Sirone

Received the following from Guerino Mazzola. For those in Berlin:

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“We Are Not Alone, But We Are Few”

We are gathering together to remember our companion in love and suffering, our soulbrother and friend, a music rebel, a music lover, the jazz bassist, bandleader, composer and actor:

SIRONE

28.9.1940, Atlanta – 21.10.2009, Berlin

We want to remember together how he lived his life in music.
How, with his fat-bellied contrabass (tenderly called "Angel") he plucked his way through the Rhythm-and-Blues of the American South; how, in New York with Albert Ayler, John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and Ornette Coleman, he railed against segregation and racial discrimination, solidifying his protest with Leroy Jenkins and Jerome Cooper in founding the "Revolutionary Ensemble"; that, without Sirone, the freedom won through American Avant-garde jazz in the 70's would never have happened.

We want to remember that devoted man on the contrabass with Afro-American-Indian genes, whose sufferings through segregation and prejudice fused into distinctly individual interpretations and compositions of melody and rhythm. That unique quality of his, which always pushed him, personally and professionally, to cross boundaries. Side by side with Cecil Taylor; later with Billy Bang and Charles Gayle. And with his Berlin formation Concord, in which he found a brand new sound of freedom once again.

We want to remember the Avant-garde jazzman from New York, who, since 1989, sought to conquer new ground in Berlin, and engaged himself in the artistic context of the German speaker. Who composed and acted for theater productions by George Tabori: who, for Werner Schroeter, stood together with his bass on the stage of the Berliner Ensemble. And who, with his wife, Veronika Nowag-Jones, continued to realize collaborative productions at home and abroad - both in Germany and America.

We want to remember that strange, vibrant man next door, a unique character in that Kreuzberg neighborhood, often seen in Görlitzer Park, performing in its clubs and cafés, or on stage at the Eiszeit-Kino.
And that distinctive face in films, seen far too seldom.
We want to remember a man taken from us, whose Buddhist mantra was his refuge.

"We Are Not Alone, But We Are Few"

– Remembering Sirone (Norris Jones) on November 15 at 16:00 in Berliner Friedenszentrum, Tempelhofer Ufer 36, 2HH, 3OG-

STEIM Blog...The Trumpet and Spatialization

The following is from the STEIM Project Blog

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“Noise Trumpet,” as some of my friends call it, is using extended techniques on the trumpet to make it sound what many people would call un-trumpet-like. The use of air as noise, valve sounds, split-lip multi-phonics, sung multiphonics, throat growls, tongue stops and modulations, changing the resonant shape of the inside of your mouth, playing more with the inside of your lips, playing more with the outside of your lips, playing with less lip pressure, more lip pressure, bouncing the lips of the mouthpiece, opening your teeth more, closing your teeth more, more air, less air, letting air escape, playing very quietly, playing very loudly, very low pitches, very high pitches, circular breathing to make constant harmonic/melodic/rhythmic textures beyond the traditional idiomatic uses of the instruments. Not to mention physically reconfiguring your instrument, taking it apart, adding mutes, tubes and more.

When mixing recordings of myself and others playing trumpet, I noticed while using a FFT visualizer during the EQ stage that, unsurprisingly, when playing notes in a traditional manner, the resonant spikes would fall into a fairly predictable pattern of overtones. And, equally not surprising, when going into extended modes of playing, the patterns of resonant frequencies would become more dynamic and complex. Yet even though it was unsurprising, somehow this was still interesting to me, which made me think, is there a way this can be used in my software patch in an improvised music setting. This question was what I explored during my STEIM residency in September 2009.

The exploration was somewhat frustrating at first, and I won’t go into tedious and somewhat academic details of that, but I did come up with a way of spatializing the resonant bands that I found interesting, and was able to incorporate into my Max/MSP rig.

