The last two or three weeks I have been really overloaded. Besides the work a couple of minor tasks have been added, quite nervous and also requiring constant control over them. One of the major projects was the participation in the Hovik Gulishyan's "Back to the roots" project. In early April, Hendo called on me and told about the plans of the Armenian Blues Association to bring this project to life. Mesrop (who was also invited to participate in the project) and I agreed, and on April 13, two days before Hovik's arrival to Armenia, we gathered together for our first rehearsal.
Soon it became clear that our "rock-way-of-thinking" is dissonant with the rules adopted in the blues, which we did not know. The first joint rehearsal in Ulikhanyan Club on Monday has revealed the strengths and weaknesses of our line-up. On Tuesday, we tried to go through the whole program, trying not to linger long on mistakes, if possible, but spotting them out. Each of us have had weak places that by the end of the second joint rehearsal (which included Suren Arustamyan) were quite clearly delineated. Only one rehearsal left then....
After the last rehearsal on Wednesday, we felt a deep contact with each other, which granted us with some confidence and peace of mind, that was necessary in order to start this little tour with the concert at Mezzo Classic House-Club, one of the most considerable venues in our city. It was really a serious challenge for everyone: for us, the "rockers" in the blues, for Hovik, an experienced blues-man among the hot heads, for Vahan Danielian, who took full responsibility for everything.
To our mutual deep joy, the concert was a success. Many words of gratitude have been said and lot of good reviews were heard on that night, but we knew that the next day was to be even "hotter". Friday's concert took place at the club 26 Irish Pub, one of the most popular venue among our blues-men. Despite the pouring rain at the end of the day, the room was crammed with a very appreciative audience, and our performance was quite calm and vivid.
We liked the joke when we said we will have two more opportunities to rehearse before the last gig in Ulikhanyan Club-th - in Mezzo and in Irish Pub. Jokes aside, this Saturday night some unquenchable fervour really burned in us with which we were infecting full packed hall with of good mood and cheerfulness for more than two hours. Impact was enormous. After playing two planned sets, we began the third one, almost entirely improvised. Artak Nersissian, Suren Arustamyan, Khachatur Armenyan joined us and added even more spice to the main dish.
Towards the end, another amazing encounter took place. In between of our jam-session numbers a swarthy and not so tall man approached the stage; I recall I met him a couple of times in the city. He asked if he could join the jam. Vahan told him something, and he sat on the edge of the stage and began to uncover... his saxophone! Before the next number we asked in what key it would be convenient for him to play. When we started our "Rock 'n' Roll Madness in G", the man who had been modestly waiting for his turn, took the stage and added "the cherry on the cream for our cake". He played and retired, after dismantling the saxophone and putting it back. Later in the evening, I was able to approach him in the street when he came out of the club, to thank him for his participation and to wish him the best.
When we gathered together at Beer Academy to say Hovik goodbye on the Sunday night, Artak told me about this musician. It was Zaid Nasser, son of the famous Jamil Nasser (these links are certainly worth a go). Modesty and sublimity!
Having said goodbye to Hovik and wished him a safe trip back home, we parted our ways. I promised to write this post, and make a photo album (may hands have not yet reached it). Back to work, back to other activities.... and back to the Road Movie, some five days after Ulikhanyan....
After playing the first set in Stop! Club we headed to the dressing room to get ready for the second set full of covers, we were approached by our regular audience and asked what happened during the last two months? "You now have twice the power and twice the fun!"....
We have felt it ourselves. I would say that we now play more accurate, stable; all that we did that night ended up quite well, from a painless installation of the equipment, setting up the sound and transient soundcheck. It was so easy and so pleasant to play that night.
To conclude, I would say that for me blues is "a discipline, teaching listening, demanding to leave all the fuss and pomp behind, forcing to work on yourself through the simple and clear, so that to open the complex and inaccessible later."
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Monday, March 4, 2013
Road Movie: Symbolism and Compromises
On my Journal pages I haven’t yet placed any post fully dedicated to the band I play with – Road Movie. I am doing it today because I feel it is time to provide some report on the work done.
Wikipedia gives the following introductory sentence to the "road movie" article: “A road movie is a film genre in which the main characters leave home to travel from place to place, typically altering the perspective from their everyday lives”. Our life is the path that we go, ride, or fly by, or by the side of which we sit, licking our wounds and gathering strengths to move forward. You can get off the road, you can get on it; after all, one might not know about it at all, but the road exists anyway. The road is a symbol of life, which had started somewhere and will end somewhere, but this life would be incomplete without a traveler making his way along that road.
