Analogue-sequencer

I performed my first ever solo gig last night at a small coffee shop
here in Atlanta called Aurora Coffee. I was second on a bill including
a solo blues acoustic guitar player and a gothic folk duo (think
prog-y Kate Bush on piano with an awesome acoustic guitar player). The
volume was set at a normal stereo in living room (lattes would drown
things out for a few seconds).

I was armed with my P3 with 3 banks completely empty except for 2 set
with 4 patterns per track, and 1 set with lots of auxes [random note,
random mask, random repeats]. The P3 was connected to a Novation Nova,
Lexicon Jamman, and Korg ER-1 and ES-1, and I was driving the rig from
a Roland JD-800.

The first song, I solicited help from the audience in selecting what
notes I would play (I had seven different audience members draw a card
that corresponded to a note; a C7 chord as it turned out) and the
tempo I would play at (87bpm) and then started with a 32-sec
JD-800/jamman loop, then switched over to the P3 and built up the
track, eventually brought in the Korgs, and finally faded back to the
jamman loop. 

The second song was more of the same (though I talked in depth about
Colin and his wonderful machine).

And the final song, I spoke of the idea of prepared piano, and instead
I was using prepared sequencer, having no idea what notes would come
out once I started playing.

A rousing ovation. People wanted to buy the CD that had what I had
just played (and I had to explain to them that I had just made it up).
The last piece seemed to be everyone's favorite (though the first
piece was the best to my ears).

If anyone had told me a year ago that I could walk into a gig without
much prepared and be able to hold forth for 45 minutes with a mostly
acoustic guitar expecting crowd, I would have told you you were crazy.
Thank you Colin!

Other observations (mostly from my wife who was in the crowd):

One couple came in to buy coffee and the woman became entranced by the
music I was playing, stating to her S.O "This is so unusual." The guy
turns to look at me, turns back to her and says "He's not playing it."
They turn and walk out. 

People have a hard time understanding what synths do, what sequencers
do, and what musicians who play them do. Because much of what we do
involved shifting data around through circuits (instead of fingers on
strings), they have a hard time seeing the causation between us, the
machines, and the music.

My wife thought my explaining "the prepared sequencer" piece provided
a link that helped the audience of normal everyday people understand
my role in the process and perhaps that's why that piece was a favorite.

The next time I perform in that kind of venue, I'm going to take more
time to explain how I set up my canvas, prepare my paints, and then
paint them the picture.

-Jim
www.touchxtone.com
www.myspace.com/jimcombs