Media
This is kind of a multi-purpose page based on the various things I do. I spend a lot of time improvising and typically try to make most of those as non-guitaristic (i.e. non-clichéd) as possible, but it makes sense to post the things that are more straight forward guitar here as well.
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Copyright issues prevent me from posting any of the commercials or recordings that I’ve played on. While this is unfortunate from the standpoint of documentation – I fully respect the wishes and rights of the people I’ve been fortunate enough to play with and for.
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With that in mind here’s a quick guide:
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If you’ve come here from the lessons post and want to hear more – I’ve posted a series of short acoustic and electric excerpts below so you don’t have to listen to 15 minute tracks.
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For those of you who know the more experimental/improvisational elements of my playing – you may want to start with the Duodenum/Tubtime links below or check out this improvisation with Ulrich Krieger and Mark Trayle:
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Rough Hewn Trio
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One of my main playing projects now is a group called the Rough Hewn Trio – a loosely knit instrumental trio consisting of Chris Lavender on Warr guitar/Chapman stick, Craig Bunch on drums and myself on guitar. We have a focus on combining pre-composed and improvised material. You can see a live excerpt below:
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Additionally, there are audio samples on both the gear review posts as well as the online lessons. You can find out more information about both of these by clicking the Blueprints tab on the top of the page.
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Guitar: Acoustic (all tracks played live with no overdubs)
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This is my improvised solo over a traditional Irish tune. I recorded this for my audition to CalArts which had to be recorded live (but benefited with some post-recording reverb and EQ). I tried to incorporate some bluegrass elements as well as small doses of koto music and Vlatko Stevanovski approaches in the solo. I use this song a lot in lessons to try to help students with deconstructing song forms and melodic development.
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This is an improvised beginning of a piece in a Malian guitar style again – a full version will be on my forthcoming CD.
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Some more acoustic excerpts can be heard on my Variax AC700 review which can be seen here.
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Guitar: Electric (all tracks played live with no overdubs)
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Onibaba
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From Daren Burns’ description on Vimeo:
“Onibaba exists between composition and improvisation and is described as being somewhere between the light and the dark, the ethereal and the earthly – Creative Music. Created by Daren Burns in 2006, the band synthesizes its sound by using elements of the Chicago avant-garde, jazz, rock, world, techno, noise, and classical, to create a new type of fusion that is definitely not the smooth, funky jazz of the 80’s and 90’s, but a new living music.
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Onibaba is:
Vinny Golia – woodwinds
Geroge McMullen – trombone
Scott Collins – guitar
Daren Burns – bass
Joe Berardi – drums/percussion
Kio Griffith – live video
© Urban Nerds 2010″
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This is actually part of my Ultrasonic review, but I’m putting the mp3 here as well. Ren, is an improvised track based around a simple melody and harmonic idea. What actually happened is I was playing a solo laptop gig and found a drum loop and remembered to hit record on Logic. The performance is heartfelt though, even when the guitar goes out of tune at the end hence its inclusion here. This is a headphone mix w. kind of a Daniel Lanois vibe. This was played on an FNH Ultrasonic going into a pod X3 into Logic. Drums are Tunetrack.
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This track features Joe Rauen on Bass and Geoff chase on drums. All music is 100% improvised. For more experimental approaches wrapped in a rock sound – be sure to check out the full Tubtime track below or the CD baby Tubtime page.
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This track features Andrew Padua on Bass, Geoff Chase and Frank Coleman on drums. All music is 100% improvised and this is excerpted from a 14 minute jam.
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For more electric playing you can scroll down this page to the tubtime tracks or the visible inc tracks.
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Improvisation and Links to Visual Things:
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DuoDenum:
DuoDenum – Solu Improvisation live @ USC
One of my favorite sonic co-conspirators is Carmina Escobar. She does some truly amazing work with solo voice, loops and music concrete elements in improvisation and I’ve been fortunate enough to collaborate with her in a duo improvisation project called DuoDenum for the last year. During that time, we have accompanied a number of silent films, but our goal was always to work in real-time composition with real-time film to allow an immediate connection with the audience by creating something anchored in the present moment.