In the summer of 2012 I reached a crossroad, had some thoughts on which way to go, chose the direction and took a turn. I jumped into a car passing by. Soon after that I understood that I had just joined a rock band from Yerevan called “Road Movie”: Henry was driving, sitting to the right was Mesrop, and also in the cabin there was David, who was absorbed by reading a book.
While learning the old songs musicians become familiar with each other at a level that is higher than just a teamwork. First of all, they should become a collective. This process is not that easy. Difficulties, frustrations, distractions – everything tries to keep the progressive component, but with due diligence there comes a certain feeling at some point that I find it difficult to describe now: whether the instruments start sound better, or the musicians begin to reveal their hidden abilities, or altogether. As a result, the band play proves to be fun, and hours spent in rehearsal do not seem lost already. Old songs begin to sound in a new way, and new ones emerge on top of that.
How is a new song being born? Perhaps it happens differently in different cases: it could be a melody heard in a dream or accidentally played on an instrument, or some rhythmical sequence of words, or something like that, other than a song requested to be written on such-a-subject in such-a-genre with such-an-emotional mood or ideological overtones. This is about a point where the two worlds touch each other: in one of them we do exist and in the the other – our music. By working hard and long we approach the boundary of these two worlds and at some moment begin to grope IT there, beyond our understanding. Each of us gropes for his own thread and begins to pull, and then we weave a new canvas. It is a compromise between the readiness for perpetual work and the quality of the result. And so, “Don't Wait” was born.
At the end of November, we were booked to play in a short series of concerts. As the result, we came to something our road kept for us at this stage – to yet another compromise. We had to discuss with our sax player the possibility of joint continuation of our musical activities. His busy schedule did not allow (allowed not) to spend time in a rock band. The conversation was friendly and quite adequate, and after that it was clear that the Road Movie band is now a trio. There is a symbolism on which I am not going to spread now. Going further.
It was at this time when we came up with the idea of starting The Clubbing tour. It was decided to play in as many clubs that could provide some definite conditions and, of course, give us some financial return, as possible. The more gigs we play – the more experience we get, and different clubs introduce us to a wider and different audience. But in order to play for "different audience" we had to come to another compromise – addition of many cover songs to our repertoire, which was previously avoided by Road Movie in every way. Because of this motley contemporary repertoire we faced the task of working up such track lists that would allow us to identify both the strengths and weaknesses of all the components of an event: teamwork, energy, mood of the audience, room acoustics, equipment, performance. We even experimented with interchanging the responsibility for compiling up the track listing within the band members. In some of the clubs we played twice, but used different approaches. Some set lists had been prepared in a couple of days, others – the minutes before we hit the stage.
The audience at our shows always plays its important role. In addition to the applause, cheers and smiles, our audience provides us with the necessary feedback. It is often due to the people in the audience, both one-time and permanent comers, that we hit upon something that gives us all the reasons to believe that our efforts have not gone in vain.
Speaking of symbolism, I can figure out some examples of its manifestation at the level of word play. However, I am doing it just for fun, because a true symbolism might have not yet fully appeared, or we have not yet noticed it.
Hardly could I call those last three months of winter, during which we were clubbing, crazy – all that happened was quite reasonable and understandable. And even though I was able to fit this story about them onto a couple of pages, all remains for us equally an inexplicable and a mysterious experience of the passage of our Road.
Wikipedia gives the following introductory sentence to the "road movie" article: “A road movie is a film genre in which the main characters leave home to travel from place to place, typically altering the perspective from their everyday lives”. Our life is the path that we go, ride, or fly by, or by the side of which we sit, licking our wounds and gathering strengths to move forward. You can get off the road, you can get on it; after all, one might not know about it at all, but the road exists anyway. The road is a symbol of life, which had started somewhere and will end somewhere, but this life would be incomplete without a traveler making his way along that road.
In the summer of 2012 I reached a crossroad, had some thoughts on which way to go, chose the direction and took a turn. I jumped into a car passing by. Soon after that I understood that I had just joined a rock band from Yerevan called “Road Movie”: Henry was driving, sitting to the right was Mesrop, and also in the cabin there was David, who was absorbed by reading a book.
While learning the old songs musicians become familiar with each other at a level that is higher than just a teamwork. First of all, they should become a collective. This process is not that easy. Difficulties, frustrations, distractions – everything tries to keep the progressive component, but with due diligence there comes a certain feeling at some point that I find it difficult to describe now: whether the instruments start sound better, or the musicians begin to reveal their hidden abilities, or altogether. As a result, the band play proves to be fun, and hours spent in rehearsal do not seem lost already. Old songs begin to sound in a new way, and new ones emerge on top of that.
