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Friday, 4 June 2004
LA, David Arnay ::
On a bit of a whim I went to Los Angeles over Memorial Day Weekend.
Shamelessly showing off. My partner (in headphones) is making the plonky xylophone sound I’m playing in Reaktor sound really cool by playing with plugins in Live.
The main event was a workshop on getting started using laptops for music, organized by the American Composers Forum/LA. I liked hearing about what other people were doing (and were interested in doing). There were a number of people who wanted to use the computer for realtime audio signal processing of live playing. It was healthy for a jaded 18-year-user of sequencers to be reminded that everything starts live. And it was fun to show people some of the things I like about Reaktor.
C was in LA visiting her mom, so I stopped by there Saturday evening to play her Steinway B (wonderful, soft action, gorgeous tone) and go out for dinner.
I went to Disneyland with V, her daughter, and mother, on a hot Sunday afternoon. The first of many waits in many lines was surreal; “When You Wish Upon A Star” blared from loudspeakers while we waited to go through a security checkpoint. It did not look like the “happiest place on earth;” it seemed everyone was hot, tired of standing in lines amidst crowds, and simply enduring the experience because it was supposed to be memorable more than really enjoying it. I didn’t suffer from the idea that it was supposed to be wonderful so I tried to just relax, not get frustrated at the crowds, and go along for the rides, so to speak. It was fine. I went on the Matterhorn and remembered, my ride on the Superman rollercoaster at Darien Lake last fall was not my first rollercoaster ride since I was a kid; I’d been on the Matterhorn in 2001. It just hadn’t been scary enough to make an impression.
I visited David Arnay and family on Monday. After seeing him play in a band at a high school dance in 1977, I’d bought my Fender Rhodes. 18 months later I saw him playing with the Zobo Funn Band and ended up taking a few piano lessons from him. It was fun to try to give him a crash course in recording with Digital Performer—I don’t know the program. It had enough in common with Vision and Logic that I muddled my way through it enough.
This morning, my iPod picked a tune at random and I thought, that sounds like Keith Jarrett, but I don’t remember this as a Keith Jarrett piece, and the pianist isn’t quite as nimble and adventurous but has an even more profound rhythmic sense. I realized it was from David’s album, Blues ... and Then Some. Excellent.
References:
Learning my tools ( 4 June 2004)
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