This recording was an improvised accompaniment made to a Live Film created by the incredible Solu (Mia Mikela) @ USC. Some of the source material we were improvising to can be seen here.
Information on Solu and her work can be found here.
Written and recorded in real-time and captured by a Zoom H4 .
This recording was an improvised accompaniment made to the film Page of Madness at Art Center College of Design on 09_10_09. Written and recorded in real-time and captured by a Zoom H4 , the video is the first 6 minutes of the film.
We have done video collaborations that can be seen here as well.
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Guitar/Drum Duo – Butoh Landscape
Much of my favorite improvisation work is done in duo contexts. This recording was made with a Zoom H4 and features Ingo Deul on drums. Ingo and I later went on to do an improvised accompaniment to the film Regen (Rain).
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There’s another mp3 of the same session with Ingo here.
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Tubtime:
The true origins of my improvisation exploration have its roots in work I was doing with Drummer Geoff Chase in Boston. He had a project called “Directive 4″ that featured rock improvisation and out of those sessions came the impetus of the Tubtime project.
At what we didn’t realize to be the very end of the TubTime cycle – we moved from the practice space we were recording in and booked a day at Moontower Studio in Cambridge.
I told the engineer to record everything that happened, which fortunately he did – because this was 1/2 of the soundcheck we did to check levels.
Written and tracked in real time.
Tubtime was:
Patty Barkas – Vocals
Geoff Chase – Drums
Scott Collins – handsonic, guitar & loops
Keichi Hashimoto – Trumpet
Joe Rauen – Bass & Loops
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Tubtime: We Bleed The Sun and Make It Pay Full Length CD
CD Cover
All of the music was written and tracked live and in real time. Although, Geoff took some of the improvised material and used it as transitional material on tracks like this one.
There was no real concept when we recorded the tracks, but I developed one when assembling the cd. There was a specific story line I worked out involving themes of narcissism, paranoia and altered states of perception. There’s full information on the CD baby Tubtime page.
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Structured (i.e. bands):
Drumbo: John French
Back in 2008, I was contacted by John “Drumbo” French about playing in a band to do live versions of his excellent City of Refuge CD. We did a series of rehearsals with a number of CalArts Alums – but the project was but on hold for a while to accommodate Magic Band dates.
The Boogeyman mp3 was recorded live at CalArts in less than ideal situations but gets the gist of the band across.
Drumbo:
John French – Vocals
Craig Bunch – Drums
Scott Collins – Guitar
Erick Klerks – Guitar
Daren Burns – Bass
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Visible Inc.
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Visible Inc: Demo
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Visible Inc: Please Take Notice
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Please Take Notice: Camouflague
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Please Take Notice: Reflections
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Please Take Notice: That’s how it goes
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Survival was the first time I recorded with my beloved baglama saz that was given to be by my good friend Ergin Ozler. We recorded a 3 song demo in practice rooms and random spaces and Pawel Sek mixed it down. While the second ep we did was tracked in a “real” studio, there was something kind of cool about the first 3 tracks sonically.
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Visible Inc. was:
Art Collins, Shizz Newton, Craig – MC’s
Carl Barc – Bass
Scott Collins – baglama, guitar & loops
Pawel S – Drums
Rich Stein – Percusion
copyright 2001 all rights reserved.
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Random tech note follow for Visible Inc./Tubtime tone sources:
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As I write this, I’m reminded that my pedalboard at the time was HUGE. My friend John Harper made me one that fit in a big red 88 key keyboard fight case. It weighed a ton. I think the signal chain was Guitar to tuner, Ernie Ball Volume Pedal, Big Muff Pi, Digitech Space Station, T.C. Electronics Chorus, Memory Man Delay, Akai Headrush looper, Vox Wah and another Ernie Ball volume pedal that went into the front end of a Fender Hot Rod Deville (4×10 amp).
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The amp and most the effects were stolen from a rehearsal space several years later. This was essentially the signal chain for the Tubtime stuff as well. Fortunately the space station and the Looper weren’t stolen, as they’re now the only external gear I use outside of the POD.