How is a new song being born? Perhaps it happens differently in different cases: it could be a melody heard in a dream or accidentally played on an instrument, or some rhythmical sequence of words, or something like that, other than a song requested to be written on such-a-subject in such-a-genre with such-an-emotional mood or ideological overtones. This is about a point where the two worlds touch each other: in one of them we do exist and in the the other – our music. By working hard and long we approach the boundary of these two worlds and at some moment begin to grope IT there, beyond our understanding. Each of us gropes for his own thread and begins to pull, and then we weave a new canvas. It is a compromise between the readiness for perpetual work and the quality of the result. And so, “Don't Wait” was born.
At the end of November, we were booked to play in a short series of concerts. As the result, we came to something our road kept for us at this stage – to yet another compromise. We had to discuss with our sax player the possibility of joint continuation of our musical activities. His busy schedule did not allow (allowed not) to spend time in a rock band. The conversation was friendly and quite adequate, and after that it was clear that the Road Movie band is now a trio. There is a symbolism on which I am not going to spread now. Going further.
It was at this time when we came up with the idea of starting The Clubbing tour. It was decided to play in as many clubs that could provide some definite conditions and, of course, give us some financial return, as possible. The more gigs we play – the more experience we get, and different clubs introduce us to a wider and different audience. But in order to play for "different audience" we had to come to another compromise – addition of many cover songs to our repertoire, which was previously avoided by Road Movie in every way. Because of this motley contemporary repertoire we faced the task of working up such track lists that would allow us to identify both the strengths and weaknesses of all the components of an event: teamwork, energy, mood of the audience, room acoustics, equipment, performance. We even experimented with interchanging the responsibility for compiling up the track listing within the band members. In some of the clubs we played twice, but used different approaches. Some set lists had been prepared in a couple of days, others – the minutes before we hit the stage.
The audience at our shows always plays its important role. In addition to the applause, cheers and smiles, our audience provides us with the necessary feedback. It is often due to the people in the audience, both one-time and permanent comers, that we hit upon something that gives us all the reasons to believe that our efforts have not gone in vain.
Speaking of symbolism, I can figure out some examples of its manifestation at the level of word play. However, I am doing it just for fun, because a true symbolism might have not yet fully appeared, or we have not yet noticed it.
- Having decided to buy a Fender bass guitar I was trying for a long time to find the right option of buying it abroad and shipping it to Armenia. All of them seemed impractical. The idea had almost extinguished when in the middle of autumn the official representative of Fender in Armenia started working in our city, leaving me with just a task of choosing the right model. Fender Precision Bass was purchased on 12/12/12.
- Speaking of The Clubbing Tour we said "we are clubbing" – a play on words in Russian, indicating the swirling smoke or cloud. Usually we do not see how this process starts, and also cannot know how it should end. The same can be said regarding the Road.
- We referred to adding the cover songs to our set lists saying "we shake the old days." Here is the crossing of the timing aspect of the term, pointing to an old approach of maintaining the existence of the local groups (when performing covers drowned a band and its identity got lost), and the semantic aspect (adding cover songs to the repertoire of Road Movie).
- Speaking about the short interval between concerts in Stop Club-e and Calumet, I wrote in some of my Facebook posts "From the frying pan into the... Calumet", but it was only the next day when I realized that Trndez national holyday was celebrated the day before, during which people jump through a burning fire, and the opening song in Calumet on that night was a Deep Purple song called "Into the Fire". (in Russian, Calumet sounds similar to "полымя", which concludes the Russian analogue of the mentioned saying - "Из огня да в полымя").
- On one of our concert photos, we are caught with our Fender guitar necks crossed. Speaking of the future adventures instead of saying "fingers crossed" we say "Fenders crossed".
- On the poster from the concert dedicated to the 70th Anniversary of George Harrison, the listed performing band's name is “The Kings' CrossRoad Movie”, which consisted of the members of The Kings' Cross and Road Movie bands. The intersection of these groups can also be seen in the fusion of words “Cross” and “Road”, forming the word "crossroad".
- Track list of that tribute concert ended up with the song "All Things Must Pass", which was consonant with the end of the concert and the end of our tour. Also, on this night my heavy bass guitar pick broke.
Hardly could I call those last three months of winter, during which we were clubbing, crazy – all that happened was quite reasonable and understandable. And even though I was able to fit this story about them onto a couple of pages, all remains for us equally an inexplicable and a mysterious experience of the passage of our Road.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
The Lyrics of Judge Smith - Curly's Airships
Done!
