Saturday 15 May 2010

OK, I'm giving you nearly a week's warning. Fred Frith is playing a solo set in Edinburgh next Friday, and you don't even have to buy a ticket first to get in. You'd better have a very good reason for not being there.

Writing schedules, scanning, practising. Occasionally lying in a hammock in the garden.

later
I made it round Waitrose tonight without hating humanity too much by the time I was finished. 

Anyway, another reason to come and hear Fred on Friday is this. And while you're at it, this from his ex-bandmate Joey Baron is pretty remarkable too. Have you ever heard a drum kit sound so beautiful? I went to see him play with Masada in the Queens Hall in 1998 and he got more dynamic range than I think I've ever heard anyone get from any acoustic instrument. He was also very particular about tuning: eventually the rest of the band got tired of waiting for him to finish tuning the drums, and they just came on and started the set. Apart from a small amp for the bass, they played without a PA too. The standard of the musicianship was quite dizzying: I remember staggering out into the close at the back of the hall afterwards, as though I'd been hit very hard on the head with pure music.

In case your knowledge of music history has this particular lacuna, some years ago Joey Baron and Fred Frith were both in this band, who could play spectacularly beautifully, but often chose not to. I love the bit where John Zorn carefully puts his part back on the music stand after knocking it off mid-scream, and the way Bill Frisell stops perfectly mid-phrase at the end.