Article by Miranda Caravalho

I don’t dream well.

It’s a side effect, I think, of one of six medications I take. When I go to sleep my dreams are usually loud and fast and vaguely upsetting. To put it kindly, a dream journal was never something that interested me. But my close friend has spent the past six months messaging me when she wakes up just to tell me, in whatever detail she can remember, whatever she dreamt about the night before. It’s how, she tells me, she chooses to say “good morning”. So recently, I’ve been inspired to do the same.

But there’s an important quality of dreams: they erode, very slowly, until you’re left with a cupped palmful of rock and silt. As I write this, I had a nightmare earlier in the week that left me shaken for the whole day – and now I can’t remember a single detail about it. I had another dream, a better one, but as hard as I think I can only remember the dining table from my childhood and the color yellow. Dreams dissolve, they evaporate back into the clouds of your subconscious to be mixed up into another strange rain the next time you set your head on the pillow.

And it’s not just dreams, it’s memories too. Think about Won Ju Lim, the artist who made the leap from living in Los Angeles to Berlin, Germany, and found herself almost madly homesick for the place she left behind. So from almost six thousand miles away, Lim made herself another LA from basic materials like glass, light and shadow. But in doing so she made something that wasn’t quite a city, and not exactly a complete work of imagination. What she had done was an amalgamation of dream and memory, a collection of the basic sense stimulation of what, to Lim, made up Los Angeles. That’s how California Dreamin’ was brought to life.

You enter California Dreamin’ through a black curtain. It’s about half the main gallery of the San Jose Museum of Art, which has been completely blocked off from any light or sound from the outside world. What that results in is the chance to walk through someone’s mind and step foot into Won Ju Lim’s own perspective. You can see her city through her eyes, and feel the sheer power of her wanting, her pining for something that may or may not have ever existed.

The exhibit is not without the foggy unreality of dreams. The piece that stuck out the most to me was “Piece of Echo Park”. Its a multimedia sculpture that depicts the mountainside of Echo Park. There are houses. Trees. It’s a fairly realistic topographical depiction of the region, that is, until you circle the mountain range and see it slowly dissolve into what looks like dripping wax. It gives the appearance of the mountain being alive, with a skin of greenery and architecture that covers flesh and blood. It’s both haunting and strangely reminiscent. I think we all know a certain place that just seems to pulsate with life.

California Dreamin’ isn’t a big exhibit, but in its narrowed scope its managed to create a very vivid and refined experience. Though sculptures and projections she has created something that gives the chance for anyone to experience living in another country and longing for your home. There’s no way of knowing how much of what she chose to represent made itself known through the sounds and smells of Berlin in 2002, but it’s undeniable that she focused on what she did for a reason.

And after sixteen years that experience has been brought to America for the very first time. In that time period, things have changed. Lim is now and Assistant Professor and the Chair of Sculpture in Graduate Studies at Boston University. She has homes in both California and Massachusetts. It would be fascinating to take another walk through her mind right now and see what shapes and colors now make up her vision of Los Angeles.

Lim has created in California Dreamin’ a small trip that is absolutely worth taking. It’s one of the first exhibit’s I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing that allowed me to just stand there, looking at nothing in particular, and still be absolutely immersed. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. So why not experience it for yourself?

You’ve spent your whole life living in your dreams, it’s about time you visit someone else’s.

JUN 22-SEP 30: Won Ju Lim: California Dreamin’ | San José Museum of Art, San Jose, CA

Friday, July 12: Daniel Rosenboom | Book of Omens | CD Release Party
Art Share L.A., 801 E 4th Place, Los Angeles, California

Featuring

• Daniel Rosenboom – trumpet and flugelhorn
• Vinny Golia – tenor saxophone, alto flute, contralto clarinet
• Jacob Vossler – electric guitar
• Tim Lefebvre – electric bass and FX
• Matt Mayhall – drums

ABOUT BOOK OF OMENS
Notes by Daniel Rosenboom and Gary Fukushima

Book of Omens is, in essence, a concept album inspired by an original shamanic myth about the cleansing and reforming of a corrupted universe. The album presents a new sonic zodiac, with 12 distinct chords representing 12 different symbolic “omens” or zodiacal signs, each chord governing the “harmonic astrology” for an entire piece, resulting in a suite of 12 pieces, bookended by a prologue and epilogue that state all 12 chords in succession.

As writer and pianist Gary Fukushima put it: “The music is cataclysmic and chaotic, a terrifying sonic prophecy of universal destruction and rebirth. The aesthetics are undeniably metal, but Book of Omens is also expansive and deconstructive, an illustration of time and space falling into irreparable catastrophe, with moments of incandescent beauty amid violent bursts of raucous groove lashing out in their death throes.”