The translation of Judge Smith's first songstory "Curly's Airships" into Russian, supplied with introduction and 90+ commentaries and references has been launched today! As always, visit the "Translation" section on The Russian pH/VdGG Page and in subsection 'Judge Smith' find the respective link, or use this direct link to the page.
So now "The Russian Translations of the Judge Smith's Songstories" task is accomplished and you can "take your seats in "Curly's Airship", rise high above the ground up to the highest mountain peaks following "The Climber", and accompanied by the beautiful music played by "Orfeas"". And don't forget to take with you your copy of "What is a 'Songstory'" essay introduced by "The Lyrics of Judge Smith".
The translation of Judge Smith's first songstory "Curly's Airships" into Russian, supplied with introduction and 90+ commentaries and references has been launched today! As always, visit the "Translation" section on The Russian pH/VdGG Page and in subsection 'Judge Smith' find the respective link, or use this direct link to the page.
So now "The Russian Translations of the Judge Smith's Songstories" task is accomplished and you can "take your seats in "Curly's Airship", rise high above the ground up to the highest mountain peaks following "The Climber", and accompanied by the beautiful music played by "Orfeas"". And don't forget to take with you your copy of "What is a 'Songstory'" essay introduced by "The Lyrics of Judge Smith".
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Into the West, smiles on our faces, we'll go....
"...the great Nic Mozart passed away in hospital last night. Deeply, deeply
missed."
pH@SS, 17.01.2013
No more VdGG pure bass players left. All went West...
pH@SS, 17.01.2013
No more VdGG pure bass players left. All went West...
Saturday, January 5, 2013
On Translations - part 7
The draft version of "Curly's Airships" translation in Russian is ready!
What still needs to be done is just to reread it, to correct several suspicious lines, to synchronize with Judge's comments, to reread it once again, to check the rhymes in those separate song/radio spot fragments, to work out formatting, to add all the collected comments and references, to mark some special notes regarding the texts, to think out some opening address - and here we are!
What still needs to be done is just to reread it, to correct several suspicious lines, to synchronize with Judge's comments, to reread it once again, to check the rhymes in those separate song/radio spot fragments, to work out formatting, to add all the collected comments and references, to mark some special notes regarding the texts, to think out some opening address - and here we are!
Monday, December 17, 2012
A Tribute
A couple of days ago this item has popped up on eBay.... If I had, well, some 100K$, I would definitely buy it right now. Maybe I could offer my price, but it will surely be insufficient to satisfy the seller. Ah, come what may - since my collection is built upon different principle I should not care much about this case. I will write a Tribute page instead.
Probably, this is the one and only album that connects me to the 60-s, the blessed years of the Flower Children. Only through the music on this record I can somehow feel the essence of that unique experience of the human being's existence on this planet. All other stuff does not catch me to that extent when I could miss those years and feel myself happy at the same time. I cannot think out any other example to serve for me.
Yes, it was then, some 45 years ago, when the times were changing, and the new music created in consequences of events, reflecting all that went before and projecting the future path. A true Here-and-Now music, which turned out to be timeless and unplaced.
Oh, sorry, you might have already asked "WTF??!! Why the price for that piece of plastic and cardboard is that high?!" Well, this copy is unique not only for the VdGG, but for all kind of vinyl/music/rarity collectors: this is the UK (!!!) test pressing of the first ever record made by Van der Graaf Generator. Actually the album was then released only in the USA (this has another interesting story with curious facts involved), so only a few copies of this specific record were pressed, and few copies of this sleeve too. The artworks for the official US-release was absolutely different, with different sleeve notes, and less attractive (in my humble modern opinion). Today almost anybody has a chance to own this piece of my world. One will take it soon.... I always thought I would never see this record on public sale in my life, so to say....
It seems to me that the Flower Children used all the possibilities the Life granted them with. What has left there for us, the modern people? I would say, the union of the Music, Love, and the Spirit. So, again we have everything to start creating what will be Ours. А new era is about to start. What shall come into this Life with this era? How should we be involved into it? How should we present it through our works? All depends on us, so let's do it now!
Today I am more than happy to realize, that the very first notes of the very first track of this very first album of Van der Graaf Generator - the No.1 music for me! - were the sounds created to tie me forever with this Music, to made me feel the Spirit, and still warming that Love inside me. So I shall be keeping this Spirit up and go forward with it!
