Original Program Notes for "Idiots Parade:" (April 1st, 2003; edited February 7th, 2006)                                            
(Vibraphone, Cello, Piano, Contrabass)

A Preface:
In writing this piece, before I even had any notion of what it was that I was going to write, I decided that I was going to allow myself complete freedom. I didn't want to worry about form, melody, harmony or tonality (although there certainly are elements of each within it). I'd felt encumbered by them in the past -  caught in a balancing act between making music that was 'right' and music that I wanted to 'write.' This piece, I decided, was going to be entirely selfish. It would be comprised of events that I found completely interesting. There were to be no constraints - constraints in terms of creating something that people would want to listen to. I would create an entity that, perhaps most importantly, I wanted to listen to. For these reasons, this piece is an experiment.  I only hope that I haven't lost anyone's interest. I realize no one likes to engage in a conversation with someone who only wants to hear themselves talk. Musical audiences aren't very different.

Also, I intended "Idiots Parade" to be a four movement, sixty minute tour de force (inspired by such titans as Shostakovich's 7th, Messiaen's Turangalila, Mahler's 2nd, and, of course, the ambition and hubris of a young man full of piss and vinegar).  Alas, it is a contemporary of none of these. I wanted to write something extremely complicated, full of twists and turns without any indication as to where it's going, and only a little as to where it's been. I wanted to create diversity, chaos, joy, humor, stupidity, boredom, anger, fury (these sound dangerously close to the over-aspiring dreams of a younger and more foolish man)...well, I essentially wanted to create something incredibly diverse, because we're surrounded by incredible diversity and I wanted to reflect that. To some degree, I think that I did all of these things.

Finally, let me say this. It's a very serious piece, but it shouldn't be taken too seriously. At times, it's supposed to be very funny too. Enjoy.

The Story:
I was working on homework one night, in the library of Michigan State University  As I sat there, I saw a group of developmentally disabled individuals receiving a tour of the facility. Watching them from afar, keeping to myself, and simply just observing the group and their interactions, was in some ways inspiring to me. What struck me, in particular, was the emotional honesty I witnessed: happiness, fear, joy, anger, sadness, et cetera; emotion, or so it seemed to me at the time, in its rawest and purest form.

I then let my imagination to take over, and I pictured a bizarre and Mussorgsky-esque ragtag ensemble of people happily, angrily, and capriciously stumbling, and rambling down a street lined by a group of enchanted onlookers--their attention caught partially because of bizarreness, interest, and joy. The 'parade' I imagined was going nowhere in particular. It was simply moving as an amorphous emotional social blob. The parade onlookers lining the streets, I imagined, were segregated from the 'idiots'  but no less bizarre in manner or appearance.

It is my thought that, in life, the parade onlookers tend to over-value the relatively few aspects that distinguish themselves as different from those in the 'idiots parade,' and prefer instead to overlook the many more numerous ways in which they are similar. That is, humans - I think - in some ways tend to be inexplicable emotional blobs, living their lives in an illusion of order and reason, choosing to ignore the chaos and absence of reason both within and around them.

Galapogos Suite

Hot Summer

Original Program Notes for "Hot Summer:" (October 30, 2002)

(Electro-acoustic)

The word "hot" has several different connotations, two of which I wanted to explore in this piece.  The first section of Hot Summer is a play on the classic idea of "hot"...temperature.  It is a violent section, which found inspiration in the positive correlation seen between inner-city violence and the rising heat index during the summertime.  As the heat increases, the people become more pissed off...or so it seems.

The second section of the piece is a response to the conclusion which is drawn in the first half.  The scene is a club (or at least a laughable parody of one) and people are dancing, having fun and probably experiencing different aspects of the idea "hot."  Is the second scene violent as well?  Does the idea of "violence" have conflicting definitions?

As a Jazz Artist (bass):                                                                   

Ain't Misbehavin' by Fats Waller	Au Privave by Charlie Parker (bass solo)
In Walked Bud by Thelonious Monk (bass solo)	All Blues by Miles Davis (bass solo)

...with the Lanswingers:                                                                  
(A vocal jazz ensemble from Lansing, MI, with whom I played for 5 years)

Blue Skies	Hit Me with a Hot Note
Ticket to Ride	Tuxedo Junction

 

As The High Priest of the Low-End (a.k.a. thpotle):                         

With Level (Circa May '00-May '01)
The Band:  Brian Hathoway - guitar
                   Tony - vocals
                   Ivan Najor - drums
                   Jim Mosher - bass

No Control	Devil in Your Soul
Nightmare: Blacktera

 

With Incision (May '04-August '04)
The Band:  Mike Rangle - guitar
                   Keegan - vocals
                   Dave Smith - drums
                   Jim Mosher - bass

Why Try?	Choose to Lose
Stuck In It	Distant

With Grover (August '04-May '05)
(forthcoming)
The Band: Mike Metzger - vocals/guitar
                  Jon Brysh - guitar
                  Pat Brysh - drums
                  Jim Mosher - bass