Zubatto Syndicate

Did I mention how much fun it was to play the Sounds Outside festival this year? Well, it was loads of fun. It was a perfect day, a great crowd and we got to be on a bill with some of the best groups from in town (and out).

I finally got to catch my friends in the Seattle Jazz Composers Ensemble and I loved their set, which seamlessly moved from organized free improv to densely layered through-composed pieces and back again. It was especially fun to hear the personalities of the different composers shine through in each piece. My only complaint about their set was the length - too darn short!

I was also blown away by New York's Father Figures. These guys are on the forefront of something amazing - I'm still not sure what, but I think you should check them out if you like new and adventurous jazz. Their set was like Cecil Taylor meets '74 King Crimson, only in a time machine built by Hot Chip.

In case you couldn't make it, here are some photos from our set, taken by Jim Levitt (photo above is by Jim as well).

And here's a video of the soon-to-be-actually-named Z30, crudely edited to avoid some NSFW action.

And we got some nice mentions in the press.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/musicnightlife/2012368246_sounds16...
http://thesunbreak.com/2010/07/16/artsy-stuff-to-do-this-weekend
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/reverb/2010/07/tonight_brite_futures_at_n...

What a great day - thanks so much to Monktail Creative Music Concern for having us along!

Yeah, I'm asking for money again.

It is Day 5 of the Zubatto Syndicate Capital Campaign, and we're already at 46% of our goal, which is just amazing when you think about it. I'm not going to write more about why we need the money or why we need your help to make this happen. I think I've got it covered over here:

http://kck.st/dcZ7N9

I'm also not going to go into why I think it is important for everyone to support their favorite artists this way, and why this model is a serious and practical part of the future of independent music. It's been laid out a million ways, but these are some of the best summaries:

http://blog.amandapalmer.net/post/200582690/why-i-am-not-afraid-to-take-...
http://blog.amandapalmer.net/post/800421265/a-talk-i-gave-domestic-parad...
http://oneworkingmusician.com/toward-a-patronage-society-amanda-palmer-h...

What I would like to talk about is the remaining 54% and how exactly I'd most like to see that goal reached. We hit 46% based on the generous pledges of 16 people, which is, again, just amazing. I am grateful to my family and friends for their large contributions and I don't doubt for a second that this project can only happen through their support. I'm hopeful that once we crest over 50%, it will be a steady push to the funding goal and maybe beyond. Knock on internet wood.

My dream for the second half of the funds is for a flood of small contributions: $10 download pledges, $20 CD pledges, even $1 liner notes pledges. I'd love to finish this thing out with one-hundred $20 pledges. That would mean 100 copies of the final product would go directly to stake-holding fans, interested, engaged listeners. I'm also hoping for pledges from people I don't know at all. I like the idea of someone being curious enough about the finished record to pledge $20, or being inspired by the video to agree to give a single dollar. Maybe they just love the surprise appearance of Clementine.

That's probably the single biggest reason I'm using Kickstarter for this project as opposed to another self-run CD Club - the increased possibility of discovery by fans-to-be. So small contributors and people I don't know - consider signing up to support our project. I think you'll be happy you did.

Of course, that doesn't mean that I'll be sad if someone decides to go for the house party package. You know. If you are on the fence about it.

Shortly after 9pm tonight, I sent the following to the members of the Nickel & Brass Debut CD Club, whose support helped make "Four-Color Heroes!" a reality:

I'm writing to you today because I want you to be the first to know about my
next big project, which is to bring a Zubatto Syndicate record into the
world. If you haven't gotten a chance to hear Zubatto yet, we're a 12-piece
group that combines big band with contemporary grooves and textures. This is
a bigger, bolder and more ambitious project than anything I've ever done, and
by no coincidence at all, I think it is my best work ever. I'm really excited
about this band, this music and what I think will be a killer record.

Recording a 12-piece is a massive and mildly insane undertaking, and once
again I'm looking for help to make it happen.

This time out, I'll be using the micropatronage website Kickstarter, which is
sort of like the CD Club, only on extra Flintstone vitamins. You can pledge
as much or as little as you want, and if I meet the fundraising goal by the
deadline, you make your contribution, we make a record, and you get a cool
reward package. There's everything from the basic "name in the liner notes"
to a full scale private house concert, depending on your pledge level.

So please go check out the Kickstarter page, watch the video, check out what
I've been up to, and (if you are so inclined) pick a level of support that
works for you. Every dollar helps. So tell everyone you know.

Visit the Kickstarter Project Page:

Thanks again for all of your support and I look forward to sharing the new
music with you as soon as possible!

Please consider making a pledge towards our project. We need all of the support we can get!

The Hatter doesn't get one.

