There and back again...

Did some recordings, played a competition (that we shouldn't have joined), played a small performance, after that, Jules and I rushed over to Boston's bus terminal just on time to catch the last bus of the night --- thanks to Charlie's speedy and scary driving.

Half way through the journey, I was awaken by New York ---- no, not the place itself, but the smell. The toilet in the bus smelled worse than longkang! DIUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Luckily we stopped by a McDonald's on the way and caught some fresh air outside for 10 minutes. And sure enough, the driver was aware of the smell, he turned on the aircond big enough to let go of the smell ----- until we physically got back to New York, the smell came back...

It was drizzling outside the window, both of us pulled up our hoods and walked through the quiet Chinatown, went over to the R station, waited for the train for like 20 minutes before we hopped on to the train. We started to diss the stupid people that we worked with during the long wait, and didn't stop until we got home. Dissing behind is fun sometimes, especially when you can't say things straight to people. But of course, make sure the person you talk to is someone you can trust...

Among them people that we dissed was one of the most amazing violinists we've ever met.

Jeremy's voice still resonates in my head: It's like, this guy needs to chill the fuck out...!

Haw haw!

blah blah.......

Had my first rehearsal with Sirius today, damn fun! ... well, at least 100 times better than V4...

Ronnie is quite a crazy muthafucka, but is actually also a very nice person. Been hearing his name and his recordings with various big shots (including Tony Williams) throughout his careers. Glad to finally be able to play with him! Mike is a mutha on the cello of course, no doubt about that.

Tomorrow will be the next rehearsal.... let's see how I can hack that through, haha!!! no.... i actually practised the shit, so it should be fine.

* * * * * * * * *

Some people might feel weird seeing me putting the "love china" sign in front of my screen name of msn. But I mean why not? I want to see the Games to run smoothly and peacefully. I mean, I don't wanna act like I stand on whoever's side, but c'mon, Olympics game is a GAME, not a political arena, for god's sake just let it happen peacefully!

I mean, those of you who protest and shit, do you actually know what is happening in there? No? Then don't shout, because the truth might be very different from what you think.

Just let the Games happen smoothly!

(Some of you are probably gonna hate me for this, i don't give a fuck.)

Vuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's Kenny Garrett!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I watched two gigs tonight: the first one being Chris Speed's Yeah No in the Stone, and the second one was The Headhunters featuring Kenny Garrett in Iridum Jazz Club. Went to see both of them with Jules.

Well, as you can see, I'm very fond of the downtown scene, so the Stone was of course my idea, especially Cuong Vu was playing! The band was fuckin' explosive man. The songs they played were pretty accessible to the general public ---- more rock-oriented beats, pounding grooves... But that doesn't mean that it was bad though, to the contrary, it was great!! Some of you may think it's like some funk fusion shit, but no, it's not. It's more like noise/rock/avant-garde all bastarded together.

The line-up was Chris Speed on tenor, Cuong Vu on trumpet, Skuli Sverisson on bass, Ted Reichman on accordion, and Jim Black on drums.

It was so explosive, I guess thanks to Jim Black's intoxicating drumming. But of course, without Chris Speed and Cuong's beautiful melodic interplay, I don't think anything much will happen. One complain was Ted Reichman's accordion was most of the time drowned out by the others. Maybe plug in next time?

* * * * * * * * * *

After a quick bite near the Stone, we rushed over to Iridium to check out The Headhunters' last show in NY.

Kenny Garrett was just great, I dunno what else to say.

And the pianist, Geri Allen also, shit, fuckin' burning man!! Seldom see ladies playing in jazz clubs, but when they do, they usually burn your motherfucking ass.

After the show, we managed to talk to Kenny. I mean Jules went to see the show 2 nights ago, so Kenny already knew him and spotted him on the stage. I went up to say hi to him in Mandarin, he was surprised and then he took my card and said he will give me a call to practise his Mandarin. NOW HOW COOL IS THAT?!!! YAY!!!!!!!!

Here's a pic of Kenny on fire...

