Displaying news from 1 December 2005 to 1 January 2006.

respect the preparationals - Posted on 2005-12-15 11:09:00

with two rehearsals in the respect sextet's collective pocket, the group is ready to go! on the docket for this tour are great new compositions including red wierenga's "buy my shadow a beer," a beautiful new piece by james hirschfeld, ted poor's romping "stray alligater," and my "farcical built for six."

words are spreading like filed wire about the upcoming respect gigs. here's the blurb from this week's city paper in rochester:

The Respect Sextet adds just enough swing and easy bop that by the time its free-form explorations and freak-out hit, it's way too late to turn back. But then the band throws in unison runs and harmonies amidst the dissonant brass laughter to prove there actually is a plan.

On its way-cool new Respect In You, Respect takes the listener on a trip, but the map's on fire --- and so is the band.

It's hard bop. It swings. It challenges and instigates. It delightfully confounds. This is world-class American jazz at its finest and freest. It's pure truth. Respect the truth.
-Frank De Blase


come check us out!

the wonders of the human body in transit - Posted on 2005-12-09 11:25:00

a reflective update:

recently i've been walking through the main atrium at grand central station in the mornings and evenings paying particular attention to the commuter choreography; the transiter's two-step. what draws me in is the subtlety of the whole thing: with the slightest turn of the shoulder, the gentlest twist of the torso, a barely noticeable slowing down or speeding up, the travellers manage to avoid one another (if just barely). the beauty of the grand central dance (rather than, say, a busy street tango) is the fact that with at least a dozen entrances and destinations lining the space's edge, there are enormous possibilities of angled atrium-traversing. people coming from all directions (and at rush hours, at all times) finding their way through an ever-shifting comb of worker bees, using those wordless shifts of step and tweaks of body to prevent themselves from being trampled.

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