A few months ago, I created a Facebook page for Zubatto Syndicate in anticipation of the upcoming funding push for our first record and the eventual promotion of the final product, upcoming shows and all of that stuff. Mainly, I was looking for a way to get my friends and family excited about Zubatto even if there wasn't much yet by way of actual news to report.

At one point, the number of "fans" or "likes" (or whatever it is this week) was hovering a little under 100, and I thought I should give it a little push. I posted that I would give some sort of Zubatto-themed prize to the 100th fan, and then I extended it to the Top 5 to 100 (96 - 100). I didn't have much of an idea what the prize would be, but when has that ever stopped the Shameless Promotion Machine(tm).

Glyph Graphics Studio (which designed the packaging for Four-Color Heroes! and all of the Zubatto show posters) had done a couple of T-shirts featuring the Zubatto logo and they looked awesome. So I looked into ordering up a few more in a variety of sizes. By this time, the Zubatto page had crossed 100 easily and was close to 105, so I threw in 5 more prize winners for the heck of it. I contacted each of the 10 winners and mysteriously requested their shirt size and mailing address. Judging from the responses, I don't think anyone even saw my promise of bribery.

It took a few weeks to get the shirts printed and ready to ship. When they were ready to go, I included a letter to each of my friends, explaining the new addition to their wardrobe, and asking that they take a picture of themselves in their new duds and post it to the Facebook page (if they were willing, that is. Signing up for the Facebook page is already beyond the Call of Duty, as far as I'm concerned). The results have been coming in for the last few days and are awesome so far.

I've included a few of my favorites after the jump.

I have a couple of shirts left, and will probably bring them with me to the show on July 17. But if you really want one and will take a cool picture of yourself wearing it for the Zubatto Facebook page, I'll send you one. Just drop me a line!

In a new TED talk, David Byrne talks about writing music for specific venues or rooms. This is an extremely interesting topic for me, and one that has been on my mind a great deal for the past year. When I began writing the music for Zubatto Syndicate, I went about it with a very specific sort of room - the medium-to-large rock club - in mind. Having a particular setting in mind absolutely influenced every choice I made in the music. For one, I wrote and arranged the instruments with microphones, amplification and sound reinforcement in mind. I tried to do things that would be totally unadvisable in a completely or even mostly acoustic setting - especially with the woodwinds. Musically, I wanted the group to be at home in a club setting as well, with driving rhythms, big sounds and hopefully memorable hooks and melodies.

As beautiful as it was to play in Town Hall for our first performance, it wasn't until our gig at The Crocodile in April that I was actually able to present (and hear) the music in the manner that it was intended. On of the continuing challenges of getting Zubatto off the ground has been convincing clubs and audiences to believe that this music belongs in these settings, as opposed to a dinner club or small jazz club.

As I begin planning to record Zubatto later this year, I'm thinking about where I want the recorded music to be played. Will it be in coffee shops, clubs, on college and "alternative" radio? Should it be recorded to be played out loud or mainly in headphones? These questions will determine how we go about recording the music and producing the final CD and vinyl. More on all of that soon!

David Byrne's talk is awesome and worth the 16 minutes. I'm a huge fan of his work, especially with Talking Heads and his record "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" with Brian Eno, both of which are huge influences for the music of Zubatto Syndicate. Here's David Byrne.

Thanks to everyone who came out for our show last week at the Crocodile. We had an absolute blast playing with Owcharuk 5 and Water Babies, and performing our stuff in such an incredible room. Hopefully we'll get to return soon!

Here's a roundup of press coverage of the show.

* The Seattle Times featured the show(!)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/musicnightlife/2011596610_crocjazz...

* We made the Seattle Weekly's Short List, where they wondered if we would bring the rawk. (spoiler alert: yes.)
http://www.seattleweekly.com/2010-04-14/music/the-short-list-the-week-s-...

* CHS Blog profile of me and Zubatto (I love my neighborhood)
http://capitolhillseattle.com/2010/04/11/interview-with-a-modern-day-cap...

* And Seattle Show Gal previewed the show (too late to win tickets!)
http://www.seattleshowgal.com/preview-zubatto-syndicate-win-tickets/

Show announcements coming soon - stay tuned!

Zubatto Syndicate brings its signature mixture of big band jazz, rock, funk, hip-hop and what-have-you to Seattle’s legendary Crocodile on April 15th (Tax Day!), along with Owcharuk 5 and Water Babies.

Water Babies play spontaneously created funk improvisations lovingly designed to have you shakin' your booty. Think Bitches Brew or Headhunters combined with Galactic or The Meters and you'll get an idea...

Zubatto Syndicate has a new website, where you can find news, info, music and video of the band.

