[Editor note: I've been dormant for awhile but we are now on track for more regular posts and comment. Dartanyan July/August 2003] 

Time Frame Reference: Summer 2003

Locational Reference: New York City and San Francisco

Opening Night -The 4th Annual San Francisco Electronic Music Festival

San Francisco-- It's 21:17 PM PST, and I'm reporting from the SOMA Cultural Arts Center (SOMArts) this year's host to the 4th annual San Francisco Electronic Music Festival (SFEMF) being held over three nights Wednesday through Sunday here in San Francisco's shabbyshabby/chic south of market district.

After negotiating a rather gritty section of this Brannan street neighborhood I stumbled around back and into the SOMArts center (934 Brannan St.)and was instantly transported to a time somewhere between the early 60's and the 22nd century.

(Wow, I just made the acquaintance of David Wessel, the current director of The Center for New Music and Audio Technologies. (CNMAT) on the Berkeley Campus and one of my heros from the early days of EM (electronic music - but more about that later. Please, forgive the hero worship. a little embarrassing).

This year's festival, titled East meets Left, is an eclectic and unapologetic celebration of sound for it's own sake. In today's increasingly buttoned down world, the unpretty sound, the unkempt, or out of tune is kept to a minimum as the consumer culture only seeks to give us what is pleasing, non challenging and smooth.

Well, SFEMF gives that approach a big wedgie and laughs heartily while doing it. The SF sound design community has a history of achievement and after some 30 years of work they still have the capacity to care about the spontaneous, the hand-made, the wondrously secret things that you never really hear unless you listen reverently.

(As a short personal aside, I began my own work with electronic music while still a bass player with the Bill Chase band in 1973. We had a Moog Synthesizer onstage and we spent hours with it on our days off doing the kind of research that ignited my independent work in sound design that would lead me to work with Broderbund/Living Books on several multimedia titles including a Doctor Seuss series.)

Unfortunately the festival began, just before I arrived and by the time I paid my money and got to the performance area, Hans Grusel's Krankenkabinet was already filling the area with dense, colorful clouds of sonic texture. I wasn't able to see his arsenal of sound tools but the Dark Forest world composed of costumes and props he used to accompany the sound design more than made up for my geek fantasy of seeing how the sounds were created. From what I could see in the program, his piece may have been the most intensively multiple-medium with Motionette dolls, walking trees, and sound emitting mushrooms. Jeez. I guess I missed it, huh. The audience reaction was solidly supportive.

I DID get to see (and hear) the second performer, Dan Joseph create what he called Mountain Music. Using the hammered dulcimer, tape loop and digital delay he conjured multiple layers of shimmering tones. Some pure, some drenched in harmonics. With the surround PA system in pretty fine form,(I didn't get the name of the engineer keeping it all under control for the audience) the sounds of Joseph's radically eq'd instrument spun around the room creating sublayers of sounds, themselves the resultant of the interaction between the tape loop and his realtime improvisations with hammer and bow-on-strings. The total effect was fascinating even while it threatened to go off into that area only inhabited by fire engine sirens and crying infants.

Kristin Miltner and her collaborator Mark Bartscher's untitled piece was alternately moving and disquieting as it brought together ambigous color images and ponderous sound to good effect. It was a good five minutes into the piece before I realized that the swatchy images on screen were actually digital images from a camcorder taken from an automobile speeding along the highway. I love it when I'm presented with a new slant on information that I might have taken for granted. I suppose the source video material was only a foil for the audio information which was built on multiple sources. Those sources were triggered at the discretion of the 'controllers'. (In this case Ms Miltner and Mr. Bartscher.)

In a short after concert interview with Kristin, she explained how the piece seemed to go much faster 'live' than in rehearsal and that they didn't get a chance to use many of the materials prepared for performance. An Olivera-trained graduate of Mills College, I look for more wonderful noise from Kristin.

The piece had an apparently deep effect on Wessel who was seen peacefully pulsating with the inner rhythm of the piece. It was a bit disconcerting watching Miltern and Bartscher sitting at a table onstage with their serious but somehow dispassionate facial expressions. It was almost as if they were content to be creators of this stunning soundwork but were unable to feel any emotional attachment to it. (that's how it looked, reality may not be perception in this case)

As their piece progressed further it became apparent that we were in the middle of a wheat field of some kind. Exploring crop circles? Deep pipe and bell tones announced the entry into this place of energy and wonder. Endearing and challenging at the same time.

Wessel's piece begins with power and serenity. A knowing voyager on the wings on sonic inspiration. Using Buchla Thunder controllers as a tactile interface to his Powerbook and Max-enabled software synthesizer, Wessel created a intersteller soundship taking us where so few have the time to go anymore. Beautiful in its range of texture and depth, his is a sonic trip built on the wisdom of 30 years of exploration.

By his own admission in a short after concert interview, he built his music with the help of 'lots of oscillators' using the new improved version of David Ciccarelli's program called MAX. Now owned by festival co-sponsor Cycling'74 software, MAX has been updated and rewired tor today's performance artists and sound explorers.

