Usufruct at Surrey Street Salon

This is a picture of my friend and colleague Salane Schultz playing at a Surrey Street Salon Open Mic. There is another such Open Mic coming up on October 23 where I'll be playing in the duo Usufruct with Tim Walters. Tim and I are in Reconnaissance Fly together, and we took part in the Karelian Skies residency together, but Usufruct doesn't sound like either project.

Usufruct is actually a term from Roman law and refers to "the right to enjoy the use and advantages of another's property short of the destruction or waste of its substance." This describes my deconstruction of traditional songs and improvising the delivery of their words, pitches, and/or syllables in an unrecognizable, or somewhat recognizable way; combined with flute and bass flute improvisations, and Tim's electronic sounds coming from Supercollider.  And this is what we'll be doing at the Open Mic.  It's actually our second gig.  Our first was in Next Now's All Tomorrow's After-Parties this past Memorial Day weekend.

Surrey Street Salon is located at 231 Surrey Street in San Francisco, and the music starts at 7 pm.

Karelian Skies 2015 concert video now available

Back in July, I participated in the Karelian Skies music residency and concert, in the small town of Nurmes, North Karelia, Finland along with Kim Bjørn, Petri Frestadius,Tony Gerber, Kimmo Kivelä, Otso Pakarinen and Tim Walters.  Sound and visual brilliance by Kimmo Heikkilä, Severi Kärki, and Panu Similä, and our video was shot and edited by Otso Pakarinen.  We all collaborated on the music and I wrote all the lyrics, inspired by the weather, wildflowers, moon, magpies and laughing gulls of Finland. Pop yourself a bowl of space popcorn and enjoy!

This Sunday September 6th, 5 pm

In less than a week!

My Karelian Skies interview

We have been composing, improvising, and rehearsing all week to get ready for tomorrow's concert.  Here is the link where you can see the live webcast, at 7 pm Finland time, and 9 am Pacific, on Friday July 31st.

Video from 2008

It is March 5th, 2008 according to Ron Holman, who was certainly there, and who posted this excerpt.  I have a hard time remembering 2008 clearly, so I am not sure.  I feel like it could have been the previous year. I know Phillip Greenlief was there too; maybe he remembers when it was.