Square one, and square one again

Hopefully this'll be the last of the navel-gazing posts for a while (I can barely resist commenting on the ludicrous recent statements of the ashen senator from AZ).

First, a few new reviews of Go Go!: A lovely one here, courtesy of Brad Glanden, and another nice one (by Jim Santella) in Cadence. Since the Cadence piece is not online, allow me to excerpt: Santella writes that the IJG "has a finely-tuned sense of humor. They combine pure mainstream Jazz with comical interludes: each, a highly creative composition from pianist Andrew Durkin. They like to think of their work as a combination of Jazz, R&B, Soul, Gospel, Mariachi, Doo Wop, Salsa, Reggae, and Rock ‘n Roll. But, it’s the improvised Avant-Garde solos that give the session its steam. [...] The band’s highly unique performance resembles a merging of Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy with the World Saxophone Quartet [...] Highly recommended for its originality, swing, spontaneity and original groove, the Industrial Jazz Group stands the test of time. Long after I've finished listening to the album several times for review, I can’t help smiling about it." Well, alright.

We also had some nice press specifically related to our east coast tour, but like a dummy I neglected to collect it. F'r'instance, I'm told there was a nice thing in the Village Voice, but I never saw it (if anyone did, I'd be very curious as to the content).

Oh yeah, and this just in: Andrey Henkin's overview of the Bowery Poetry Club show can be found here. Henkin has become a trusted ally in recent months (and, small world, turns out he is an ex-colleague of my friend and former grad school classmate, Joan Jastrebski, who was also at the BPC show). He is of course right when he says we're "more Carla Bley than Count Basie" -- though I find this observation somewhat humorous given the fact that I dropped our Joe Williams "tribute" ("Every Day I Have The Blues, Too") from the set a few hours before the first hit of the tour.

Anyway, on to the future. This week I was preoccupied with the task of organizing things for our next set of dates (March 7 and 8 in Portland and Seattle, respectively). This should be easy, right? We just came off a burning east coast tour, the band is white-hot and ready to go, right? Right!

Wait a minute! What's this? Lo and behold, I depleted my entire budget making the east coast tour happen (not complaining here, just stating the facts, m'am). So it actually turns out that for the upcoming northwest hootenannies (hottenanni?), I can't afford to bring any of the usual suspects up from LA. That's right -- I'm gonna have to do these dates with a brand-freakin'-new band.

(I should clarify. "Depleted my budget" suggests that I spent all of the money I have. What I actually did was spend a lot of money that I don't yet have. But again, I'm not complaining.)

(I should clarify further. A "brand-freakin'-new band" suggests that I only have to recruit one such monster. What I have actually discovered is that, notwithstanding the willingness of certain of the Portland musicians I have engaged (and perhaps most crucially, the rhythm section -- thanks, guys!) to travel to Seattle on March 8, most of the rest of 'em (understandably -- who the hell is this Andrew Durkin, anyway?) are a little hesitant. The upshot? For all intents and purposes, I have to put together two "brand-freakin'-new bands.")

In a sense, this turn of events might be a good thing; if nothing else, it will provide a nice test of the quality of the music. (I wonder: is the humor respresented by "Fuck the Muck" translatable to an entirely different set of musical personalities? We shall see.)

Update: as it happens, I'll be "borrowing" most of Rob Scheps' big band (for the PDX gig anyway). I'll have more to say about this configuration as things develop, but for now I have to give mad mad props to Rob (a motherfucker if there ever was one, currently out on tour with the Village Vanguard band), who has given me an extremely valuable crash course in the northwest scene (let's face it, I've been hiding up here until now).

More to come.