The first technical question was answered by the use of “sigmund~” by Miller Puckette. I would use this object to track the fundamental frequency of what I was playing. This base pitch would then be used to set a series of seven biquad filters to divide my trumpet sound into discrete frequency bands. (“Sigmund~” is a great tool, and I was very impressed with the speed at which it would track even noisy trumpet sounds.) These discrete bands were routed into seven channels of audio, then sent into ICST’s Ambisonic externals for spatialization. In other words, I’m able to locate these channels into three-dimensional audio space. (These tools are free, so know that I’m not trying to sell you something when I say they are truly fantastic.) The spatial placement was at first pre-determined by sending patterns to the ambisonic controller, but then using amplitude and pitch following on the seven audio channels, decisions can be triggered at certain points by the software as to where the sounds would be placed, either in a pre-determined, random or other generated manner.

The idea was at first that this is something that I could use in an electro-acoustic improvised audio environment, something that would quickly respond to my sound just by playing, without me needing to exert external control over the software with my pedals, buttons, faders et al.

But this become so enjoyable to work with, that now I’m working on routing the bands of data into areas to be controlled and modified by other patches.

My residency at STEIM was a very productive and inspiring time on multiple levels. In addition to the creative/technical work mentioned above and grant writing, I was able to perform a concert with Michael Moore and Michael Vatcher (see video) and had a very nice recording session with Anne LaBerge. I also had some wonderful visitors during my residency, included violinist Johnny Chang, composer Trevor Grahl and was able to spend time working with some young Amsterdam artists and assist them in developing their own software, and talk with them about what I was working on. Dinner with the ICP at BIMHUIS two nights in a rows was a real treat, hanging with Mary Oliver, Han Bennink, Susanna Von Cannon, Thomas Heberer, Carolyn Muntz, Jodi Gilbert and lots of time with Michael Moore...what a treat. Also: big thanks to Esther Roschar for helping me get my grant out among other things, Takuro Mizuta Lippit for software and creative dialogue, Vivian Wenli Lin for the great video, Alex Nowitz for the hang-time and walking long distances to eat vegetarian with me, and Nico Bes for everything he does (which is everything). So many more people to thank for great discussions and food and music…John Dikeman, Mike Straus, Dana Jessen, Taylan Susam. Only one regret: not enough chess time with Michael Vatcher..!

Please visit me, at JeffKaiser.com

New Media Reading Group...

Friends regularly ask what I am reading here at UCSD, so I thought this might interest some of you. A friend and I started a reading group this quarter for new media theory....here are the texts, they are going to be a lot of fun. (Links take you to the books on Amazon.)

Week 1:
McLuhan, Marshall, and Lewis H. Lapham. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1994.
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man

Week 2:
Lister, Martin. New Media: A Critical Introduction. 2nd ed. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New
York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2008.
New Media: A Critical Introduction

Week 3:
Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media. Leonardo. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2002.
The Language of New Media (Leonardo Books)

Week 4:
Thackara, John. In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2005.
In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World

Week 5:
Hansen, Mark B. N. Bodies in Code: Interfaces with Digital Media. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Bodies in Code: Interfaces with Digital Media

Week 6:
Munster, Anna. Materializing New Media: Embodiment in Information Aesthetics. University Press of New England, 2006.
Materializing New Media: Embodiment in Information Aesthetics (Interfaces: Studies in Visual Culture)

Week 7:
Clark, Andy. Supersizing the Mind: Embodiment, Action, and Cognitive Extension. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Supersizing the Mind: Embodiment, Action, and Cognitive Extension (Philosophy of the Mind)

Week 8:
Dyson, Frances. Sounding New Media: Immersion and Embodiment in the Arts and Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.
Sounding New Media: Immersion and Embodiment in the Arts and Culture

Week 9:
Wardrip-Fruin, Noah. Expressive Processing: Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2009.
Expressive Processing: Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies

Blue Angels in above the house...

