code / design - Leslie Grove
photography - Cary Whitley
Notes on The Big Exploitation weekend - 02/28/2007
I had the opportunity this weekend to play with New York resident Jeremiah Cymerman's Big Exploitation at our CD release at the 40 watt in Athens.
For those of you not in the know, the Exploitation is a 13-piece ensemble that is conducted, that is, Jeremiah cues us with a series of hand gestures which we interpret and improvise on. He can control who plays when, tempo, and some structural elements, but the lion's share of what is played (pitch content) is down to the musicians to decide. That is why it was so gratifying to play with the musicians I did play with.
Matthew Welch, a noted composer from New York, made the trip down with JC this time, and it was great playing with him. He has a clutch of records out, notably "Dream Tigers" on Tzadik records. Check out his MySpace page and buy some of his stuff. Better yet, commmision him to compose a piece for you! I got a chance to play his Symphony Of Drones, Op. 44 at Canopy on Sunday, and while I don't think we had enough rehearsal time, we did a decent job, and I would love another crack at the piece in the future.
All the musicians played at the top of their abilities, but a few snapshots of things I remember from the weekend stand out. Chris Hoffman played a cello solo that nearly made me fall off my chair, and JC conducted the horn section (Matthew Welch, Tony Evans, George Davidson, Jeff Crouch) into a few moments of true sublime beauty. Crouch also played a beautiful improvisation during the Canopy show as well.
The other musicians (Chuck Bradburn, Jason Calhoun, Jeff Reiter, Chris Herron, Jim Wilson, Mitchell King, and Killick) also contributed some firebrand ensemble playing. It's amazing working with 13 musicians who play so incredibly and have no ego trips or personal problems clouding the scene.
All of this was put together by my friend Jeremiah Cymerman, a singular talent and a great friend. He pretty much jump started the scene for improvisation in Athens before moving to NYC. Hopefully, we'll come up to NYC to do this in the Summer...