In the hands of David Wessler, MAX and the Macintosh served as a spaceship which took the 100 or so attendees on a journey to the edge of the galaxy and back. Visiting both ponderous planets and filligree-like nebulae with equal ease we were all in that brief 18 minutes transferred to the core of our existence and then carried out to the edge of time and then back again.

The festival carries on for the rest of the week, ending Sunday with music committed primarily to taped media. That seems fitting as tape was the original media that served the pioneers at Columbia Universities early electronic music innovators so well in the 60's. Unfortunately I won't be able to get back there before Sunday but hopefully others will report on and post their impressions of what is shaping up to be another milestone in the great tradition of electronic and experimental sound design in the Bay area.

Dartanyan Brown wishes to thank Pamela Z, Kristin Miltner, David Wessel for their courtesy comments and inspiration. It was a real pleasure. ...more later.

Time Frame Reference: Summer 2003

Locational Information: New York City and San Francisco

The Brian Horton Trio Featuring Jaimeo Brown

The latest collaboration of Instigator, recordist, composer, saxAWEphone playah, and leader Brian Horton with percussionist and life force Jaimeo Brown and bassist Saleem Aleem took place in a small, underground cafe on Broadway at 107th. The night was still warm and sticky after a viciously hot day in the manhattan jungle between Harlem and the gilded ghettos of Columbia Univ.

The music started....wait that's too ordinary a way of describing what I see and hear. What happens with this band is that Brian suggests a motive, an idea or a juicy tidbit which then become statements in the hands of Brown and Aleem. Jaimeo especially, with his multidirectional approach to establishing drive provides a shifting but always coherent rhythmic foundation to the proceedings.

The simplest, most innocent line can assume almost epic proportions with this group as they explore both the boundaries of stylistic expression, dynamics, instrumental mastery and audience interaction. The 90 minute set was almost entirely improvised and was played without an intermission. The funny thing about that kind of statistic is that it actually dawned on me much later that they had, indeed, improvised well over an hour of music with all the passion, expression and texture that you expect from a night of jazz in NYC.

But the lack of cliche, the fact that I was so absorbed into the total experience of three acoustic jazz musicians who build such a mesmerizing reality onstage, continues to amaze me. None of these musicians is even close to 30 yet and they play with the honesty, integrity and urgency of players twice their age.

One of the pieces, done near the end of the set was initiated by a bass line which was played in such a way that its 6-note motif seemed tethered to a spring mounting, shifting the motif back and forth in time. Definitely not metric but not freeform either. Jaimeo nails both the structure and the spirit of the line giving a loose-hipped kind of lineal funk to a line that would do any of the 1970's ECM sides justice. Horton, ever the instigator now climbs aboard the bandwagon he created and rides this loopy wagon with penetrating asides and a joyous melding of rhythm

I said it before and I say it again, Jaimeo Brown, Brian Horton, Kelvin Sholar, Chris Sholar and Kevin are part of a vanguard of new voices who will take the fusion of bebop, hiphop, electronic, and afrocubopolistic forces into the future.

 The Brown and Thompson families have been involved in The Music for over 4 generations. From Composer, Vocalist, Saxophonist, and bon vivant Ellsworth Brown who performed with Cab Calloway, to Dartanyan Brown, who is in Rolling Stone's Encyclopedia of Rock 'n Roll. thanks to his work with the groundbreaking Jazz/Rock/Fusion unit CHASE. From percussionist Jaimeo and vocalist/ choreographer Marisha Brown who even as relative youngsters are making their impact felt as new Masters of Sound.

The beauty of the web is having a forum with which to post, in a Zengeresque fashion, the News of the day. As a Journalist and an Audio Artist, I know this medium is powerful and while many issues are unresolved, the World Wide Web lets us communicate, interact and even Jam together.

As events come up we will let you know here about what's going on in the creative lives of Jaimeo, Marisha, Dartanyan Brown, and Marcia Miget and a select crew of minds and spirits.

These pages will spread information about a family of artists dedicated to Unity and quality.

Dartanyan talks technology at California Association of Independent Schools Conf.

Jaimeo records soundtrack to Ralph Ellison's "King of the Bingo Game"

The Italians love the new Fusion and they love Jaimeo

-short review-

Dartanyan and Jaimeo, are the featured rhythm section on several cuts on David Watson's new album entitled Imprisoned Splendor. A vocalist, composer, drummer who lives in Northern California, Watson is a veteran performer with over 35 years of experience with the likes of John Handy, Bishop Norman Williams, Eddie Henderson and many others. He has been a supporter of Jaimeo since early in his career and it is refreshing to see a veteran take time to give a young new talent an opportunity by passing on the tradition of jazz performance. Read the interview.