Buy Book of Omens Online

• iTunes
• Amazon.com
• Bandcamp.com
• CD Baby.com

Dwight Trible (2011)

by Greg Cutler, Published: 2011-02-20

On Friday, February 18, I had the extreme pleasure of seeing The Borodin Quartet perform at the Santa Monica Woman’s Club. Let me first say that the club is a very good venue for this type of music. The building was built in 1914 and was renovated in 1961 after a fire. When you approach the building from the outside, go up the steps in front, through the big front doors and into the entryway you feel like you have been transported back to a simpler time. There is a big chandelier in the foyer with stairs on either side going up to the second floor and balcony above the main hall. Going through the doors from the foyer to the main hall, you arrive in a room about 100 feet square. The balcony on the second floor runs all the way around the room. Square posts line the edge of balcony and the floor space extends underneath. I got the feeling that many dance nights with big bands playing on stage had taken place in this auditorium. The stage is fairly large. It provided ample space for a grand piano, drum kit, and four other musicians. The acoustics gave it that perfect concert sound, but it was perfectly intimate enough for chamber music.

The Borodin Quartet played several classical compositions concentrating mainly with Russian composers. The quartet played both traditional classical and atonal pieces with the same intensity and virtuosity. The Tchaikovsky and Handel were my favorites. They performed with an effortlessness and intense familiarity with the material that allows them to improvise and lend their own flavor to each piece. It is an intense privilege to be in the presence of musicians who play so well together and also respond to the audience. I felt a real connection between the music and the audience. The venue was not entirely full which surprised me for such a distinguished and well-known quartet, but the audience members were very warm and receptive; a good time had by all.

The next quartet to perform was The Red Quartet. I wasn’t as impressed with them as The Borodin Quartet and felt they need a bit more experience under their belts with the singer, Marissa Steingold being slightly throaty and attempting to give a breathy, jazzy performance but she didn’t bring the music up from her diaphragm as one would expect. Her jazz improvisation with the guitarist was a bit jerky and not very creative I thought. Of the other musicians within The Red Quartet, the guitarist was the most talented.

The next musician to come on stage was a real treat and if you ever have a chance to check out vocalist Dwight Trible in concert, go see him! He comes out on stage in his cool shades and this knit, orange patterned vestment. The musician on the grand piano starts in with the drummer and a cool jazz style fills the room. Dwight Trible has a voice that starts with a funk vibe and ends in an exasperated cry for understanding in a world beset with cruelty. His blues is our blues and his frustration becomes our frustration. His cadence is unique and soulful; thoroughly entertaining!

If art is intended to create discussion, the evening of music at the Santa Monica Women’s Club last Friday evening featuring vocalist Dwight Trible, The Borodin Quartet, and The Red Quartet fulfilled it’s artful mission. My companion and I had plenty to discuss on our way home that evening. Thank you to all of the performers and people who organized this event.

Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet (2010)

by Greg Cutler, Published: 2010-12-06

Four musicians took the stage; The Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet is Wayne Horvitz – piano, Peggy Lee – cello, Sara Schoenbeck – bassoon, and Ron Miles – muted trumpet. Peggy and Wayne sat on the left side of the stage with Ron and Sara to the right side. Strings on the left, woodwinds and brass on the right. It’s no accident that they sit in this formation.

The Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet plays music that is not so much an exercise in exploring each one’s individual talents as a musician, but rather in creating soft soundtracks to each audience members’ own thoughts and memories; lullabies that sway us into sharply focused internal visual and auditory experiences.

The quartet slides easily into a shifting, swaying melody that brings to mind trips across the country in an old convertible with the crisp, fall wind blowing through your hair. Your friends sit with you in the car. Leaves blow in the trees, coming loose to float to the swishing grass on the side of the road. Clouds float across the sky.

Move on to a halting, atonal, creeping, stuttering exploration of an old deserted house on the edge of a field. Doors squeak. Every turn reveals more emptiness. Melancholy ensues.

Resonating meditations with alternating blips from the cello soothe the listener into a trance, with just enough variation to keep your mind from wandering. The musicians coax the tiniest possible noises out of their instruments. Enchanting!

A rhythmic waltz of piano and cello maintain the slow, deliberate goings on of Berlin in the early 20th century with solos from cello, bassoon, and trumpet each floating above the steady melody.

A hare emerges from her hole. An egret hunts a fish. A loon calls from afar. A mouse scurries down his tunneling path in the reeds. A duck slips into the water. The marsh comes to life. Each instrument takes on the persona of a different animal scurrying about in the marsh doing his or her own thing, but somehow creating an entirely unified illustration. Every now and then the animals come together paw in paw, spin and go their separate ways. They come together in the end to do a coordinated dance.

These are my interpretations of the music performed on the night of Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at the REDCAT, Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater. It was the perfect venue for this great performance!

