I asked my friend Dan Koff of New Relic Media to help me make a video about my photography. We wanted to do our own soundtrack so we met today for our second jam session, which was lots of fun. Some of this material will probably make it into the video, but we decided we just wanted to make some music and not force it to fit. In these clips, Dan is playing in his own style on a dholak that Kathir and I got from a street vendor in Pondicherry a few years ago. I’m playing on my Eastman archtop. (Amplification is new for me, as I generally prefer completely “unplugged” playing, but the Acoustic Image Corus I’m using at a low level here is changing my mind and opening some new possibilities.) Both clips are improvised without rehearsal, though the first one (15 minutes) is more structured – it explores the “Charupriya” concept that I’ve been developing recently:
[audio http://rudiseitz1.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/rudiseitzanddankoff-charupriya-3-18-2013.mp3]
This second clip (20 minutes) was pure experiment. It takes a little while to get into a groove, but one of my favorite parts is the craziness that ensues between 3:00 and 4:00, and resurfaces again towards the end:
[audio http://rudiseitz1.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/rudiseitzanddankoff-freeimprov-march-18-2013.mp3]
Addendum
Since photography was the context that brought Dan and me together to make this music, I’ll end this post with an amazing video by Charles and Ray Eames that’s been in my mind since I watched it this morning. Perhaps in some way it inspired the jam. It’s a documentary about the Polaroid SX-70 camera, and it manages to capture, either directly or through its general spirit, almost everything I find inspiring about photography. I made a lot of noise (of the “Oooohhh…. Ahhh….” variety) while watching it the first time. Thanks to Carl Seglem for sending me the link!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jaiq_ZZ_eM] ■