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Jaimeo Brown completes successful Athens Concert Series with Kelvin Sholar

New York-- Jaimeo Brown, Jazz percussionist and senior at William Paterson University, Wayne NJ, returned to the States yesterday after three weeks of performances at the Half Note Jazz Club in Athens Greece. I talked to Jaimeo briefly Monday evening after his arrival on an Olympia Airlines flight from Athens to J.F. Kennedy Airport. Jet lag, however prevented me from getting more information for another day or so. We will update the site with a great story about an American Jazz musician and his experience in a foreign country. It was a great experience from an artistic and social standpoint. "We played from 11 p.m. until 2 p.m. and the crowds went crazy," said the 21-year-old percussionist and composer. "It's very live and the appreciation [from the Athens audience] is something I've never experienced in the United States." [We'll have an update posted by midweek.--DB]

[In late breaking news, Jaimeo reported that foreigners were confined to the hotel for a day in the wake of a visit to Athens by US President Bill Clinton. "We even had to cancel the gig for one night," said Mayo in a midnight telephone interview from his Athens hotel room. "The real heart of the demonstrations were luckily not in our neighborhood. It was pretty quiet here but they warned us about leaving the building or the neighborhood." In the tradition of Jazz artists around the world, the members of Jaimeo's band were treated with the utmost respect by the local citizens and reacted with harmony and respect with the people of that storied nation.

Jaimeo sent an audio file of his bands performance via phone on Monday afternoon and this writer can attest to the sophistofunkiness of the sound. I think New York had better look out because Kelvin Sholar with Jaimeo Brown on drums is getting their act together overseas and will soon be bringing it home.]

Scheduled for another week of Jazz concerts with pianist Kelvin Sholar in Athens, Jaimeo will be in the Mediterranean region from November 12 through the 29. Sholar, a Detroit-bred pianist and a veteran in his own right has toured with Sonny Rollins and Greg Osby. The Half Note in Athens in the premier Jazz venue in the region and the city is "a lot like New York." said Jaimeo. "To be playing original music and have this kind of crazy reception is a very wonderful thing."

Jaimeo expressed much respect for his bandmates, Deshown Jenkins on guitar and bassist Ashi Osada. The group is playing great, finding something new in the music all the time. This is certainly a great opportunity and I'm glad James Williams, and David Dempsey at William Paterson gave me the support to leave my classes temporarily for this gig.

In older news Jaimeo and his combo recently opened the show for the David Liebman Quintet, featuring guitarist Vic Juris, as part of WPU's "Sittin' In Meet-the-Artist Sessions. The concert, held in Shea Center, featured original music by the WPU Jazz combo including Mayo's original composition "Brownish Blues". According to Jaimeo, the Liebman group sans piano was highly enjoyable. The influence of John Coltrane's music is apparent in the sound of David Liebman. We have followed Liebman's career for the past 20 years, noting his development both as an improviser and composer.

Jaimeo performed with the WPU jazz combo at William Paterson University's Jazz Room Series in October. Opening the show for Pianist Bill Charlap and His Trio, featuring Peter and Kenny Washington, Mayo's group played a hour-long set of tunes ranging from hard bop and traditional swing to Afro-Cuban inspired compositions. According to one concertgoer who was interviewed after the show "Jaimeo played incredibly well." His approach to music makes the whole band sound better," said one musician who saw the show.

For more information about Jaimeo

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Tomorrow (Friday, December 3rd) Marisha's grandfather, Ellsworth Brown will be performing at the Westin Hotel in Morristown, New Jersey from 7 P.M. until 8 P.M. Mr. Brown will be performing Jazz standards and original material on the Grand Piano at the Westin. If you happen to be in the area stop in a hear "the man of 1000 songs"

Apparently Marisha Brown, a first year student at Barnard College found time to get away from studying for a moment and rejuvenate herself through song. Appearing for the first time at a vocalists mic night at a upper west side Manhattan night club called Wetlands (Hudson and Laight st.), Marisha sang several tunes including an a capella version of "All of Me" .

"The best thing of course," said Marisha "was to finally get the time to sing and have a place close by the campus to do it."

WORLD JAZZ FUSION

Multidimensional and multi-formed, the group Esoterica leads Jazz, and music in general, to creative and seldom seen places, combining the modern world and dance culture with all the faces of American music tradition. Jazz, Blues, Rock, Salsa, Hip-hop, Funk, Soul etc..., they all become one at the live shows of Esoterica, pointing the way and the meaning that music will take while facing the millennium. With their repertoire based mostly on the compositions of Kelvin Sholar Esoterica takes an interesting and fresh direction in their performances. It is a multi-varying music atmosphere, as well as high energy. In fact this is what Esoterica is most known for.

The members of the group are all virtuostic talents. The leader Kelvin Sholar is a prodigious keyboardist that has sorcerous control over mood and texture. Rucyl Mills is a songer and poet with the melodic sophistication of Nina Simone and the aggressive cleverness of Gil Scott-Heron. Guitarist Dechown Jenkins is an intoxicating soloist with stunning command. The bassist Az'shi Osada is an innovator of bass soloing and composition. Jaimeo Brown, the drummer, is the most versatile and deeply rooted drummer on the new music scene today. Esoterica is a group which brings energy, spirit and innovation to modern universal music.