Thanks go to the friends of mine Tigran Papyan (who brought all of that stuff to our attention and still spreads the word around), Araik Adamyan (R.I.P. - for sharing his tapes with the whole community of ours), Jeff (who shared his taped copy of the Aerosol with me) and, most of them all, to my brother George, who actually brought that tape home and pressed PLAY button. He would do that sooner or later anyway....
Probably, this is the one and only album that connects me to the 60-s, the blessed years of the Flower Children. Only through the music on this record I can somehow feel the essence of that unique experience of the human being's existence on this planet. All other stuff does not catch me to that extent when I could miss those years and feel myself happy at the same time. I cannot think out any other example to serve for me.
Yes, it was then, some 45 years ago, when the times were changing, and the new music created in consequences of events, reflecting all that went before and projecting the future path. A true Here-and-Now music, which turned out to be timeless and unplaced.
Oh, sorry, you might have already asked "WTF??!! Why the price for that piece of plastic and cardboard is that high?!" Well, this copy is unique not only for the VdGG, but for all kind of vinyl/music/rarity collectors: this is the UK (!!!) test pressing of the first ever record made by Van der Graaf Generator. Actually the album was then released only in the USA (this has another interesting story with curious facts involved), so only a few copies of this specific record were pressed, and few copies of this sleeve too. The artworks for the official US-release was absolutely different, with different sleeve notes, and less attractive (in my humble modern opinion). Today almost anybody has a chance to own this piece of my world. One will take it soon.... I always thought I would never see this record on public sale in my life, so to say....
It seems to me that the Flower Children used all the possibilities the Life granted them with. What has left there for us, the modern people? I would say, the union of the Music, Love, and the Spirit. So, again we have everything to start creating what will be Ours. А new era is about to start. What shall come into this Life with this era? How should we be involved into it? How should we present it through our works? All depends on us, so let's do it now!
Today I am more than happy to realize, that the very first notes of the very first track of this very first album of Van der Graaf Generator - the No.1 music for me! - were the sounds created to tie me forever with this Music, to made me feel the Spirit, and still warming that Love inside me. So I shall be keeping this Spirit up and go forward with it!
Thanks go to the friends of mine Tigran Papyan (who brought all of that stuff to our attention and still spreads the word around), Araik Adamyan (R.I.P. - for sharing his tapes with the whole community of ours), Jeff (who shared his taped copy of the Aerosol with me) and, most of them all, to my brother George, who actually brought that tape home and pressed PLAY button. He would do that sooner or later anyway....
Friday, November 23, 2012
To live in spite of.....
Darkness fetters us around. We are surrounded. What should have happened has happened. The near end does not amaze us at all. The days of Mother-Earth are numbered. Her noble Warriors fall either together or divided, and though she knows what should happen and how, when and where, she cannot share that knowledge with us. Thus, being in ignorance, we are moving towards Fatum, blindly. That is all, one might think....
But having all this in the background, each of us still has the right to have the last wish. What will it be like? Do we know what we want and what we need?
"No."
Do we feel what wee need?
"Yes." (however we mostly do not trust in that feeling).
What to do?
One option is: to stretch in bed after a restless sleep, to come to work, to stir the system up to hell, to arrange individual parts in the system, to be in two calls simultaneously, to enjoy a cup of coffee, to state authoritatively your understanding of the Future (let the people amuse), to eat, to intercommunicate through music, to make music through beer, to make a discovery, to decide for frenzy, to have more beer, to enjoy the future, to catch the stranger's look, to look at somebody with a stranger look, to sing an unfamiliar song and dance to a familiar one, to tell a story, to come down with money completely, to give yourself to Earth, to subdue the anger, to bow to the beloved one, to put yourself at the mercy of Eternity and to hope for a new day.
Mind out! one whole day postponement....
But having all this in the background, each of us still has the right to have the last wish. What will it be like? Do we know what we want and what we need?
"No."
Do we feel what wee need?
"Yes." (however we mostly do not trust in that feeling).
What to do?
One option is: to stretch in bed after a restless sleep, to come to work, to stir the system up to hell, to arrange individual parts in the system, to be in two calls simultaneously, to enjoy a cup of coffee, to state authoritatively your understanding of the Future (let the people amuse), to eat, to intercommunicate through music, to make music through beer, to make a discovery, to decide for frenzy, to have more beer, to enjoy the future, to catch the stranger's look, to look at somebody with a stranger look, to sing an unfamiliar song and dance to a familiar one, to tell a story, to come down with money completely, to give yourself to Earth, to subdue the anger, to bow to the beloved one, to put yourself at the mercy of Eternity and to hope for a new day.
Mind out! one whole day postponement....
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