Free improvisation for voice/fx and guitar
Gary Prince
Andrew Klein
Hear some more of us here
June 1st in Baltimore, States and Drives, featuring the Syrinx Effect!
Monday, May 20, 2013
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
How to Get There (and back)
Every so often I post on this website a version of Andrew Klein and I doing "How to Get There", a poem by Frank O'Hara, from 1960. We've been playing this piece for more than a year now.
What I've done here is assemble five different versions of this song and put them together in one bandcamp page. From April 1st, 2012, which represents both our first time playing this piece and my first time ever hearing this poem, to a recording made just a few weeks ago, on April 21st, 2013.
In that time I would hope you can hear our development, and hear how we improvise - going from familiar building blocks (the words, and certain themes and structures that I return to regularly), but in a slightly different direction each time. Over the course of the year we both added more effects and devices to our sound, which are on display here as well.
This is how we play. This is what I do. None of these versions are definitive, none of them are done - this piece will be a work in progress as long as we play it, and will grow as we do. There is a language being developed here, which can both stretch into new directions, and be familiar. And probably more important than all that noise, I am proud of these recordings. And yes, that picture of Andrew is from Midnight Special days long gone.
I don't necessarily expect anyone to listen to all these together except me and Andrew, but here they are just in case, and I'm curious to hear anyone's thoughts from anywhere in the world. We'll be recording an album in June, and are in the process of preparing for an event in Baltimore June 1st with the Syrinx Effect - more details to come.
Here again is the text to "How to Get There"
How to Get There" - Frank O'Hara, 1960, New York City
White the October air, no snow, easy to breathe
beneath the sky, lies, lies everywhere writhing and
gasping
clutching and tangling, it is not easy to breathe
lies building their tendrils into dim figures
who disappear down corridors in west-side apartments
into childhood’s proof of being wanted, not
abandoned, kidnapped
betrayal staving off loneliness, I see the fog lunge in
and hide it
where are you?
here I am on the sidewalk
under the moonlike lamplight thinking how
precious moss is
so unique and greenly crushable if you can find it
on the north side of the tree where the fog binds you
and then, tearing apart into soft white lies,
spreads its disease
through the primal night of an everlasting winter
which nevertheless has heat in tubes, west-side and
east-side
and its intricate individual pathways of white
accompanied
by the ringing of telephone bells beside which
someone sits in
silence denying their own number, never given out!
nameless
like the sound of troika bells rushing past suffering
in the first storm, it is snowing now,
it is already too late
the snow will go away, but nobody will be there
police cordons for lying political dignitaries ringing too
the world becomes a jangle
from the index finger
to the vast empty houses filled with people,
their echoes
of lies and the tendrils of fog trailing softly around
their throats
now the phone can be answered, nobody calling,
only an echo
all can confess to be home and waiting, all is the same
and we drift into the clear sky enthralled
by our disappointment
never to be alone again
never to be loved
sailing through space: didn’t I have you once for my
self?
West Side?
for a couple of hours, but I am not that person
[copyright Frank O’Hara, 1960]
What I've done here is assemble five different versions of this song and put them together in one bandcamp page. From April 1st, 2012, which represents both our first time playing this piece and my first time ever hearing this poem, to a recording made just a few weeks ago, on April 21st, 2013.
In that time I would hope you can hear our development, and hear how we improvise - going from familiar building blocks (the words, and certain themes and structures that I return to regularly), but in a slightly different direction each time. Over the course of the year we both added more effects and devices to our sound, which are on display here as well.
This is how we play. This is what I do. None of these versions are definitive, none of them are done - this piece will be a work in progress as long as we play it, and will grow as we do. There is a language being developed here, which can both stretch into new directions, and be familiar. And probably more important than all that noise, I am proud of these recordings. And yes, that picture of Andrew is from Midnight Special days long gone.
I don't necessarily expect anyone to listen to all these together except me and Andrew, but here they are just in case, and I'm curious to hear anyone's thoughts from anywhere in the world. We'll be recording an album in June, and are in the process of preparing for an event in Baltimore June 1st with the Syrinx Effect - more details to come.
