May 2012
4 posts
No Curator - June 3, 2012
This Sunday’s session will not be curated and will instead be devoted entirely to jamming. Bring your instrument and that song in your heart.
See you there!
<3,
Racer Sessions
Hamilton Boyce - May 27, 2012
Eraser Sessions
The main concept for this Racer Session is to use variation in lushness and density as a musical tool.
Sometimes I find myself establishing one level of density for a piece and either remaining at that level or adding to the density. I noticed though, when listening to music, that some of the moments that I find most exciting and powerful are when elements of the piece are removed...
Kevin Glasel - May 20, 2012
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The way that I wish to approach this Racer Session is inspired by my experiences shopping and working at record stores. Since the age of 16 I have been an avid supporter of local shops and physical media. There is nothing like the feeling you get picking up a new band solely on a recommendation from an employee or finding that one album you have been in search of for...
Aaron Otheim - May 13, 2012
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Andrew Swanson, Natalie Hall, Abbey Blackwell, and I will present an improvised piece we performed at Town Hall a couple weeks ago for their third annual May Day New Music concert. I composed the structure of the piece in an attempt to frame and showcase the individual improvisational approaches of each musician, as well as to represent the style and manner of freely...
April 2012
5 posts
Cameron Peace - May 6, 2012
Music For Duos
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Amidst all of the possible ways in which individuals and instruments are combined to make music, I’ve recently discovered that one of my favorite configurations to listen to and also to participate in is the duo. I find this is especially true when it comes to improvised music. That is not to say I don’t enjoy other group sizes, however I think that there is...
Abbey Blackwell - April 29, 2012
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As many of you may know, I am a primarily classical musician. Someday I want to be in some big orchestra playing Beethoven and Strauss and Mozart and all that stuff. Until about a two years ago, I only did that. I sometimes dabbled in straight ahead jazz, but never improvised, never composed, nothing. So the past few years of attending the Racer Sessions and going to UW...
Neil Welch - April 22, 2012
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5-Section phase piece for 2 saxophonists and 2 percussionists
In solo music I compose on my horn, but when writing for a larger ensemble I find myself split between my horn and the piano. I’m a terrible piano player, so I always find it odd that I choose to spend so much time writing on this instrument. In my solo compositions/improvisations I try to create a sense...
David Balatero & Brandon Lucia - April 15th, 2012
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Communication is a part of life. People communicate. With inventions like the internet, cell phones, Facebook, etc. communication is more implicit and more pervasive than ever before: we are always communicating with one another, and we often are unaware of it. For example, while you may not know it, your computer is almost continuously chatting away to all the other...
Jargon - April 8, 2012
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Jargon is a collective quartet focusing on original composition. On April 8th we will be presenting a set of of all original material at Cafe Racer. These compositions utilize melody, harmony, and form. Each serves as a parameter which we improvise within as soloists and as an ensemble.
Jargon is interested in exploring:
The relationship between improvisation within the...
March 2012
4 posts
Kristian Garrard - April 1, 2012
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“Cupid Boy”
By Kristian Garrard
*** Warning, get there early, the piece may or may not begin before 8pm, just so you know ;) ***
I decided not to focus on any one musical element or theme in composing this piece, rather I just went with intuition and let the elements fall into place. The piece is organized as a list of events with cues played by different...
Realization Orchestra - March 25, 2012
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SONIC RESIDUE
We were very pleased with the results of the Pungent Blast-themed Racer Session that we curated when we last played in Seattle this past July, so we’ve decided this time around to focus our attention on a more slippery yet similarly crucial aspect of music improvisation…
1. We ask everyone to consider the inherently theatrical aspects of improvised...
Kate Olson & Naomi Siegel - March 18, 2012
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Committing to the creative process.
As professional musicians receiving an overflow of input working in this city, we can easily lose sight of our own individual creative processes. We both play in multiple bands and teach a plethora of students, and while these experiences are inspiring in their own right and serve as mediums for our artistic sensibility, we feel the...
Levi Gillis - March 11, 2012
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I will be presenting two pieces I have composed for a new quartet project. Joining me will be Cameron Sharif, Jarred Katz and Mark Hunter. The idea for this group is to serve as a vehicle to experiment with various concepts in improvisation and composition that I have been interested in recently. Many of these improvisational concepts have arisen in the context of the...
