OPEN PIANO: A SHOWCASE OF HYBRID PIANO WORKS this Saturday at I Beam!

I'm very excited to be performing with electronic sound artist Michael Clemow this Saturday at I Beam. We're going to do a set of structured improvisations with Mike sampling and processing the sound of the piano in real time. The rehearsals have been great, and the unique format has pushed me into new places with my piano playing. Full details about the show are below. Also performing is the composer and pianist Eleonor Sandresky. This concert is presented by Michael Clemow's arts organization Abbatoir Projects.
ABATTOIR PROJECTS PRESENTS

OPEN PIANO: A SHOWCASE OF HYBRID PIANO WORKS

ELEONOR SANDRESKY - JP SCHLEGELMILCH - MICHAEL CLEMOW

Saturday, Jan. 7 - 8:30pm (doors at 8:15pm)
$10 suggested donation

IBEAM BROOKLYN
168 7th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(F or R trains to 4th Ave & 9th Street)
http://abattoirprojects.com/news/events/

8:30pm - ELEONOR SANDRESKY
The Mary Oliver Songs Bk 1: The Return
Based on a poem by Pulitzer prize-winning poet Mary Oliver, The Return, the creation of the piece initially took the poem as a point of departure, although through the process of making this piece, I was increasingly drawn into the story of the slaying of the Minotaur, or, as Ms. Oliver's title implies, the slayer's return after the slaying. The material for the music was taken from a reading of the poem that was recorded and then processed. This yielded certain pitch and rhythmic material that recurs throughout the movements. The titles of the movements, of which there are seven, refer to the text of the poem, although not necessarily in the order that they appear.

9:30pm - JP SCHLEGELMILCH & MICHAEL CLEMOW
Structured Improvisations for Piano and DSP
In this performance we will create a musical structure by joining two distinctly different instruments (an acoustic piano and digital processing) in an improvisational dialogue. The sound of the piano is sampled and transformed in real time, setting in motion a dynamic musical framework where even the smallest sounds can become woven into a complex musical web. As we listen and respond to each other, a world of surprising new sonic textures emerges and evolves from moment to moment.

ABATTOIR PROJECTS - http://abattoirprojects.com
Abattoir Projects is a not-for-profit arts organization whose goal is to provide a platform for hybrid and difficult-to-classify artists to contextualize their own work. We believe in documentation practices that are adequate for hybrid artists. Standardized methods and curatorial contexts are not always appropriate. Using a model that is itself a hybrid — part archivist, part promoter, part publisher — Abattoir Projects seeks to fund and produce documentation of these artists's work in order to preserve their intentions while their practices and ideas are still new.

New Years Rulin's

Settling back into things post-holidays. I always feel very motivated at the beginning of the New Year, I'm a believer in New Year's resolutions. Apparently so was Woody Guthrie. These are great and worthy goals, and nice illustrations too.

A funny highlight from my time in New Hampshire over the holidays was getting my picture in the local paper while shopping at Turn It Up, our local music store. The accompanying article was about how people are still shopping a lot even after Christmas!

Last show of 2011: MINERVA at the Brooklyn Lyceum on Wednesday!

Wednesday December 21st at the Brooklyn Lyceum 8pm: Byph Ben Syversen - trumpet Yoni Kretzmer - saxophone Pascal Niggenkemper - bass Carlo Costa - drums 9:30pm: Minerva JP Schlegelmilch - piano Pascal Niggenkemper - bass Carlo Costa - drums $10 cover

I Beam Piano Marathon

Last week there was a very special event at the Gowanus performance space I Beam, a marathon concert of pianists from the NYC jazz and improvised music community to raise money to repair I Beam's piano. The concert went from 5 to 11pm and there were about 20 pianists performing solo, mostly improvised sets. It was a fascinating experience to see so many approaches to improvisation in a solo piano context. I played a few pieces by Bill Frisell, which I've been working on for an upcoming recording project. The only other pianist who didn't play a free improv set was Akiko Pavolka, who played and sang some of her original songs. Here are some clips:

Goodbye Paul Motian

The great jazz drummer Paul Motian passed away last week at age 80. He was such a special musician, it's hard to put into words exactly how I feel about it. I saw him play so many times over the years, most often at the Village Vanguard with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano. That band has always been a personal favorite of mine, they always sounded great but if you caught them on a really inspired night it was otherworldly. I remember seeing them one night where they played a ballad that was so mesmerizing and beautiful that after the song ended there was a moment when the audience seemed to collect themselves, as though waking from a dream. People often talk about Paul Motian as a very abstract player, a kind of painter of sound at the drums. But he had such an incredible beat! When his trio with Frisell and Lovano would play a Monk tune like "Epistrophy" Paul would really dig into it, playing with such joy and near abandon and swinging like hell. There's a lot of Motian's music that I have yet to explore, thank goodness. The Vanguard won't be the same now without him.

"A Little Feast" of new media at Cameo Gallery

Last night I went to an event of multi-media performances at the Cameo Gallery in Williamsburg curated by Amy Koshbin. I was very excited to see Michael Clemow and Ben Simington's collaboration in a multi-media piece called "999", which was based on a story by Jorge Luis Borges. A short clip is below. Amy Koshbin performed a piece called "Practice" which was a very impressive one-woman show based on her family's history. Michael has some shows in the works as part of the Abbatoir Projects organization. Michael and I are collaborating for a performance at I Beam on January 7th which will feature electronically processed piano.

Minerva at I Beam with Jonathan Moritz Trio

Minerva is playing at I Beam tomorrow night on a double bill with saxophonist Jonathan Moritz's trio. In our rehearsals lately we've been taking a break from playing compositions and focusing on improvisational concepts. We'll be doing an all-improvised set tomorrow.