The Ballad of Cyclic Change

On Saturday, I played a Juneteenth concert at the Ballad of Cyclic Change, a multimedia collaborative art project with interactive sculptures by Kathy Creutzburg, Mirabai Kwan Yin, Jake Elkin and Aya Harota.

Mirabai is an old friend of mine: her husband Ric Becker was my very first NYC/Mannes friend. Shortly after meeting, we formed my first NYC band, Just Puppets! Ric played trombone and percussion alongside me, Jess Tsang (another Mannes alum), and Jake Elkin, in a contemporary program of Braxton, Rzewski, and more. We got out there, especially on one of Jake’s compositions for electronics and spoken word. It was a wonderful and weird way to spend a beautiful Saturday morning in one of Manhattan’s many community gardens.

More on the installation from the artists:
Inspired by the biogeochemical cycles and how they mirror cycles in human lives, we built acoustic kinetic sculptures from upcycled everyday materials and created musical compositions using the sculptures as instruments. By connecting human stories of transition to nature’s cycles we encourage people to feel connected to their planet.

It's All Happening!

Knock on wood, but things seem to be getting back to “normal” here in NYC. In fact, we were treated to a fireworks show last night to mark a huge milestone: 70% of our population has received at least one dose of the vaccination. Let’s keep it up, NY!

For the first time in 15 months, I decided to add some shows to my calendar! Saturday, I get to play an ART INSTALLATION! How cool is that? Ballad of Cyclic Change is a collaborative art project my friend Mirabai worked on. I’m not exactly sure what I’m playing on and how, but it’s going to be a really cool hour of musical exploration. Sunday, I am playing a rooftop concert right here in Brooklyn with Brass Queens, hosted by Kid Krill.

In addition to the shows, an educational piece I’ve been working on for nearly a year will be posted to Phish.net (yes, it’s combining my two favorite things: drumming + Phish) and a recording I did with the Quarantined Woodwind Ensemble is forthcoming as well, so stay tuned for those.

I will be spending the first three weeks of July visiting my wife’s family in California, so if you are in LA or the Bay Area, please hit me up for hangs, jams, shows, or lessons!

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