February 2012
4 posts
Jen Gilleran and GRID - March 4th, 2012
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GRID: gregg keplinger, sean lane, cj stout, andrew rudd, erica carlson, kate olson, neil welch and jen gilleran.
GRID aspires to create an environment in which everyone’s ideas can be expressed. this group makes amazing choices and better ‘mistakes’ because i think fear and insecurity are accepted and confidence is born out of that. i love that i have...
Aaron Otheim - February 26th, 2012
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We will explore ways of cultivating melodic and harmonic control during free improvisation.
Melody and harmony are meant here strictly in terms of pitch. The nature of free improvisation makes it difficult to coordinate and structure melody and harmony in a manner similar to that of a pre-composed work. Despite this, they remain a compelling sources of musical tension and...
Stratic - February 19th, 2012
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Stratic is an improvising trio based in Oakland, CA. The group is made up of Aram Shelton (saxophone and processing), Michael Coleman (keyboards and electronics) and Alex Vittum (percussion). The trio’s approach to improvising combines elements of free jazz, post-rock and noise music. Through the combined use of acoustic instruments and electronics, the music treads...
Andrew Olmstead - February 12th, 2012
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I’ve played piano for about ten years, but more recently started learning guitar. By removing previous technical facilities developed on keyboards, I find myself oddly more capable of connecting to my music. Plucking strings and sliding around the fretboard, music feels different through the electric guitar. The instrument is no longer stationary, it moves with me, and...
January 2012
5 posts
Natalie Hall - February 5th, 2012
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I read somewhere that the humans have a tendency to turn judgments into law or pertaining to religion, judgments into divine commands. All too often, I will listen to string players on the radio or in a live performance, I am bugged by what I perceive is a flaw. Whether it is intonation, tone or technique, the flaw immediately clouds and classifies my listening experience...
Simon Henneman - January 29th, 2012
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The Blues: not as a structure, but as an experience, for lack of a better term.
You know, I’ve been thinking about this for a long time now, I had a whole other thesis and many examples including rebetika, shaker hymns, Ayler, and a bunch of other cool stuff to throw in there, but I think that this is one of those things that is so personal it makes it hard to pin down or...
Don Berman - January 22nd, 2012
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NOW meets the PAST, plus CONDUCTION
For this evening I am planning to combine live players, performing simultaneously with recorded players! My colleagues Kenny Mandell and Kate Olson will be joining me as we revisit a recording by VOICES, one of Kenny’s past projects. Over two decades past, VOICES sounds like it could have been played at Racer last week! We will...
Neil Welch & Two-Year Anniversary Festival -...
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Racer Sessions is turning TWO, and to celebrate, we’re hosting THREE days of live music at Cafe Racer, featuring Table & Chairs artists and groups, some of whom originally premiered their music for Racer Sessions curations. A complete schedule of performers is listed at the bottom of this post.
Read more about the history of Racer Sessions and the new T&C...
Cameron Sharif - January 8th, 2012
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If only the sun burned with a million flames the tiger we tamed and brought back to life, sitting on the edge of the bed first hand, the pale morning sun creeps up his cheek, the alarm clock empty wine glasses, behind the curtain - the rivers of lead and blood melt the stony hearts who sit in the garden’s square wearing black suits and bearing roses, the poses of our...
December 2011
3 posts
Tari Nelson-Zagar - January 1st, 2012
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Hi Racers - tonight I’m working with transportation, cycles, and pitch layers. Here’s some background: I was 10 or 11 when my father (a piano tuner) taught me how to hear beats when he was tuning, and how the lowest strings on a spinet lacked a fundamental (they’re too short to create one!), but they project the sense of a fundamental through the presence...
Evan Woodle - December 18th, 2011
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For this installment of the Racer Sessions, I have composed a piece of music heavily inspired by Indonesian gamelan. Joining me in its performance will be King Tears Bat Trip.
Since its inception a little over a year ago, the essential sound of KTBT has comprised a fusion of Haitain Vodou music and free jazz, with the latter style being most notably in the vein of Albert...
Maria Mannisto - December 11, 2011
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The most important aspect of an opera singer’s training is gaining the technique necessary to be heard over a large orchestra through the entire range of the singing voice. By learning to control breath pressure, relax the larynx, and manipulate the resonating chamber inside the throat and mouth, a singer can cultivate the singer’s formant (a peak of spectral energy at...