From my balcony...(Click on any image to enlarge)

Amsterdam 2009, Day 8-20

What an amazing time this has been in Amsterdam. Highlights (but not limited to!): playing and hanging with Michael Moore and Michael Vatcher, playing/recording with Anne La Berge, hanging with Mary Oliver, Trevor Grahl, Susanna Von Canon, Han Bennink, Carolyn Munz, Taylan Susam, Dana Jessen, Mike Straus, Sean Winters, John Dikeman, Johnny Chang, Alex Nowitz, Vivian Wenli Lin...eating at De Waaghals, The Golden Temple, Bolhoed and other great restaurants with vegan options...walking, looking, listening...a beautiful and productive time, even with the bad cold the last few days.

But the biggest thanks go to the generous spirit of Nico Bes and all at STEIM, to chats with Takuro Mizuta Lippit about work, use of the space, housing, life, music, embodiment and improvisation. And a huge continued thanks to David Borgo, for getting me over here last year: a dream made real. A great time again this year, not long enough. (Also note: I should be posting my project blog soon at STEIM on my spectral spatialization patch for improvising with trumpet...)

Jeff Kaiser, Michael Moore, Michael Vatcher @ STEIM from STEIM Amsterdam on Vimeo.

Michael Vatcher and Michael Moore
(CLICK on any image to enlarge.)


Vatcher, Kaiser, Moore


Vatcher and Moore


Vatcher


Moore


Kaiser (non)








Sint Olofskapel





?


???


What about people?


Saw this while looking for tea. Two excellent tea shops in town, Geel's and Wijs and Zonen. I'd give Geels the nod, better selection, price and quality for my taste.

A shopping mall...!


Two men wrapped in cellophane. In Leidseplein, of course.


The blue light is the moon...

At DNK Smart Projects, Yolande Harris...Now Stripe Time...On tropical rain, dolphins echolocation and the pink noise of pleasure yachts in turquoise sea. A lecture / performance with live manipulations of field recording and video. Now Stripe Time. On tropical rain, dolphins echolocation and the pink noise of pleasure yachts in turquoise sea. A lecture / performance with live manipulations of field recording and video. And...

Seamus Cater, Fritz Welch and Viljam Nybacka...The Folk Music, the Whale and the Sea...Seamus Cater - Rhodes, harmonicas, vocals...Fritz Welch - Percussion, vocals...Viljam Nybacka - Percussion, Ukulele, vocals...With songs and music, three musicians deal with the history of whaling in the 18th and 19th century sense, expanding this to include folk music and the sea. Using firsthand musical / anecdotal texts and writings of A.L. Lloyd, Herman Melville and Bas Jan Ader, DNK's Seamus Cater is joined by Fritz Welch (Human Sacrifice / Peeesseye) and Viljam Nybacka (Brown vs Brown / .man).

This was a mesmerizing, engaging set that even while being pretty downtempo totally held my attention.

Viljam Nybacka


Seamus Cater


Fritz Welch




The walk home from DNK

I love regional schnapps, so when Jodi Gilber mentioned oude genever I had to try it. Pictured: Three kopstoot. I also tried jonge, which is also delicious...

Johnny Chang, Taylan Susam and me...having oude genever


BIMHUIS


Guus Janssen and Miriam Overlach


Overlach


Cor Fuhler, Axel Dörner, Clare Cooper


At a famous Oude Genever pub on Begijnensteeg...


Unfortunately, I was still recovering from a cold so I stuck with tea, while Moore had an oude genever


Begijnhof


Begihnhof


Scottish Reformed Church at Begijnhof


Scottish Reformed Church, frequented by Van Gogh


Moore and armor


Armor


I found this interesting....hoisting a grand piano with a crane











De Waaghal's!


Farewell, Amsterdam

Slacktone! Winston, Amsterdam, 9-12-2009

Slacktone

Michael Moore and I went and saw Slacktone at Winston in Amsterdam on September 12. Sam Bolle is an old friend from Ventura's Instrumental Music. I met Dusty Watson through him some years back when Sam and Dusty were Dick Dale's rhythm section. (A gig that Sam stills holds.) I met Dave Wronski at The Lava Lounge in LA at a Slacktone gig....anyway, these guys are smoking, playing with combination of abandon, passion and great technical skill that makes their shows a blast. Highly recommended...