Angel City Jazz Festival (2010)

by Greg Cutler, Published: 2010-10-06

We missed the first half of Kneebody’s set, but it didn’t matter because having never heard them before we were treated to a musical experience that boggles the mind. We got to hear two and a half songs, but that was enough to place them on a high shelf in my mind’s music library. All of the musicians brought their own brand of awesome to the stage Sunday evening, October 3 2010. Kneebody was playing with 9.0+ points and a 5.3 degree of difficulty. They are not afraid to challenge themselves and each other with intricate rhythms, transitions, and key changes that rolled out effortlessly. Kneebody has a unique system of musical cues that they use to indicate when to change tempo and key. Anyone in the band can cue each individual in the band to play a solo and they have to react on time. It is like watching a game. Nate Wood sits in the back on drums. He steers Kneebody off the edge of the world and the crew comes along for the ride keeping up the pace, blending each of their own unique styles into the music. Great fun!

Vinny Golia Sextet was next. When they came out on stage I thought, “OK, Here’s this grey haired old mentor-type guy with a bunch of his CalArts students.” which turned out to be the right, but in this case what happens is a collaborative, creative, and innovative experience. The older, wiser Vinny was handing down knowledge and talented execution of his amazing compositions to these younger musicians who took the baton and ran with it. I found out later that Vinny’s a prolific composer. He writes many pieces every week. He is constantly coming up with new arrangements and his bandmates are constantly challenged and pushed to innovate alongside him. He really plays the heck out of both alto and bass saxophone. Each piece held us in a trance wondering what would happen next.

Sons of Champignon. Wow! Three guys with the power and enthusiasm of an entire orchestra. Don’t get any stupid ideas about bringing in an actual orchestra because that would ruin it. Tim Berne’s alto saxophone wound and weaved a spider’s web around the electronic maelstrom of Nel Cline’s live guitar experimentation. Jim Black has a unique challenge of melding the two unlikely sounds into one cohesive mix of delight. From smooth airy meditations to loud, rocking’ sound explosions Black concentrated on the saxophone in a flurry of what looked like back-breaking effort, lassoing the guitar and tying it to the saxophone. Cline stood there with one foot in front of the other facing the drums. He’d rock back and forth and at times reel back and balance on one foot only to rock forward again as the music moved him. His guitar was grinding licks into the composition while the drums thundered a double bass extravaganza and Berne wielded his saxophone with intricate passion. Whew! Awesome!

Wadada Leo Smith and his Golden Quartet were the only musicians at the event that I had seen before so my expectations were pretty high. I was not disappointed. Smith leads his band like a general who leads from the from the frontline. His commanding presence influences every move. He is a composer, performer, and conducting an improvisational force of nature. It’s like watching Zeus moving the heavens. Pheeroan akLaff delivers beats that remind me of when I was a child imagining what I would have wanted to sound like if I could play the drums; a mad torrent of flourishing movement and sound, controlled chaos. The complex stylings of Vijay Iyer on keyboard belong in a genre all to themselves. The band could have easily relied too heavily on the melodically textures emitted by Vijay’s fingers, but the keyboard simply blended effortlessly with everything. John Lindberg provided a solid upright bass tempo and underlying melody during the slower parts, but when he gets out his bow – look out! His solo was my favorite of the night. Smith waits for things to get going and then at the proper moment springs into action! There is a conscious raising of the musical pace from gentle beginning to a fantastic crescendo. He blasts his trumpet licks out into our eardrums going from open to muted back to open along with the feel of the piece. Smith demonstrates his ability to play a clean song as well as the balls to get down and dirty. He can manipulate his instrument to deliver a soul-charged grind of sound that speaks to each of us in our internal struggles.

The evening was capped by the impeccable stylings of none other than Ravi Coltrane. He too, I had never had the pleasure of seeing live. Boy, were we all in for a treat. Even though it had gotten a bit chilly in the venue, my guest and I could not wait to see Coltrane and Ralph Alessi kick out the jams … and by God they did! As the set unfolded, Alessi’s smooth, crisp playing set the tone. As Steve Hass’ amazing technical ability got the audience moving and jiving to his swinging beats, Coltrane came sliding into the already well padded landing zone furnished with mellow guitar blends and bass tones provided by Larry Koonse and Derek Oles respectively. Even though I was sitting outside in the clear night air at Los Angeles’ Ford Amphitheater I felt teleported into a small intimate jazz club perhaps in Manhattan, NY. And then, it was as if the club was sitting on top of a double decker bus and we were all rolling along through the streets of New York sampling the landmarks and skyline. Slowly, Coltrane brought us easily out of this trance and back to reality. A fitting end to an otherwise entirely memorable evening of incredible jazz performances. No matter who shows up next year, I will make sure not to miss the Angel City Jazz Festival in 2011!