yr3wk33 john martyn gone my week

yr3wk33 moog opus 3 improvisation from longcat on Vimeo.

once again no words all week, just videos... sorry,

this one recorded on friday morning before work, i'd got up earlier than normal to allow enough time to get the tube in with the moog (the harmonic series demonstrated with the moog filter) but then i decided i could do that next week and use the extra time to do my improvisation, being as i didn't know how long i would need in the evening doing my tax return...

so i did it, i like it, turned off the computer and the camera's and cycled into work,

found a Roland Juno 6 in the cupboard @ work and it turns out it belongs to MM, he who helped me fix my rhodes back then, and who promises he's going to help me fix the moog too... we've been making music together over the internet a bit recently and he said i could borrow the Juno... which is great, it's a similar era synth to my moog, a little later, not a moog, but still a great sound...

i'm going to use it next week to demonstrate the harmonic series like i was going to bring my moog in for and then i'm taking it home...

i had a lovely hour or so with it on friday after teaching, just wandering about in it's sound...

in other news i popped down to brighton on monday night to record josiah on the lullabye, also i took grace to school on tuesday morning... lovely to see them, josiah going through it a bit just now...

i've been so busy since then that i haven't unpacked the audio i recorded down there, the lullabye probably near to being done now, just have to get my editing head on and give it a few hours...

directly after brighton i went over to the studio in kennington to meet T and sweep up the place, it's amazing how different it looked after a day of organising things...

i also bought a book on tuesday - a new one by michael ondaatje called devisadeo...

i really love his writing and i'm very glad to be inamongst his words again...

on thursday i went out after teaching to celebrate one of my students 16th birthday, hanging out with the teenagers for a couple of pints...

then friday... oh, we've talked about friday already, except for the tax return which i did that afternoon, surprisingly easy for once...

when i was applying for housing benefit recently i came across the relevant payslips i knew i would need for the tax return so it was kind of all laid out for me already, but it's still a beautiful thing to be done one of those things,

i helped felinity through it a few weeks back and that made it easier when i came to do it for myself...

floopy came round friday night (last night) and he told me john martyn had died on thursday, very sad, i'm going to load up the shuffle with him and nothing but him for a little while...

we had a great night, dinah, floopy and me, at one point i put solid air on the shaky turntable and we offered john martyn our laughter as the record player occasionally skipped up to 45 RPM for a moment, it was magical and poignant and a good way to mark his passing...

very, very sad though, such a wonderful song writer & singer...

anyway... i hope you enjoy the improvisation..

x

yr3wk32 with john sinclair

yr3wk32 with john sinclair from longcat on Vimeo.

recorded on wednesday, the day after the inauguration of barack obama, the day after the crazy gigs @ cafe oto...

i also recorded his voice for the lullabye project, slightly tricky as it's a very effective lullabye and he'd been gigging for a couple of days,

listening to my lullabye in his ears he found it hard to stay awake... we found a way round it...

EQ, old, old friend who hasn't been in my life for a few years came round to record on the lullabye too yesterday, i want to get josiah on it too, and dinah.. redo my bit...

it'll be in baby spanner's ears in a week or so...

gigging tonight with the spanner jazz punks (different spanner) in crouch end... cut down version of the band...

then EL & maybe JPW coming tomorrow for next week's improvisation, slightly early...

what a nuts week, starting last sunday i was improvising, gigging, improvising, recording, now gigging, improvising once more...

it's a good way to live one's life...

x

no drugs

part 2 of the john sinclair extravaganza in dalston...

it was a crazy night... i took down my moog but didn't really do it justice... a little bit of playing but it was mainly piano...

john coming round tomorrow for an improvisation, possibly EL coming on friday for an improv as well (which would be next week's one), along with old, old acquaintance E maybe coming round to record on the lullabye for brand new baby spanner x

in the taxi with john & JPW (bass - twice part of the improvisation) i realised i really wanted to smoke drugs, mainly to do with the adrenalin of the gig, so i got in, knowing i have some, somewhere, but i'm so not addicted to such things that it's been weeks since i last saw the stuff and i couldn't for the life of me find it...

so no drugs for me i'm afraid...

dinah had a little wine for me, that took the edge off...

and no doubt some time when i really need it those smokables will come running to the rescue...

glad to play with these musicians these last couple of days...

