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Tuesday, 9 March 2004
Hassan Hakmoun ::
A friend is in S.F. for a conference, so this afternoon we made a quick plan to go out and hear some music tonight (Monday). SF Gate’s online music listings are pretty minimal, but I Googled the names of some of the acts performing in S.F. and got lucky. We ended up at the Great American Music Hall to see Hassan Hakmoun. He told the audience that what he was playing was “Gnawa [Moroccan] music, trance and healing.” It was all that and more. Stunning musicianship all around—even when they would repeat a simple phrase for minutes, the phrasing and accents were constantly evolving, sometimes accelerating, shifting gears on a dime in perfect unison.
Burst ::
The piece I’ve been working on for 6 weeks now was weighing on me; after the cool piano solo, I was still stuck. I had three and half more minutes of synth improv, clearly restating and elaborating its earlier themes. But nothing more. I’d just gotten some really nice feedback on an earlier piece and this one seemed to be saying, “nice, but I might turn out even better.” I declined a chance to go out Friday night, and made no plans for Saturday. ...