Dinner with Dave, Sam, Dusty, Jeff


Dave, Sam, Dusty: A portrait in jet lag


Slacktone setting up


setting up


cooking


Dave


Sam


Dusty plays fast...


faster...


even faster...


fastest

Amsterdam 2009, Day 3-6

Me with Dana Jessen and Mike Straus on the roof of their house
(Click on any image to enlarge)

It was very nice to see Dana and Mike, I met them last year at this time, when they were both here as Fulbright Scholars. They came and saw David Borgo and I play at STEIM. Things worked out, they are still here, studying and working away.

It has been a very busy time for me here, contrary to what many of my friends think, I actually did come here to work. I've been writing in the mornings and working in the studio in the afternoons. But I am finding plenty of time to explore and check out this fine city.

Friday I had a great time with the ICP. Mary Oliver invited me to dinner and the shows and I liked it so much, I went again Saturday. Great to see friends that go back ten plus years now. Michael Vatcher showed up both nights and we got lost in a good chess game. Before attending the concert Saturday, I also met my friend and fellow composer Trevor Grahl who is now studying here after completing his Master's at UCSD. Sunday, after writing, I had a nice hang with Jodi Gilbert at the Absinthe store and Michael Moore at his house...and then back to writing. Monday was a blitz day, getting documents and packages that needed to ship immediately, nutty stressful day. Today was a bit more mellow, worked in the studio all day, met with Alex Nowitz and had coffee. Nice time.

Tomorrow will be a wild day, BUT it will be a blast...ends with a trio performance of myself with Michael Moore and Michael Vatcher at STEIM. That should be fun.

More from the roof


From the roof


from the roof


Walking to the Bimhuis


more...


Bimhuis


Dinner with the ICP, that is Susanna and Han.


Michael Moore, Ab Baars, Tobias Delius, Wolter Wierbos, Thomas Heberer


Ernst Glerum, Tristan Honsinger, Mary Oliver, Han Bennink


Misha Mengelberg far left....


Mary Oliver and Han Bennink


Mary and Han


DJ Michael Moore, did a great job as DJ at the post-gig hang at the Bimhuis


Having coffee with Trevor Grahl

Amsterdam 2009, Day 1 and 2

On Herengracht, walking around the corner from the STEIM's guest house to the studios.
(Click any image to enlarge.)

I made it to Amsterdam, quite comfortably, actually. First class is even different in the trains...it was on sale for an extra twenty euro, so I splurged....well worth it for 6.5 hours...

I'm here at STEIM Laboratories for the next three weeks for an artists residency. I'll elaborate more on my project as it develops. The folks here have been awesome, as they were last year. Nico Bes is incredibly helpful, and pleasant as well. Takuro Mizuta Lippit, the artistic director, is currently in France, but has also been quite helpful via email. I'm moved in to a comfortable room in the guest house, my studio is set up. I've been able to meet and hang with interesting people, both visitors (Joe Deebs), some more involved/employed on a regular basis with STEIM (Daniël Schorno, Esther Roschar, Jorgen Brinkman, Frank Baldé, Robert van Heumen) and Fulbright Scholar John Rauss who is here developing software. Joe Deebsand I (I hope I'm spelling his name correctly) went and walked around town, had a Maoz Falafel and an incredible Belgian IPA from La Chouffe at Cafe Gollem last night...but now it is to work. I spent the morning doing a second draft of my Fulbright application, and now I'm off to meet Dana Jessen
and Michael Straus, former Fulbright recipients who said they'd go over it with me...busy day already...

My studio at STEIM, where I will be spending a lot of time the next three weeks...look at that pose....autotimer should've told me to unclasp my hands...(the large wood speaker cabs are non-functioning, but sure to look cool)


What all my photos on the train ride looked like...should have increaded the shutter speed....maybe?

