Appeal - January - Songs of Mark Rimple

My brother, Mark Rimple, has been working on a Kickstarter campaign to produce his new CD, January. He is a musicologist, musical genius, composer, conductor, and well known early music professor at West Chester University.

His performances with Trefoil and many other groups are nothing short of amazing. He is able to directly read early music tablature from the 12th century and interpret it with his ensembles, rather than transcribe it to modern idioms.

For more information about his campaign, visit the January kickstarter page..

Equinox Performing at Haverford Music Festival

The Haverford Music Festival (Saturday, September 17, 2011) will feature a ton of music from a wide variety of bands.  We're on between 5 and 6 PM (for only 15 minutes or so, but still) on one of the two stages.  If you want to see a ton of music, from rock to folk to progressive, to jazz and latin and more, head over there.  It's going on from 1PM - 9PM or so.  Maybe see you there!

Jazz Band Reboot - Equinox is Coming...

We've been refocusing our quintet, Equinox, on performing more in 2011.  I thank Joe Capizzi so very much for being a great friend and guitar player.  He's had to move on, and as I understand from him he's focusing more on his rock interests.  GO, JOE!  I want to jam with that group!

In his place, and out of the blue (we weren't really looking seriously for a replacement) our pianist Scott found Steve Strawitz.  Steve is an amazing jazz guitarist, and he and Steve Kaminski together really are the "Steves" of the band, a powerful duo.  If you're curious how we sound, shoot me an email for a link to a recording of Footprints we did several weeks ago.  The "Steves" really put together what sounds like a horn section for the head, and I really like the sound.  We can't publish it due to licensing, but we're going to put this and other recordings together into a cogent demo for our potential clients.

Stay tuned for tour dates on our website in 2011.  We'll be relaunching the web site soon with our updated information.

Remixed version of an old favorite

From 1990…  Tocatta, Point of Origin.  Song : One Shot at a time.

Play it!

The music performance DSL

playSong {
  
  # nobody I know (definitely not my band!!!) 
  # but nevertheless inspired by everyone who
  # says "isn't it weird that there are so 
  # many musicians in tech?"
  
  goodByePorkPieHat (musicians:[horn => trumpetGuywWhoWalkedIn, 
                  keys => joeslick, 
                  bass => ralphieboing, 
                  drums => loudAndFast]) {
    players = musicians
  
    play { -> song
      
      [players[drums] countUsIn(
         withFeeling => true, noRushing => please, 
         softerThisTime => true)]
      [song playHead]
      [song solo [soloPattern => hornSolo()]]
      [song solo [soloPattern => keySolo()]]
      [song solo [soloPattern => bassSolo()]]
      [song solo [soloPattern => drumSolo()]]
      [song playHead]
      [players.each | m -> m.stopPlayingIfYouCatchMyDrift]      
    }     
  }
  
  hornSolo() {
    with players[horn] as horn {
      [players[horn] startOff reallyStrong]
      [horn getLouder]
      [horn loseSheetMusic]
      [horn blowGumIntoMouthPieceAndThenRemove]
      [horn playRandomSoloOutOfKey]
      [horn lookAround]
      [horn stopSolo]
      [horn waitForTopofFigureThenStartComping]
  }
  
  keySolo() {
    with players[keys] as keys {
      [keys justStartPlayingTheHeadToSpain]
      [keys lookAroundRealizeItsNotThatSong]
      [keys startPlayingAnotherTuneMaybeMisty]
      [keys playInWrongTimeSignature]
      [keys getBackOnTrack]
      [keys handSoloToBassGuyItsHisTurn]
      [keys startComping]
  }
  
  bassSolo() {
    with players[bass] as bass {
      [bass startThumping]
      [bass youCantDoAnyWrongJustKeepThumping]
      [bass letsTakeItAround5Times]
      [bass heyWhereDidEveryoneGo]
      [bass stopPlayingAndGlareAtDrummer]
    }
  }
  
  drumSolo() {
    with players[drums] as drummer {
      [drummer whatAreYouKiddingItsABalad]
      [drummer playLoudlyAndInappropriately]
      [drummer lookForLeverToSwingRiser]
      if [riserDoesntSwingWeAintInAMetalBand] else [youRockMan]
      [drummer justStartPlayingSomethingWithBrushes]
      [drummer dropBrushesGlareAtHornPlayer]     
    }
  }
}