redrawblak

Jan 07 2012

The truth about the world, he said, is that anything is possible. Had you not seen it all from birth and thereby bled it of its strangeness it would appear to you for what it is, a hat trick in a medicine show, a fevered dream, a trance bepopulate with chimeras having neither analogue nor precedent, an itinerant carnival, a migratory tentshow whose ultimate destination after many a pitch in many a mudded field is unspeakable and calamitous beyond reckoning.

The universe is no narrow thing and the order within it is not constrained by any latitude in its conception to repeat what exists in one part in any other part. Even in this world more things exist without our knowledge than with it and the order in your creation which you see is that which you have put there, like a string in a maze, so that you shall not lose your way. For existence has its own order and that no man’s mind can compass, that mind itself being but a fact among others.

— the judge, Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy

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Dec 08 2011

Tonight!

Just wanted to send out a few quick notes on the show we’re putting on tonight (12/8/11) at the AllWays Lounge (2240 St. Claude in the Marigny).

-The Log Ladies-

First up are Chris Alford, Jesse Morrow, and Dave Cappello—as ‘The Log Ladies’ they’ve worked together as a regular trio at Bacchanal Wine and Spirits, and have been working on their debut CD release with guest saxophonist/flautist Rex Gregory. In addition to original instrumental compositions, you’ll hear spoken word mixed in to their music. These are three of the most interesting musicians in the city, so don’t miss it!

Anyone who can name the origin of their name gets a door prize from me.

Next up?

-redrawblak (Brad Walker+Simon Lott)-

The electronic/experimental side of what saxophonist Brad Walker does is called ‘redrawblak’, and his most frequent and effective partner is drum and electronics virtuoso Simon Lott. There’s nothing else quite like this mix of…

Groove:

Hi Ho Lounge (NOLA) 8-20-11: Part 3(a) “Radio Single” by redrawblak

Dragon’s Den (NOLA) 6-27-11: Sect 1(b+c) “Kaleidoscope” by redrawblak

Abstraction:

Dragon’s Den (NOLA) 6-27-11 Part 2 Sect 4 “Don’t Be So Dark” by redrawblak

and Ambience:

Dragon’s Den (NOLA) 9-13-11: Part 1 “Inner Monologue” by redrawblak

…in the city—you never know quite what to expect, and that’s exactly what keeps it so fresh.

Check out the rest of almost two hours of concert outtakes at http://www.soundcloud.com/redrawblak

We’d love to see you there.


Also Upcoming:

9 Dec 2011
Thomas Johnson and the People
AllWays Lounge, Marigny, NOLA
10PM

13 Dec 2011
Scott Nicholson Project
Open Ears Music Series, Blue Nile Balcony Room, Frenchmen St, NOLA
10PM

15 Dec 2011
David Mahoney Quartet
Maison Frenchmen, 508 Frenchmen St, NOLA
7-10PM

(Source: bradwalker.me)

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Oct 29 2011

Belief is both prize and battlefield, within the mind and in the mind’s mirror, the world. If we believe humanity is a ladder of tribes, a colosseum of confrontation, exploitation and bestiality, such a humanity is surely brought into being and history’s [men of evil] shall prevail. You and I, the moneyed, the privileged, the fortunate, shall not fare so badly in this world, provided our luck holds. What of it if our consciences itch? Why undermine the dominance of our race, our gunships, our heritage and our legacy? Why fight the ‘natural’ order of things?

Why? Because of this—one fine day, a purely predatory world shall consume itself. Yes, the Devil shall take the hindmost until the foremost is the hindmost. In an individual, selfishness uglifies the soul: for the human species, selfishness is extinction.

Is this the doom written within our nature?

If we believe that humanity may transcend tooth and claw, if we believe diverse races and creeds can share this world as peaceably as the orphans share their candlenut tree, if we believe leaders must be just, violence muzzled, power accountable and the riches of the Earth and its Oceans shared equitably, such a world will come to pass. I am not deceived. It is the hardest of worlds to make real. Torturous advances won by generations can be lost by a single stroke of a myopic president’s pen or a vainglorious general’s sword.