Random stuff

I find that I'm a pretty greedy person, I guess if I have loads of money, I might finish spending it in no time. The reason I said that is because I always like to borrow loads of DVDs and CDs in the library. Now you see, CDs are fine, usually I just rip them into my computer and I can return them; but DVDs are a problem, they need you to sit down, spend time and watch them before you can return them. Otherwise you have to copy them, but copying a DVD and copy it nicely literally takes an hour to do so.

I have to say I am pretty busy most of the time, no time to sit down and watch them, so naturally the items will be overdue without me realizing it ---- some DVDs from Queens Library are 3-day loans. Then what? Pay the late fees! And Queens Library has such high late fees it scares the shit out of me.

A good example was yesterday, when I returned four DVDs, they charged me $24 bucks for 2/3 days overdue!!!!

So I'd better becareful with this issue next time, no point wasting money that way...

* * * * * * * *

I feel very lucky that the members of Sirius String Quartet approached me to play their concert in May 8th in The Flea Theater. It will be their CD release performance, featuring one of the violinists, Gregor Hübner's music. Also featured are 2 pieces by my friend, the cellist, Mike Block.

I'm glad that I finally get to play in such a quartet with amazing players who have similar (if not same) musical interests as me, while testing their instruments limits. I was practising this one thing in Gregor's piece today ---- there is one whole movement of slurred repeated notes that has to be played with different left hand fingers on each, so in the end, it visually looks like a pipa player or something, very cool, though it's a bitch to practise. I got through it sooner than I thought because I realised I was toying with this unconventional technique since I was pretty young ---- dunno why, I just liked to fuck around with my violin.

Anyways.... kind of an update.... for myself maybe, dunno.... ciao ciao...

My buddy leavin'

Chen Han, u muthafucka!! You're leavin' all of us and go back to your old nest Rochester!!

Our next meal and beers will be YOUR TREAT as a punishment, motherfucker!!

But it's been fun living as roommates with you, your easy-going personality makes people feel easy to be around you. Late-night PS2 sessions man, those are some memorable moments!

Hope you have fun with your DMA programme... oh and, please don't burn your apartment again...

Being a musician's body double

i dunno how often this shit happens, but it certainly happened to me today.

i became chris' body double in a rehearsal for this thursday's gig.

jules said i should chill out because he did that shit before too, i dunno how true is that.

i mean, learning music for a person and he'll play the gig doesn't make so much sense to me.

but whatever... we'll see what would this become...

Rozemary'z Babiez... Franck...

So, we the Babiez finally did our debut in Studio A.I.R.!

Audience's (very small) reactions were very good and they said they could feel our shit. I was happy about it!

But I felt that mapping out the piece was kinda stiff for me, because there wasn't much freedom involved. My idea of making the music "elastic" (sounding different every time) obviously didn't work out for the other two Babiez.

...................................

Sunday (April 6) finally came, the tribute concert to Mr Kouguell was finally happening!

Nick was still gloomy in the morning when he came to get his music. He's been scary ever since we started to rehearse the shit. To tell the truth he scared the shit outta my friends. He didn't scold anyone, but just by looking at him was scary enough...

Mozart Dissonance was kinda shitty, Chen Han was toooo nervous that he kept on fucking up his part in every single movement! We all felt like shit after we played it. But I can't blame that guy, he's tried his best, and he was a last minute replacement. Respect!

Luckily my Franck Sonata was good (at least, I thought so). I dunno why I could bring out all my musicality in that one. I still couldn't get out of that emotion after I played it. It was some powerful, almost religious shit! I felt really drained after that...

The Vaughn Williams was nothing much to shout about, but it was nice... (at one point I went blank and forgot to come in, Chen Han was cold-sweating...)

Dick bouncer in Union Hall

I've been to Union Hall to watch my friend Max's gig before. It was kinda noisy in there, so when I needed to make a phone call, I went out of the joint to do it. While calling in front of Union Hall, the big black fuckin' bouncer came over and asked me to go call somewhere else. I was kinda surprised, so I asked him what's wrong. He said I can't make a phone call in front of the building.

I was like "WTF?!" so I said, "Why not?" He gave me the most ridiculous answer, "There are people living across the street."

