Imperfect Looping

In the name of true perfectionism I am obsessed with imperfection. Especially since music, and drumming in particular, is so easily seduced by the charm of neat, knowable math.

I came across a Moby video loop on Vine.  Vine is an awesome website/mobile app where you create and involuntarily edit video in real time from your smartphone and end up with a 7 second video loop that plays forever.  Moby said about his loop, "Not sure if this works... more weird sound than visual,"

Immediately I had the desire to drum to it as Moby's singing head was looping ad infinitum and there was no discernible place that the loop was supposed to start over. So I recorded an arbitrary slice of the infinite loop and improvised a solo over it.

My favorite moment and I'm so grateful that I caught this (literally) is when, I lean over to pitch bend the floor tom and due to the short length of my headphones, I yank the condenser mic off the mantle it is sitting on. In the middle of drumming I catch the mic with my left hand, and keep soloing with my right hand.  I hope I can pull that off live someday.

Imperfection and Perfection together like phases of the moon.

Africa. India. Ecstasy.

I am excited to be working and learning with Arthur Lee Land. He has extensive experience with the art of live looping. He is teaching me about congas, bongos, djembes, talking drums, cowbells, shakers; the works.

One of his more exquisite loops is drenched with that African sunlight and the moving sidewalk on a moving sidewalk feeling that Elvin Jones is known for. I am now completely in love with implying 6 over 4 and we get lost for hours and hours in the continually expanding and contracting movements.

We have a show on new years at the new Cafe Paradiso and I'm gonna be playing tablas and djembe. For future shows my kit will look more like the picture above but Congas and a Djembe will be added.

My heart is pounding for Africa and India and the Shaman-healer-priest-wild man-nut bucket-asteroid lasso-Santa-triplet-whip-crack against-the-moon aesthetic is blossoming like the birth of a rose colored planet. I'm excited and honored to be getting an education and making music for a living simultaneously.

PS Jupiter left its phase of debilitation and I always and especially feel escalating gratitude for my tabla teacher Pandit Anup Ghoshji. Big love, namaste, and happy holidays to all!