November 2011
5 posts
Luke Bergman, December 4th, 2011
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Lately at Racer Sessions I have been focused on improvising with a simple approach: beginning to play without planning anything and taking whatever it is that I play in the first couple seconds and using only that idea for a long time. I like to think about stretching the phrase length out to infinity and developing my initial idea with a rate of change that’s very...
Ivan Arteaga - November 27th, 2011
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I do not consider myself any form of composer, and hardly think of myself yet as a student of composition even though I just started composition studies at the UW. I realize however, that the way in which I think about music and improvisation - even how I’ve been rehearsing in the past - is very compositional. For my session, essentially I am going to share the work I’ve...
Brandon Lucia - November 20th, 2011
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I will be presenting two new pieces of music this week.
No Air, Movement 3: Light and Motion
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When I last curated the Racer Sessions about 6 months ago, I presented a piece called No Air. No Air was written for the Chango, which is a program that I made...
Brennan Carter - November 13th, 2011
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Greetings!
Recently, when sitting down at the piano I have been really drawn to the sounds of polytonality. I would like to explore these sounds in ways other than my left and right hand, and include other musicians. I will have a structured form for a poly tonal “free” piece. The instruments will be divided into bass instruments and treble instruments, each...
Greg Campbell - November 6th, 2011
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We’ll be doing two pieces, each inspired by ideas from different composers.
The first piece has two inspirations. The first is Henry Threadgill, who has offered the compositional world many ideas over the last forty years or so, and I’m borrowing only one — the ideas of pairs within a larger ensemble, creating tiny “sections.” (Others have...
October 2011
6 posts
Jared Borkowski - October 30th, 2011
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I’ve learned that experimenting, even in the genre of “experimental music”, is a very difficult thing to do. It takes courage. I fear it, which is why I must do it. Experimenting is scary because it is so new. It’s the unknown. The more familiar you get with what is going to happen and how to navigate something, the less experimental it becomes,...
Kate Olson - October 23rd, 2011
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Kate + 8
Sometimes sound is so lush, you can wrap yourself up in it. Enjoy.
Jen Gilleran - October 16th, 2011
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“When you’re watching a performer of any art, don’t you find yourself constantly wondering about the ‘real’ person behind the art? I do, all the time. My dance reveals that ‘real’ me; and its truth, I hope, speaks to the audience.” Min Tanaka
In 1997, I had the great fortune of living for four weeks in Hakushu, Japan on a...
Endangered Blood clinic - Saturday, October 15th,...
Seattle’s new music record label Table & Chairs and the 2011 Earshot Jazz Festival are proud to present a workshop with New York-based band Endangered Blood. Where: Cafe Racer When: Saturday, October 15 - 2:00-4:00pm Cost: $10 The members of this band have been a huge inspiration for many of us here in the Racer Sessions/T&C community and it’s exciting to have them here to...
John Teske - October 9th, 2011
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For the opening piece, a number of local improvisers and I will perform a series of graphic scores I composed last year. I had been thinking a lot about where I put my attention and where we collectively put our attention; how we can have focus, lose it, and return to it. These scores are based on the idea of sound coming in and out of focus. Each improviser reads off the...
ColinResponse - October 2nd, 2011
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On Sunday night, I will be presenting a solo concert that I feel represents a culmination of a slew of ideas that have been kicking around in my head since I came to college. First and foremost, it is a combination of several of my musical pursuits, namely beatboxing, trombone, and 8bit composition. Along with a looper, my goal is to create a sea of shifting textures...
September 2011
3 posts
Liam Fitzgerald - September 25th, 2011
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Opening Piece
In the opening piece, I’ll be performing on a vibraphone, along with a pre-recorded track. I started experimenting with this technique for a past performance, in order to “fit the most show in a small space.” The piece is called “up to out.”
Despite weaknesses to this practice (such as the inability to changes the song’s structure live, and especially...
Chris Icasiano - September 18th, 2011
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Neil Welch and I have been performing in the drum and saxophone duo Bad Luck for nearly four years. In performance, we utilize a live looping station and various effects pedals that allow us to create a wide range of sounds and textures. In the amount of time we have been working on this project, our approach to the electronic effects has evolved in a way that has made...
