.....And hello to all!
Recently, I've been riding a wave playing a bunch of great shows alongside other artists of all kinds....painters, actors, and poets. Recently, I played my show at the Cin-M-Art Space with Ani Curnock, the surrealist artist with a penchant for these beautiful nocturnal, primal scenes she paints. At the last minute, Ani was allowed to bring her entire collection of work, so we had to scramble to get all of her 40+ paintings onto the walls in just one hour! You can really see for yourself- her work really transformed the space into cavern of her own imagination:
(www.annelicurnock.com for more of Ani's art!)
Alongside the beguiling whispers of her paintings from the walls, I played a solo acoustic set for the nice intimate group the assembled that balmy Friday evening. It's really cool to take stock of progress- even a couple ago, I definitely could not have delivered a solo acoustic guitar set.
I recently also had the pleasure of performing some songs alongside some music theatre students (we all take a class with Lorraine Serabian) at HB Studio. No show-tunes per se from me- I sang a Righteous Brothers song and "Fire" by Bruce Springsteen- a great ditty written for Elvis, performed by the Pointer Sisters, and famous for its signature rhythmic beat. Even though I'm not gunning for musical theatre, I have enjoyed taking these acting-applied-to-singing classes because they can really help me perform my songs with urgency and meaning. So I learn from the teacher's comments and the developing work of these other students...
I had another wonderful evening this past Monday evening as I played a featured set at Su Polo's Poetry Night at the Nightengale Lounge. I enjoyed everyone's work, and watched a very unique set from poet/jazz-musician Senri Oe. Senri Oe's art includes a deeply felt recitations of his poetry, underscored by improvisatory jazz piano accompaniment. His work had a very spacious and hypnotic quality. I felt like I at once paid deep attenion to his work while being seduced into a state of meditation....
(http://dadapops.com/2010/05/eternal-artist-phenomenon-and-senri-oe/ for a cool article on him on Senri!)
....So it's been great to go out and play my music for all kinds of people all different kinds of artists. I really believe that presenting different art forms can be really symbiotic, and that all of the arts can build off of one another in a mysterious sort of way. Plus, a mix can keep things interesting! Oh, and of course it was great to get you there any play. Thanks to musician/poet Su Polo for having me play that evening- you can look at her poetry at her site http://www.supolo.com/. It's been really busy playing around recently, and I look forward the lands and journeys ahead as I play more and get my album/music out there. Alright, that's long enough for now, I'll write again soon....about some funny culinary mishaps perhaps?
-Eric Contractor (Forever).