment that will influence (I don’t want to utter the overused word ‘inspire’) new ideas to take shape? Who knows?

And getting back to ideas, I have a ‘sound’ in mind that I went into this project with–not only a musical sound, but one of color…instrumentation. I have a band together of colleagues who are interested and willing to record with me; a septet (instrumentation a secret for now). The sound is like my recent music: modal, a melodic mix of post-classical and jazz improvisation and world music elements. Very me. However, there is this nagging sensation of wanting to go back to my roots and doing a funk/soul album with vocals…trying to beat that one back, but with all of the good wine and fish and sunshine, I don’t know what is going to come out of it all…it will be an adventure, though…it’s *always* an adventure…

The real adventure will be to see if I can handle peace and quiet to work. I live in NYC…I like dirt and noise, after all…

Speaking of adventure, once again I have to deal with traveling with an instrument plus the added issue of taking a laptop. I wish I could take my new tenor, but, alas, there’s just no way they’ll let me on with that with all of the regulations now (which change from airline to airline and from country to country). I was going to only take my flute, which I thought would be a calming influence since I had such an intense playing season, but I’ll be playing exclusively (I think…see above paragraph…) saxophone on this album, and the people at the residency tell me that everyone is expecting a solo concert or two of saxophone music, so I’ll bring my soprano sax, which I know will be on the CD (I think…again see above…) and it’s in the same key as the tenor, just an octave higher.

My concern for traveling actually had me check out the possibility of purchasing a curved soprano sax since they can fit in most carry-on luggage…yes, I know…after looking at one and holding it…yes, they’re like a cute little teapot…but…I couldn’t…especially after hearing the snickers from my colleagues…I mean, I’m 6′ 3″…it just doesn’t look or feel right…yes, image IS everything, I’m afraid…

And speaking of images, Grammys, Grammys, Grammys…what *are* you doing?

As you see, numerous categories, including Latin Jazz in entirety, Chamber Music, Best Classical Album, most American Roots Music, and distinctions between male and female vocalists no longer seem to exist.

There has been backlash, most of it coming from the Latin Jazz community–God bless them–but I haven’t heard much from the classical community, who seem to still be wallowing in the misery of orchestral bankruptcies to raise their weary heads in protest.

I’ll link this again because it’s important!

From what I gather, the final push for this revamp came when Esperanza Spalding won for Best New Artist over Justin Bieber, whom I *refuse* to link to. The supposed fury was that the Grammys ‘were out of touch with reality’ (mostly from the ones making money off of Bieber) and that things had to change…hence the elimination of 31 categories.

Now, artists in fringe forms…everything save pop, it seems–who had some chance of recognition have been denied this opportunity. I am angry on numerous levels, not the least being the fact my colleagues (and myself, mind you!) have been edged out of any international award recognition for our recordings. This also makes me want to reconsider my recording project somewhat now that Chamber Music, Jazz Instrumental, and World Music categories are eliminated–all of the categories I could be in. Of course, what else am I going to do? Call up Bieber and say “hey, let’s do a bubblegum pop album for the over-40 crowd”…uh, no…

So I’ll carry on as planed, of course…the adventure…

Next time you hear from me–and it will be soon–will be my blogging from Portugal. I will be updating regularly about the creative process to give you insight into my psyche…man, that’s scary…

Yours,

Demetrius