update 12/2/09

it has been a long time since I've written here. So here is what's happening over the next few weeks [sent out to my email list]:

Hello everybody!

I have a number of things happening within the next month or so centered around the east coast that I wanted to mention. Organized by city...

in NYC:

12/3 - with Tim Berne's Los Totopos at IBeam - 168 7th St in Brooklyn. 9 pm, probably two sets
12/23 - with Los Totopos at Barbes - 9th st/6th Ave in Brooklyn. 8 pm, probably one long set
1/7/10 - Los Totopos at the Jazz Gallery - 290 Hudson St. in Manhattan. Sets at 9 and 10:30.

For the 12/23 date I'll be playing Wurlitzer, the other two will be acoustic. We've done it both ways now, it seems to work nicely either way.

in Philadelphia:

12/12 - with Tim Berne at Ars Nova Workshop - Philadelphia Art Alliance - 251 S 18th St. 8 pm, 2 sets

For the first set I'm playing a solo piano set of Tim Berne's compositions. I've been preparing for this set for about a year now!
The second set I'll be playing with Tim Berne's Adobe Probe, which for this gig will be Tim Berne, Chris Speed, Shane Endsley, Marc Ducret, Michael Formanek, Dan Weiss, and me.

You can read an interview David Adler did with Tim and me here: http://pmpmagazine.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/tim_berne_matt_mitchell/

12/19 - with Darius Jones, Tarus Mateen, and Doug Hirlinger at Ortlieb's Jazz Haus - 847 N 3rd St

very excited to add my new friend Darius Jones to the trio with Tarus and Doug!

and finally, closing out the month and year in Boston:

12/31 - with John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet at Emmanual Church Boston "First Night" Event
set times:
9:00 PM - 9:45 PM , 10:15 PM - 11:00 PM
http://www.firstnight.org/FirstNight2010/Events/Evening.aspx

I'm very excited to play with the Claudia Quintet for the first time! Trevor Dunn will also be joining the band for this gig.

On tap for the new year is the debut of my new group, which is a sextet consisting of Tim Berne [alto AND bari!], Oscar Noriega [bass clarinet], Mary Halvorson, John Hebert, and Tomas Fujiwara. I feel very fortunate to have these amazing musicians playing my music! Our first gig will be April 13, 2010. I have a couple other projects in the works too - I'll let them out of the bag when it's time...

That should do it for now. Have a great holiday season! Please let me know if you want me to remove your name from my list.

best wishes,

-mm

longtimenoblahg

lots of exciting stuff these days.

Had my first rehearsal with a new, as-yet-nameless band last week, formed specifically to try some new music of mine. The personnel is

Tim Berne - alto
Oscar Noriega - bass clarinet
Mary Halvorson - guitar
Chris Lightcap - bass
Tomas Fujiwara - drums
me - piano

needless to say - though I'll say it anyway - I'm very excited, both to have a band at all and to have one full of such amazing musicians who are willing to play some strange music.

Speaking of Tim Berne, Ethan Iverson of the Bad Plus blog has a really long, really great interview with him here:

part one: http://thebadplus.typepad.com/dothemath/2009/06/interview-with-tim-berne-part-one.html

part two: http://thebadplus.typepad.com/dothemath/2009/06/interview-with-tim-berne-part-2.html

the end of part two includes a mention of Adobe Probe [the Berne band I'm a part of] as well as a link to a video of me playing his piece Huevos Expanded at my solo gig at The Stone this past January.

gigs: next one is this coming Sunday, 6/28, at the Saratoga Jazz Festival with Ralph Alessi's band, which will also include Tony Malaby, John Hebert and Mark Ferber. Also I recently played Ortlieb's with Tarus Mateen and Doug Hirlinger, which was a huge amount of fun, easily the most fun I've ever had playing standards.

tillnextthyme.

-mm

solo concert last night went great. My brother Andrew videotaped it, if it turned out then chunks will surface web-ly.

I'm now on Twitter, my handle is 'mattmitchellus' [like this site, minus the www and the dots]. Come and twit with me if you're so inclined.

Very glad to relax for a minute and get cooking on the 'puter.

now it's time for Home Movies, though.

-mm

January

happeigh noo yere!

so the Adobe Probe gig @ the Stone 1-10-09 went off great. The place was packed, the energy was up, and the band felt great. I feel very lucky to be and have been a part of this! Met all sorts of people, was just a great time.

There's audience-recorded excerpt of the first tune, 'duck', at the Facebook page for Screwgun Records: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Screwgun-Records/52797520319

Also great fun was the previous night - I got a semi-last minute chance to play with Shane Endsley at the Jazz Gallery. Shane, of course [if you read my previous post] is in Adobe Probe with me, and we also attended Eastman together. He's an insanely great musician, both as a trumpet player and as a drummer. This was our first time playing together in about 10 years with him playing trumpet, so it was a treat. We played 5 of his tunes - also in the band were Chris Speed [also in Adobe Probe], Brad Shepik, Todd Sickafoose, and Ches Smith. So it was a great band.

Next up is my solo gig, back at the Stone, on January 21st. I play at 10 pm. I'm going to play an unrecorded piece of Tim Berne's, plus an Andrew Hill tune, I'm leaning towards 'Dedication' from Point of Departure. Please come on out!

http://www.thestonenyc.com/calendar.php

Other than that, work will resume on a couple different recordings of electronic material, one 'beat' oriented, one most definitely not so. and I hope to write a book of ['improvising'] ensemble music this year as well.

thanks for reading!