Head on over to http://www.zubattosyndicate.com and check it out.

It's Monday morning, November 9th and I'm back here writing about Zubatto Syndicate, so the premiere must have gone well, right? Right! I want to thank everyone who came out to see the show, braving some of the worstest, weirdest, wildest Seattle weather I've seen in a long time. All in all, Thursday night felt like a vote of confidence, from the audience and the players, in the music and the concept of Zubatto. It will take me a little while to figure out the ramifications of that, but it seems certain that there will be more Zubatto in the future. More on this soon, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, I'm going to continue sharing some of the different processes I used during the writing of the (first) music for Zubatto. Over the course of the preceding few years, writing music for my quintet, for jazz orchestra, for Nickel & Brass, I was constantly running into the fact that I wasn't devoting nearly enough thought to role of the rhythm section. I think this is a fairly common (bad) habit in jazz composers - we tend to think vertically from the top down, starting with melody or harmony, arranging across all of the other instruments, but often leave the rhythm section (especially the drums) for last, or even to their own devices. Parts for the bass and drums often only get fleshed out when the composer has something very specific in mind, like a distinct bass line or a drum groove - that is, as the exception, and not the rule.

My sense is that it is a combination of inexperience or lack of familiarity/confidence with notating drum parts or rhythm section feels/grooves and the implicit permission to be sparse that is given by the use of lead-sheet style parts in combos of all sizes. It's much easier to give the bass player some chord symbols and slashes than it is to fully develop a line or feel, and, hey, this guy over here does it all the time so it must be okay, right?

I think it can be a completely fine approach, as long as you are prepared to be happy with whatever results might occur and you have a large rehearsal budget. It can be great to leave everything to a particularly creative rhythm section, but even the best players will want to know what you have in mind, especially in low-rehearsal situations (and aren't they all?). Also, if you're going to have to verbally explain it (and if it's not in the part, you will), you'd better think about it just as much as if you were going to write it out. I'm as guilty as anyone of assuming that we'll "figure it out" in rehearsal or that maybe the rhythm section "will have an idea of what to do there." These seemingly time-saving measures only come right back out of rehearsal time, which is generally much more expensive and crucial than your own writing time. Plus, if you have something written out, the players can still come up with something cooler. On the other hand, if you don't do your legwork for rhythm section parts, there's the possibility of blank, frustrated looks and wasted time.

For me, unfamiliarity also played a strong role in my "strategy" for rhythm section arrangement. I've often just assumed that a bass player or drummer is much better suited to figuring out a good groove for a tune than I am. Another composer that I admire once told me, in reaction to this, "That's not always true. You're the idea guy. You know what you want." Or at least, I should know.

Ultimately, I came to the realization that I needed to start erring on the side of more rhythm section detail in my music, and that I needed to do substantial work and research to become as comfortable working with rhythm as I am with harmony.

For Zubatto, I wanted to incorporate elements of all kinds of music, especially rock and hip-hop, a mission which provided a perfect jumping off point for a new approach in rhythm section writing.

For starters, I did a ton of research. I read and worked out of as many rhythm books for drummers and rhythm section as I could find, both "collecting" grooves or parts that I liked, and studying the notation. I also transcribed many songs (and especially drum parts) that had incorporation potential.

The next step, was to flip my writing process on it's head, literally. For nearly every idea I had on this project, I started writing with the rhythm section. Beginning with a drum part/feel, I would add a bass part next, and then write melodies on top of those that worked rhythmically. Whenever I had a melodic or harmonic idea first, I would work to marry it to a rhythm section idea almost immediately.

This is where the mockup process described in part one was vastly helpful. It's easy for me to work on music vertically (each stack of harmony in time) or horizontally (each line over time), but it's a little harder for me to do both at the same time, besides very slowly on the piano. To get immediate feedback on how these ideas - drums, bass lines, harmony, and melody or melodies - were working together at tempo was invaluable.

The results, to me, are striking. This music has strong forward momentum, and a real sense of motion that I haven't always heard in my own work. Writing on top of drum and bass ideas inspired funkier, and ultimately more interesting rhythms in the melodic lines as well. Learning to write drum parts makes you a better writer for everything else - that's my bold declaration.

Rehearsals were also greatly improved, as the rhythm section was often up and running with relative ease, which in turn really helps all of the musicians find their place in the groove.

Finally, I am about a zillion times more confident writing for the rhythm section today that I was back in June, when I started. I plan to keep working in this fashion, especially when I begin to work on new Zubatto material which is already beginning to percolate.

I'll be back with part three in this series, dealing with melody and harmony, soon!

Live at Town Hall, November 5, 2009. Photo by Bruce Moore.