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I’ve been wanting to see Ken Butler play live forever but never had a chance and I just learned that he was batteling cancer and hence was absent from the scenes. Luckily he said that he survived it and he seemed in good health.
For those who are not familiar with him pick up his CD on Zorn’s Tzadik records or check out kenbutler.com
Ken is an amazingly creative individual who builds his own instruments out of tennis rackets, walking canes, kitchen and home utensils and a ton of other parts. He basically will put a contact microphone on anything that makes a sound and make music with it.

On this show at the Williamsburg gallery Sideshow he was accompanied by a trio of great percussion players (including Mathias Kunzli), an oud player and his artist/loft-mate on upright. All these instruments definitely gave the show a very groovy orientation and often times the tribal excitment offered by the two djambé’s made the crowd shake it a bit too (pretty unheard of for an experimental music concert, if you know what I mean).
Ken performed about a half a dozen pieces, usually a pedal on a chord with somewhat of a structured theme and a lot of improvisation. Every piece was based around an instrument and the crowd roared every time he picked up a new one. From guitar-like objects with one or two necks made from tennis rackets, canes and hockey sticks to banjo-looking objects made from pots, canes and other materials to umbrellas, knifes, paint brushes, swords, cloth hangers. Everything pretty much was either plucked or picked as if it was a guitar or bowed with an arco as if it was a violin. He even played a bow with another bow and then finished by playing his pants’ zipper and knocking on his head while teething a mic.
It was definitely an impressive and interesting array of sound-making devices from one of the most interesting artists around.

I won’t hide the fact that I think John Zorn is one of the most amazing composers out there so for me it was a real treat to be able to not only see him perform but work with him. On Wed the 17th and Thu the 18th the Lower EastSide theather Henry Street Settlement, also known as Abrons Art Center, hosted an incredible two nights of Zorn music performed by 10 different ensembles. The two evenigs were curated by Zorn who chose the music and the musicians. Every night five 20 minute sets entertained the crowds for 2 hours and showcased some of Zorn’s mighty vast and versatile body of work. Although for me as a live sound engineer it is obviously much harder and more work (10 stage changes, 20 if you consider the rehearsals) I still feel enormously priviledged to be a part of this incredible experience. Those who were present know what I am talking about and those who don’t should try to go to Montreal July 1st or Milan on Nov 8th for thr next two Zorn festivals of this kind. It’s truly the best way to experience his versatility and the vast array of differing moods, nuances, genres of his material.

I’ve always loved Japan, but one thing Japan has never been cool for (in fact downright worse than any other country in the world) is the whaling industry, which along for whales kills 23’000 dolphins a year in the small town of Taiji alone!

Why is this so awful? Many reasons, first and foremost the fact that dolphins are probably the smartest animal known to man (think smarter than dog, to the point where some scientists agree they should be granted the same rights humans have). In addition to that dolphin meat (which very few people eat, even in Japan where most people don’t even know that dolphin meat is sold) is one of the most mercury-loaded meats, and mercury is the most toxic non-radioactive substance known. However Japan’s fishing industries are quietly selling dolphin meat in supermarkets marking it as whale meat, which is obviously illegal and dangerous to consumer’s health.

The press release reads: “In The Cove, a team of activists and filmmakers infiltrate a heavily-guarded cove in Taiji, Japan. In this remote village they witness and document activities deliberately being hidden from the public. To really make an impact on this issue, we must get the word out in Japan and urge action from our own leaders. We believe that once the world and the Japanese people know, they will demand change. Help us save Japan’s dolphins.”

You can sign a petition here.
You can read more about the movie here.
You can read about the Ocean Preservation Society who created this movie here.
Or you can text the word “DOLPHIN” to 44144 to get news on how to help.

Anyway, long story short, a very interesting documentary that you should see.
Here’s the trailer: