Set List from Saturday Night:

In the first half:
Banff Big Band 2010 directed by Darcy James Argue
Segment from COIN COIN directed by Matana Roberts

In the second half:
Bow River Falls (Douglas)
22 Minutes (Cleaver)
Lighthousekeeping (Bates)
Wichita Lineman (Webb, arr. Monder)
Be Melting Snow (Melford)
Awake Nu (Don Cherry)

Dave Douglas, tpt; Matana Roberts, alto sax and clarinet; Myra Melford, piano; Ben Monder, guitar; Michael Bates, bass; Gerald Cleaver, drums.

Darcy with the big band at The Club on Friday night. A heroic effort by all to quickly learn his music, their own music, and just for kicks one of my pieces.

[It’s tough to get good quality photos of these events, first off because things move so fast up here. But I’ve been taking them with a Flip Video recorder, which is super handy and makes great videos with sound. BUT because the videos are in HD, the files are HUGE. So I’ve been clipping snapshots out of the videos of classes and rehearsals. Anyone have any tips for a fairly, but not totally, tech-savvy musician / documentarian?]

On the documentary side of things, I’ve been recording some conversations with visiting artists that will appear soon on the Subscriber page here. The Centre is also assisting me in making a podcast about the genesis of the music on Spark of Being. Those will also begin appearing soon.

Yesterday Mary Halvorson and Giorgio Magnanensi arrived in the program. The three of us played an improvised set–none of us had ever played together before. Sometimes that makes for the best discoveries, and this one was really a blast. Mary has a really old guitar. Giorgio plays Max MSP and sounds he generated from rewired 1970s toys. Nice blend.

Also this week, Ravi Coltrane is here with his Quartet. They played a powerful set, and talked about instant arranging, cues, beginnings and endings. Here are a couple shots from the master class:

David Gilmore, Drew Gress, Ravi Coltrane. (Note the 2009 photo of Don Byron in the background.)

E.J. Strickland. Just amazing.

In other news, this guy has been nosing around outside my hut:

Pine Martin.