Motherfucker! Do I talk that loud to wake people up?! Plus, hey, it's Union Hall, everybody goes there for gigs, do you think that place will be any quiet? God's sake man, even the cars on the streets are noisier than a talking voice!

I went to Union Hall again just now, trying to catch my friend Charlie's CD release party. Fuckin' bouncer asked for ID from me. So I showed him my old work authorization card with my photo and birth date on it. Note that this card got me into any bars and clubs in New York.

The bouncer pointed his torch light to my card, I pointed out the birth date for him. He said, "No, I'm looking at this," pointing at the expiry dead. "It's expired, can't let you in."

I was like, "WTF?!!!"

My friend Anthony said he forgot his ID, but told him that he is 36 years old, which he really looks, the fuckin' bouncer didn't buy it either. He said, "Strict rules guys, no ID, expired ID, cannot get in!"

Expired ID cannot get in?! It's not a fake ID though! Expired ID doesn't mean that the birth date on the card is expired, does it?!

Holy shit, I turned and left the fucking place.

Whatever event in the future I don't care man, but I definitely WON'T go back to that shithole!

Remember guys: Don't go to Union Hall!!!

Stupidity

You see people are fuckin' stupid most of the time.

Mr T and Mr C are enemies. One day, Mr T punched Mr C's face, Mr C felt pain of course he protect himself by grabbing Mr T's arms and pressed him to the ground to prevent him hitting him again. While Mr T was on the ground, he scratched his face too and his arms were bruised.

Now when people came over and asked what's going, they saw Mr C pressing Mr T on the ground and didn't let him get up. And they started to suspect that Mr C was attacking Mr T first. Mr C explained, but Mr T was on the ground moaning, yelling and crying saying how painful he felt. The people around started to give compassion to Mr T and accuse Mr C for pressing Mr T on the ground.

The fact was, Mr C was trying to throw a party for his birthday, and Mr T wanted to ruin his plan by fighting with him in front of people to show the bad image of Mr C, so that people won't go to his party.

When Mr T struggled and escaped Mr C's pressing, he continued hitting Mr C and people around him saw it as a "strike-back under surpression". Mr C, of course, wouldn't give up, he started to hit Mr T back. Now there came some hipocrites from the church and gangsters who think they run the village, criticizing Mr C's violence towards Mr T.

Their words further turned the whole village against Mr C while Mr T was the real person who started this fight. Some villagers started to boycott Mr C's upcoming party because of the "bad image" he had shown...

Nice.

What's the deal...

Hm...

Hm...

Hm...

Shit, I wanna play some seriously good pop gigs man.

You know, shit like David Tao? This mutha makes good music and is very serious about it. I admire his works.

But shit, it's always some stupid ass violinists that play his shit.

Shit, I wanna play it too...

But maybe first things' first, let me reduce my belly size first... :P

Passes...

I dunno why man, all the great figures in arts and culture are dying one by one...

There were two other casualties yesterday.

1. Anthony Mighella, who directed The English Patient, The Talented Mr Ripley, and Cold Mountain, passed away at the age of 54.

2. Arthur C. Clarke, 90, passed away in his Sri Lanka home. This man needs no introduction, he wrote all the greatest of sci-fi novels, which includes 2001: A Space Oddysey, Rendezvous with Rama and many more.

Rest in Peace.

More random shit...

Went to see Chris Howes' gig today, happy to see him play again since last September. The band was a fantastic combination of great musicians ---- Chris himself, Oli Rockberger on keys, Janek Gwizdala on bass, Joel Rosenplatt on drums and Joel Newton on guitar. Amazing playing the whole night through.

Funny thing was Jules and I saw this little Japanese chick walking in like an excited little jazz fan from NYU. During the break, Jules asked me if she was Hiromi the pianist. I said, "Nah, can't be lah. She might look like her but Hiromi must be a very busy person to check out gigs." But then we overheard Chris calling her "Hiromi". We looked at each other: Wei, it's really her!

So after the show, I went up and asked a stupid question,"Excuse me, are you Hiromi?" She looked at me surprised, "Yes..." I asked again, "The Hiromi?" She said, looking at me more puzzled, "Yes..." So we started to introduce ourselves and told her how much we admire her playing and shit. That was some funny experience. She said she came to Malaysia before ------- when she was 17.

cheh... it was a school trip...

