Posts Tagged ‘Wirechoir’

March 28th, 2011

Just a few Wirechoir pix…

No Comments, Music, by Eric Jensen.

Here are a few shots from the Wire­choir record­ing ses­sions this month. Thanks to all the incred­i­ble musi­cians and espe­cially Terry Carter for mak­ing it all hap­pen! Look for the CD and DVD coming soon…

Gui­tarist Bran­don Bern­stein pays trib­ute to the late, great, Jimmy Wyble in this beau­ti­ful ver­sion of Sammy Kanh’s, I’ll Be See­ing You. Bran­don has a new release com­ing out fea­tur­ing him­self, Aaron Shragge (trum­pet), Matt Otto (tenor), Greg Leisz (pedal steel/dobro), Ryan McGillicuddy (bass),  & Jason Har­nell (drums) play­ing the music of Tom Waits. Look for a full review here. Enjoy!

Mas­ter gui­tarist Sid Jacobs demon­strates two line impro­vi­sa­tion tech­niques devel­oped by the late, Jimmy Wyble. Jimmy’s con­tri­bu­tions to the art of gui­tar play­ing have influ­enced gui­tarists around the world, but par­tic­u­larly in Los Ange­les where he was best known. Sid is a world renowned per­former and teacher who has incor­po­rated Jimmy’s wis­dom into his own amaz­ing style. He will be part of a trib­ute to Jimmy com­ing up in April at Vitello’s in Stu­dio City. Look for Sid at upcom­ing Wire­choir gigs and on the LA club scene. Enjoy!

OK, Ebow fans…this is the clip you’ve been wait­ing for. At about 1:10 Ken demon­strates the pre­pared gui­tar tech­niques involved in Rob Wannamaker’s piece, ‘Parallels’…slides, Ebow, hair scrunchies, and BBQ skewers…I love it! Head­ing into the clip I had asked Ken about the meter and tempo of the piece. To the lis­tener it appears to have no time; a float­ing con­tin­u­ous ensem­ble chord; the inner voices grad­u­ally shift­ing the tonal­ity. Check this one out…

In Part 5 of our con­ver­sa­tion Ken Rosser describes each of the pieces from the Shadow Lan­guage Gui­tar Quar­tet debut per­for­mance… Fol­low Me by Paul Lan­sky Amer­i­can Thighs by Bet­sey Biggs Time Enough by Mick Goodrick Par­al­lels by Rob Wan­na­maker and finally… Motor­mouth by Fred Frith Ken describes the musi­cal char­ac­ter of each com­po­si­tion and the unique chal­lenges pre­sented by the per­for­mance techniques.

In this clip Ken Rosser describes how he picked the pro­gram for the Quartet’s debut performance…

In part 3 Ken describes how he came up with the name for the group…

In this 2nd chap­ter of my inter­view with Ken Rosser we dis­cuss the unique require­ments of an elec­tric gui­tar ensem­ble and the strengths each of the other play­ers brings to this group. Shadow Lan­guage Gui­tarists: Ken Lasaine Kevin Tier­nan Andre LaFosse

The Shadow Lan­guage Gui­tar Quar­tet is an elec­tric gui­tar ensem­ble orga­nized by gui­tarist Ken Rosser. This extra­or­di­nary group of musi­cians recently debuted at the Eagle Rock Cen­ter for the Arts in Los Ange­les, per­form­ing pieces by Paul Lan­sky, Bet­sey Biggs, Mick Goodrick, Rob Wan­na­maker, and Fred Frith. Elec­tric gui­tar ensem­bles are some­thing I have always been involved with. The instrument’s icon­o­clas­tic nature makes it a ver­sa­tile tool in the hands of a skilled com­poser and an excep­tional ensem­ble. In this chap­ter Ken dis­cusses his long­stand­ing inter­est in gui­tar cham­ber music and the ori­gins of this group. In the chap­ters that fol­low he dis­cusses the other musi­cians and the reper­toire of their debut gig. In the final chap­ters Ken demon­strates some of the unique tech­niques involved in Rob Wannamaker’s piece and gives us a taste of Mick Goodrick’s music.

Per­form­ing tonight (2–7–10) at The Eagle Rock Cen­ter For The Arts…7 pm. Here’s a clip of Ken check­ing out my Ran­som Tele at today’s Wire­choir rehearsal… Updated 2-10-2010: The con­cert was fab­u­lous. Stay tuned for an in-depth video inter­view with Ken…