MUSIC
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 11:15 AM
A Few New Projects...
The majority of my time is spent usually composing for a brand new project I'm working on....more on that in a minute.....
Other than composing this new stuff, at this point, the main musical settings that I am participating in are:
My Trio and Quartet - I usually like to use a variety of different musicians (cause there are waaaay too many amazing musicians to only play with a select few - I dont believe in absolute musical monogamy anyways....)
Duo with Julian Lage - Julian is, in my trying-really-hard-not-to-be-biased opinion, one of the most important voices in modern music today. He is on the verge of releasing his first new album as a leader on Emarcy Records called "Sounding Point", which is groundbreaking music within a genre that he has created for himself. His record is unique, exciting, emotional, and generally sounds like the soundtrack to whatever room you are in when you listen to it. It's an extremely innovative album, and he brings in cats like Bela Fleck and Chris Thile to support him. It also features Julian's working band, complete with acoustic bass, unconventional percussion, alto saxophone, and cello. I play on a couple tracks which represent our duo work together. At any rate, please check out JulianLage.com .... He is a bad ass.
Eric Harland Band - One of the most unbelievable musicians on the planet, and I'm honored to play in his band, which includes Harish Raghavan on bass, Walter Smith III on Tenor Saxophone, and Julian Lage on guitar. It's music entirely build around emotion, and thus far the only band that I've played in where I have to stand up to play sometimes, because the music just does it to me.....He's also going to release a live CD soon with the music from our tour in France....check out his website at iHarland.com. He has a lot of nice meditative music playing as you click around the website too, which is nice....
Occasional Solo Piano Concerts - I rarely do these, but if its a cool setting with a good piano, then it can be a lot of fun and I usually use electronic effects (looping, harmonizing) on the piano. Dont worry, nowadays I keep it pretty subtle. Once I did a concert like this and some reviewer in Montreal thought I overused the effects and called me "Liberace for the New Millenium". More hilarious than hurtful. This led to my good friends putting up a poster of Liberace in my dressing room a few gigs later (in which he was relaxing in a hot tub adorned with diamonds holding a golden chalice). What friends I have. They will get theirs.....
MY NEW BAND - "FREE AGENCY" - 99% of my time on a daily basis gets split between taking care of random pointless errands, and trying to lock myself in at home composing for this new project. This is a new band concept of piano, additional keyboard player, electric bass, drums, and 2 vocals. And also sometimes full symphony orchestra. This has consumed most of my time and mental state over the last few months and will continue to do so for most of the rest of the year. Expect to hear a few previews of this band in 2009, with a lot of gigs coming in 2010. Basically the idea of "Musical Free Agency", as I call it, is that different musical elements should be free to join whatever team they want. As in, being accessible but unpredictable. Or catchy, but in a subtly odd time signature. Or being vocal and having lyrics, but also being piano-led. This also applies genre-wise, as the music is a direct combination of the rhythms of R&B and Rock music, the harmonic concept from influences ranging from Romantic-era Classical music to modern jazz harmony, the improvisation of jazz, and the layering mentality of electronic music. So needless to say, I'm pretty obsessed with it, and anxious to start performing it. It looks like me will try to record during the summer.....I'll keep yall updated.....At this point it's called "Taylor Eigsti and Free Agency"
Other than composing this new stuff, at this point, the main musical settings that I am participating in are:
My Trio and Quartet - I usually like to use a variety of different musicians (cause there are waaaay too many amazing musicians to only play with a select few - I dont believe in absolute musical monogamy anyways....)
Duo with Julian Lage - Julian is, in my trying-really-hard-not-to-be-biased opinion, one of the most important voices in modern music today. He is on the verge of releasing his first new album as a leader on Emarcy Records called "Sounding Point", which is groundbreaking music within a genre that he has created for himself. His record is unique, exciting, emotional, and generally sounds like the soundtrack to whatever room you are in when you listen to it. It's an extremely innovative album, and he brings in cats like Bela Fleck and Chris Thile to support him. It also features Julian's working band, complete with acoustic bass, unconventional percussion, alto saxophone, and cello. I play on a couple tracks which represent our duo work together. At any rate, please check out JulianLage.com .... He is a bad ass.
Eric Harland Band - One of the most unbelievable musicians on the planet, and I'm honored to play in his band, which includes Harish Raghavan on bass, Walter Smith III on Tenor Saxophone, and Julian Lage on guitar. It's music entirely build around emotion, and thus far the only band that I've played in where I have to stand up to play sometimes, because the music just does it to me.....He's also going to release a live CD soon with the music from our tour in France....check out his website at iHarland.com. He has a lot of nice meditative music playing as you click around the website too, which is nice....
Occasional Solo Piano Concerts - I rarely do these, but if its a cool setting with a good piano, then it can be a lot of fun and I usually use electronic effects (looping, harmonizing) on the piano. Dont worry, nowadays I keep it pretty subtle. Once I did a concert like this and some reviewer in Montreal thought I overused the effects and called me "Liberace for the New Millenium". More hilarious than hurtful. This led to my good friends putting up a poster of Liberace in my dressing room a few gigs later (in which he was relaxing in a hot tub adorned with diamonds holding a golden chalice). What friends I have. They will get theirs.....
MY NEW BAND - "FREE AGENCY" - 99% of my time on a daily basis gets split between taking care of random pointless errands, and trying to lock myself in at home composing for this new project. This is a new band concept of piano, additional keyboard player, electric bass, drums, and 2 vocals. And also sometimes full symphony orchestra. This has consumed most of my time and mental state over the last few months and will continue to do so for most of the rest of the year. Expect to hear a few previews of this band in 2009, with a lot of gigs coming in 2010. Basically the idea of "Musical Free Agency", as I call it, is that different musical elements should be free to join whatever team they want. As in, being accessible but unpredictable. Or catchy, but in a subtly odd time signature. Or being vocal and having lyrics, but also being piano-led. This also applies genre-wise, as the music is a direct combination of the rhythms of R&B and Rock music, the harmonic concept from influences ranging from Romantic-era Classical music to modern jazz harmony, the improvisation of jazz, and the layering mentality of electronic music. So needless to say, I'm pretty obsessed with it, and anxious to start performing it. It looks like me will try to record during the summer.....I'll keep yall updated.....At this point it's called "Taylor Eigsti and Free Agency"