A life spent shaping a world I want [my son] to inherit, not one I fear [he] will inherit, this strikes me as a life worth the living. Upon my return [home], I shall pledge myself to the Abolitionist cause, because I owe my life to a self-freed slave and because I must begin somewhere.

I hear my father-in-law’s response: “Oho, fine … sentiments, Adam. But don’t tell me about justice. … Naïve, dreaming Adam. He who would do battle with the many-headed hydra of human nature must pay a world of pain and his family must pay it along with him! And only as you gasp your dying breath shall you understand, your life amounted to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean!”

Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?

— closing passage from David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas

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Sep 20 2011
Like the Atman of the Vedas, like the Buddhist Mind, like Tao, the Great Spirit of the American Indian is everywhere and in all things, unchanging. Even the Australian aborigines—considered to be the most ancient race on earth—distinguish between linear time and a “Great Time’ of dreams, myths, and heroes, in which all is present in this moment. It stirs me that this primordial intuition has been perpetuated by voice and act across countless horizons and for centuries on end, illuminating the dream-life of primitives, the early Indo-European civilizations of the Sumerians and Hittites, the ancient Greeks and the Egyptians, guarded by hidden cults in the Dark Ages, emerging as Christian, Hasidic, and Muslim mysticism (Sufism) as well as in all the splendorous religions of the East. And it is a profound consolation, perhaps the only one, to this haunted animal that wastes most of a long a ghostly life wandering the future and the past on its hind legs, looking for meanings, only to see in the eyes of others of its kind that it must die.
The Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen

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In his first summers, forsaking all his toys, my son would stand rapt for near an hour in his sandbox in the orchard, as doves and redwings came and went on the warm wind, the leaves dancing, the cloud flying, birdsong and sweet smell of privet and rose. The child was not observing; he was at rest in the very center of the universe, a part of things, unaware of endings and beginnings, still in unison with the primordial nature of creation, letting all light and phenomena pour through. Ecstasy is identity with all existence, and ecstasy showed in his bright paintings; like the Aurignacian hunter, who became the deer he drew on the cave wall, there was no ‘self’ to separate him from the bird or flower. The same spontaneous identity with the object is achieved in the bold sumi painting of Japan—a strong expression of Zen culture, since to become one with whatever one does is a true realization of the Way.

Amazingly, we take for granted that instinct for survival, fear of death, must separate us from the happiness of pure and uninterpreted existence, in which body, mind, and nature are the same. And this debasement of our vision, the retreat from wonder, the backing away like lobsters from free-swimming life into safe crannies, the desperate instinct that our life passes unlived, is reflected in proliferation without joy, corrosive money rot, the gross befouling of the earth and air and water from which we came.

Compare the wild, free paintings of the child with the stiff, pinched ‘pictures’ these become as the painter notices the painting and tries to portray ‘reality’ as others see it; self-conscious now, he steps out of his own painting and, finding himself apart from things, notices the silence all around and becomes alarmed by the vast significations of Creation. The armor of the ‘I’ begins to form, the construction and desperate assertion of separate identity, the loneliness: “Man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through the narrow chinks of his cavern (William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell)”.

The Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen

Sep 09 2011

Just as a white summer cloud, in harmony with heaven and earth, freely floats in the blue sky from horizon to horizon following the breath of the atmosphere—in the same way the pilgrim abandons himself to the breath of the greater life that … leads him beyond the farthest horizons to an aim which is already present within him, though yet hidden from his sight.

-Lama Govinda, The Way of the White Clouds

All other creatures look down toward the earth, but man was given a face so that he might turn his eyes toward the stars and his gaze upon the sky.

-Ovid, Metamorphoses

— via The Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen

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Aug 19 2011

5 New Tracks!

These are from a show Simon Lott and I did together at the Dragon’s Den on 6/27/11. What a beautiful experience…

Dragon’s Den (NOLA) 6-27-11: Sect 1(b+c) “Kaleidoscope” by redrawblak

Dragon’s Den (NOLA) 6-27-11: Part 1 Sect 6-7(a-b) “Slow Roll + Coda” by redrawblak

Dragon’s Den (NOLA) 6-27-11 Part 2 Sect 2 (a-b) by redrawblak

Dragon’s Den (NOLA) 6-27-11 Part 2 Sect 4 “Don’t Be So Dark” by redrawblak

Dragon’s Den (NOLA) 6-27-11 Part 2 Sect 7 “Holy” by redrawblak

You can also find them on my regular site, http://www.bradwalker.me under the Music tab. There’s also a NEW ‘Archive’, that has both sets of this show entirely uncut and available for download. Check it out!