Ray Larsen - September 11th, 2011
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I awoke some 6 or so months ago very early in the morning in the house where I spent the first 18 years of my life. As if acting out some surreal pre-destiny, I found myself drawn in the direction of my bathroom from which a faint and unfamiliar sound was drifting. I found it emanating from the duct in the ceiling. The sound was delicate, airy, and rich with harmonics. I...
August 2011
5 posts
Neil Welch - September 4th, 2011
Texture as Composition
When I set out to compose a new piece on paper, I’m often pulled one of three ways: I choose rhythmic, melodic or harmonic action as a guiding force. After spending some time considering why this might be, I’ve come to believe that any one of these three routes explores fundamentally identical areas. Though one may seem to play a larger part, I argue that it’s impossible...
Steve Kim - August 28th, 2011
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The Frame “The most important thing in art is the frame. For painting: literally; for other arts: figuratively - because, without this humble appliance, you can’t know where The Art stops and The Real World begins. You have to put a “box” around it because otherwise, what is that shit on the wall?” - Frank Zappa This week I’d like to employ a different...
Andy Clausen - August 21st, 2011
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Context for the Piece:
On a recent trip to California I took a walk on a beach I know extremely well; a place I have experienced dozens of times in 18 years worth of holidays spent in this small community. An insomnia-fueled impulse brought me down to the beach around midnight, after my family had drifted to sleep. The experience of walking alone along the moonlit shore was...
Natalie Hall - August 14th, 2011
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“[I design from the side,] that way I get the worst angle of the body. You’ve got the lumps and bumps, the S-bend of the back, the bum. That way I get a cut and proportion and silhouette that works all the way round the body.”
“Beauty can come from the strangest of places, even the most disgusting of places.”
– Alexander McQueen –
Two works for solo cello.
With...
Andrew Olmstead - August 7th, 2011
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I enjoy creating music out of limitations. My philosophy right now is to make music out of what you have. Turns out I really like the way a broken Casio MT-240 sounds through a crappy laptop sound card. My $5 toy speaker is my most useful preamp, because it compresses ridiculously high audio signals and saves my expensive speakers. This limited set of equipment has opened...
July 2011
4 posts
Wayne Horvitz - July 31st, 2011
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Wayne Horvitz - Electronics
3 new compositions:
With:
Chris Icasiano - Drums Mark Taylor - Alto Sax Neil Welch - Tenor Sax Craig Flory - Clarinet and Tenor Sax Riley Mulherkar - Trumpet Maria Mannisto - Voice Geoff Harper - Bass
Carol Weber - July 24th, 2011
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Creating a Space for Voice
(And Deconstructing the Voice/Instrument Binary)
When people used to ask me in musician-type settings what I play, I used to say “I just sing”. I just sing. As if I merely sing, or as if I barely do music. I just sing. How and when did my conception of voice as primary instrument become a shameful thing? The voice is where humans make...
Stupid Man Suit & Realization Orchestra - July...
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Short and Sour - Stupid Man Suit and Realization Orchestra (L.A. / CalArts)
First of all, we really appreciate the chance to curate a racer session. We are excited to share our scene with yours and meet/play with some great improvisers. This will be the 15th stop on our debut west coast tour - two bands touring together as a double bill. Playing progressive music to a new...
Ross Hammond - July 10th, 2011
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Hi everyone. I’ll be fairly brief in discussing our Racer Session. Playing music for me has always been about the message conveyed instead of merely the notes played. My favorite music, whether it’s James Brown, Ali Farka Toure`, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Sonic Youth, Jimi Hendrix, Curtis Mayfield etc. has a common element of trying to influence the listener...
June 2011
5 posts
Don Berman - July 3rd, 2011
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Sharing some of what we have ASSIMILATED in our playing:
Hi everybody. First off, I am grateful for this opportunity to curate an evening at the Racer. During my time in Seattle playing music, I have never encountered a scene quite like the Racer Sessions! It reminds me of the stories of actors like Brando and Pacino, discussing their acting studio years in NYC, earlier...
Evan Woodle - June 26th, 2011
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For this session, I have composed a small series of concise and disparate musical ideas that are to be bridged by extended stretches of improvisation. The inspiration for this idea has a couple sources in particular. The first has to do with my recent encounters with similar forms of improvisation. A concert of music by Tim Berne I performed in this last Spring quarter...