Came home, had a fight with sis over the phone cuz I made a very bad joke. I apologised to her but she didn't let me just get away with it... sigh... She started to blame NY and my friends here for transforming me into something so indecent and low-class and immoral.......

It's hard to be yourself in front of your own family I guess... Yeah I know my joke was too over-the-top but I dunno what else can I do other than saying sorry to her....

Duh... Guess won't have a good sleep tonight...

Random shit

Hiro gave me a surprise call today (I never gave him my number), telling me that he thought he saw my keys in the library's lost-and-found. After hearing his description, I was sure that it was mine. I was on my way to QC to meet up with Charlie anyway, so I picked it up in the library. I was pretty glad that I found it back because the talisman that Mune got for me was there.

The musical rehearsal today was fun. I love cuts! The more the better! It makes everything so much shorter and easier!

It's fun to play with Meesh and Charlie because both are terrific musicians. The funk was sooooooo funky. Of course, Andrea took the tempo faster today. Some of the students really can't sing at all though. sigh...

Oh man... i dunno why am i so tired today... what the fuck did i do anyway? just a stinkin' rehearsal? no way...

I missed Rudresh's show today because I was too tired and hungry, plus the fuckin' rehearsal only ends at 9pm!!

I dunno man, I'm starting to have the crave to write music again. Maybe it's about time. I just wrote a tune that day, called 6 Months (or maybe i will call it The 6th Month, I dunno yet). Finally, after half a year, I'm writing again.

Also I wanna start writing shit for Rosemary's Babies (Brian doesn't seem to like this name), more shit. I'm thinking of some pre-composed themes that's blended into our improv.

We'll see how it goes...

Shit... I feel like shit whenever I sit down... New York is a dark chamber full of lonely people squeezing to each other... We're all very close, and yet very far...

That's New York for you, despite all the superficial glamour that people admire from far...

A few words to Meesh

Hey friend, listen: we will finish the shit, no matter what.

As the old book says, close every door behind you. We started somethin', we finish it. We don't leave anything hangin'.

I know you will finish it somehow, but don't get all upset and shit. Shit happens sometimes.

Like last year during the summer, I really felt like everything was falling apart. My visa situation, my money running low, gigs didn't knock on my door, etc...

But hey, I walked through it in one piece! That's all that matters.

So now, if you walked through your situation and shittiness right now in one piece, a better time will come and I can guarantee you that you can get your shit done.

I'm listening to Mediterraneo. Damn it sounds great, I think it's my favourite song by you.

Let's think of something. Let's play some.

The thing with chicks

Yeah I really think I have a problem with chicks man, I dunno why.

Every time I see a chick that I think I like, they'd never get back to me. NEVER.

Whenever I tried to ask them to keep in touch, they never do ---- even though I wrote them.

But you know, whatever. What's new since high school? Nothing.

All my ex-gfs are weirdos anyway.

Guess I'm gonna be single my whole life...

Of Oistrakh and Men...

The biggest difference between David Oistrakh and the pitiful mortal violinists is ---- he has a real heart.

I was watching four different versions of Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto: Akiko Suwanai, Perlman, Midori and Oistrakh.

Suwanai was clean, very clean, but I couldn't feel no music from her. It sounded very plain from her, like a glass of water, nothing more. And she won the Tchaikovsky competition --- that shows you how people appreciate music these days.

Perlman, you can hear some music from him, but he's just easy going with some of the passages, not detailed enough.

Midori, very emotional, but I only felt the fire in her and not much of other things. I was touched in a certain parts, but in the more tender parts, it didn't feel so deep.

Oistrakh, King David, the God, even just by listening to the opening phrase of the first theme, you'd know that he is the one! I dunno how he did it, but he just did it! It's really something amazing. See, of all the videos, Oistrakh's video is oldest black-and-white clip. But for some reason, his violin sound just penetrates through the muffled old recording sound and sounded like a modern recording!

You see the difference between Oistrakh and the usual mortal men? I think I did.