See y’all Saturday at the Hi Ho Lounge! Be there!

Aug 11 2011
…when you throw a stone into the water, it finds the quickest way to the bottom of the water. It is the same when Siddhartha has an aim, a goal. Siddhartha does nothing; he waits, he thinks, he fasts, but he goes through the affairs of the world like the stone through the water, without doing anything, without bestirring himself; he is drawn and lets himself fall. He is drawn by his goal, for he does not allow anything to enter his mind which opposes his goal. That is what Siddhartha learned … It is what fools call magic and what they think is caused by demons. Nothing is caused by demons; there are no demons. Everyone can perform magic, everyone can reach his goal, if he can think, wait fast.
Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse

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Two Great Shows Next Week!

Hello out there!

Just finished a trip up to Asheville, NC, which was a wonderful chance to catch up with friends (and family) and soak in some of the peace that can only come from a beautiful environment and inviting community like the one there.

I had a blast on Monday night at Bobo Gallery playing with saxophonist Jason Moore and guitarist Shane Perlowin. I’ve known Jason for almost ten years now—we recorded two albums with Simon Lott back in 2006, one released and one unreleased—and I feel as comfortable playing with him as with anyone I’ve ever played with. One of the truly great listeners I’ve encountered in my life, and the ideas just flow out of his horn. Shane I had never met, seen, or heard before, but I absolutely enjoyed the hell out of connecting with a new voice. If you haven’t, please check out his new acoustic record Shaking the Phantom Limb, which I listened to about five times on the way back to NOLA. Can’t wait to play with both of these guys again soon!

Anyway, I wanted to announce a couple of shows that I’m very excited about participating in next week, both with my good friend Thomas Johnson. Monday we’ll be at Bacchanal Wine and Spirits with special guest Helen Gillet, one of the finest musicians and most creative voices in New Orleans. Saturday we’ll be at the Hi-Ho Lounge, and my electronic/experimental project redrawblak (featuring drum virtuoso Simon Lott!) will be opening along with Rev Gooden’s trio The Big Way. I couldn’t ask for two better evenings of music! I hope you can come be a part of it.

Also, if you haven’t yet, check out my new website! I’ll continue to post here (in fact, you can click through to this blog via the website), but for full show listings, photos, mp3s, video, and absolutely anything else you might want to know about me, definitely check out:

http://www.bradwalker.me

…and don’t forget to sign up for my mailing list so I can keep in touch with you! Here’s the sign-up form:

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Hope to see you at the next show! Thanks for your support, as always.

Jul 21 2011

Updates!

Hello out there!

I’m back from Key West, and it was a blast! It was a little intense to play 7 nights in a row at the same club, but it was worth it. Looking forward to a return trip.

Anyway, I’m back in New Orleans, and looking forward to diving back into it here. I’m at Balcony Music Club with the David Mahoney Quartet every Wednesday through August 17th (and on August 11th at Maison508!), so if you’re looking to hear some great modern jazz please stop in! I’ll also be featured on LSU’s Hot Summer Nights and Cool Jazz series this Friday night (7/22/11), along with Wessell Anderson, Jeff Albert, and the regular HSN crew: Brian Shaw, Willis Delony, Bill Grimes, and Troy Davis.

Mark your calendars now—Thomas Johnson and the People are doing a special show at d.b.a. on Frenchmen St on July 31 at 10PM. You don’t want to miss this one! There’s nothing better than playing your favorite venue with your favorite people. Come share a great time (and a great night) with us!