Here again is the text to "How to Get There"
How to Get There" - Frank O'Hara, 1960, New York City
White the October air, no snow, easy to breathe
beneath the sky, lies, lies everywhere writhing and
gasping
clutching and tangling, it is not easy to breathe
lies building their tendrils into dim figures
who disappear down corridors in west-side apartments
into childhood’s proof of being wanted, not
abandoned, kidnapped
betrayal staving off loneliness, I see the fog lunge in
and hide it
where are you?
here I am on the sidewalk
under the moonlike lamplight thinking how
precious moss is
so unique and greenly crushable if you can find it
on the north side of the tree where the fog binds you
and then, tearing apart into soft white lies,
spreads its disease
through the primal night of an everlasting winter
which nevertheless has heat in tubes, west-side and
east-side
and its intricate individual pathways of white
accompanied
by the ringing of telephone bells beside which
someone sits in
silence denying their own number, never given out!
nameless
like the sound of troika bells rushing past suffering
in the first storm, it is snowing now,
it is already too late
the snow will go away, but nobody will be there
police cordons for lying political dignitaries ringing too
the world becomes a jangle
from the index finger
to the vast empty houses filled with people,
their echoes
of lies and the tendrils of fog trailing softly around
their throats
now the phone can be answered, nobody calling,
only an echo
all can confess to be home and waiting, all is the same
and we drift into the clear sky enthralled
by our disappointment
never to be alone again
never to be loved
sailing through space: didn’t I have you once for my
self?
West Side?
for a couple of hours, but I am not that person
[copyright Frank O’Hara, 1960]
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Tragicosmic - New Music
Andrew and I have finally put up some new music for download, on our bandcamp page. I'll highlight some of the particular tracks in the future, but for now, please stream and download it here:
More to come soon!
More to come soon!
Monday, December 10, 2012
Nov 7th 2012 with Kate Olson
Another free improv Sax + Guitar + Effects track from November:
Gary Prince - Guitar/effects
Kate Olson - Soprano Sax/effects
same session as my previous post.
Gary Prince - Guitar/effects
Kate Olson - Soprano Sax/effects
same session as my previous post.
Friday, December 7, 2012
My Romance
This is my arrangement of the jazz standard "My Romance", which I wrote last June, and have finally gotten around to recording and posting.
"My Romance" (Rogers & Hart)
Arranged by Gary Prince
Gary Prince: Electric Guitar
It's not the cleanest recording in the world. This was done in my bedroom using my practice amp, a Fender Super Champ. I kind of like that it came out sounding kind of tinny and quaint, like sound out of an old radio played quietly. This arrangement was inspired by the fantastic book Guitar Solos: Thirteen Standards by Barry Galbraith which I've been using with my students for the past year. For anyone interested at all in jazz guitar, it is a really wonderful book. All Galbraith's arrangements find the perfect balance between being readily performable, very musical, and just challenging enough for most intermediate students.
I've done a few more arrangements like this, and will post them as I get around to it.
Arranged by Gary Prince
Gary Prince: Electric Guitar
It's not the cleanest recording in the world. This was done in my bedroom using my practice amp, a Fender Super Champ. I kind of like that it came out sounding kind of tinny and quaint, like sound out of an old radio played quietly. This arrangement was inspired by the fantastic book Guitar Solos: Thirteen Standards by Barry Galbraith which I've been using with my students for the past year. For anyone interested at all in jazz guitar, it is a really wonderful book. All Galbraith's arrangements find the perfect balance between being readily performable, very musical, and just challenging enough for most intermediate students.
I've done a few more arrangements like this, and will post them as I get around to it.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Solo Improv (July 2012)
Free improvisation from July 7, 2012:
Gary Prince - Electric Guitar, Effects I'm using my Stratocaster here. That guitar is currently sitting in my room with no strings on it while I try to decide whether to change out the pickups/do something to decrease its out of control humming and buzzing whenever on one of the single coil settings.
Gary Prince - Electric Guitar, Effects I'm using my Stratocaster here. That guitar is currently sitting in my room with no strings on it while I try to decide whether to change out the pickups/do something to decrease its out of control humming and buzzing whenever on one of the single coil settings.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Free Improv 11.7.12
Free Improvisation for Guitar, Saxophone, and effects:
Gary Prince: Electric Guitar, Effects Kate Olson: Soprano Saxophone, Effects
This is from our first time playing together, both using effects. Very different from years of playing 'dry' - compare to this track, from 2010, and to our album, recorded in 2009. For both of us, I think using these effects means finally finding something of the sound we've been looking for all along, even as there is a learning curve to working together with them. I'm really happy with how this piece turned out - not bad for the second piece of our first time playing together in half a year, and our first session using pedals and computers!
Gary Prince: Electric Guitar, Effects Kate Olson: Soprano Saxophone, Effects
This is from our first time playing together, both using effects. Very different from years of playing 'dry' - compare to this track, from 2010, and to our album, recorded in 2009. For both of us, I think using these effects means finally finding something of the sound we've been looking for all along, even as there is a learning curve to working together with them. I'm really happy with how this piece turned out - not bad for the second piece of our first time playing together in half a year, and our first session using pedals and computers!
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