Funk Buddha gig in Zebulon

I thought I was lost after getting off from the subway.

Walking along Metropolitan Ave in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, looking for Zebulon Cafe, it was really cold because wind was blowing so strong it almost shrunk my balls.

When I finally got to Zebulon, only the percussionist Vivian was there. We waited there for one hour (show hits at 10pm), watching Akira Kurosawa's Dreams juxtaposing with Brazillian music played from the PA system. Akim and others came a little later after that.

When we finally hit, I told the drummer I would start off with the riff of Name Wee's "King of Daoban". I was listening to that song on the way, so I thought it would be fun to start off with that --- it's also a rap song anyway.

It was a fun night, which Akim regarded as "rehearsal". It was the usual spontaneous style that Akim is used to, only even freer this time. It was fun!

Peter Lew wasn't there, so there weren't any harmony or anything, and I became the "chordal instrument", playing all the riffs and maintain the simple harmonic progressions that I created on the spot. My delay pedals were a great help, I could do so much more colours with it!

I did some "conversations" with a couple of the performers and guests, exchanging licks and stuff.

The great thing was Pete List was back in the group. Man, I'd say he's my favourite beatboxer to date, because of the crisp sound, snappy beats and his unhumanly sound effects.

At one point of the show, I actually went crazy and started to play Jacko's "Smooth Criminal" riff, the crowd went crazy, we weren't any better. It was the climax of the show.

Ever since my last time playing with Akim (the LaMama theatrical run), I finally found a very balanced way of working with him. I sort of got his pacing of things, and I now know where and when I should play more or play less. I think that's why tonight's show totally rocked out!

Recording with Tony Sanchez

Michelle gave me an SMS in the morning when I almost woke up, saying, "I think you will like the drummer."

OK, I thought, whatever. I trust her judgement.

So I packed up my shit, Brandon came pick me up, and we hit straight to Kampo Studios on Bond Street.

Found the place, got buzzed in, took the elevator up. Door opened, and we saw Michelle and this muscle guy sitting on the couch ---- Antonio Sanchez.

He's really cool, chilling with everybody else like he's just another person, doesn't act all diva and shit.

After a looooooooong setup, we finally hit. Man, this guy is so stable that everything he plays in the studio seems usable for a recording!

With him playing there and Yoshi laying down the bass in Mediterraneo, it felt like I suddenly know the tune for real! I always thought I knew the music better than anyone, but then there were still some uncertainty rhythmically. But once these two motherfuckers came in and play, everything was crystal clear and I actually understood how the music worked!

That was quite a session, I learned a lot...

Miles 2nd 5tet

Goddamn!!!!!!!!!!

I got myself a whole box set of 6 CDs of Miles Davis' 2nd quintet!!!!!!!!

I played for Mike M's benefit show. Since it was a benefit, he couldn't pay us too much, so he decided to get us some CDs that we want from his friend who works in BMG, who has access to so many promotional copies (over 10,000 titles in the catalogue).

Mike said, "Go crazy, choose something you really like but too expensive to buy!"

Fuck yeah, so I chose Miles 2nd 5tet box set that I wanted for sooooo long. Then I asked Jules if he wants something, he chose Miles and Trane's complete Columbia sessions. I went back to Mike and asked him if I could get one more, he said sure go ahead! So that's how Jules got his new baby for free!

But hell, I didn't know when Mike said, "Go crazy", he really meant it. When I looked at Jesse's selections, I almost killed myself! Shit, that motherfucker got SOOO MANY BOX SETS!! Including AC/DC's complete box set, Clash, some Bob Dylan shit and some more I dunno what!

Bummer. Too late.

Pop sickness

So... everybody is catching a cold... kinda cool... nobody is a social outcast, haha!

I'm also one of them...

So fuckin' tired... woke up one morning and totally felt like shit but still had to go for two gigs.

Now I'm not that tired, but starting to have bad sore throat and blocking nose --- GREAT!

Always feel the worst in the mornings when I'm having this kinda problem, phlegm and heavy coughing and shit...

ARRGHH!!!

Got this sickness from my colleagues in Westchester Chamber, thanks to them, I'm now not a social outcast. :)