Check below for a full listing of my upcoming shows. Also keep your eyes peeled—my new website will be launching by the end of the weekend! As always, thanks for listening, and we’ll see you out there :)


21 July 2011
Those Peaches
Maison508, Frenchmen St, New Orleans, LA
6-10PM

22 July 2011
LSU’s Hot Summer Nights and Cool Jazz #6
LSU Recital Hall, Baton Rouge, LA
7:30PM $20GA/$10FSS

23 July 2011
Harmoniemusik Saxophone Quartet
Audubon Park, New Orleans, LA
1-2PM

Soulhaven
Cypress Bayou Casino, Charenton, LA
9PM

24 July 2011
Harmoniemusik Saxophone Quartet
Galvez Restaurant, New Orleans, LA
7-8PM

27 July 2011
David Mahoney Quartet
Balcony Music Club, New Orleans, LA
6-9PM

28-30 July 2011
Soulhaven
Imperial Palace Casino, Biloxi, MS
9PM-1AM

31 July 2011
Thomas Johnson and the People
d.b.a., Frenchmen St, New Orleans, LA
10PM

also on the horizon:

9 July 2011: Jeff Albert’s Mini-Mash-Up, Open Ears Music Series

20 July 2011: redrawblak + The Big Way + Thomas Johnson and the People at the Hi-Ho Lounge

25 July 2011: Rusty Yates Band, Ringside at Sullivan’s of Baton Rouge

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Two birds, one of them mortal, the other immortal,
live in the same tree. The first one pecks at the fruit,
sweet or bitter; the second looks on without eating.
Thus the personal self pecks at the fruit of this world,
bewildered by suffering, always hungry for more.
But when he meets the True Self, the resplendent God,
the source of all creation, all his cravings are stilled.
Perceiving Self in all creatures, he forgets himself
in the service of all; good and evil both vanish;
delighting in Self, playing like a child with Self,
he does whatever is called for, whatever the result.

Self is everywhere, shining forth from all beings,
vaster than the vast, subtler than the most subtle,
unreachable, yet nearer than breath, than heartbeat.
Eye cannot see it, ear cannot hear it nor tongue
utter it; only in deep absorption can the mind,
grown pure and silent, merge with the formless truth.
He who finds it is free; he has found himself;
he has solved the great riddle; his heart forever is at peace.
Whole, he enters the Whole. His personal self
returns to its radiant, intimate, deathless sources.
As rivers lose name and form when they disappear
into the sea, the sage leaves behind all traces
when he disappears into the light. Perceiving the truth,
he becomes the truth; he passes beyond all suffering,
beyond death; all the knots of the heart are loosed.

-The Upanishads

-Psalm 1-

Blessed are the man and the woman
who have grown beyond their greed
and have put an end to their hatred
and no longer nourish illusions.
But they delight in the way things are
and keep their hearts open, day and night.
They are like trees planted near flowing rivers,
which bear fruit when they are ready.
Their leaves will not fall or wither.
Everything they do will succeed.

-Psalms

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Jun 30 2011
Righteous Buddha at Maison508! Come on down, y’all!

Righteous Buddha at Maison508! Come on down, y’all!

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Jun 29 2011

Updates!

Man…I had such a blast over the past two weeks. It’s so great to get to play creative music with people like Paul, Dave, and Simon. Thanks to everyone who came out to hear it, old friends and new faces alike. I will be posting audio excerpts from both of the redrawblak shows absolutely as soon as I get them edited up. Look for them soon.

I’m also very much looking forward to some upcoming shows with the David Mahoney Quartet—we’ll be doing every Wednesday at Balcony Music Club. July 6th with feature special guest Brian Seeger! We’ll be there weekly from 6-9PM through mid-August.

I was also thrilled to discover that my friend Thomas Johnson will be returning to Lousiana from California very soon, and we’re looking forward to sinking our teeth back into the New Orleans music scene. We’re at d.b.a. on July 31st, and have some other exciting stuff in the works. Can’t wait!

I’ll list the rest of my calendar below. Hope to see you out there!