and john sinclair is simply marvellous x

yr3wk31 + john sinclair + dog shit

yr3wk31 rhodes & moog improvisation from longcat on Vimeo.

so i played last night with john sinclair and the blues scholars... quite scary, but very good, john is a real sweety...

i looked down at one point, after having been to a place outside to get food and having my piano chair taken for a few tunes by someone else...

i could smell shit...

and i could see shit on my shoe...

this being the 3rd time it's happened in recent weeks, once really early in the morning just going out to put gas on the card... the 1st time in ages and it really irritated me...

then last week down in kennington looking at the desk and the place again i smelt it and looked down and there it was...

and i remember wondering if i was due another one these things coming in 3's as they sometimes do,

and the 3rd came sat at a piano, playing on the edge of free/blues/jazz with an ex-criminal...

i hope this current spat of shit is over with, it seems like it was years before this that it last happened, have the dog owners of this city been careful for a few years and now they don't care?

the gig is repeated tonight, today being the inauguration of that famous man over in americy... do come down if you fancy it,

cafe oto in dalston... £12...

yr3wk30 via vimeo

Yr3wk30 from longcat on Vimeo.

tired of waiting for dailymotion for the videos over 20 minutes, this is vimeo's version of last week's improvisation...

i've just arranged a tune i've had in my head a few weeks for the spanner jazz punks who are rehearsing tomorrow night...

...pleased x

mental mixer shuffle

it's been a mental day... driving up to gloucester with S & T, missing our turning, finding our way with the fosse way... arriving, meeting lovely but slightly mental L (he suffered in the gloucester floods), testing all 28 line inputs, all 28 mic inputs... checking out the lovely (odd) EQ, learning a mad amount about mixing in the few hours that we were there talking to him...

to agree... to get it in the van... to see L rip up his floor to get to the loom (cables) he was giving us... to almost get out of gloucester and remember he was giving us the bass to put it on...

to meet mad, mad weather, (fog, snow)...

to get back and carry the massive thing to the bottom of our stairs... (they're coming back tomorrow and we're taking it to it's new home)...

and then to find dinah, who had my solstihannimous present which was/is an ipod shuffle... bearing the words "With Love From Loobs To Moobs xxx"...

protest about gaza plus mixing desk road trip

i won't be protesting in central london tomorrow because me & T are going on a road trip...

but i would be if i could...

1st the bombing, and now the invasion of gaza, a strip of land with one & a half million people living on it, largely starved of food, fuel, medicine for many, many months... is a terrible thing...

israel has been in the wrong before, but not for a long time has it been this wrong...

making war in a densely populated area that you have previously blockaded is a form of collective punishment...

anyway, i won't be assembling @ 12:30 @ speakers corner tomorrow and i won't be marching to the israeli embassy...

because i will be driving up to gloucester with T (& S who me & dinah met on T's birthday) to test and perhaps buy a mixing desk for our studio that we're setting up in kennington...

i don't know if i've mentioned it before but i'm merging some of my musical equipment with T's and some new stuff for this studio in a room that is currently full of junk...

it's going to be amazing...

yr3wk30

foolishly went over 20 minutes for this week's improvisation (on wednesday) which means dailymotion will take awhile sorting it out... (so slow that maybe they won't ever sort it out)... and i'm forced to go back to googlevideo for an immediate, embeddable video...

no funny business with googlevideo for once...

the conflict in gaza on my mind...

playing the 2 marvellous sound modules i got hold of last year... the hammond organ with the volume pedal that arrived the day before...

x

yr3wk29 grace

yr3wk29 NY day moog, rhodes voice
Uploaded by longcathadroncollider

recorded on new years day but it took a few days to arrive here... i just got back from a night away with my lovely goddaughter and her fantastic mum...

me & grace hung out alot, going to the beach this afternoon to give josiah a chance to get something done, picking up pebbles, filming...

i also gave her a little keyboard lesson before i left, she's only 5 so it wasn't huge, just where is C... enough for now...

me and josiah stayed up until 5 last night talking and listening to music from 2003,

1st the concert we gave in july of that year with H on cello, in my ex'landlord's frontroom...

we were really good... she was very pregnant... (with grace)

then the concert from the same place in january, days before she found out she was pregnant... (with grace)...

then a studio CD made by the band i was in back then Kyo... a great band...

altogether very nice to see both of them in their own ways... and lovely to hear my own music from 6 years ago...

x