Berlin 2009, Day 19-25: Farewell!

Neukölln
(Click on any image to enlarge)

I've had an unbelievable time here, I hope to return for a longer stay next year. Wrapping up with a final few pics to post before off to chess with Roy and Keith....

Great video installation! Wednesday I went and saw one of the coolest uses of space....an underground labyrinth through the large intestine of an unused public swimming pool...with video installations in every nook and cranny. I went to a party there a few weeks ago, but this was opening night for the installations...

Stadtbad Video Festival


Installation in the pool


More: Pool installation


Stadtbad labyrinth....


Stadtbad Video installation


Another shot


The bowels of the pool


The pub in the bowels


more bowels

Afterwards, caught a train to Die Remise...

Walking to Die Remise, poked my head into a skate park through an opening in the wall


At the Shillingbrücke Terrace, Die Remise's summer concert location
Keith O'Brien, Roy Carroll, Ed

Thursday nights concert at Loophole, with the FANTASTIC clarinetist Anat Cohavi, and equally wonderful accordionist Hannes Lingens and laptopist Roy Carroll. It was nice to have friends Joachim Goßmann and Johnny Chang there.

Recording mics on a chandelier at Loophole...which later came tumbling down, with no injuries....


Loophole stage


Loophole stage


Roy Carroll, Hannes Lingens, Anat Cohavi, Jeff Kaiser at Loophole

Friday, visited Ableton's offices, had a great visit with Yukio King, awesome guy who my friend Trevor Henthorn introduced me to, had an excellent chat about education, art, software, life in Berlin. I was also able to meet Jeremy Bernstein, codemeister for Cycling 74 who was also generous by taking time out of his day to chat with me, a great guy...all these folks are so interesting...!

Ableton offices

Leaving the offices, was once again struck by the sky...

Yet another shot getting on to the train at Rosa Luxemburg


Yet another shot getting on to the train at Rosa Luxemburg

Friday night gig with Keith O'Brien and Roy Carroll was SMOKING. Thanks so much to Roy for setting up all these wonderful musical experiences for me. That night also featured Liz Albee (tpt) and Clayton Thomas (contrabass), who put on a killer set, mesmerizing, beautiful stuff. It was nice to finally meet Liz after crossing paths with her for years, we have so many friends in common.

Phil setting up the recording mics at Salon Bruit, Licht Blick, Kino 77...


Roy's hands, me, Keith O'Brien


Roy Carroll


Keith O'Brien


Soundcheck at Salon Bruit


Soundcheck at Salon Bruit

The next day, chilled out with Chess and Keith at Café Manolo...

Chess at Café Manolo with Keith O'Brien

Early Tuesday morning, off to Amsterdam and STEIM. I will miss Berlin, but am looking forward to STEIM, Amsterdam and getting some work done...

Gigs tonight and tomorrow night...

'Sicilian Kaiser'
Sicilian Dragon with Jeff Kaiser
Jeff Kaiser - 1/4 tone trumpet, electronics
Anat Cohavi - bass clarinet, soprano sax
Hannes Lingens, drums, accordian
Roy Carroll - sampler
Thur 27.08.09, 22:00
Loophole, Boddinstr. 60, 12053 Berlin

'Kaiser Adaptor'
Double Adaptor with Jeff Kaiser
Jeff Kaiser - 1/4 tone trumpet, electronics
Keith O Brien - guitar, computer
Roy Carroll - sampler
Fri 28.08.09 22:00
Salon Bruit, Licht Blick Kino, Kastanien Allee 77

www.jeffkaiser.com
www.myspace.com/anatcohavi
www.myspace.com/hanneslingens
www.myspace.com/royelylyonscarroll
www.myspace.com/doubleadaptor
www.myspace.com/amoebazoid
www.loophole-berlin.com
www.salonbruit.org