1-3 July 2011
Soulhaven
Spinnaker Beach Club, Panama City Beach, FL
9PM

6 July 2011
David Mahoney Quartet
Balcony Music Club, New Orleans, LA
6-9PM

David Phy’s Influencia de Jazz
Mojito’s Rum Bar and Grill, New Orleans, LA
9PM-12AM

7 July 2011
Marcelo Vieira Quartet
Varsity Theater, Baton Rouge, LA
10PM

8 July 2011
Soulhaven
The Station, Baton Rouge, LA
10PM

11-17 July
Soulhaven
Sloppy Joe’s Bar, Key West, FL
9PM

20 July 2011
David Mahoney Quartet
Balcony Music Club
6-9PM

22 July 2011
Hot Summer Nights and Cool Jazz #6 (w/Wessell ‘Warmdaddy’ Anderson)
LSU Recital Hall, Baton Rouge, LA
7:30PM $10FStS/$20GA

also on the horizon:

31 July 2011: Thomas Johnson and the People, d.b.a., NOLA, 10PM

20 August 2011: redrawblak + Thomas Johnson and the People, Hi Ho Lounge, NOLA, 10PM

Jun 20 2011

This Week!

Hello all!

It’s gonna be a great week!

Really excited about a couple of redrawblak events occurring over the next week. That’s the name I give the experimental/electronic shows I put on from time to time, and I’m fortunate to have two really good ones coming up.

Tomorrow night (6/21) I’m hosting at the Open Ears Music Series, a weekly experimental series held upstairs at the Blue Nile in New Orleans (you’ve probably noticed a number of previous shows I’ve done there). The music will feature a very special trio with drummer Paul Thibodeaux and bassist Dave Hinson, both incredible musicians that I’ve been wanting to work with on a project like this.

The night will focus on trio improvisations, of course, but we’ll also mix in a couple of compositions—Paul Motian’s ‘Etude’, for one—as well as textural shifts featuring duos within the band. I’ll start the second half of the show with some structured solo improvisations I’ve been working on over the past few months.

All in all, it should be a great night. Hope you can make it!

Next Monday night, a different incarnation of redrawblak will make an appearance…the duo with drum virtuoso Simon Lott. It’s been a little while since we’ve played, so I have a feeling the energy will be even higher than usual. We’ll be playing 6/27 at the Dragon’s Den at around 10PM.

Playing with Simon, who I’ve known since I was about 18 years old, is one of the true pleasures of my life. Please come check out the music we’re making together!

One other note: both of the above shows are -no cover- shows…so there’s no excuse to prevent you from coming to check them out :)

I also am very fortunate to have been asked to return and play LSU’s Hot Summer Nights and Cool Jazz series, which kicks off this week with a special concert featuring vocalist Phillip Manuel and myself as guest saxophonist. Playing jazz with Willis Delony, Bill Grimes, and Troy Davis as your rhythm section is a rare treat, and one I’m very much looking forward to.

You can also catch me at Sullivan’s Ringside in Baton Rouge this Saturday with Soulhaven, the best band in Baton Rouge (!).

I’ll give a full listing of all these events below. See you out there! Thanks for the support!


21 June 2011
redrawblak (w/Paul Thibodeaux and Dave Hinson)
Open Ears Music Series, Blue Nile (Upstairs), Frenchmen St, New Orleans, LA
10PM

23 June 2011
LSU’s Hot Summer Nights and Cool Jazz #1
LSU Recital Hall, Baton Rouge, LA
7:30PM / $20GA/$10FSS

25 June 2011
Soulhaven
Sullivan’s Ringside, Baton Rouge, LA
9PM-1AM

27 June 2011
redrawblak (w/Simon Lott)
Dragon’s Den, New Orleans, LA
10PM

30 June - 3 July 2011
Soulhaven
Spinnaker Beach Club, Panama City Beach, FL
10PM

6 July 2011
David Mahoney Quartet
Balcony Music Club, New Orleans, LA
6-9PM

David Phy’s ‘Influencia de Jazz’
Mojito’s Rum Bar and Grill, New Orleans, LA
9PM-12AM

8 July 2011
Soulhaven
The Station, Baton Rouge, LA
10PM

11-17 July 2011
Soulhaven
Sloppy Joe’s Bar, Key West, FL

also on the horizon:

31 July 2011: Thomas Johnson and the People @ d.b.a. New Orleans

…much love!!!

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